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Since my teenage years this has been one of my favourite books. I haven't revisited it in a very long time, and since the author seemed to develop less than pleasant views in later years I had been uncertain as to how well it holds up.

Certainly, it could do better on representation of diversity and gender, though it's not entirely wretched on either. I could get caught up in the details of unpacking these issues, but I'll be honest that I think they are not fatal to the book, and that despite its limitations in this regard it remains a classic - a phenomenal read and one of the best examples of space opera, fullstop. To my mind, on a par with Dune, the Culture novels, and the Radch.

Seven pilgrims set out on a voyage to the outback world of Hyperion, with the intention of meeting the mysterious demonic machine that stalks the place, the Shrike. As they travel they each tell their stories, novellas within the novel, their histories and reasons for making the journey.

The pilgrims and the tales are varied, each with a wealth of original ideas and universe-building on a very grand scale, each providing new layers, and complexity to the relationships between all of the peoples and powers vying for influence and dominance over Hyperion and the mysterious "Time Tombs" where the Shrike haunts.

The Shrike is an iconic creation, a cypher of malice, technology, hubris, and retribution which the pilgrims, the people of this universe, and the reader (or this one at least) are somehow ultimately ambivalent about. The weave of politics, personal needs, romance and tragedy is for me both intriguing and satisfying.

Despite sitting high in my pantheon of favourite books, I haven't returned to this too many times. I'm very happy that it still doesn't disappoint.

The first two thirds of this are a fascinating exploration of microbial evolution, including some fairly compelling descriptions of microbiology that supports the symbiotic account of major evolutionary leaps.

Evolutionary iconoclast and groundbreaker Lynn Margulis and her son Dorian Sagan explore the richness of microbiological life, which was all life for more than half the history of evolution, and which they argue really remains dominant to this day. Multicellular life, including the supposedly special human, is really an extension of microbial life - we emerge within the global medium of bacteria, protists, and archae, remain dependent upon it, and exist in a world that is largely maintained and regulated by the mass of the "microcosmos".

While they explore microbial evolution they present evidence and detail which is satisfying and persuasive (though as the book is pretty old at this point, some of this has been superseded). The chapters follow a general chronological sequence, meaning that in the later sections they get to multicellular life, and then on to humanity. This is where things start to get much less appealing.

The compelling story of symbiosis and intricate networks of chemistry and motility in the first two-thirds of the book are undermined by some very weak ‘just so’ stories on human evolution in the later sections. This particularly the case in the long chapter on human evolution, in which the microbiological is inexplicable shed entirely in favour of some quite expansive speculation on the development of faculties of cognition and language.

In the final chapter the book rallies a bit, with some discussion of the Gaia hypothesis, and how biological forces regulate physical and chemical processes on the planet, which reinforces the idea that really we are froth in the medium of microbial activity in the grand scheme of things. There is some rather careless (alas wildly optimistic) speculation about the future of expansion to other worlds which seems to ignore so much of the implications of the first half of the book it's confusing.

Overall, there's lots here to like, but you wouldn't miss much if you skipped the long chapter 11 entirely, and skim chapter 12 for the Gaia and Daisyworld stuff.

As a (quite different but I think interestingly diffractive) shot for this chaser, try: bookwyrm.social/book/972516/s/a-city-on-mars

Or perhaps more obviously: bookwyrm.social/book/210755/s/i-contain-multitudes

I found Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt something of a revelation, and certainly inspirational.

Humboldt, as well as his brother Wilhelm, is a supporting character in this work, which is a biography of a group Wulf calls the "Jena Set" - philosophers, poets, writers, and scientists who lived and worked together in Jena in Saxe-Weimar in the late 1790s. During that brief but intense period their work gave rise to the Romantic movement that has contributed flavour to, if not wholly shaped almost every aspect of Western thinking and experience since.

Vibrant, unconventional, counter-cultural figures during revolutionary upheaval in Europe, the group are complex, fascinating, inspiring, sometimes frustrating and occasionally contemptible.

The philosophy of 'always becoming', unity with nature, but always arising and being shaped by individual experience and personal freedom, is expressed in every aspect of the writing and the group's life. The membership of the group is continually changing, the specifics of their thinking in constant flux, the relationship to their world - Jena's geography, values, and social scene - integral to the group's existence and dynamics.

In the reading of it, it takes a little bit of time to get going, but Wulf's brilliance is manifested for me as I've just finished it, and I'm currently grieving for the circle of friends, and for Jena.

This is a careful, immensely well-informed, and persuasively comprehensive examination of the domain of settlements in space.

Kind of spoiler alert (but not really): They are not optimistic, certainly not in the short- or even medium-term. What the book does is share the reasons for their stance. And while there is a certain accuracy to the term 'disillusionment' here, in that they started the project optimistic and wanted to provide a popular introduction to how it will all be achieved, the end result is not a 'downer'.

What the authors get across - I think implicitly, but they also take time at various points to be very explicit about it - is that they love the science. They enjoy not the power fantasies of "Wild West in Spaaaaaaace!!" but the complexity, intricacies and crazy dynamics of life, and just as importantly living; being human in space, and on other planets.

They point out that striking out for the Final Frontier is less a prospect of strapping on a space suit and marching, steely-eyed toward Star Trek, or even the Expanse, world conquering and infinite fame. It's a bit more like saying "I want to move to live and work in one of those toxic rare metal manufacturies in China. Maybe raise a family in the foundry there, if we can avoid dying of poisoning, asphyxiation, or radiation." Except the China thing is likely to be more pleasant.

What they suggest instead is more ambitious, more visionary, and ultimately a great deal more heroic too. Something that would really stretch what our species is capable of, require efforts to transform technology and social organisation. They see that as worthwhile and inspiring, and they aren't afraid of the hard work and long-term thinking it would require. (Or at least, they aren't afraid of signing other people up for it, let's be realistic here.)

It's a book that can change your perception of space, space settlement, and your relationship to the world around you. I really like the Weinersmiths. They seem like excellent people.

As a chaser to this excellent shot, I would recommend the entirely different "How Infrastructure Works" from Deb Chachra. A different perspective on our relationship to the world, but one which makes very similar points about how deeply and fundamentally we are bound into our own world. bookwyrm.social/user/wildenstern/review/3831758/s/debchamastodonsocials-book-will-change-your-perspective-on-the-world-connect-you-to-roots-and-implications-you-werent-aware-of

I guess at first blush it might sound a bit strange that a book about utilities, roads, and drainage can change your perspective on the world, but Deb Chachra's does just that.

I have both a personal and professional interest in this stuff, but not huge knowledge in the area. I expected lots of cool technical detail, hooks into the fascinating intricacies of water treatment, electricity generation and distribution, transport. All of that is there, but every sentence is embedded in a fabric of social and cultural awareness. The whole point of infrastructure is social, the technicalities are just...well.. the technicalities. It is the bigger picture that Chachra is interested in here. The result is a not so much a disorientation, as a reorientation. It's a recognition of the ways in which the infrastructure that we take for granted every day (that is designed to be taken for granted), gives us roots that go deep into the earth, and power that reaches right across it.

So often, the built environment, and the systems that provide for basic survival needs are thought to separate us from the natural world. What Chachra shows is, essentially, that that is not possible. We are unavoidably, necessarily connected to the world through these systems. Indeed, there is an ethical demand that we recognise this, and the massive costs that come with it. But also we are connected to one another, family, neighbours, fellow country people, humanity at large, through them - they are literal and figurative foundations of civilisation and community.

The point of this recognition is not to undermine those foundations, but to empower us to be better citizens through them. To take ownership and responsibility of the relationships to the world and to others that these systems provide, and to appreciate how the ways that these systems are designed, built, and maintained, impact on those relationships.

I was excited to read this book because I have some appreciation and interest in this stuff anyway. I have got much more out of it than I expected, and believe that it is a book that would repay readers of many stripes who might not be primed in the same way. Highly recommended.

Two potential chasers for this shot: An obvious one, a light, fun, quick, but insightful graphic introduction to these kinds of systems (in this case, the internet, water, and electricity specifically). bookwyrm.social/book/1083387/s/hidden-systems

A wonderful book that does a similar kind of job in highlighting how measurement and observation of the world around us is something achieved in a necessary web of social and cultural relationships. Measurement as infrastructure for our communication and collaboration about the world in every domain of life. bookwyrm.social/book/604021/s/beyond-measure