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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An utterly convincing and moving look at the beauty and perils of consciousness.
— I wonder, said Hermes, what it …
One thing I forgot in my review is the gender bending of having most of the "fighter" characters be female. This is easy to accept for the reader because the "all the mean are wiped out in war(s)" is alas, not a fantasy trope but a real thing.
Set in a dark future America devastated by the forces of climate change, this thrilling …
People who have read the (one year earlier) Windup Girl will find aspects of the setting familiar, but it is not identical. This book does not talk about calorie scarcity which really drives Windup Girl but focuses on resurgence of sail transport. A triumphant and uncaring capitalism probably prevents the book from being solarpunk.
As for plot, young boy from underclass rescues princess, has adventures on land and at sea. It is immersive and makes the point well enough about human driven climate change, but it didn't touch me as deeply as some other stories in e.g. Pump six. Not sure why, could just be the others were my first exposure to the author's world building.
I guess this is targeted at young adults? No explicit sex, some light (hopeless?) romance. Reference to impoverished women forced to sex work as a means of survival.
Set in a dark future America devastated by the forces of climate change, this thrilling …
Sloth, his crewgirl, made fun of him whenever he washed the mask, asking why he even bothered. It just made the hellish duct work hotter and more uncomfortable. There was no point, she said. Sometimes he thought she was right. But Pima’s mother told him and Pima to use the masks no matter what, and for sure there was a lot of black grime in the filters when he immersed them in the ocean. That was the black that wasn’t in his lungs, Pima’s mother said, so he kept on with the mask, even though he felt like he was smothering every time he sucked humid tropic air through the clogged breath-wet fibers.
— Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Page 5)
Prescient mood quote from this 2010 book.
Set in a dark future America devastated by the forces of climate change, this thrilling bestseller and National Book Finalist …
Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a …
There are some laughs, and some gross bits (sometimes at the same time), and even a little romance. The pseudo-Irish is just my interpretation of the conquered ethnic minority more clever than and talented than their conquerors.
Stephen's god died on the longest day of the year…
Three years later, Stephen is …
Previous T. Kingfisher got the thumbs up.
Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is …
Underland: A Deep Time Journey is a book by Robert Macfarlane and the sequel to …
Looks more substantial than my usual diet of escapism. We'll see how I do. There is is at least some discussion of cave diving, which is an interest of mine (although I'm not crazy or good enough to actually do it).
Underland: A Deep Time Journey is a book by Robert Macfarlane and the sequel to The Old Ways: A Journey …
Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is …
"Attentive readers of Lady Trent's earlier memoir, A Natural History of Dragons, are already familiar …
I enjoyed this more than the first book in the series. The political / cultural intrigue seems to have a bit more depth, perhaps because the main character is maturing a bit. The setting is essentially Colonial era (19th century?) Europe + Africa. (with dragons). I'm not sure why all the countries and institutions are renamed, it doesn't seem necessary.
"Attentive readers of Lady Trent's earlier memoir, A Natural History of Dragons, are already familiar with how a bookish and …
The cybernetic organism known as 812-3 is in prison, convicted of murdering a human worker …
I'm not sure if I really love the novella form, but maybe I just need to get used to it. It does feel like this book is better at asking questions than answering them. It's true that it moves right along, but on the other hand it does finish a bit abruptly.
When teen blues musician Mona Lisa LaPierre is sent by her parents to the boondocks …
Much of the plot is a fairly standard high school musician / coming of age story. The bits of northeastern north american indigenous ghost story / myth made it interesting to me, since I live in the territory of the Wabanaki confederacy referenced in the title.
