The eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown …
Based on a review (of a sequel) by @themiddleshelf@wandering.shop
computer scientist, mathematician, photographer, human. Debian Developer, Notmuch Maintainer, scuba diver
Much of my "reading" these days is actually audiobooks while walking.
FediMain: bremner@mathstodon.xyz
bremner@bookwyrm.social is also me. Trying a smaller instance to see if the delays are less maddening.
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The eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown …
Based on a review (of a sequel) by @themiddleshelf@wandering.shop
Robots Won't Save Japan addresses the Japanese government's efforts to develop care robots in response …
I read this quickly while somewhat sleep deprived, so I don't have as coherent an impression as I might have hoped.
Like the previous "Witness for the Dead" this is essentially a noir detective novel with fantasy elements. The characters are engaging, although the villains turn out not to have much redeeming qualities.
It's hard not to see the Goblin / Elf dynamic as some kind of comment on race and racism, although it wasn't really clear to me if the book was commenting on contemporary society or just reflecting it.
The book relies on the reader having some recall of the previous two, but especially Witness for the Dead. The reader needs the previous book not only for background on the world, but also on the relationships.
Like in Witness for the Dead, the use of an imagined dialect of English is crucial to both the atmosphere and the …
I read this quickly while somewhat sleep deprived, so I don't have as coherent an impression as I might have hoped.
Like the previous "Witness for the Dead" this is essentially a noir detective novel with fantasy elements. The characters are engaging, although the villains turn out not to have much redeeming qualities.
It's hard not to see the Goblin / Elf dynamic as some kind of comment on race and racism, although it wasn't really clear to me if the book was commenting on contemporary society or just reflecting it.
The book relies on the reader having some recall of the previous two, but especially Witness for the Dead. The reader needs the previous book not only for background on the world, but also on the relationships.
Like in Witness for the Dead, the use of an imagined dialect of English is crucial to both the atmosphere and the characterizations. Speakers (or students) of French or German will recognize the notion of formal and informal pronouns and their collision with plural. Other words seem to be borrowed from older variations of English, helping to paint the picture of a kind of steampunk early-modern world.
This book felt more centered around the romance than the fantasy I usually read,. but I enjoyed the change of focus (I know, I will now do something extremely manly to compensate). The first third of the book feels like a very sweet cinderalla-esque YA romance. Things get more complicated (and more adventure / political) after that. The Chinese (inspired?) setting was nice; the food seemed tempting, and the idea of the immortals as just as petty and vindictive was not exactly new, but their ordinariness felt like an interesting way to connect a fantasy setting with our world.
I don't dive locally much any more, but I'm still interested in the local shipwrecks