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Phil in SF

kingrat@sfba.club

Joined 1 year ago

aka @kingrat@sfba.social. I'm following a lot of bookwyrm accounts, since that seems to be the only way to get reviews from larger servers to this small server. Also, I will like & boost a lot of reviews that come across my feed. I will follow most bookwyrm accounts back if they review & comment. Social reading should be social.

2024 In The Books

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Phil in SF's books

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7% complete! Phil in SF has read 2 of 28 books.

Colin Holmes: The Oxygen Farmer (EBook, 2023, CamCat Publishing) 2 stars

After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has …

Bleah

2 stars

The prose is merely functional. There's a lot of "As you know, Bob..." Using the wrong words. Using the wrong math.

And at 27%, i still don't care about the central mystery: a radiation filled lunar vehicle buried under regolith in the center of a forbidden zone. Apparently a secret landing on the moon in the 1980s. But there's no reason for me as a reader to care. The MC gets an itch to find out the story, but that's the only hook. The MC being curious is not transitive to the reader. There's no stakes.

Colin Holmes: The Oxygen Farmer (EBook, 2023, CamCat Publishing) 2 stars

After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has …

Rem levels are point five two times ambient background standard. Personal protective measures should be considered. Radiation advisory.

The Oxygen Farmer by  (21%)

Oh Colin, that does not mean what you think it means.

Radiation that is half the standard ambient radiation is a good thing for a person, not an indication of an increase.

(yes. getting close to DNF.)

started reading The Oxygen Farmer by Colin Holmes

Colin Holmes: The Oxygen Farmer (EBook, 2023, CamCat Publishing) 2 stars

After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has …

I have no recollection of putting this on my hold list at the library. Now that I have it I'm going to give it a shot but something is screaming to me that this will be one I put down. It's SF but neither the author nor the book is on ISFDB. So I half expect to post a DNF message in a couple days.

reviewed Personal by Lee Child (Jack Reacher, #19)

Lee Child: Personal (EBook, 2014, Delacorte Press) 4 stars

You can leave the army, but the army doesn’t leave you. Not always. Not completely, …

Definitely feels like Reacher is on the down side

2 stars

In typical Lee Child fashion, Reacher figures out the scheme ⅔ of the way through, but refuses to tell anyone else, including the reader. Until the conclusion. At that point he monologues the conspiracy at its perpetrator and we get to see how it all fits together.

Except it doesn't. There's a few plot holes that are never filled.

Also, one of the bad guys is someone 7-ish inches taller than Reacher. Because he's huge, he has a big house. The man builds a "regular" house but has everything scaled up 50% so he'll fit. But holy heck does the prose drone on about it through multiple chapters, like no one ever wandered the halls of a European castle with wide hallways and giant doors. No, this oversized house takes extra getting used to that of course only Reacher can adjust to in quick fashion. Pfft.

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reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (Monk and Robot, #1)

Becky Chambers: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Hardcover, 2021, Tordotcom) 5 stars

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; …

Beautifully true

5 stars

Thoroughly delightful respite from gloomy books I've been reading lately.

I've enjoyed Becky Chambers' work for years, and I feel she distilled it to perfection in this novella. Length-wise it is just enough to paint a picture of a beautiful solarpunk world, and to give us characterization of Dex, the main protagonist. There is nothing superfluous to it, and there is no rush either; the pace is contemplative and purposeful.

I loved the world building; the slow paced, hopeful world of Panga feels like a perfect place for me. On the other hand, it is a clever backdrop for Dex's angst and struggle to find their own purpose in life. Chambers pulls off a great feat with portrayal of Dex; they feel rich, complex and fully realized human being. Clever too is the contrast of the titular robot to Dex's monk, and the cute, often philosophical exchanges between them.

I …

reviewed Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars Trilogy, #1)

Kim Stanley Robinson: Red Mars (EBook, 2003, Spectra) 4 stars

For centuries, the barren, desolate landscape of the red planet has beckoned to humankind. Now …

Let's Colonize Mars

3 stars

The first half-century of Mars colonization told from the perspective of a half dozen members of the first 100 colonists, each representing a faction or a school of thought. One there because they get off on hard work, one there for a personal political legacy, another there to make money for the capitalists, one for preservation & research, one for terraforming as fast as possible, one to create a new society, one who spearheads a Mars for Mars colonists movement…

Too dry and long for me to really enjoy it.

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Neil Postman: Amusing ourselves to death (2006, Penguin Books) No rating

Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, …

Terrified of television

No rating

I'm primed to be skeptical of any claim which sounds like the core one in this book: that there's something pernicious about The New Communication Tool, and that it will erode our society and culture.

But. Postman published Amusing Ourselves to Death in 1985, and has been specifically correct about several… let us say… arcs? of transformation in culture & communication; in the way we value wisdom, knowledge, information, and data; and in our approach to disagreement, debate, and argument; among others. Postman clearly isn't exactly right in the particulars — the cultural role of television has changed substantially, and even newer new media has further adapted down this path. He didn't specifically anticipate Twitter or Facebook or TikTok, but his heart is in the right place by extrapolation from television.

Still. Is society worse, or just different? Are the ways societ has improved supported by new media, …

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reviewed The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth's Past #2)

Cixin Liu: The Dark Forest (Hardcover, 2015) 3 stars

The Dark Forest (Chinese: 黑暗森林, pinyin: Hēi'àn sēnlín) is a 2008 science fiction novel by …

Evokes golden age Sci-Fi in some good & a few problematic ways

3 stars

I read this novel by accident. I looked it up after hearing about the dark forest hypothesis and I somehow missed the fact that this is the second book in a trilogy. I read the Three-Body Problem few years ago but didn't particularly like it. I found the same faults repeated in this novel too.

This book reads like a story from the science fiction's golden age: it has an interesting sci-fi concept at it's core, and it logically extrapolates from there. Cixin Liu does a really good job at this; at times it feels like Asimov's Foundation. Unlike the previous book, this one takes the plot into the farther future, and Liu gets to flex his creative muscle. The depiction of future cities and spaceships is well thought out and realistic. As a whole this book felt like reading through a game of chess.

Which leads me to the …