Archive for the ‘Reviews of books’ Category
The Invisibility of Success
{5/5} “When things work, the forces that make them work are invisible.” The Invisibility of Success and Other Investigations by Daniel Quinn, published in 2014 This is a collection of essays and talks Quinn gave over a period of several years. Here are some highlights, with direct quotations: On civilizations that disappeared, like the Maya […]
Infinity Beach
{4.5/5} “We don’t like horizons. We don’t like limits. We always want to see beyond them. We don’t stop at the water’s edge, do we? What is a beach to us but a place from which to launch ourselves at the future?” Infinity Beach by Jack McDevitt, published in 2000 Humans were creating 6 novas […]
Star Trek: TNG — A Call to Darkness
{4.5/5} “There were no benefits to being the first driver in the line… Mostly, it was a burden. But Picard had taken it up without hesitation. It gave him a measure of control over what happened to him. If he couldn’t dredge up his past, at least he could take an active part in preserving […]
Necessity
{4.5/5} “People from the Republics hold the pursuit of excellence as a goal. The other cultural goals I have encountered in my experience and researches seem much less conducive to producing happiness for individuals and societies. Additionally, we do all believe in constant examination of facts and positions; and even when this decays to pious […]
The Philosopher Kings
{4.5/5} “I had become human to learn about will and consequences and the significance of mortal life. There were things I had learned, and no doubt there was more to learn. But as for things I could do better incarnate — beyond learning that it seemed to amount to suffering, and waiting. Perhaps there was […]
The Just City
{4.5/5} “What we debated so constantly that winter was whether the Masters and Athene had been right to set up the Just City, and whether the Just City was the Just City or whether there could be one more just, and how that would be constituted.” The Just City by Jo Walton, published in 2014 […]
Star Trek: The Next Generation — Q-in-Law
{4.5/5} “‘A bubbling over of the repressed anger I sensed earlier, Captain,’ Troi said. ‘At the same time, I sensed a degree of confusion, even regret, that matters had come to this. No one is truly happy about this turn of events, but there is too much pride involved for anyone to turn back now.’” […]
Under Heaven
{5/5} “They were not travelers, the Kitan. The occasional exception, a far-farer who returned, was celebrated as a hero, his written record of the journey widely copied and read, pondered with fascination and disbelief. He was often regarded, privately, as more than slightly mad. Why would a sane man choose to leave the civilized world?” […]
Star Trek: TNG — A Rock and a Hard Place
{4.5/5} “I’ve seen suns going nova and suns being born. I’ve stood on planets with life just beginning to crawl out of the primordial ooze. knowing that millions of years into the future, something great and majestic might be there, and I’ve rejoiced. I’ve stood on planets where the only things remaining were vast radioactive […]
Noumenon Infinity
{4.5/5} “Caznal hated the idea of hurting her girls, of upending their world — of shattering their convictions in a regimented, thoroughly planned life. She’d introduced an element of chaos, of change, that she never could have prepared them for. The entire convoy had been set up to fight furiously against uncertainty, yet, in reality, […]