tfp

I think this is a great overview of how the modern internet works to filter and manage content. If you work in the space and you know how this stuff works, there's nothing groundbreaking.

I enjoyed the tail section about DJs and the last vestiges of human-led curation.

I would have liked to see an exploration of the rise and fall of modern internet human-curated sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit. There are still convergences and flattening of culture as power is concentrated (c.f. u/GallowBoob).

A nice counterpoint might be yCombinator's hackernews which is intentionally slower, manually moderated and strictly enforced community guidelines.

Post-publication of this book, we've also seen a rise in burgeoning, decentralized social networks like Mastodon, Lemmy or similar platforms-as-a-service creating their own niche communities

This was a fascinating look at the academic world of translation... with magic shoehorned in so that we could turn off a switch at the climax rather than writing an effective ending to the action.

I would have rather seen this treated as an exploration of bureaucracy, political intrigue and guerrilla warfare to effect a change in the world... rather than an alternate history with nothing changed beyond “there's magic!”

Was this a metaphysical discussion about morality, ethics and seeking a higher state of being...

Or is it a schlocky, pulp sci-fi novel with robots, lasers and a sentient computer?

Seriously, what the hell was the final third of this book?! And this was the planned end of the series?!

A delightful breath of fresh air in the fantasy space.

Great read, nice story and good resolution. Yeah it has some problems, but take it as it is: a horror novel written by a Western author. Not a ethnographic piece of how wonderful Calcutta is