Getting towards the end of Oathbringer, picking it up again after not reading it since March. I'm around... 80% through it now? Very nervous as all the plots are starting to converge here.
It's very much a middle chapter in the series - though a lot of stuff happens, it's almost all in service of setting up for the last book in the trilogy. I wasn't a huge fan of Craesedes turning out to be a former slave, that hews a bit too close to the philosophy of "anyone who gains power gets corrupted and will end up dominating others!!!" but it was an interesting twist that he's actually Clef's son, and not father like initially thought - plus the whole fact that he's still kind of a kid?
The setup for the third book is interesting, as now we have a hierophant and what's basically... an entire sentient city set to clash, with Sancia and Berenice in the middle of it. Also I was wondering how they'd handle the Gregor/Orso/Sansa/Berenice twinning stuff, but uh, they dealt with that pretty quick. I'm guessing that the twinning with Gregor will have some effect on stuff in the third book, though.
I have to say that overall I've preferred The Divine Cities trilogy, because that had a good scale of time and you got to see where other characters ended up - there's the three-year gap between the first and second books here, but we're still dealing with the same characters and everything. But it's still a fun, interesting setting, so I'm still looking forward to the third book.
Next, I may finally start on that N.K. Jemisin book I've had sitting on my shelf for close to a year now.
Not sure if anyone else here is a fan of Tamora Pierce's books, but they're selling prints of the Tortall map and it's pretty slick because maps rule and this is one I've always particularly wanted a big print of.
If you like books that will tell you a good story and have compelling characters, with a focus on female characters especially, check out her books. They're very YA but I think they could be enjoyed by anyone really if you're just wanting to read a fun story with compelling characters and character relationships and don't mind that it's written in language that younger people can also read and understand. She has two settings the first one is Tortall and is a very swords and sorcery type of thing with knights, magic, very present gods, thieves guilds, jousting (in a later series). I love the books for a lot of reasons but one of the big ones is that I really loved how she gives us characters who are at the very start of training to be a knight and then we follow their growth and journey. They are even pages for a bit with another established knight before they become knights themselves.
She has a lot of books in the setting but the first series is about a young girl who swaps places with her brother and pretends to be a boy because she wants to go train to become a knight. The second series is about a young girl who has magic with animals; she can speak with them, eventually shapeshift into animals, things like that. If you like books with animal magic and a main character that is a wicked archer (which I very much do) those might be your jam. That second series also brings in 'immortal' creatures to the setting, gryphons, drider-type beasts, dragons etc.
The other setting, Emelan, isn't quite a standard swords and sorcery type setting in the way the Tortall books are, and it focuses around a quartet of kids who at the start don't know they have magic. They learn along the way that they have magic that is expressed through everyday things/skills, like weaving/sewing, blacksmithing, gardening, and the weather. While the Tortall books jump main characters and generations with new books in the setting, the Emelan books follow the lives of the main characters as they get teachers, learn their magic and grow up, with the later books in the setting feeling a bit more mature than the earlier ones. They're all still YA, but where the first books are about 11 year olds (ish) the latest book in the series has the four as young adults.
edit: One more thing I forgot to mention that I really like about the Emelan books is that it has a really diverse cast of not only side/background characters, but main characters. Here's fanart someone drew of the main four.
The characters are all from very different wealth levels, cultures, races and all that.
If you're looking for books that are just easy to read and enjoyable or are looking for books to recommend to kids taking their first steps into fantasy novels (especially young girls), check em out.
The book I'm currently reading though is the third in the Mistborn trilogy. I've had problems getting the focus to sit down and properly binge read in the way I used to, but I really like it so far.
I appreciate how thoroughly Beevor hates Bernard Montgomery
Oh its absolutely delightful. Reading Beevor isn't just reading history he is dishing absolute tea on everybody. "General Dukington McLordyburgh was a decent enough commander but he was a consumate drunk who couldn't keep his mistresses straight and once passed out into the soup tureen at a joint dinner party and ruined General Bradley's satin tie. Also his junior staff officer thought he was a 'right spiffing ole wanker, wut'"
finished Harrow the Ninth
If anyone else has and wants to explain what that epilogue was please hit me up
My only guess is that it's some kind of teaser for the next book.
where are they?
How is this a universe where things like traffic and corner stores and sausages exist? why do people know memes???
Everyone we've met so far are from the nine houses, but there are also people on other planets. It does not seem unreasonable to me that somewhere in this universe there are people living what we would recognize as normal lives.
Not sure how crazy this idea is, but my guess is that Dominicus is The Sun, the nine houses are the planets of our solar system. The first house is Earth and the ninth house is Pluto (yes, I know Pluto isn't technically a planet, shut up).
Unless I'm forgetting something, I think the only thing that gets in the way of the creation of necromancy being a near future event and the emperor being a millennial is that interstellar (or at least interplanetary) travel is already a thing by then.
EDIT: More stuff I thought of
We don't even know anything significant about life in the second through eight houses. I think they're supposed to have way more people than the ninth, even before you take into account that they didn't kill a generation of children.
Magnus and Abigail hosted a dinner party like almost normal people. Who's to say the fifth house doesn't have traffic, corner stores and sausages? Just because it's not part of the universe Gideon and Harrow has experienced doesn't mean that it doesn't exist at all.
finished Harrow the Ninth
If anyone else has and wants to explain what that epilogue was please hit me up
My only guess is that it's some kind of teaser for the next book.
where are they?
How is this a universe where things like traffic and corner stores and sausages exist? why do people know memes???
Everyone we've met so far are from the nine houses, but there are also people on other planets. It does not seem unreasonable to me that somewhere in this universe there are people living what we would recognize as normal lives.
Not sure how crazy this idea is, but my guess is that Dominicus is The Sun, the nine houses are the planets of our solar system. The first house is Earth and the ninth house is Pluto (yes, I know Pluto isn't technically a planet, shut up).
Unless I'm forgetting something, I think the only thing that gets in the way of the creation of necromancy being a near future event and the emperor being a millennial is that interstellar (or at least interplanetary) travel is already a thing by then.
EDIT: More stuff I thought of
We don't even know anything significant about life in the second through eight houses. I think they're supposed to have way more people than the ninth, even before you take into account that they didn't kill a generation of children.
Magnus and Abigail hosted a dinner party like almost normal people. Who's to say the fifth house doesn't have traffic, corner stores and sausages? Just because it's not part of the universe Gideon and Harrow has experienced doesn't mean that it doesn't exist at all.
I know, I'm sure you're right
Tonally it's just kind of jarring to think that all these events of absolute maximum gothic drama are taking place in the same reality as totally mundane stuff, but that's an effect of only having a narrow viewpoint so far
It's not a complaint, it just throws one for a loop
The book I'm currently reading though is the third in the Mistborn trilogy. I've had problems getting the focus to sit down and properly binge read in the way I used to, but I really like it so far.
It's dour. Things are grim, my dudes.
The book does a really great job of (regarding your spoiler, nothing spoilery if you're already reading the book)
selling that a god damn apocalypse is about to/is kicking off
The Lioness quartet about Alanna (the first Tortall books I read) and George from the Famous Five kinda helped me figure out I was a trans guy (even though those two characters aren't trans themselves). I just really wanted to be them, I guess.
I haven't been reading much lately, just rereading The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett. I read it once years ago and only now just got my own copy of it.
I found my old e-ink gray scale Kindle with keyboard from like 2012
Haven't used it for close to five years
My girlfriend's parents had a spare charger
It took about eight hours to charge, but it's ready to go when I get home
I have one of those still lying around. Keep an eye on the battery levels. The old kindles go dead fast. I have to keep my paper white in permanent airplane mode except when downloading a new book.
I found my old e-ink gray scale Kindle with keyboard from like 2012
Haven't used it for close to five years
My girlfriend's parents had a spare charger
It took about eight hours to charge, but it's ready to go when I get home
I have one of those still lying around. Keep an eye on the battery levels. The old kindles go dead fast. I have to keep my paper white in permanent airplane mode except when downloading a new book.
Yeah, my older bed side model is loosing charge real quick lately. I'm eyeing a replacement and trying to decide if I care about the 25 bucks or whatever that Amazon would give me for it.
Edit: Huh, $25 and 20% off with both of those being immediate. I'd guess that depends on the age of your Amazon account or something but whatever, they offered it to me so a new Paperwhite is gonna show up Sunday. Also to be fair 8 years is pretty solid for an electronic battery based device. It also isn't useless, just I have to charge it like once a week for bed time reading and that annoys me.
David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Apparently I'm just really good at hitting books with unsatisfying endings these days.
"Bronze Gods" by A.A. Aguirre, urban fantasy buddy cop mystery, they end up catching he what did it, and then they go "but he couldn't have done this alone, he'd need a powerful backer and we have to find out who it is" and then that's the last page of the book. I swore out loud and now I'm not reading the next book in the series out of spite.
What's a good Rivers of London-alike to read while waiting for more Rivers of London to come out?
I’m about 100 pages into The Fifth Season, and enjoying it! I may just outright buy the last two books once I finish it, though I do have a ton of other books to read that I already own.
Apparently I'm just really good at hitting books with unsatisfying endings these days.
"Bronze Gods" by A.A. Aguirre, urban fantasy buddy cop mystery, they end up catching he what did it, and then they go "but he couldn't have done this alone, he'd need a powerful backer and we have to find out who it is" and then that's the last page of the book. I swore out loud and now I'm not reading the next book in the series out of spite.
What's a good Rivers of London-alike to read while waiting for more Rivers of London to come out?
If you don't mind it ostensibly being YA, China Mieville's Un Lun Dun is somewhat Rivers of London-esque.
The Fifth Season is quite good. It took me a little while to... get into it, I guess? It's mostly something that happens in an unfamilar fantasy setting, like there's a lot of new phrases and words thrown around that it takes a little while to feel comfortable in the setting.
Still, now that I'm into it, I'm enjoying it a lot.
The part where they see what a Node Maintainer actually is is, uh, a lot
+10
Options
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Re-reading Gideon the 9th and there is so much subtext and foreshadowing going on that I completely missed the first time around, or didnt pick up near the end. SO good.
I totally did not catch on to Damaya, Syenite, and Essun being the same person. I guess in retrospect I maybe should have, since it's only in Essun's chapters where they directly reference the oncoming season and the fallout from it, but I just didn't.
Also, is the setting of this book supposed to be a post-apocalyptic Earth, or just an earth equivalent? I imagine this will be answered or made clearer at some point. Just the bit where they talked about how much humanity exploited earth, plus all the deadciv stuff, really made me think of it.
Anyway, awesome book. I'm ordering the other two in the trilogy this weekend. In the meantime, though, hmm. Maybe I'll read some Warhammer books.
I totally did not catch on to Damaya, Syenite, and Essun being the same person. I guess in retrospect I maybe should have, since it's only in Essun's chapters where they directly reference the oncoming season and the fallout from it, but I just didn't.
Also, is the setting of this book supposed to be a post-apocalyptic Earth, or just an earth equivalent? I imagine this will be answered or made clearer at some point. Just the bit where they talked about how much humanity exploited earth, plus all the deadciv stuff, really made me think of it.
Anyway, awesome book. I'm ordering the other two in the trilogy this weekend. In the meantime, though, hmm. Maybe I'll read some Warhammer books.
I don't think there is a definitive answer to "Earth or Not Earth" in the series. I felt like it could be plausible set in the American continents but I don't know if it was every firmly established.
I totally did not catch on to Damaya, Syenite, and Essun being the same person. I guess in retrospect I maybe should have, since it's only in Essun's chapters where they directly reference the oncoming season and the fallout from it, but I just didn't.
Also, is the setting of this book supposed to be a post-apocalyptic Earth, or just an earth equivalent? I imagine this will be answered or made clearer at some point. Just the bit where they talked about how much humanity exploited earth, plus all the deadciv stuff, really made me think of it.
Anyway, awesome book. I'm ordering the other two in the trilogy this weekend. In the meantime, though, hmm. Maybe I'll read some Warhammer books.
I don't think there is a definitive answer to "Earth or Not Earth" in the series. I felt like it could be plausible set in the American continents but I don't know if it was every firmly established.
Yeah, and I mean, it doesn't really matter much in the end, since even if it was Earth, all that shit is pretty well gone at the point the book takes place.
0
Options
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Based on some things you learn in later entries I think the closest the setting would be is an alternate history Earth.
I have finished The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End by Robert Gerwarth
Like most things about war in history the actual interesting part often revolves around the lives of ordinary people in or adjacent to the war, before, during and after.
After WWI we tend to think, like, 21 years of European peace, then WWII. But Europe in the intervening period was very much not peaceful at all. Conflicts in the Balkans, Baltic, Central Europe, north of the Black Sea, Caucases, Spain... all of these places continued, stopped, started again and so on for years following 1918, some never really ended at all. And that's without even considering that when the wars stopped, there was still mass expulsions and displaced citizens due to WWI, the ethnic cleansing of enclaves, the impact on occupied and liberated areas, the impact on people's lives because for years the biggest economies in the world had been geared towards total war...
Basically before I read it I thought that The Vanquished would be, you know, the losing side (and it is in a sense because these are the territories which then tended to experience more upheaval). But the book is actually about how ordinary European people across the entire continent, no matter if their nationality was on the winning or losing side, all were essentially the vanquished to a greater or lesser extent due to the incredible amount of upheaval and chaos that followed the end of the war. It's a really good book and it is pretty heart-wrenching but also reinforces my long-held view that ideas like breaking things down into periods (pre-war, war, post-war) as if there is some kind of clear demarcation that peace brings like a big energy field across the land is just absolutely meaningless. Ultimately the real events of people's lives are incredibly complex and the situation is always vastly more messy and chaotic than an overly simplified top-down view might be.
Anyway yeah another great history book and definitely worth a read.
Solar on
+1
Options
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Finished my re-read of Gideon the 9th and it really helped lock in everything and everyone before diving into Harrow.
Speaking of Harrow. WTF is going on in this book?! I love it.
This book moves a LOT faster than I remember, which makes sense considering it's only 200 pages.
0
Options
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
This morning I was running slightly late when I realized my last audiobook had like a minute and a half left in it. So I hurriedly scrolled through my Overdrive wishlist to find the first audiobook available for checkout. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson? Fantastic, been meaning to read that trilogy for ages, download that bastard and let's go.
Impressions from the first three hours:
"Wait, did they just talk about cryptocurrency? Wasn't this book written in the 90s? Man, this Robinson cat was a real futurist."
"Neat how he's using China as the rival space agency. I didn't know they were high on the list of potential space powers back then."
"Man, this is kind of a slow burn. I figured we'd have started to move on from the moon to Mars by now. I guess all these characters are going to become Mars colonists somehow?"
Then I actually unlocked my phone for the first time since this morning and beheld this:
I read Robinsons Aurora recently, and while I thought it was easily a third too long, other than it was a very compelling, if technical story about a generation ship(there's actually characterization, but it's still a minor part), that's also a super depressing look at humanity and space travel for large parts of it.
Septus on
PSN: Kurahoshi1
0
Options
UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
so, Dresden Files/Peace Talks, and Battle Ground speculation
So, Ethniu has family in Chicago.
Her son Lugh was one of the most prominent gods in Irish mythology (and the one who killed her father/his grandfather Balor, whose Eye she has)
His son was Cú Chulainn, the legendary hero/demigod also known as "The Hound of Ulster"
The Irish "Mac Con Ulaidh" translates to "Son of the Hound of Ulster", and is more commonly spelled as (spoiler/speculation for real)
McNally
or McAnally
Could be a coincidence, but with Ethniu's introduction that seems unlikely.
What kind of nature books? I tend to buy very finely sliced bits of bioscience. Can recommend a couple of good ones on trees and forests, I think.
The Soul of the Octopus is pretty good, if you're into cephalopods. I have a personal connection to Underbug, so have to recommend it if termites are at all of interest.
What kind of nature books? I tend to buy very finely sliced bits of bioscience. Can recommend a couple of good ones on trees and forests, I think.
The Soul of the Octopus is pretty good, if you're into cephalopods. I have a personal connection to Underbug, so have to recommend it if termites are exciting to you.
I guess like things in the vein of a Sand County Almanac, Desert Solitaire, Walden, I guess. But written by someone other dead white dudes who are usually racist
Nature and the outdoors are great, of course, but like Muir's whole "wilderness idea" only exists because of the genocide of an entire hemisphere
Leopold doesn't seem quite as shitty, but again, dead white dude
Abbey has a bit of a leftist lean, but also just throws racism and classism and misogyny in as spices to some other wise pretty good stuff
Posts
The setup for the third book is interesting, as now we have a hierophant and what's basically... an entire sentient city set to clash, with Sancia and Berenice in the middle of it. Also I was wondering how they'd handle the Gregor/Orso/Sansa/Berenice twinning stuff, but uh, they dealt with that pretty quick. I'm guessing that the twinning with Gregor will have some effect on stuff in the third book, though.
I have to say that overall I've preferred The Divine Cities trilogy, because that had a good scale of time and you got to see where other characters ended up - there's the three-year gap between the first and second books here, but we're still dealing with the same characters and everything. But it's still a fun, interesting setting, so I'm still looking forward to the third book.
Next, I may finally start on that N.K. Jemisin book I've had sitting on my shelf for close to a year now.
If you like books that will tell you a good story and have compelling characters, with a focus on female characters especially, check out her books. They're very YA but I think they could be enjoyed by anyone really if you're just wanting to read a fun story with compelling characters and character relationships and don't mind that it's written in language that younger people can also read and understand. She has two settings the first one is Tortall and is a very swords and sorcery type of thing with knights, magic, very present gods, thieves guilds, jousting (in a later series). I love the books for a lot of reasons but one of the big ones is that I really loved how she gives us characters who are at the very start of training to be a knight and then we follow their growth and journey. They are even pages for a bit with another established knight before they become knights themselves.
She has a lot of books in the setting but the first series is about a young girl who swaps places with her brother and pretends to be a boy because she wants to go train to become a knight. The second series is about a young girl who has magic with animals; she can speak with them, eventually shapeshift into animals, things like that. If you like books with animal magic and a main character that is a wicked archer (which I very much do) those might be your jam. That second series also brings in 'immortal' creatures to the setting, gryphons, drider-type beasts, dragons etc.
The other setting, Emelan, isn't quite a standard swords and sorcery type setting in the way the Tortall books are, and it focuses around a quartet of kids who at the start don't know they have magic. They learn along the way that they have magic that is expressed through everyday things/skills, like weaving/sewing, blacksmithing, gardening, and the weather. While the Tortall books jump main characters and generations with new books in the setting, the Emelan books follow the lives of the main characters as they get teachers, learn their magic and grow up, with the later books in the setting feeling a bit more mature than the earlier ones. They're all still YA, but where the first books are about 11 year olds (ish) the latest book in the series has the four as young adults.
edit: One more thing I forgot to mention that I really like about the Emelan books is that it has a really diverse cast of not only side/background characters, but main characters. Here's fanart someone drew of the main four.
The characters are all from very different wealth levels, cultures, races and all that.
If you're looking for books that are just easy to read and enjoyable or are looking for books to recommend to kids taking their first steps into fantasy novels (especially young girls), check em out.
Oh its absolutely delightful. Reading Beevor isn't just reading history he is dishing absolute tea on everybody. "General Dukington McLordyburgh was a decent enough commander but he was a consumate drunk who couldn't keep his mistresses straight and once passed out into the soup tureen at a joint dinner party and ruined General Bradley's satin tie. Also his junior staff officer thought he was a 'right spiffing ole wanker, wut'"
If anyone else has and wants to explain what that epilogue was please hit me up
My only guess is that it's some kind of teaser for the next book.
How is this a universe where things like traffic and corner stores and sausages exist?
why do people know memes???
Not sure how crazy this idea is, but my guess is that Dominicus is The Sun, the nine houses are the planets of our solar system. The first house is Earth and the ninth house is Pluto (yes, I know Pluto isn't technically a planet, shut up).
Unless I'm forgetting something, I think the only thing that gets in the way of the creation of necromancy being a near future event and the emperor being a millennial is that interstellar (or at least interplanetary) travel is already a thing by then.
EDIT: More stuff I thought of
Magnus and Abigail hosted a dinner party like almost normal people. Who's to say the fifth house doesn't have traffic, corner stores and sausages? Just because it's not part of the universe Gideon and Harrow has experienced doesn't mean that it doesn't exist at all.
Tonally it's just kind of jarring to think that all these events of absolute maximum gothic drama are taking place in the same reality as totally mundane stuff, but that's an effect of only having a narrow viewpoint so far
It's not a complaint, it just throws one for a loop
The book does a really great job of (regarding your spoiler, nothing spoilery if you're already reading the book)
I haven't been reading much lately, just rereading The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett. I read it once years ago and only now just got my own copy of it.
Haven't used it for close to five years
My girlfriend's parents had a spare charger
It took about eight hours to charge, but it's ready to go when I get home
I have one of those still lying around. Keep an eye on the battery levels. The old kindles go dead fast. I have to keep my paper white in permanent airplane mode except when downloading a new book.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Yeah, my older bed side model is loosing charge real quick lately. I'm eyeing a replacement and trying to decide if I care about the 25 bucks or whatever that Amazon would give me for it.
Edit: Huh, $25 and 20% off with both of those being immediate. I'd guess that depends on the age of your Amazon account or something but whatever, they offered it to me so a new Paperwhite is gonna show up Sunday. Also to be fair 8 years is pretty solid for an electronic battery based device. It also isn't useless, just I have to charge it like once a week for bed time reading and that annoys me.
"Bronze Gods" by A.A. Aguirre, urban fantasy buddy cop mystery, they end up catching he what did it, and then they go "but he couldn't have done this alone, he'd need a powerful backer and we have to find out who it is" and then that's the last page of the book. I swore out loud and now I'm not reading the next book in the series out of spite.
What's a good Rivers of London-alike to read while waiting for more Rivers of London to come out?
If you don't mind it ostensibly being YA, China Mieville's Un Lun Dun is somewhat Rivers of London-esque.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Still, now that I'm into it, I'm enjoying it a lot.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Also, is the setting of this book supposed to be a post-apocalyptic Earth, or just an earth equivalent? I imagine this will be answered or made clearer at some point. Just the bit where they talked about how much humanity exploited earth, plus all the deadciv stuff, really made me think of it.
Anyway, awesome book. I'm ordering the other two in the trilogy this weekend. In the meantime, though, hmm. Maybe I'll read some Warhammer books.
and giggled “fuck you” at my kindle
Like most things about war in history the actual interesting part often revolves around the lives of ordinary people in or adjacent to the war, before, during and after.
After WWI we tend to think, like, 21 years of European peace, then WWII. But Europe in the intervening period was very much not peaceful at all. Conflicts in the Balkans, Baltic, Central Europe, north of the Black Sea, Caucases, Spain... all of these places continued, stopped, started again and so on for years following 1918, some never really ended at all. And that's without even considering that when the wars stopped, there was still mass expulsions and displaced citizens due to WWI, the ethnic cleansing of enclaves, the impact on occupied and liberated areas, the impact on people's lives because for years the biggest economies in the world had been geared towards total war...
Basically before I read it I thought that The Vanquished would be, you know, the losing side (and it is in a sense because these are the territories which then tended to experience more upheaval). But the book is actually about how ordinary European people across the entire continent, no matter if their nationality was on the winning or losing side, all were essentially the vanquished to a greater or lesser extent due to the incredible amount of upheaval and chaos that followed the end of the war. It's a really good book and it is pretty heart-wrenching but also reinforces my long-held view that ideas like breaking things down into periods (pre-war, war, post-war) as if there is some kind of clear demarcation that peace brings like a big energy field across the land is just absolutely meaningless. Ultimately the real events of people's lives are incredibly complex and the situation is always vastly more messy and chaotic than an overly simplified top-down view might be.
Anyway yeah another great history book and definitely worth a read.
Speaking of Harrow. WTF is going on in this book?! I love it.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
This book moves a LOT faster than I remember, which makes sense considering it's only 200 pages.
Impressions from the first three hours:
"Wait, did they just talk about cryptocurrency? Wasn't this book written in the 90s? Man, this Robinson cat was a real futurist."
"Neat how he's using China as the rival space agency. I didn't know they were high on the list of potential space powers back then."
"Man, this is kind of a slow burn. I figured we'd have started to move on from the moon to Mars by now. I guess all these characters are going to become Mars colonists somehow?"
Then I actually unlocked my phone for the first time since this morning and beheld this:
Ah. 2018, huh? That...explains some things.
Her son Lugh was one of the most prominent gods in Irish mythology (and the one who killed her father/his grandfather Balor, whose Eye she has)
His son was Cú Chulainn, the legendary hero/demigod also known as "The Hound of Ulster"
The Irish "Mac Con Ulaidh" translates to "Son of the Hound of Ulster", and is more commonly spelled as (spoiler/speculation for real)
or McAnally
Could be a coincidence, but with Ethniu's introduction that seems unlikely.
I think I have asked this before, but my search skills are poor.
That's quality speculation, A+.
The Soul of the Octopus is pretty good, if you're into cephalopods. I have a personal connection to Underbug, so have to recommend it if termites are at all of interest.
I guess like things in the vein of a Sand County Almanac, Desert Solitaire, Walden, I guess. But written by someone other dead white dudes who are usually racist
Nature and the outdoors are great, of course, but like Muir's whole "wilderness idea" only exists because of the genocide of an entire hemisphere
Leopold doesn't seem quite as shitty, but again, dead white dude
Abbey has a bit of a leftist lean, but also just throws racism and classism and misogyny in as spices to some other wise pretty good stuff