Duckus replied to Jeff Gilmour 🚀's status
@CaptManiac What did you think of The Last Emperox?
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Secondary English teacher in Aus, with a personal interest in Sci-fi, crime, graphic novels, educational theory, novels worth teaching to students!
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Duckus rated Neuromancer: 5 stars
Neuromancer by William Gibson (Sprawl Trilogy, #1)
The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in …
Duckus replied to arcanaemia's status
@arcanaemia It is such a good book, even though it’s starting to date. Armitage is such a well-written character, and his story is my favourite part of the book.
It’s wild that legend has it Gibson @GreatDismal@mastodon.social wrote it and sent it in and there were no edits, it just got published. It was his first novel! And the cultural impact is phenomenal. What we’re your favourite parts?
Duckus
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arcanaemia finished reading Neuromancer by William Gibson (Sprawl Trilogy, #1)
The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of …
Lived up to the hype. First book in a while I've felt that I needed to digest.
Duckus rated Still Alive: 3 stars
Still Alive by Safdar Ahmed
In early 2011, Safdar Ahmed visited Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre for the first time. He brought pencils and sketchbooks …
Duckus finished reading Still Alive by Safdar Ahmed
In early 2011, Safdar Ahmed visited Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre for the first time. …
This graphic novel was a thoughtful and interesting read. It’s very much a documentary recount of key events, but it captures the horrors of Australia’s immigration policy since the 80s, but particularly since 2000. It’s well-researched.
It’s not a strong narrative. It’s not a strong story. But it’s fairly uncompromising in its depictions of the trauma inflicted on human beings.
I’m glad I read it. I’m not likely to teach it with a class, but I might show some excerpts.
Duckus started reading Still Alive by Safdar Ahmed
Still Alive by Safdar Ahmed
In early 2011, Safdar Ahmed visited Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre for the first time. He brought pencils and sketchbooks …
Duckus rated Termination Shock: 3 stars
Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
Termination Shock takes readers on a thrilling, chilling visit to our not-too-distant future – a world in which the greenhouse …
Duckus finished reading Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
Termination Shock takes readers on a thrilling, chilling visit to our not-too-distant future – a …
Content warning No specifics, but general mention of ending
Yeah…look, I really enjoyed the characters and the story overall, but it read like one big thought experiment with lots of detail.
The ending was a bit like a 1990s Canadian pop song - it just fizzled out not knowing what it was doing.
It’s no Snow Crash or Diamond Age, but it was enjoyable.
Duckus rated The School: 4 stars
Duckus rated The Rise of Endymion: 4 stars
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (Hyperion Cantos, #4)
Duckus finished reading The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (Hyperion Cantos, #4)
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (Hyperion Cantos, #4)
Duckus finished reading The School by Brendan James Murray
A good book, written in a very engaging and friendly voice. I feel like it’s a similar voice to my own when writing, which might be why I’ve enjoyed it.
The last half focuses on the medical issues faced by some students, which - yeah, sure. It’s important to understand context, and students as whole people. But it really disconnects from the daily school routine narrative and looking at the challenges of the institution itself.
Which is not to say these additional tales aren’t valuable or valid, just that they don’t really do what the book cover says it’ll do.
As the novel is organised into four sections - each term of the year - the final two ‘terms’ don’t actually look much at what’s happening in the school at that time.
Nevertheless, glad I read it. It certainly reminded me of the reasons I love being a teacher. Time …
A good book, written in a very engaging and friendly voice. I feel like it’s a similar voice to my own when writing, which might be why I’ve enjoyed it.
The last half focuses on the medical issues faced by some students, which - yeah, sure. It’s important to understand context, and students as whole people. But it really disconnects from the daily school routine narrative and looking at the challenges of the institution itself.
Which is not to say these additional tales aren’t valuable or valid, just that they don’t really do what the book cover says it’ll do.
As the novel is organised into four sections - each term of the year - the final two ‘terms’ don’t actually look much at what’s happening in the school at that time.
Nevertheless, glad I read it. It certainly reminded me of the reasons I love being a teacher. Time to start some conversations.
Duckus set a goal to read 12 books in 2022
Duckus quoted The School by Brendan James Murray
That morning, I found him in the main staffroom, pontificating on the scourge of NAPLAN. One of my paradoxical observations of the last decade has been that is the laziest, most disengaged teachers who are often the loudest critics of contemporary education.
— The School by Brendan James Murray (Page 216)
Amen, Murray. A very good point about the noisy and loud teachers.