Freelance researcher, philosopher, and educator studying the differences between the living and the nonliving world. Living outside Vienna, Austria.
Sci-fi favorites: Chang, Lem, Dick, Le Guin, Banks, Mieville.
I'm not easy to please when it comes to my reading material.
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When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen …
When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, …
This is a nice piece of postmodern space opera. I may (or may not) read some of the sequels. Not sure yet. I've read this right after finishing Iain Banks' Culture Series, no doubt the ultimate progressive space opera. Of course, it's tough to follow up on that. Becky Chambers definitely doesn't play in the same league as Banks, but I can hardly hold that against her. I found her on-the-nose wokeism pretty annoying initially, and the story does start ultra-slow, but I warmed to her character- and world-building quite quickly. They are both exceptionally well done and refreshing, given the shallowness in that regard of most of the other works of space opera (or sci-fi in general) that I've read so far. I loved the polyamorous Aandrisks, the rickety ship, the inter-species crew of rig-workers, and the positivity of the whole thing.
SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT: What really marred my …
This is a nice piece of postmodern space opera. I may (or may not) read some of the sequels. Not sure yet. I've read this right after finishing Iain Banks' Culture Series, no doubt the ultimate progressive space opera. Of course, it's tough to follow up on that. Becky Chambers definitely doesn't play in the same league as Banks, but I can hardly hold that against her. I found her on-the-nose wokeism pretty annoying initially, and the story does start ultra-slow, but I warmed to her character- and world-building quite quickly. They are both exceptionally well done and refreshing, given the shallowness in that regard of most of the other works of space opera (or sci-fi in general) that I've read so far. I loved the polyamorous Aandrisks, the rickety ship, the inter-species crew of rig-workers, and the positivity of the whole thing.
SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT: What really marred my overall impression was the annoyingly naive description of the pirate incident, and the absolutely stupid love story involving the AI. But maybe this last topic is spoiled for me forever, since my job is to research the fundamental differences between machines (like AIs) and living beings. Anthropomorphizing software is not a sign of humanism, but a sign of very confused thinking.