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Couple of links for future reference

mythcreants.com/blog/lessons-from-the-edgy-writing-of-blindsight/ - a pretty deep analysis of the prologue and its problems and ablism...

www.ada-hoffmann.com/2016/05/06/autistic-book-party-episode-23-blindsight/ - a review looking at how the main character isn't autistic and is actually quite problematic "representation" of whatever he is

And on page 49 we get "...as brilliant as savants, and as autistic."

What has Watts got against us?

Fuck you too Peter Watts

This is in a section written - for no obvious reason - as second person. It's the first page after the prologue (where the character we're expected to identify with has just been depicted as an amoral, calculating violent non-person following the removal of half his brain to cure his epilepsy. In a world where most disabilities are fixed in pre-birth genetic fixes or screenings.

Reading for #MCRSF...

The book cover, blurb and quotes (Richard Morgan - eurgh) do not fill me with confidence... Nor does the opening note about this being an omnibus edition and how that works...

And "Notes and References for..." Oh dear... Is it going to be one of those books...

@floppyplopper@todon.nl the problem is it feels like it is talking down to children almost whereas Le Guin feels like she's lifting them up... that might be the better analogy?

Or it's just not gelling with me because I'm not a child and didn't read it even close to when I was a child...

This is my first time reading Diane Wynne Jones and... It's alright... So far...

I can't help but compare it to Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea: both are books of magic and fantasy aimed at children of around 9-12, but Le Guin and Wynne Jones seem to have very different approaches to what "for children" means. Le Guin for children is not to be dismissed even as an adult, but Wynne Jones for children feels more childish? Le Guin seems to be "fiction is a safe way of introducing these concepts openly" while Wynne Jones seems to be "fiction must be safe by only hinting at things"..?

Well, I gave it nearly 300 pages of my life and...

This got chosen for publication?

This got a significant marketing budget?

This got optioned for TV?

From a worldfailing perspective, the author seems to confuse Alchemy with Necromancy and (some uses of) The Skill from Realm of the Elderlings.

They then throw in a breeding programme straight out of Gilead but tries to make it romantic...

But yeah, there is using darkness to examine and explore ideas and then there's... Whatever the hell this is.