User Profile

Ben Harris-Roxas

ben_hr@eigenmagic.net

Joined 1 year, 11 months ago

Health services researcher and educator from Sydney, Australia. I post and boost things I think are important, surprising, or funny.

Please use CWs. I generally won't follow unless you have a detailed profile. Old posts are pruned regularly to encourage new growth.

he/him :boost_ok:

This link opens in a pop-up window

User Activity

avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted

Stark, accurate and compelling

4 stars

Stephen Markley has crafted a well-written, thousand-page sprawling multi-person narrative about the havoc we'll face over next two decades due to climate change.

We follow a range of characters including a larger-than-life climate activist, a small group devoted to resisting extractivism through violence, a curmudgeonly climate scientist, a poor Midwesterner with a history of addiction, a modeller with autism, a PR shill for carbon polluters, and perhaps a dozen more characters. As the book unfolds we witness increasing climate chaos and political mayhem, fascism, collective action, gradual inadequate political change.

I liked this book - and I think it's important - but it's difficult, weighty reading. The vision of what the next two decades will hold seems accurate, chilling, and is frankly emotionally battering. Markley clearly understands climate science and has devoted considerable effort to imagining the unravelling of politics as climate disasters occur more frequently and vested interests dig …

avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
Beyond the Burn Line (2023, Orion Publishing Group, Limited) 4 stars

I read this one relatively quickly while on holiday. There's something special about McAuley's pacing. He draws together characters and events with such narrative force that I usually find myself compelled to finish his books in a way few other authors manage.

The narrative in this book works on slightly different timescales, varyingly millennia, lifespans, and years. It's difficult to expand on that without spoilers, but it works. The world of the "people" in the book (again, hard to explain without spoilers) is beautifully realised and their world and worldviews are compelling and, oddly, relaxing.

I also like that some mysteries remain unresolved in his works. The Jackaroo, Mother in this book, etc. In a way that adds an odd sense of verisimilitude for such imaginative works. Very few things in our lives are fully explained.

avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted
avatar for ben_hr@eigenmagic.net Ben Harris-Roxas boosted