Machine Vendetta — Alastair Reynolds

Machine Vendetta -- Alastair ReynoldsAnother Prefect Dreyfus story from the glitter band, which we’ve been waiting a while for, but it was worth the wait.

For me, one of the best bits of the whole Revelation Space series are the stories within Yellowstone and the Glitter Band, and this story didn’t disappoint.

Alastair at his very best.

And lets all hope that there’ll be a few more Yellowstone and the Glitter Band stories to come still.

Next up in the Revelation Space series it’s Diamond Dogs.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #revelationspace #alastairreynolds

The Vital Abyss — James S. A. Corey

The Vital Abyss -- James S. A. CoreyAnother side story, this time concerning the prisoners that the Belters captured from the original Protogen project in Leviathon Wakes.

All the prisoners have been put into one large room and are continuously watched over from above by the Belters who guard them.   For them, after their crimes, there is no future, nothing at all, beyond the walls of this room.

And then, one day, or night, the man from Mars turns up and begins to offer hope, if only to one of them, but which one will it be?

A really good novella, that can be read as soon as the Belters have taken them prisoner, or anytime thereafter.

Next up in the series is Cibola Burn.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

Abaddon’s Gate — James S. A. Corey

Abaddon's Gate -- James S. A. CoreyI didn’t find this book as good as the previous ones, which i put down to a character thing.

Too much christian waffle: i live in hope that by the time Hominids are travelling the whole solar system we’ll have gotten over this all the organised religion thing and seen it for what it truly is.   I found it beyond tragic that people were still clinging to this twaddle.

And i also found Clarissa just tedious and annoying: like a lot of spoiled rich brats that i’ve known in my life.   I really don’t like reading about them and having to endure their thinking.

Still, it has it’s good parts, which do balance the few crap characters and religiosity out and offer some redemption (pun intended) for those expecting something better.

I’ve now dived straight into The Vital Abyss, which is much better and more like what i expect from this series.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

The Girl and the Moon — Mark Lawrence

The Girl and the Moon -- Mark LawrenceAnd so we’re back in the corridor, at Sweet Mercy, where it all began in the original trilogy.

Once again, i felt that dragging tedious feeling i had with the previous books in this trilogy, except this time it wasn’t due to plodding over the ice.   This time it mostly came down to this never ending cat and mouse game with Seus and Eular, both of which aren’t very exciting baddies and don’t exactly get one excited.   In fact they just continued to disappoint me with the fact that they keep not dying when that’s all i wanted them to do from about 50% in, just so we could get it all over with.

Ok, i have to admit that i read the whole trilogy all the way through, so it couldn’t have been that bad.   But, it definitely could have been a lot better and lot lot lot faster paced.

Anyways, it’s all over now and i can go and read some other more exciting things.

Mark’s Page

#fantasy #marklawrence

Seymour Papert

Seymour Papert

“An unknown but certainly significant proportion of the population has almost completely given up on learning. These people seldom, if ever engage in deliberate learning and see themselves as neither competent at it nor likely to enjoy it. The social and personal cost is enormous.

Although negative self-images can be overcome, in the life of an individual they are extremely robust and powerfully self-reinforcing. Deficiency becomes identity: “I can’t learn French, I don’t have an ear for languages;” “I could never be a businessman, I don’t have a head for figures;”…

If people believe firmly enough that they cannot do math, they will usually succeed in preventing themselves from doing whatever they recognize as math. The consequences of such self-sabotage is personal failure, and each failure reinforces the original belief. And such beliefs may be most insidious when held not only by individuals, but by our entire culture.”

Source: Mindstorms (lightly edited for clarity)

#5t4n5 #quotes #seymourpapert