Someone who failed their 2023 Reading Challenge and looking forward to making up for that in 2024.
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Interesting sequel to "Dune". It's much more political than war drama, picking up 12 years after its predecessor.
I enjoyed the contrast to the adventure and fighting in the last one (It certainly subverts expectations!), and I'm interested in seeing where this story heads next.
The stories in this collection were a bit hit-or-miss. Other than the names used within, (judging by this collection) Soviet science fiction seemed to have a lot in common with Western science fiction from similar eras. I wouldn't have been surprised to see any of these stories pop-up in a similar collection rescued from the local used bookstore.
Some of the tales failed to land with me, but I think that's more a function of eras than region of origin. Some of the tales seemed to be a bit slow and plodding, but not more so than Western stories of that era.
That said, the last tale about cryo-hibernation was worth the price of admittance alone. I won't spoil more than that.
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, …
It's been two decades since I originally read "Dune" and this re-read (to get ahead of the movie) was a delight. Looking forward to continuing on with the rest of the Frank Herbert-authored sequels in the weeks and months ahead.
Still working my way through the wild elephant story.
A lush read thus far!
Excited to read the inspiration for "The Wicker Man".
It's pretty amazing how much new stuff emerges out of the book almost a quarter decade later and a me spending a stint in graduate school studying history of computing. (Vannevar Engleton!)
It's also a VERY interesting look at a pre-9/11 world where protagonists fly around the world like taking a cab. Interestingly enough, it does anticipate the surveillance state / capitalism, which we see more of in the companion book "The Pains".
Say you’re the Savior, Fred Christ. Would you want your frozen head to be reanimated in 1984?
The world is …
In between larger books on my reading list, I slipped in a second reading of this book. It had been long enough that I had forgotten most of it, but still retained fond memories of having read it.
This collection, from an AI competition to try and pass the Turing Test through storytelling two decades ago, has some newfound relevance in the age of generative AI, and its encroachment on the most basic of human activities, spinning a yarn. I don't want to spoil too much of the experience for new readers, but this is definitely worth a read if you've ever looked at the output from ChatGPT (or its numerous clones and me-toos) and wondered why the algorithm made THAT choice.
Looking forward to revisiting the rest of "Mind over Matter" sequence that @jsundman@mastodon.social was so generous to drop on us, two decades ahead of schedule.
Escaping Gravity is former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver's firsthand account of how a handful …
After reading Ashlee Vance's "When the Heavens Went on Sale", I expected this to be more of a book about the same companies and same New Space developments, but from the government angle.
Instead, I got a much longer history of Garver's involvement in space policy stretching beyond the Challenger disaster. To the extent New Space is a theme in this book, it's mainly focused on SpaceX, with Blue Origin following a close second. (The hero of Vance's book, Gen. Pete Worden is mentioned ONCE.)
And you know what? That's fine. SpaceX has been the big driver in changing American space policy, and Garver's account really highlights what an uphill battle that was within NASA. Much of the book describes her bucking the prevailing attitudes at NASA (though she is quick to justify that as an allegiance to the President over the NASA administrator), and succeeding in some cases, and …
After reading Ashlee Vance's "When the Heavens Went on Sale", I expected this to be more of a book about the same companies and same New Space developments, but from the government angle.
Instead, I got a much longer history of Garver's involvement in space policy stretching beyond the Challenger disaster. To the extent New Space is a theme in this book, it's mainly focused on SpaceX, with Blue Origin following a close second. (The hero of Vance's book, Gen. Pete Worden is mentioned ONCE.)
And you know what? That's fine. SpaceX has been the big driver in changing American space policy, and Garver's account really highlights what an uphill battle that was within NASA. Much of the book describes her bucking the prevailing attitudes at NASA (though she is quick to justify that as an allegiance to the President over the NASA administrator), and succeeding in some cases, and losing in a lot.
In the end, I got a different book than the one I expected, but it was quite interesting nonetheless.
Required reading for anyone following the New Space economy. This will become a definitive historical text should mankind actually escape the Earth's gravity well and establish a meaningful presence "out there".
#NewSpace #RocketLab #RKLB #Astra #ASTR #PlanetLabs #PL #FireflyAerospace #NASA #PeteWorden
Required reading for anyone following the New Space economy. This will become a definitive historical text should mankind actually escape the Earth's gravity well and establish a meaningful presence "out there".
#NewSpace #RocketLab #RKLB #Astra #ASTR #PlanetLabs #PL #FireflyAerospace #NASA #PeteWorden
Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain's avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable …
Solid collection of accessible essays on Lovecraft-related and Lovecraft-adjacent topics.