Phil in SF quoted Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
You could put an awful lot of feet wrong before you were sacked from the police.
— Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner (Page 181)
Quoted without comment.
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Success! Phil in SF has read 38 of 25 books.
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Phil in SF quoted Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
I could go, tonight, get a bag of stuff, if you don't mind me kipping in your box room for a while?
— Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner (Page 113)
new word: kipping
British: a sleep or nap
Phil in SF quoted Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
No offense to Goths, but they're quite often minging.
— Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner (Page 104)
new word: minging
very bad or unpleasant: perhaps from the Scots dialect ming 'excrement'
Phil in SF quoted Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
Her eyes were fluttering, black kohl pencil against porcelain skin, and she must have spotted the few remaining stragglers getting their mobiles out to call 999 because she shook her head saying, "No, no. I'm okay. I'll get up in a minute."
— Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner (Page 90)
new word: kohl
a black powder, usually antimony sulfide or lead sulfide, used as eye makeup, especially in eastern countries.
Phil in SF started reading Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
Phil in SF reviewed The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
Competent teams vs teams of competent individuals
3 stars
The Deep Sky is the story of a crew of late teen/early 20s women (mostly) who make up the crew of the first interstellar spaceship. Their goal is to establish a colony on a planet orbiting another star, hence why everyone has to be capable of bearing children. There's mention of one trans dude and a couple of possibly non-binary folk, but by and large the crew is female. The story alternates between episodes on board and flashbacks to crew member Asuka's time on Earth with her family and in the ultra-competitive institute that is both training and selecting crew members.
When the story begins, Asuka and her friend Kate are about to go on a spacewalk to investigate an anomaly on the exterior of the ship. They decide to race, and Kate reaches the anomaly first and thus is the person who dies when the bomb goes off.
Despite …
The Deep Sky is the story of a crew of late teen/early 20s women (mostly) who make up the crew of the first interstellar spaceship. Their goal is to establish a colony on a planet orbiting another star, hence why everyone has to be capable of bearing children. There's mention of one trans dude and a couple of possibly non-binary folk, but by and large the crew is female. The story alternates between episodes on board and flashbacks to crew member Asuka's time on Earth with her family and in the ultra-competitive institute that is both training and selecting crew members.
When the story begins, Asuka and her friend Kate are about to go on a spacewalk to investigate an anomaly on the exterior of the ship. They decide to race, and Kate reaches the anomaly first and thus is the person who dies when the bomb goes off.
Despite being told these are highly competent people, the crew never feels like a crew trained to work together. They neglect their duties. They let personal animosities not only interfere, but drive them. To do anything at scale, you need a competent team, not just a set of competent individuals. The book seems to miss that.
To be fair, the entire sabotage plot wouldn't work like it does if this was a competent team. It'd be a very different book.
All that aside, at about halfway through the plot became less navel-gazy and I was finally able to suspend disbelief well enough to read through to the end. When something is actually happening, such as Asuka finally doing some investigation or the saboteur stepping up attacks some of the flaws can be ignored.
Phil in SF reviewed A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital …
anecdotal argument
2 stars
I agree with most of the author's points, but struggled with what is usually anecdotal argument and haphazard reasoning.
Phil in SF commented on A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital …
chapter 6 explains that we have to allow for oral tradition to be considered good evidence.
chapter 7 explains that people's memories are extremely fallible and biased, and so we shouldn't trust what people say without solid backing evidence.
both can be valuable perspectives, but goddamn if you're going to espouse both you better have a cogent idea of how to reconcile them. (Millar doesn't, so far.)
Phil in SF commented on A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital …
so far, the author has given definitions of terms like fact, data, information, and evidence. and then gone on to write how evidence and truth are social constructs. which is true, but if this is to be a worthwhile polemic, it will need to advocate for particular social constructions over others. otherwise this is just throwing out words and metaphorically shrugging.
Phil in SF commented on A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital …
Chapter 1 is pure polemic. ironically, it has no real evidence of the value of evidence. though perhaps this will be a properly outlined book that makes subsequent chapter detail the evidence for evidence.
Phil in SF started reading A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital technologies have opened the door …
Phil in SF finished reading The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
May be a bit before I get to the review, as I am at a big conference for work this week.
Phil in SF wants to read A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
A Matter of Facts by Laura A. Millar
The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital technologies have opened the door …
Phil in SF quoted The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
The apartment was smaller than Asuka expected: a genkan leading to a small living room with a synthetic tatami floor, and narrow kitchen, a bathroom with an ofuro, and two small bedrooms.
— The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei (Page 558)
New words: genkan, tatami, ofuro
Genkan: the entryway in a Japanese house
Tatami: a rush-covered straw mat forming a traditional Japanese floor covering.
Ofuro: Furo (風呂), or the more common and polite form ofuro (お風呂), is a Japanese bath and/or bathroom. Specifically it is a type of bath which originated as a short, steep-sided wooden bathtub
Phil in SF replied to Phil in SF's status
Content warning Vaguely spoilery
Ok. It finally got interesting about 20 pages later. I guess I'm in for the long haul.