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A lot of this is "why I hate short-term politicking, and the politics I am most familiar with is Canadian". Some of the 20th century social history is interesting. The "rah rah rah, I hate Canadians, well not really" does spoil it.

In some ways, this one roasts more than "Why I hate Canadians" but Ian perhaps removes some of the misanthropy, so it's a bit more cheerful. By this book I learned to just browse through the chapters that didn't immediately grab me. You can read in whatever order, any actual references between chapters are referenced.

My favourites are the discussions of the provinces and their driving styles. Bloody Canadian drivers.

The thing I enjoyed most about this is that I've read a few different humanx books before but never specifically noticed so much crossover of planets, factions and characters. This one doesn't get as creepy as Bloodhype but does have some lazy writing in it along the lines of "there's no time to explain, let's get on this month-long cruise, where apparently no further character development happens at all".

It's fine, clearly not supposed to be too serious.

Second attempt at this. Maybe I get the references now?

I would add a caution up front that a 300 page book about canoeing for several months does get pretty samey. However it's not really much of a surprise. The author has some lovely descriptions of the landscape and the absolutely terrible time he puts himself through willingly to cross it.

He's clearly not one for the busy modern world, although I think he's hamming it up a bit for some humour in the dry bits. It works.

I found the first third of this book a real struggle and only finished it because I wanted to read it ahead of seeing the TV series. The remainder of the book is more enjoyable, but it does shamelessly set a cliffhanger every 5 pages or so, through misinterpret-able references or missing information.

The idea of the far right rising I will grant is pretty prescient from 2010, mind. There's some great ideas, but I don't really like description such as "looked like Timothy Spall, gone to seed". Yes, I can imagine it, but I find it jarring.

It took me a while to get into this book, as I didn't read the synopsis and therefore had no idea where it was going. In 2024, the way computers, AI, and hacking is represented seems almost quaint now. In that sense there's some real Bladerunner vibes about the book. Scalzi's humour here also references fads from the early 2000s which also date it, not well.

But it's perfectly fine, and made me smile quite a few times. If it tried less hard to be funny, I think it would have been better. Preferred Kaiju Preservation Society, although the COVID references in that will probably age it just as well!