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zaratustra

zaratustra@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 1 year, 10 months ago

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zaratustra's books

Yahtzee Croshaw: Differently Morphous (Paperback, 2019, Dark Horse Books) 4 stars

Review of 'Differently Morphous' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Basically: Remember the Ghostbusters movie? What if the EPA hadn't immediately exploded their setup and both of them were forced to work together to actually build a proper ghost handling protocol? That's this book, but for demons, shoggoths and wizards.

Starts reasonably well, the middle is weighed down by Yahtzee's atrocious caricature of a liberal government agent (made even more absurd by the fact we're supposed to believe this liberal, tree-hugging, immigration-friendly government is the UK government) and the end third wants to weave in so many twists one can't help but think "oh that's where the suspect roulette ended on. ok"

Ethically, the book tries to support a half-point between authoritanism and liberalism, the two endpoints of human thought. This makes it Apolitical, i suppose. Both the fans of concentration camps and the people that honestly use "identify as" in regular conversation have valid points. Yep.

Just realized …

Review of 'Version Control' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book has "we switched to perforce and everything broke down" as a plot point and it is the most relatable a book has ever been.

About the only complaint i would have is that it's a story of fallible humans - so fallible, in fact, that if it wasn't for the strong writing you'd be wondering whether you should care about them at all.

Robert Charles Wilson: Spin (2006) 4 stars

Spin is a science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer Robert Charles Wilson. It was published …

Review of 'Spin' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

A Big Dumb Object has put the earth on a delay - each year inside equals a hundred million years outside.

You'd imagine this would make the tale somehow more brisk in its telling. Instead we focus on Elon Musk's best friend and accompain his excruciatingly long and boring life for an excruciatingly long and boring time, while Elon Musk attempts to rescue earth.

Correction: this is an idealized Elon Musk - a sexless, humorless creature that only cares about playing chess with aliens, instead of the meme-loving car salesman we have in our non-fictional world.

It's the neoliberal approach to crisis management: in case of apocalypse, trust the richest, most tech-savvy person with all your resources and defend them to the death from the evil fanatics, the government and the media, while you yourself just focus on living your life the exact same way you've been doing.

Naoki Urasawa: BILLY BAT Vol. 1 (In Japanese) (2009, Kodansha: Morning KC) 3 stars

Review of 'BILLY BAT Vol. 1 (In Japanese)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Imagine if every one of the most notable events of the 20th century was orchestrated by Mickey Mouse. Not a real mouse or mouse-like creature, the fictional IP Mickey Mouse, as it exists in our world.

Why? dunno. This manga's not telling.

Better known as "that manga where Lee Harvey Oswald is a protagonist for a while".

M. John Harrison: Light (2004, Bantam) 4 stars

[Comment from Jon Courtenay Grimwood][1]:

> Light is the kind of novel other writers read …

Review of 'Light' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The book that Infinite Jest tries to be. On the final quarter of the book it runs out of the crazy energy that conceals the fundamental dispassion of all the characters; would have an extra star otherwise.

Peter Watts: Blindsight (Firefall, #1) (Hardcover, 2006, Tor Books) 4 stars

Blindsight is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts, published by Tor …

Review of 'Blindsight (Firefall, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I'd rate the first half of the book 5 stars. The latter half of the book gets a bit muddled as some plot lines take longer to explain than they do to resolve (what if aliens could hide by only moving when the eye moves? nothing very helpful for them that's what), and an extended tirade on the uselessness of self-awareness for survival which i think i disagree with - philosophical reasoning aside, a dog knowing that it is a dog would seem very useful in a wide variety of survival situations.