Archive for the ‘Reviews of books’ Category
Proxima
{4.5/5} “And on the longest of timescales, what is there not to fear? We are motes, our very worlds are motes, floating in a universe that was born in unimaginable violence. Our little corner of the universe is tranquil now, relatively. But it was not always this way, and why should it remain so?” Proxima […]
The Lake House
{5/5} “All families were a composite of stories, and yet her own, it seemed, comprised more layers of tellings and retellings than most. There were so many of them, for one thing, and they all liked to talk and write and wonder. Living as they had at Loeanneth, a house rich with its own history, […]
Time Travelers Never Die
{4.5/5} “Socrates was, at first glance, a man of mundane appearance. He was of average height, for the time, and clean-shaven. He wore a dull-red robe and, considering the circumstances, he maintained a remarkably equanimity. And his eyes were extraordinary, conveying the impression that they were lit from within. When they fell on Dave, as […]
The Last Light of the Sun
{5/5} “It would nourish my own desires to do so, to sit here and share learning as old age comes. Do not think I am not tempted. But I have tasks in the west. We Cyngael live where the farthest light of Jad falls. The last light of the sun. It needs attending to, my […]
Camouflage
{4.5/5} “The changeling changed. It would never be human, but it was human enough for something like empathy with its professors. They were trying to understand, and teach about, the human condition — but were themselves trapped in human bodies; stuck in human culture like ancient insects in amber.” Camouflage by Joe Haldeman, published in […]
Lavinia
{4.5/5} “I was fated, it seems, to live among people who suffered beyond measure from grief, who were driven mad by it. Though I suffered grief, I was doomed to sanity.” Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 2008 Lavinia spends much of her time outside, playing with her friends. But she’s the daughter […]
The Engine of Recall
{4.5/5} “The alien is incapable of language, does not possess a society in our sense of it and instead of our massive vocabulary, the thousands of words we have and the millions of subtleties of personal relationships which clutter up our thoughts and unconscious minds, it has an instinct and mind directed to technology… Both […]
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
{5/5} “The end of the world is speeding up — it is happening earlier in every life. That implies that the cause is changing, and what, we must ask, is the cause of change?” The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, published in 2014 When Harry dies he finds himself back where […]
Rainbows End
{4.5/5} “You-Gotta-Believe Me. That is, mind control. Weak, social forms of YGBM drove all human history. For more than a hundred years, the goal of irresistible persuasion had been a topic of academic study. For thirty years it had been a credible technological goal. And for ten, some version of it had been feasible in […]
Mind Over Medicine
{5/5} “If you’re lonely, you’re stuck in a toxic relationship, you’re full of resentment for people who have hurt you, you’re cheating on your partner, you’re selling your soul at work, or you feel spiritually bankrupt, no amount of veggies, gym visits, 12-step programs, or vitamins is going to cut it. Radical self-care also involves […]