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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In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful …
Someone save me from the angry spirit of Octavia Butler. I was thinking (again) that I should read some of her books and typed "Parable of the Sewer" into the search bar.
Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, …
The timing is a bit ironic, a plague book being released just as COVID19 was becoming a household word.
The central plot device is a plague that kills almost all y-chromosome bearers. This leaves plenty of room for sly observations on human nature.
The surviving boy (Miles) spends much of the book disguised as a girl. This is a purely practical thing, I don't think people looking for a trans-kid coming of age story will find it here. On the other hand I do think it looks at coming of age issues related to sexuality and (fluidity-of) gender in a respectful and authentic way.
The main villain/anti-hero is Miles' aunt Billy who is charismatic and funny but narcissistic to the level of being dangerous to herself and others. She seemed like a not-so-heavily-veiled dig at the "heroic-entrepreneur", but I might just be projecting my own biases.
Miles' mother Cole is …
The timing is a bit ironic, a plague book being released just as COVID19 was becoming a household word.
The central plot device is a plague that kills almost all y-chromosome bearers. This leaves plenty of room for sly observations on human nature.
The surviving boy (Miles) spends much of the book disguised as a girl. This is a purely practical thing, I don't think people looking for a trans-kid coming of age story will find it here. On the other hand I do think it looks at coming of age issues related to sexuality and (fluidity-of) gender in a respectful and authentic way.
The main villain/anti-hero is Miles' aunt Billy who is charismatic and funny but narcissistic to the level of being dangerous to herself and others. She seemed like a not-so-heavily-veiled dig at the "heroic-entrepreneur", but I might just be projecting my own biases.
Miles' mother Cole is smart enough to make the snappy dialog believable, but also fallible, so that her struggles are not just with the US government and your usual assortment of post-apocalyptic feral road trip characters, but also with herself.
There are certainly a few twists in the plot, but for me the main dramatic tension was from the reader being a bit ahead of the characters, and knowing their story arcs are headed for trouble, separately and together.
The recently-read-by-me book it most resembles is Station 11. I'm not sure which one is better, they have a rather different feel to them. Station 11 envisions a post-technological future, while Afterland is more or less our a current world, where (almost) all of the villains and heroes happen to be (cis) women. If pressed, I would say that Afterland is more fun, while Station 11 is more beautiful.
In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege …
Afrotistic
Noa Ohunene Jenkins doesn't feel Black enough. Or autistic enough. Or cool enough.
In her …
Open Access textbook escholarship.org/uc/item/9d699767
Via @noracodes@weirder.earth
Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, …
Second word of the second day: reprohibition.
Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, …
Word of the day: manplague
Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, …
Nothing like a little post-apocalyptic social commentary to get one through the festive season.
"Stylish and action-packed, full of ambitious families and guilt-ridden loves, Jade City is an epic …
Overall this book felt very conventional to me. Not quite cliched, but following well trodden paths. Some of the characters have the potential to stretch the crime family framing, but they didn't really in this volume of the self described "saga".
I should confess that I would (and have) happily watch a TV show like this, but somehow my expectations for a book are a bit higher these days.
"Stylish and action-packed, full of ambitious families and guilt-ridden loves, Jade City is an epic …
Interesting to read a 2017 "contemporary" novel without mobile phones.
"Stylish and action-packed, full of ambitious families and guilt-ridden loves, Jade City is an epic …
This book reminds me of the Godfather, although my memories of that book have probably been merged with many other "Crime Family" stories.
"Stylish and action-packed, full of ambitious families and guilt-ridden loves, Jade City is an epic …
To be fair, the "chosen people" trope is not exactly unexamined in the book
"Stylish and action-packed, full of ambitious families and guilt-ridden loves, Jade City is an epic …
I know it's a standard fantasy trope, but I wonder about the (supposed) ethnic/racial determinism about one tribe being able to use jade magic.
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
I did feel like this violated the dictum "show don't tell" a bit too much, but it has interesting characters and a gripping plot to go with it's anti-colonialism message. Can be read as a straight forward critique of imperialism, but there are also interesting connections (or at least possible interpretations relating) to the role of technology and technology driven capitalism in contemporary society.
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
This is a bit heavy handed as an anti-colonialism screed, but maybe that's what we need. There is another layer of social commentary about the university-military tech complex that I find quite interesting.