Psy-Q

Charming, witty, intersting characters but a bit much deus ex machina towards the end.

I also don't think “hard sci-fi” fits the bill. The story tilts far more towards the whodunit than the hard sci-fi part and what sci-fi is there is not explained plausibly enough to be hard sci-fi.

Still, I'll definitely give the sequels a chance as it was entertaining just for some of the ideas alone.

Massively empowering, it reads in parts more like a manifesto or a call to arms for disabled visibility and rights.

I never highlighted anything in a book before but this one has quotable material on almost every page, so it has the honor of receiving my first ever highlights. In 40 years of reading. That's how powerfully it resonated.

I recognized myself in the descriptions of all the damage masking does to autistic people and really enjoyed the punk spirit of the autistic self-advocacy movements described. I wanna be a part of that.

I got extremely upset about ABA, an abusive behavioral therapy still often forced on autistic kids to make them appear more neurotypical (while growing to hate themselves inside). The book contains links to first-hand accounts by ABA “technicians”, this is stuff everyone needs to know.

I was also shocked by the reports of how dangerous it can be for a black autistic person in the US to unmask. I know this is a US societal problem and not directly related to autism, but damn.

A real rollercoaster but ultimately it left me motivated to change something, stop masking and start engaging with local self-advocacy networks.

No autistic people should go through what we went through, so we need to hack society by being more visible, more politically active and most importantly by fighting to be socially accepted. The book has some ideas on how to do this. Let's rock.

I found it pretty predictable and the parody elements not all that funny. It's like Kaiju Preservation Society, something makes me feel like he's trying too hard. Too hard to have characters perform cute tricks and spout cool quips. Too hard to make sure we know that he knows all the Star Trek things.

Not for me.

After the Laundry Files didn't click for me, I thought I misremembered liking Stross a decade or so ago. But I'm very glad I discovered this short story collection because it made me re-appreciate his writing. I even sort of liked the Laundry-based episode.

Palimpsest ist my favorite. It's difficult to make far future sci-fi feel relatable, let alone in a short story, but through a few tricks he manages to do that.

I'll cheerfully attack the next Stross novel on my unread pile now.

Not really going into the plot itself as you can find that covered better elsewhere.

I liked the general sense of mystery and exploration, the dynamics of aristocrats vs. commoners and the clear motivations of all characters. Usually I hate it when books introduce three dozen characters you need to keep track of, but Tepper managed to give them such unique and inventive names (some of the best in any sci-fantasy I've read) that it's easy. They are also quite strongly defined.

I didn't like the strange pacing, the first two thirds seem languid and build a foreboding mood, then in the last third it seems like everything is happening far too quickly. But maybe that's just a literary trick to drive home the urgency of the situation. Anyway, I got a little whiplash from it. Now moving on to Arbai #2.