Armamix

Tidvis interessant, men omstendelig. Likte ikke lesestilen til Kai Remlov denne gangen.

Good, but not as mind bending as Egan can be.

A bit of a summary of his previous two works with extra opinions and meditation.

This book sets a lot of records for me, among them “Highest frequency of acronyms ever” and “Most occurrences of the phrase “speaking truth to power” by someone in power. “

Clappers memoirs are interesting and gives a tiny bit of insight into the (apparently rather sheltered) life of a US intelligence professional (not unlike Comey's effort in that regard.) Still, you can't shake the feeling that it's only showing the surface, and that there's a lot of polishing and retrofitting going on.

Well worth the read, but needs to be taken with the obligatory pinch of salt.

Denne var fiffig, på tross av at jeg ikke er særlig glad i tidsreisehistorier.

Bonuspoeng for rsync i en viktig birolle.

He thinks it's done. It's not done.

Denne er vond. Fantastisk, men vond.

I think there's a bit more to know about global politics, but it did tell me most of what I need to know about Tim Marshalls opinions on global politics.

This would probably have suited me better had I been American, a millennial, or both. As I'm not it felt a little bland, and certainly not as satirical as some reviewers find it. The unquoted dialogue is a minor annoyance, but an annoyance still.

I applaud Tegmarks optimism and his focus on aligning AI goals to humanity's goals, but I miss a chapter discussing how humanity would arrive at a common set of goals.

This would've been a great book if Pinker had managed to avoid beating dead horses, building strawmen, and reiterating climate denier ad hominems like comparing Al Gore to Ted Kaczynski.

Go read The Better Angels of Our Nature instead.

Denne historien er vakker og forstyrret og jeg skjønner egentlig ingenting.

Ikke like imponert over denne som forrige. Litt for introspektiv for min smak.

I need to read this again someday, and start with the afterword.

Flatland maler igjen gode karakterer, usympatiske og selvopptatte, og beskriver hvordan vi oppfatter og husker situasjoner forskjellig. Boka er også en god beskrivelse av familiers interne maktstrukturer, men (og det er mulig jeg har for store forventninger her) det virker litt tannløst sammenlignet med tidligere prestasjoner. Det er sikkert urettferdig, men det er nå en gang sånn at kunstnere blir sammenlignet med det man har gjort før.

Denne var spesiell. Såpass spesiell at den nesten klarer å få en kynisk og gretten gammel gubbe til å se lyst på framtida. Nesten.

Warning: For me, this book doesn't really work on its own, it's a setup for a series. Scalzi builds an interesting society that mixes progressive social norms with a feudal economy in a way that is close enough to believeable to work. Unfortunately his characters are still a bit on the bland side, and some of the more interesting ones tend to die or disappear from the plot (hopefully they'll return later.) The plot on its own is good and I'll definitely stick with this series.

But where did the werewolf-thingies go?

Light and fluffy steampunk fantasy alternate-history jaunt. A fun premise and a lot of potential but I found the story a little too shallow and the characters way too bland.

The few interesting tidbits this book contains are repeated ad nauseum in a very disorganized manner. The writing is dull and repetitive and the attempts at controversy are so contrived they could have been taken from the Daily Mail. Oh wait, they were. Never mind.

This is good in its own right, but it does bear a striking resemblance to China Mievilles City and the City. Looking forward to the next part.

Oscar Wilde and I will never be great friends.

[Løse tanker rett etter ferdiglesing, denne kan det ta litt tid å fordøye]

Det finnes noen få bøker der jeg både misliker og synes synd på alle personene. Stilitsen av Donna Tartt er en sånn, Vingebelastning er en annen. Det gjør boka sterkere og historien bedre, og samtidig vondere. Dette er ikke koselesing (men det forventer man heller ikke fra denne forfatteren.)

Fra mitt ståsted virker denne boka samtidig som en god samtidsbeskrivelse, et lett spark til profesjonell terapi, og første del i en ny trilogi. Det er mye mer å hente i dette persongalleriet.

Er det slutt alt?

“He was, in fact, dead. It would be hard to be deader without special training.”

And that's why we love Pratchett.