Mid-30s, he/him, Canada. I enjoy horror, sci-fi, fantasy, humour, weird fiction, and some scientific and political texts as well as humour and the occasional mystery or queer text. Sometimes I read stuff that is rather against my own politics out of curiosity, so please don't take reading as endorsement of the views.
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40% complete! Zelse has read 4 of 10 books.
A tiny American town’s plans for radical self-government overlooked one hairy detail: no one told …
A very entertaining narrative about attempts by Libertarians to "do their thing" in a small New Hampshire town and the effects it had, both big and small. Definitely worth a read.
It was nice of the author to put this up for free when it fell out of print, and I'd say that if you are interested in the history of IT/computing in the 80s and early 90s, it's a worthwhile read. The PDF is a brisk 115 pages, and while he's not a great author, Willard 'Pete' Peterson doesn't write badly enough that it's a slog to get through. I also appreciate that he does admit -- in several places -- that a good amount of his good fortune arose from the luck of being in the right place at the right time, something most rich people ignore even though the main cause of wealth is being born into it, be that Tucker Carlson's being born into the Swanson dinner fortune, Bill Gates coming from millionaire lawyers, or Warren Buffet being the child of a 4-term Congressman.
That said, if …
It was nice of the author to put this up for free when it fell out of print, and I'd say that if you are interested in the history of IT/computing in the 80s and early 90s, it's a worthwhile read. The PDF is a brisk 115 pages, and while he's not a great author, Willard 'Pete' Peterson doesn't write badly enough that it's a slog to get through. I also appreciate that he does admit -- in several places -- that a good amount of his good fortune arose from the luck of being in the right place at the right time, something most rich people ignore even though the main cause of wealth is being born into it, be that Tucker Carlson's being born into the Swanson dinner fortune, Bill Gates coming from millionaire lawyers, or Warren Buffet being the child of a 4-term Congressman.
That said, if the other reviews haven't clued you in, Pete is...not a nice man. I don't exactly think he's arrogant like some other reviewers said, but rather he comes off as a pretty big hypocrite without ever quite realizing he is one. Everything he claims to stand for, his actions never actually reflect, and hilariously he never puts two and two together meaningfully even when his own daughter calls him out on it. He's very much the worst sort of capitalist: autocratic, without real ethics, and convinced that profit is the sole good and sole factor in running a company. He talks a lot about his belief in flat corporate structures, and it gets a bit grating when everything he actually did makes it very clear he saw himself as king and high priest alongside the two other owners of the company that eventually ousted him. To give him some credit, a few of his biggest blunders -- including the classic "if I leave, they'll come crawling" bluff -- he does admit were mistakes.
In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the …
An enjoyable, quick read. The conceit isn't particularly interesting, but the story is engaging nevertheless. In that regard, reading this felt rather like watching an episode of Poirot or something.
The denizens of Ankh-Morpork fancy they've seen just about everything. But then comes the Ankh-Morpork …
Another gem from the late, great Terry Pratchett.
Superior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and …
A good read. I don't find Joe's stuff engaging in the way that a truly amazing book is, where you sit there enraptured until you absolutely have to go to bed or do something else, powering through page after page, but it's enjoyable and nags at me to keep at it. The story is quite grim in an unpleasantly realistic way, and sometimes it can be tiring, but the story he's telling is engaging and every paragraph serves to build up to a climax you can feel coming a long way off. I also appreciate that Joe's characters genuinely feel fleshed out - they grow and backslide, and have some dimensionality to them. All in all, not a bad read.
"Kwaidan" translates from the Japanese as weird tales, which perfectly describes these haunting stories. This …
Enjoyable vignettes!
Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too …
It's hard to write good fantasy that manages to be deeply cynical in a way that feels realistic rather than grimdark; this book hits the mark with aplomb. Interesting characters, and the writing manages to communicate their POV and worldview not just by describing their thoughts, but through what they say and do. A very enjoyable read.
Delightful, funny, and full of heart - typical Pratchett, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Something evil has swept into the small western Maine town of Castle Rock on the …
A very enjoyable Stephen King - Richard Chizmar collaboration that feels like it belongs in the same universe with the first novella. Not quite as good as the first one IMO, but it feels like a neat little vignette in Gwendy's life and I still enjoyed it. As horror goes, it's a very light touch.
Note: Spoilered section contains spoilers for Wind Through the Keyhole as well as the Gwendy series.
I really enjoy how King seems to be making a lot of his villains more interesting - between Maerlyn in the Wind Through the Keyhole and perennial badguy Walter/RF in the Gwendy series, it's kind of neat to see King continuing to build on these time-honoured characters.
"A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to …
Featured on an episode of the delightful if at times very smugly snotty podcast "I Don't Even Own a Television", Slow Bullets is a nice little soft sci-fi novella about a prison ship in a very dire situation. Alistair Reynolds enjoys his grimdark stories and this is no exception, but it's a short and enjoyable little glimpse into a world in great peril. There's a bit of a smug anti-religiousness that some people might find grating, but I felt it was tempered by having characters observe that there were positive things brought to the table by the "believer" faction as well. On the whole, if you enjoyed Revelation Space this is worth a quick read. If you've never read anything by Reynolds though, I'd suggest starting with something else.
Dune is a 1965 science-fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. …
After being stalked across the galaxy by an assassin, post-human Krina Alzon-114 journeys to the …
I find Charles Stross' works to either be very good, enjoyable and thoughtful (Eschaton #1, the Laundry series, etc), or very much not my thing (Accelerando.) This work falls, fortunately, into the former category. Stross spins up a believable, well-fleshed out post-human world ruled by a very believable form of future capitalism run amok, and takes the reader on a journey that contains some genuinely enjoyable twists and turns. All in all, a very enjoyable read.
It isn't much of an island that rises up one moonless night from the depths of the Circle Sea -- …
Nineteenth in the Discworld universe and third entry of the City Watch series, this novel …
Thoughtful and engaging as well as funny - textbook Terry.
