I've finished: Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett.
It's been a while since I last read Only You Can Save Mankind. I didn't remember the Golf War references being so prominent and now that I know Pratchett was a fan of the Wing Commander games I got more of the game play references. I'm now surprised he didn't reference the triumphal victory music you'd get after achieving a kill.
In 1991, as a 16 year old Israeli, under SCUD missile attack, carrying a gas mask with me everywhere, watching the amazing high tech air-power at work on TV, I had no anti war sentiments. I just saw a dangerous dictator getting his due.
I've finished: Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko.
Vita Nostra was a profound experience. I worried for Sasha all the way through.
It's a gifted one, school for extraordinary children novel, Soviet style. There are no kids gloves here. The children are recruited like agents by a KGB handler. They are then coerced to perform or else their loved ones will be hurt. The tutors guide them to success, but show no mercy.
Sasha is talented and a workaholic, she is both afraid and atrackted to the mysteries and power of the Institute of Special Technologies. Will she be able to master them and keep her family safe?
There are many school for gifted children novels, especially after Harry Potter. This one is for adults.
PS.
I have a vague memory of posting about Where Peace is Lost not long ago but the Mastodon search can't find any posts with the title. One of us has an imperfect memory.
This is sci-fi with alien aliens, something not as common as you'd think. But it is first and formost about consent and found family.
I started reading Translation State right before 7.10 and had to put it down for a few months. It was too tense and I found myself triggered by the tention between the rights of the individual and the true horror of the Presger. A species of post singularity aliens with very different values that could devour humanity with no compunctions if not for a treaty with the imperialist Radch.
As it turned out, I sopped just before things started sorting out and the tension stated ebbing and the action started.
I'm still a bit confused when faced with sci-fi that has such a wonderful universe to explore but concentrates on the lives and wishes of individuals instead of the grand issues of interstellar civilizations.
I guess I'm showing my age. I'm not saying that I don’t' enjoy it, I'm saying that my expectations are still subverted even after reading quite a few novels of this sub-genre.
This is an SF story about a world where the rich are semi-immortal as well as physically powerful, as a result of the rejuvenation process.
For most of the novel, it seems like the only concession to Sci-Fi is making the power of the billionaires more obvious. However as the chips finally start falling down, the payoff is very well done, and leverages many aspects of the T7 rejuvenation process.
First contact! Conspiracies, government agents, conspiracy theories, warring alien factions - this book has them all in spades. And yet, the story almost seems languid for much of it. This was not a drawback for me. I liked the slow burn for much of the novel, with the reveals coming slowly.
The main focus was on how completely disparate life forms and societies would interact. Where would we understand each other, and where would we be horrified. Quite nicely done.
The narrator was mostly quite good, but overdid it a few times.
I have a confession to make. In the Apple Podcasts search field, I type book titles, or audiobook narrator names, or author names into the search box and listen to the results and then determine if I like the podcast enough to see what they have to say about other things. @bookstodon#Podcasts#Podcast#Books#Audiobooks
I urge you to subscribe to @victoriastrauss's Writer Beware blog, so that you can keep abreast of all sort of maters essential to your careers. Primer example: the recent TOS changes at FindwayVoices/Spotify:
Back to my usual rhythm for the working week (at least kind of, since I took me some 30 minutes to finally get out of bed). But after that it went quite smoothly. I finished an audiobook, started a new old one (ROADKILL by Dennis E. Taylor, gorgeous funny science fiction), and was thus ready for the day at an early hour. So, tomorrow again, but half an hour earlier… 🙄 #Running#schwinn#applewatchultra2#applefitnessplus#rowing#audiobooks#dennis_e_taylor
The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I
The hidden history of one of the world’s greatest inventors, a man who disrupted the status quo and then disappeared into thin air on the eve of World War I—this book answers the hundred-year-old mystery of what really became of Rudolf Diesel.
Yes, #Technofeudalism is def. worth a try. It is a bit peculiar for an economics #book, reminds me of "What unites us" by #DanRather style wise, but #Yanis aroufakis tells the story great enthusiasm and conviction.
Jen jsem vám chtěla říct, že jsem doposlouchala Inferium a druhý díl jedním dechem přečetla, protože není jako audio a bylo to epické. Takže nezlobte, nebo se z vás po smrti stane flákota. Ale když budete hodní, o moc lepší to stejně nebude až na ten sex.
Hench, by Natalie Zina Walschots, is on sale on LibroFM.
I had expected a silly satire of the superhero genre in the vain of Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection and instead got a harder deeper look into super power realism.