Sam rated The Magicians: 3 stars
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
A thrilling and original coming-of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real worldQuentin Coldwater is brilliant …
Cooperator, luddite, and Atlantan. Solidarity forever 🌹. When not reading 📚 probably wants to be out swing or blues dancing 🕺, backpacking ⛺🥾, climbing 🧗, or mountain biking 🚵.
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A thrilling and original coming-of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real worldQuentin Coldwater is brilliant …
From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future.
Destry's life …
I'll probably pick this up again at some point, but it's very long and I only really feel like reading it during the day when I'm on break at work. Unfortunately the libraries max checkout policy is too short for me to get very far in 15 minute increments. I was enjoying it, but I'll have to find a way to get a copy for myself or figure out if I can wait a bit and check it out again later.
A revolution on the roads is approaching. Is it time for drivers to Give Way? Guardian news correspondent, Peter Walker, …
Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but …
Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but …
I have a draft of a novella right now that sounds like a less action-y version of this set around Atlanta instead of Austin. Given that I used to live in Austin maybe I should read this! Or maybe I should avoid it so I don't accidentally let things bleed over since it sounds like a similar concept!
The true story of what happened the first time machines came for human jobs, when an underground network of 19th …
It’s thirty years from now. We’re making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry …
Overall I enjoyed Callenbach's visions of a hopeful future. A few things felt out of place to me though:
The first was the "war games" which just didn't quite fit with the rest of the society, in my mind. It's quite possible I'm just missing something, but I couldn't understand why they were included or what their place in the functioning of the society was supposed to be (as a vent for toxic masculinity to express itself so that it doesn't permeate into every day life, maybe? It seems like this could be done with less injury). They're also part of broader problematic appropriation of indigenous culture by the almost exclusively white cast (more on that in a bit) in the book in a way that feels a bit tropey, which I didn't love.
Similarly, there's a very out-of-place feeling chapter in the middle where he randomly says (paraphrasing): "and …
Overall I enjoyed Callenbach's visions of a hopeful future. A few things felt out of place to me though:
The first was the "war games" which just didn't quite fit with the rest of the society, in my mind. It's quite possible I'm just missing something, but I couldn't understand why they were included or what their place in the functioning of the society was supposed to be (as a vent for toxic masculinity to express itself so that it doesn't permeate into every day life, maybe? It seems like this could be done with less injury). They're also part of broader problematic appropriation of indigenous culture by the almost exclusively white cast (more on that in a bit) in the book in a way that feels a bit tropey, which I didn't love.
Similarly, there's a very out-of-place feeling chapter in the middle where he randomly says (paraphrasing): "and of course integration doesn't work, so the black people have their own cities". Whoa, where did that come from? He tries to launder the idea into sounding virtuous by saying (again, paraphrasing) "but they were the ones who chose it for themselves and their cities are also doing well, it's no longer 'separate but equal', there really is a measure of economic justice", and, oddly, by having the (white) American be slightly disappointed by this situation, but again I just couldn't figure out why in the world that would be in there or what purpose it was supposed to have in the society. It really felt like he was trying to justify a personal view that he knew was wrong.
I suppose none of this is surprising from a white man in 1975, it's just so shocking how little it fits with the society he envisions in the rest of the book. Those 10 or so pages just really knocked it down a few notches for me. A brief search didn't turn up him ever having been asked about it, but if he was or if a future book addresses these problems further I'd love to know.
I ended up giving this book three stars because I agree with the general idea: we need more people who want to just get on a bike in simple every day ways without feeling pressured away from bicycles by people insisting that they need to be buying the latest-and-greatest gear or wearing lycra and cleats.
That being said, the author couches the entire book in terms of the "Unracer", which, while amusing, also feels a bit like the same gatekeepy behavior he's railing against. At the same time, he starts out talking about how many people he's going to offend in a very dismissive way that rubbed me wrong. If you have to start out giving a disclaimer, it seems worth just changing your tone. It's a bit arrogant to throw in the disclaimer in a "their feelings don't matter to me, so this is fine" sort of way. This …
I ended up giving this book three stars because I agree with the general idea: we need more people who want to just get on a bike in simple every day ways without feeling pressured away from bicycles by people insisting that they need to be buying the latest-and-greatest gear or wearing lycra and cleats.
That being said, the author couches the entire book in terms of the "Unracer", which, while amusing, also feels a bit like the same gatekeepy behavior he's railing against. At the same time, he starts out talking about how many people he's going to offend in a very dismissive way that rubbed me wrong. If you have to start out giving a disclaimer, it seems worth just changing your tone. It's a bit arrogant to throw in the disclaimer in a "their feelings don't matter to me, so this is fine" sort of way. This tone of superiority pervades the entire book, so while I agree with his premises generally I didn't enjoy reading it all that much.
Finally, in at least a few parts (the fitness chapter in particular), he goes off the rails a bit and insists that people should, eg. buy a blood glucose meter. That doesn't seem like something to recommend to the people we're trying to convince to just hop on a bike and ride without all the fluff. That being said, arguably that's just in the fitness chapter for the fitness buff who wants to use a bike for actual fitness, so maybe it's fine. It just felt out of place with the rest of the book.
Overall I lean towards two stars except that the general idea is great. Get on a bike and ride (just maybe grab a different book inspire you).
Just Ride is a revelation. Forget the ultralight, uncomfortable bikes, flashy jerseys, clunky shoes that clip onto tiny pedals, the …
Just had my first test ride on a new bike I built (new frame and fork, random garage or local bike co-op used parts for everything else). I went over to a local coffee shop to test it out so I thought I'd start a book about the sort of cycling I love before my ride back!
From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful rumination on biotechnology, destiny, and …