My review of The Atrocity Archives by @cstross
#BookReview #Bookstodon

Office politics and beyond…

@mhthaung Footnote: I wrote it in 1998-99, and sequel novella "The Concrete Jungle" in 2002. I like to kiss myself that I've learned a bit since then.

@cstross Learning's always good. (Well, unless one Learns Too Much... 😬)

@mhthaung I just became aware of Bookwyrm, and thought about joining it. How is your account there connected with your Mastodon account? Or does that become obvious when you sign up?

@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot I'm fairly sure your Bookwyrm account doesn't "know" who you are elsewhere in the Fediverse. So it's more like maintaining 2 separate accounts but with the seamless(?) interactions (boosting etc) that goes with federation. Bookwyrm makes keeping a library/collection easier. That's about the extent of my knowledge!

@mhthaung I've followed my Bookwyrn account here, so I guess posts I make there will appear in my stream here, from where I can boost them if I want.

@bodhipaksa Yep, that's what I did.

Someone (was it you? maybe someone you were in conversation with?) suggested that you can "neatly" boost by replying to the post on the followed account but removing the original poster's tag, and then boosting your reply. That's what I've been attempting to do as a kind of quote toot with added hashtags.

@mhthaung That isn't something I'd heard before. I'll probably have to do it to understand exactly what you mean!

@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot Oh, and I suggest not auto-importing your book collection from elsewhere. I abandoned my original Bookwyrm account (which couldn't be wiped/deleted) after doing that. It was very messy, and I couldn't face hand-correcting each entry (and I didn't want to just leave them like that...)

@mhthaung @cstross I mostly agree with your take, as I find Bob easier to swallow if you treat him as an unreliable narrator, a little Münchhausen here and there to make himself look good. Perhaps a little of Umberto Eco's Baudolino? The author may not have intended it, but I enjoy thinking each first person narrator does a little puffery here and there.

The main thing is that it was a fun read. And once I finish re-reading Dune Messiah, I’ll look at the next installment.

@fnordius@muenchen.social Sounds sensible. As I was reading, I probably had an internal snarky running commentary going, "So YOU say, kiddo!"

@fnordius @mhthaung Bob is explicitly an unreliable narrator! Indeed, all the different first person PoVs in the Laundry books are a bit unreliable, although some show more insight than others.

@cstross @fnordius @mhthaung aren't we all unreliable narrators to one extent or another The way human memory works mean your own retelling and recollections quickly replace the actual original memory It's a relatively easy to prompt somebody into remembering something that didn't actually happen and in many cases they'll end up actually remembering it afterwards and that's before the person deliberately starts framing things for their advantage or do not embarrass themselves

@mhthaung Such a fun series! #Books #Bookstodon

@Pineywoozle @mhthaung Such a challenge too for @cstross in recent years, trying to exceed the sense of dread of public servants trying to cope with elected monsters!

Satire is hard to do well (which Charles nevertheless does) when reality becomes surreal! Like the Simpsons TV show pre-imagining Trump as US President. So unlikely, and yet .... #LaundryFiles series of #books #SFF

@Kay @mhthaung @cstross Ha! Very true!

@mhthaung it starts good, but continues better :)