I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).
So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.
So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.
I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.
On top of doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.
Or, if you prefer, you can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest where i put a link to all new posts.
Enjoy
Ancillary Justice — Ann Leckie
This is a super good read. An AI spaceship’s mind ends up in the body of one person named Breq, one of its ancillaries. The AI mind is out for a bit of revenge after its spaceship, all it’s crew and the rest of its ancillaries are destroyed.
Really well written with a great protagonist, it’s a real page turner.
But don’t just take my word for it being a great story: Ancillary Justice won the following awards:
Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year, 2014.
British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel from the World Science Fiction Society, 2014.
Kitschies Golden Tentacle for best debut novel, 2013.
Locus Award for Best First Novel, 2014.
Nebula Award for Best Novel from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 2013.
Seiun Award for Best Translated Novel, 2016.
The novel was also nominated for the following awards:
Finalist for the Compton Crook Award for best first science fiction/fantasy/horror novel from the Baltimore Science Fiction Society.
Named to the James Tiptree Jr. Award Honor List, for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.
Shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished original science fiction paperback.
It does kind of remind me of Murderbot by Martha Wells, so if you liked those books you’ll probably like this, and vice versa.
And now i’m diving straight into Ancillary Sword: #excited
Bye for now.
Ann’s Page
#scifi #annleckie
The Counselor — Robin Sloan
A look to the future when everyone has access to talk therapy with a counselor, for their whole lives.
But the only way this has become possible is because everyone’s free lifelong counselor is an AI.
And how does the counselor council the terminally ill who can stay alive on life support equipment for decades?
An interesting view of the future of health care, which isn’t too far fetched when we consider that health care providers are already putting chat bots in old people’s homes to talk to them and old people are already heavily medicated and looked after for decades to keep them alive without any real quality of life.
Another interesting little story from Robin.
Bye for now.
Robin’s Page
#scifi #robinsloan
Visit the Sins — Cory Doctorow
Available in the collection, With a Little Help.
An interesting thought experiment about the future, when Musk and Co have computer chips embedded in people’s brains and people with ADD/ADHD are treated in this way.
Scary!
Next up from Cory will be A Place so Foreign.
Bye for now.
Cory’s Page
#scifi #corydoctorow
The Truth About the East Wind — Robin Sloan
A good little story based on Greek mythology. So if you enjoy Greek mythology then i would suggest that you might really enjoy this, and even if you’re just looking for something short and quick to read you’ll probably enjoy it as well.
Robin is a really good writer and if you haven’t read any of his novels yet then i really suggest you do.
Bye for now.
Robin’s Page
#robinsloan
The Little Breton Bistro — Nina George
If you enjoyed The Little Paris Bookshop then you’ll enjoy this book just as much.
But, if you’re one of those miserable people who didn’t like The Little Paris Bookshop, or just want to hate on every piece of uplit ever written then you’ll probably be better off just passing it by.
What struck me most about this story is how much Marianne’s life with her gaslighting husband reminds me of my own mother. Like Lothar, my father was also a sergeant-major in the army, and although it was the British Army they spent most of the first 15 years of their marriage living in Germany. Sadly, my mother never left my father, instead she chose a life of benzodiazepines and any other crazy medication she could get off her quacks.
Reading this book made me think what might have been possible for my mother and her two children if she’d only had the courage to leave and get away. If you are being gaslighted, then be aware that the person doing it is a sociopath and the only way you deal with sociopaths is to run away, far away, and never look back.
Bye for now.
Nina’s Page
#ninageorge
The Red Scholar’s Wake — Aliette de Bodard
It had certainly been a while since i read any Xuya stories when i finally got this in my Kindle’s memory bank, but i soon fell back into the universe like i’d never been away.
‘The Red Scholar is dead.’ So begins the story. And left behind in her wake is her wife, the mindship Rice Fish.
The Red Scholar was the head of the Red Banner of the pirates and Rice Fish wants to stake her claim as banner head, but to do so she needs to find out who arranged the death of her wife. In order to do so she enlists the help of a captured scavenger, Xich Si. And so begins a story of intrigue, deception, betrayals, love, and all kinds of crazy pirates’ political machinations.
Super good stuff, as are all the Xuya Stories i’ve read.
Next in the Xuya universe is A Fire Born of Exile.
Bye for now.
Aliette’s Page
#5t4n5 #fantasy #scifi #aliettedebodard
Worrying Over Potatoes — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Another interesting story about the forthcoming apocalypse and what the AI’s will think about us, and our behaviour, afterwards.
As always with Yudhanjaya, an interesting and enjoyable little story.
Bye for now.
Yudhanjaya’s Page
#scifi #yudhanjayawijeratne
The Art of Possible — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Available in the anthology Kalicalypse
An interesting little story about the coming apocalypse and how the world is mired in policy and nothing is more important than following the policy.
At least that what i got from it.
Like all of Yudhanjaya’s stories, it’s interesting and enjoyable.
Bye for now.
Yudhanjaya’s Page
#scifi #yudhanjayawijeratne
Last Beautiful — Robin Sloan
What if today was the last beautiful day ever?
Tomorrow would turn out to be dreary and dismal, overcast weather and the sun would never shine again.
Is there any hope?
This is how i feel in our current UK summer. We had a lovely May and early July and then the weather turn crap. And everyday since it’s been more crap weather. Will the sun ever come back?
Anyway, it’s a good little tiny short story that you can read for free on Robin’s website.
Bye for now.
Robin’s Page
#robinsloan
Detonation Boulevard — Alastair Reynolds
Alastair is back with one of his great little stories.
This time Alastair has conjured up a racing league where the races circumnavigate small moons and such within the solar system. This is about one race, the race around Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. Super geologically active, you’d have to be insane to be racing around this. It kind of reminds me of all the old stories of early motor racing, before actual race tracks and before the FIA came along and sanitized everything.
So if you like a good motor racing story, or like Alastair’s short fiction, you’ll enjoy this one.
Now i go back to eagerly awaiting Alastair’s next book.
Bye for now.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Fiction
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.
Fiction
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
