Reviews and Comments

"The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells is a necessary book. It comprehensively lays out the possible consequences for humans and the earth as a result of climate change. It is immensely sobering stuff. It really hits you hard. I hate to fault such an important book but I found that the parts of the book did not feel like they cohered together that well. The book is essentially divided into three parts - an introductory essay about his growing fears about climate change and fears about the cascading effects of changes that will compound each other. The second looks at twelve different areas that will most likely be affected by climate change. The final part looks at the possible sources of our lack of engagement with the topic or our lack of action. I found the later part the most interested while the introductory essay was something I really had to push myself through. What Wallace-Wells repeatedly reminds the reader is that human actions got us into this mess and human actions will be what will help us get it out. This is a book that I plan on purchasing and will return to. Perhaps I will like it more on a second read.

"Lost in the Valley of Death" is on one level a mystery about the disappearance of Justin Alexander, a travel blogger and Instagram star who disappeared in the Paravati Valley in 2016. The book was originally a longer journalist piece and I think that this showed. To be honest, I did not find the main story of this book as interesting as broader narrative the books presents about spiritual seeking in contemporary society. The book stands out for me is the larger narrative it presents about Westerners coming to India to seek spirituality and getting lost in the experience. I read this book immediately after reading [b:Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville|55710556|Better to Have Gone Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville|Akash Kapur|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624806484l/55710556.SY75.jpg|86883125] and while I think that "Better to Have Gone" is a better book, "Lost in the Valley of Death" is excellent, well-written, and carefully researched. Rustad carefully unpacks Justin's history and shows how little threads of his life came together in his untimely disappearance. Stick with the book - I felt like all of its threads came together in the last part and made it a satisfying read.

I've been making my way through the Ring of Fire series. In general, I like the short story collections better than the novels with a few exceptions. The short stories show the promise of the series and the creativity of the larger community of authors constructing a complex, messy world. But "Grantville Gazette IV" was the first short story collection I was really disappointed in. I just didn't really like most of the short stories in this collection. This volume more than any of them felt like set up for the next round of novels and stories. None of the stories really stuck with me at all. The only one's I really liked were "The Anatomy Lesson" by Eric Flint and "Heavy Metal Music" by David Carrisco. I liked the technical essays but they were quite long in this volume. Maybe I will re-read this collection at a different point as I get further along in the series or perhaps I will be surprised that the hidden seeds planted in this volume that blossom in later works. My advice is to get through it and move onto the next ones.

I have been making my way though the Ring of Fire series and have been having a blast. It a lot of fun and seriously thought provoking in many places. On the whole, I find the short stories in the series are stronger than that novels because I think that they can get more focused on singular aspects of the world-building, and deal with single aspects of political, economic, cultural, and social change. There are some great stories in this volume. I especially liked the following:

"Pastor Kastenmayer's Revenge" by Virgina DeMarce - A funny examination of one Lutheran pastors "conspiracy" to grow his congregation by marrying down-time German women with up-time American men. What I liked about it is that it showed as series of personal relationships between down-timers and up-timers and how they navigated the various personal and social expectations.

"Other People's Money" by George Huff - it continues the story of four teenagers from "The Sewing Circle" in Grantville conquering the world of economics. Here the group decides to start a venture capital firm to invest money in burgeoning industries around the USE. Like the previous short story, I genuinely learned a lot about how modern economy works. And I've come to really like the characters in this series.

"Hobson's Choice" by Francis Turner - what I love about this story that takes place in Cambridge, England is that there are no up-timers in the story. Instead, we see the effect of an idea on down-time students (in this case, the idea that women are equally capable of learning as men). Beyond all the technical wizardry of the series, it is the spread of ideas which is the most important.

All of the stories share interesting and through provoking ideas that show the richness of the series. A few worth noting:
- The need to preserve up-time music that is currently on CDs and Audio Cassettes (and which will eventually degrade with time)
- The mental health effects of war that cannot be solved with up-time medicine, no matter how good.

"1635: A Parcel of Rogues" is not as strong as other novels in the Ring of Fire series. It is a shame because there are many things I really love about this book. I really loved the portrayal of Oliver Cromwell. On paper, the real historical Cromwell had many redeeming qualities. But the one we have in our timeline that ruled over Great Britain as Lord Protector was about 15 years older with pretty different life experiences. What might happen if he has to come into his political future at an earlier point in his life - perhaps one where his more inflexible attitude has not hardened. I really liked his romance with Gayle Mason (though as a side note: does every attractive woman in the Ring of Fire need to be "well-endowed"?). Cromwell is one historical figure I hope that pops up again in the series. I also liked the education and maturing of Darryl McCarthy. One of the themes I've really enjoyed in the Ring of Fire is the idea that many young people from West Virginia who would not have expected to amount to much in our world are thriving in this new, rough-and-tumble time, and how ordinary people might rise to the occasion.

A few secondary things that I found interesting in this book:
- The spread of modern down-time weapons to people in Scotland. I am curious how this is going to play out going foward;
- The use of radio (though I wonder how long the series will make use of radio ex machina before enemies discover it and learn how to use it);
- The return of Ducos and the development of the Party of God - it was interesting to see the development of additional opposition to the USE beyond the elites. The Party of God seems to me to be a bit of a wild-card in the series that I look forward to seeing pop up again;
- I found Chapter 36 to be the very interesting because we see (what I think is for the first time) Mike Sterns and Gustav Adolf reacting to a situation differently and at cross purposes. We don't often get Gustav Adolf's perspective. In this chapter we do see the limits of Stern's vision for the USE, and get a taste of Gustav Adolf's ambition from his own lips.

But there are a lot of negatives for this volume. It felt like it was a lot of set up for a longer plot line for the English Civil War (which I am not sure has been picked up by later volumes). It requires an understanding of the nuances of the English Civil War, which could be quite convoluted. Character accents can be really wonky and hard to read and sometimes feel stagey. It was not as funny as a volume like [b:1634: The Galileo Affair|57371|1634 The Galileo Affair (Assiti Shards, #3)|Eric Flint|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390260776l/57371.SY75.jpg|55898]. And I feel like the narrative was stretched way too much and probably could have been one long novella. It is essentially one long chase from England to Scotland. It had a lot of good ideas but the narrative was pretty thin.

I liked "1634; The Bavarian Crisis" a bit better than I liked [b:1634 The Baltic War|57256|1634 The Baltic War|Eric Flint|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389584038l/57256.SY75.jpg|55784]. Both novels are about 100 to 150 pages longer than they should be. But what makes this volume work better is that it has a pretty clear focus on what it is trying to do. It does a lot but doesn't try to do too much (thought it is JUST on the border of being overstuffed). As with previous volumes, it is fun, action-packed and thought provoking.

At this point in the Ring of Fire series, we really are beginning to see how historical figures are interact with their original histories and are reacting to these new possible futures. One of the more fascinating ideas in the whole series is the question of how people would act differently if they knew their futures. Some historical characters see those other futures as destiny and act in accordance with them. While others see them as warnings of what not to do and try to forge something different. Characters like Duke Maximilian represent the former, while Anna of Austria and Don Fernando in the Netherlands are the other.

I liked many of the characters in "The Bavarian Crisis" and, as with previous volumes, one gets a lot of insights into the nuances and complexities of the politics and culture of Central Europe. I have not moved much further into the series but I suspect that this volume was meant to be a transitional book that wraps up some previous plot lines (for example, the Spanish Netherlands).

Kal Penn has an interesting personal story and I found many of his insights about the experience of South Asians in American society worth reflecting upon. For some reason, the book just didn't quite connect with me as much I would have liked. It is possible that was not in the mood for a celebrity memoir when I read it. There were times I felt like the book was trying way too hard to be funny (don't get me wrong, it is VERY funny in many places - my wife and I read it at the same time I could hear her laughing hard in the next room many times). The book is a good read and can be very funny but I wouldn't expect too much from it. One example of similar book that I think was better written and has a better balance between the humor and reflection is Trevor Noah's [b:Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood|29780253|Born a Crime Stories From a South African Childhood|Trevor Noah|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1473867911l/29780253.SY75.jpg|50150838].

I really enjoyed [b:Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions|34921573|Lost Connections Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions|Johann Hari|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631416785l/34921573.SX50.jpg|56184854] by Johann Hari even though I had some critiques about the way it made its argument. Overall I agree with his main idea that many of the issues we have in modern life are not the problem of biology or the individual but are a reflection of the structure of our society. What he did for depression in his previous book, he does here in a work looking at our inability to focus. Though "Lost Connection" hit me harder, I think that this is a better written volume. Hari uses his experience living in Provincetown, Massachusetts for three months with no connectivity as a central experience upon which to hang his twelve arguments. Another strength of the book is that, while rooted in science, it doesn't fall into the "Science says X" trap that I felt like "Lost Connections" feel into.

Some of the arguments he makes here feel like common sense while others are surprising. A lot has been written about the role of technology on our ability to pay attention but Hari also looks at nutrition, pollution, and sleep as causes of our lack of focus. The strongest sections detail the importance of mind wandering and the need for children to play. The main thrust that Hari attempts to articulate is that this problem is complex and cannot be attributed to a single cause. In fact, comes from larger structural problems within society that will need equally complex solutions. I do think the book falls short on the solutions part but perhaps this could be attributed to the fact that in order to break these structures, we need to really expand our imagination to think beyond the way our society has operated for so long.