[Spoilers, Do Not Read if you do not want to know things from the book]
Short Version: "Rocks fall, everyone dies."
Medium Version: This book ends with aliens depositing the family of the intelligent scientist in Iraq/Babylon in a place called the Garden of Eden after killing all humans on Earth because we suck (and we do.)
Maximum Verbosity: I felt the need to start with how the book ends because the beginning and endings of the novella are the worst part. The book has a lot going for it for the right genre lover but I want to briefly recall an anecdote by my 9th grade English teacher describing how Jaws was basically just like the movie but an exact, badly done replica of Moby Dick and he was so disgusted by it that he literally threw the book out the window and cared not a whit what happened to it.
This book ended that way for me but was a kindle and I'm not throwing my kindle out the window.
Who Will Like It: This book is very much a call to an earlier era of "Forbidden Planet" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" written in a 3rd person omni present style that, unlike works of fiction from that time, has the courage to go to the natural conclusion of where it should with a story like this.
Who Won't Like It: If you don't like God or Nationalism in your fiction, this book isn't for you. Also there are essentially no named female characters and most definitely does NOT pass the Bectel test.
What Works Best: The aliens are alien. It is a deliberate and compelling choice by the writer to create the aliens as 'aliens' and are not named until they are encountered by the humans. They're believable and while they are often narrated, rather than SHOWN doing things that define their character, they are by far the most interesting part of this novella. Culture is all that matters in a society, and a society of almost immortal beings deciding to help dying planets is a VERY smart premise. Moreover, the fact is that the aliens come to help Earth not out of altruism, not out of rage at what we do to the other sapient creatures of the planet but because of petty extremely believable politics. In other words, we are a means to an end for creatures larger and more intelligent than ourselves. The aliens are higher life forms than us and this book treats them exactly as they should.
I feel that the alien society is so interesting that, despite the fact that I feel the author is still learning their craft, that at some point I would love to revisit them in another work. They are definitely the strongest part of the book and could easily be a whole series of events as Ship 422 moves from dying world to dying world and solves problems in entirely new and exotic ways.
Fly to exotic alien worlds, meet all kinds of interesting natives, and kill most of them.
What Works Least: Aside from the author avatar character, the humans are not really more than cardboard cutouts. But, they are very high definition and well done cardboard cutouts and we have a realistic cast of them. We have the sniveling politician, we have the faceless G-men doing the bidding of the world (yes world) government, and we have the idiotic fruitloop for the US that "Won" world war 3 planning to 'defend' the earth from the aliens as if somehow stand a chance against beings that can cross the cosmos like it was Saturday.
Things That Made Me Go Huh? At one point one of the humans briefs all of humanity that aliens visited the Earth, and it crashed, and that the visiting aliens might be them. They aren't, and while the aliens (Polonians) mention that there are other aliens out there, Earth is supposed to be from a mostly dead section of the universe and decidedly are NOT Greys, so while it is implied that the Polonians have been monitoring Earth for a long time this was a bit of a disconnect.
There is also a bit of a disconnect from the alien's perspective and the time they gave Earth but I can easily chalk that up to Time Dialation and different language used by the aliens.
Broadly speaking, if you like Baen books, I think that this is a good read. I still enjoyed it despite the ending but cannot in good conscience recommend this book WITHOUT mentioning the ending to anyone who might read it. The aliens, justifiably, from their perspective, use what they consider to be Mankind's superstition to help create the mythology. You as reader can determine if it is the Irony of God acting in creation that causes them to literally recreate the bible or if it is actually God acting through higher beings; and the author wisely leaves that up to interpretation despite the personal healing of the wife of the author avatar character.
Oh, and as a side note, the pro-log would have made an entire novella unto itself, potentially with flash backs between the existing chapters, but if you don't mind the equivalent of 6 minutes of Star Wars "pro-log" style prose, then it works just fine. You can skip it and still get most of the story if you simply understand that the Earth is screwed because we (humans) are morons and we put a world Federation together to try and NOT be screwed.
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Thursday, October 18, 2018
[Book] The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
This book is amazing. I listened to the audio book and I'm glad I did because I doubt it would have captured things the same way. I think it is a very needed response from the sheer vigilante mob style justice that very often occurs on the internet from people who don't know what they're doing, don't bother to investigate the nuances of a situation and pile on in a way to make things even worse.
Moreover, the thing she is advocating, a way to let artists be artists, is a necessary paradigm shift for our society especially as we approach a post scarcity economy or "singularity" as tech folks like to say it. What do you DO when the robots handle most everything? The sacred subjective, the personal experience of the artist is how we could, among other things, spend our days, but true art and true creativity works at its best when folks come together and collaborate. Artists should be paid, and those repeated gifs and things you see spreading around the internet are true but SO IS THIS BOOK.
I have seen the results of collaboration once money is not considered the only thing in an equation; I have seen and struggled with creatives, trying to help them raise funds when they simply did not UNDERSTAND how money works and how much benefit it would make happen in society. The most important thing about this book is that we simply need to accept help when it is given. There is NOTHING WRONG with "Taking the Doughnuts." Sometimes our pride, or elements of puritan culture are disgusting and the way we treat artists is one of them.
If you are at all involved with creative endeavors, I cannot recommend this book enough.
Moreover, the thing she is advocating, a way to let artists be artists, is a necessary paradigm shift for our society especially as we approach a post scarcity economy or "singularity" as tech folks like to say it. What do you DO when the robots handle most everything? The sacred subjective, the personal experience of the artist is how we could, among other things, spend our days, but true art and true creativity works at its best when folks come together and collaborate. Artists should be paid, and those repeated gifs and things you see spreading around the internet are true but SO IS THIS BOOK.
I have seen the results of collaboration once money is not considered the only thing in an equation; I have seen and struggled with creatives, trying to help them raise funds when they simply did not UNDERSTAND how money works and how much benefit it would make happen in society. The most important thing about this book is that we simply need to accept help when it is given. There is NOTHING WRONG with "Taking the Doughnuts." Sometimes our pride, or elements of puritan culture are disgusting and the way we treat artists is one of them.
If you are at all involved with creative endeavors, I cannot recommend this book enough.
Monday, October 15, 2018
[Tech]Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa, 7" Display, 8 GB, Black - with Special Offers
This rancid little piece of trash refuses to let me load non amazon applications even when the "non amazon sources" setting is turned off. My chrome book broke down a while ago, and I decided to replace it with this. The used chromebook cost $100 but this only cost $70, seemed a steal. I could get comics etc. Look, as a Tablet this thing is a solid three stars but even a lot of apps in the amazon app store don't seem compatible with it and I shouldn't have to root my device just to put what I want on my own machine. TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
[Book] Shadow of Victory by David Weber
I am a serious Weber fan. I have put up with a few other mediocre titles in some of his minor works because his name was on it...no more. I will never pay full hard cover price for another one of his books again. If his name is on it, I am going to be reading reviews on anything that he writes to make sure he doesn't use another ghost writer since I simply cannot believe her wrote this. HOW could he have made such an insult to his readers? I loved the first two books of the Talbot series that, even though it was mainly B list characters, I loved the set up, then suddenly he writes trash about a bunch of people I don't care about revolting a bunch of other people I don't care about. I tried skipping from page 100 to page 300 and still didn't care.
I LITERALLY THREW THIS BOOK IN THE TRASH. It has been fifteen years since I threw a book away that I didnt have to due to moving; at least a used book store or library could help find a good book a good home. I used to like Tom Clancy, but Tom Clancy took advantage of my good will by slapping his name on whatever CRAP hack writers could produce. The thing is, at least Clancy had the decency that he was farming it out to a ghost or minor writer and just exploiting his brand name. This is some junior intern that showed a thorough understanding of Weber's notes and began to churn out the crap and Weber didn't even READ it since he's having too much fun with his former peers writing the Manticore prequels. I say former peers because Weber has given up the right to call himself their peer; not because he doesn't have the talent but because he simply stopped giving a damn and either by himself or by abrogation to a ghost writer of writing fan fiction to himself. Every writer indulges in a little vanity. to himself, and this is a fine thing, hell Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings because he wanted to have something to do with the language he invented, so writing entire characters based on a world so you could have it rescued; sure why the hell not? And if you knock it out of the park again and again you can screw your fans once and still make buckage.
Yes, he's right. But the thing is...this is not a cheap money grab...this is neglect. I would rather he HAVE contempt for me rather than neglect, for you see the one thing that made Tolkien and Martin and Weber's betters at Baen SHINE is attention to detail. And I simply no longer trust that Weber will have it. This book was SLOPPY. I did not keep the book to measure; perhaps it was merely in my own mind, but I swear I felt that the very pages themselves were set wrong and that the image in the software made it so that the test at the top was at an angle compared to the bottom. Optical illusion? I don't know.
But after reading the pig slop that this was...I simply don't trust. Every writer makes mistakes, but King only gets better over time. Martin made mistakes but while he masturbated in his books it is obvious he still CARES. Weber's affections are with Safehold. His passion for Honor is nothing but a whore to make him money for whatever it is that he spends his money on.
And will I read his books still? Sure. Likely. If others approve of his works. But I will never trust him again. I will never buy another book blindly again. He will never get another $21 of my money again because his name is on it.
I LITERALLY THREW THIS BOOK IN THE TRASH. It has been fifteen years since I threw a book away that I didnt have to due to moving; at least a used book store or library could help find a good book a good home. I used to like Tom Clancy, but Tom Clancy took advantage of my good will by slapping his name on whatever CRAP hack writers could produce. The thing is, at least Clancy had the decency that he was farming it out to a ghost or minor writer and just exploiting his brand name. This is some junior intern that showed a thorough understanding of Weber's notes and began to churn out the crap and Weber didn't even READ it since he's having too much fun with his former peers writing the Manticore prequels. I say former peers because Weber has given up the right to call himself their peer; not because he doesn't have the talent but because he simply stopped giving a damn and either by himself or by abrogation to a ghost writer of writing fan fiction to himself. Every writer indulges in a little vanity. to himself, and this is a fine thing, hell Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings because he wanted to have something to do with the language he invented, so writing entire characters based on a world so you could have it rescued; sure why the hell not? And if you knock it out of the park again and again you can screw your fans once and still make buckage.
Yes, he's right. But the thing is...this is not a cheap money grab...this is neglect. I would rather he HAVE contempt for me rather than neglect, for you see the one thing that made Tolkien and Martin and Weber's betters at Baen SHINE is attention to detail. And I simply no longer trust that Weber will have it. This book was SLOPPY. I did not keep the book to measure; perhaps it was merely in my own mind, but I swear I felt that the very pages themselves were set wrong and that the image in the software made it so that the test at the top was at an angle compared to the bottom. Optical illusion? I don't know.
But after reading the pig slop that this was...I simply don't trust. Every writer makes mistakes, but King only gets better over time. Martin made mistakes but while he masturbated in his books it is obvious he still CARES. Weber's affections are with Safehold. His passion for Honor is nothing but a whore to make him money for whatever it is that he spends his money on.
And will I read his books still? Sure. Likely. If others approve of his works. But I will never trust him again. I will never buy another book blindly again. He will never get another $21 of my money again because his name is on it.
Monday, October 8, 2018
[Book] Shadow Path by William Maxwell
The thing I like the most about this book is its esoteric understanding of the occult. The author has clearly done his research from the obscure but accurate representations of Christianist philosophies to the interesting references of Enochian. The two lead characters are human, dynamic and have a believable character arc and the villain leaves just enough intrigue that you can see what would make him a monster.
In his authors note, William explains this is his first novel and it shows. The novel is technically perfect without spelling or grammar errors but does drag a bit between the first third and midpoint of the book but it picks up once you finally understand what the stakes really are and that this is not some "oh they are really in an asylum" style work.
I recommend reading this if you are a fan of murder and the occult and apparently this book is on the hit lists of White Supremacists which is a bonus. Given how Nazis are portrayed in the book I can see why they don't like it. A very solid read and very glad I purchased it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NK7RL98/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1#customerReviews
In his authors note, William explains this is his first novel and it shows. The novel is technically perfect without spelling or grammar errors but does drag a bit between the first third and midpoint of the book but it picks up once you finally understand what the stakes really are and that this is not some "oh they are really in an asylum" style work.
I recommend reading this if you are a fan of murder and the occult and apparently this book is on the hit lists of White Supremacists which is a bonus. Given how Nazis are portrayed in the book I can see why they don't like it. A very solid read and very glad I purchased it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NK7RL98/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1#customerReviews
Friday, September 1, 2017
Twitter Customer Service
If a million monkeys could write a script for Hamlet then it would take a Trillion to write the Twitter Customer Service handbook.
Twitter says my Twitter account is a "bot" and locks me out. Ok, annoying, whatever. It wants to call my phone. OK.
Old phone number. Oh I will just change it.
....I can't change my number in the account?
WTF?
"Open a general help ticket."
24 hours later no human response. No number to call. Nothing.
With COMCAST at least I get a rude human on the phone. Twitter has just become worse than Comcast.
Wow.
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Google Work Profile
Et Tu Google? I wanted to post on the article below saying that my work has me using Corporate Device management on my phone, but the Work Profile partitioned off EVERYTHING useful on the phone including Google Calendar. I even got Admin access to change it..nothing...totally counter intuitive. I tried to comment on the article, buuuuuuuuut...Google Doubleclick insisted I disable privacy and showed me no less than 14 adds while Discuss slowly spun and spun and spun and in the end I still wasn't able to comment on the article.
I'm sure LEGALLY Google is quite protected but I wonder....since the work profile is USELESS, what can my employer see on my phone? Can they see my other profiles? Because if it got out that they could...just...wow. I imagine people would stop using google in seconds. Everywhere.
It's still as clunky as described in this article and hopefully...YIKES...they can't 'remotely revoke data' except on the one profile that is actually owned by my job, because as I said...the 12 apps that were the only things involved in the play store were so useless I literally couldn't see my fellow employees meetings and we rely on calendar all the time.
Well this is somewhat better....
I mean surely that means that we're not getting data sent on my PERSONAL phone for other accounts just because I didn't use a work profile, right?
All I know is, in a world where people like Snowden exist, I sure hope for their sake that they aren't providing more data than what an employer could gather from their own IT server on a work computer via Gsuite, because Jesus....Google had enough reputation damage when they found out how much they were sharing with the NSA. If Google were found to be sharing information about non work profiles, even on company devices in some kind of administrative report...
Well just...wow. There's no way that could go well for them, no matter what their legal department says they can get away with.
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