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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020)

This was a really fucking good book. You need to read it. I can't possibly recommend it more.

Sadly, I can't really talk about it much either without spoiling it, and reading it spoiler-free is very important to the experience.

What I can say though is that the book is narrated through the personal journals of its protagonist Piranesi, and it gives a deep insight into him and his thought processes.

Unraveling the mystery is very satisfying due to the fact that the reader and Piranesi gain different insights based on the vastly different information they both posses, and understand at a different pace. But Piranesi is by no means stupid, and his way of arriving at the truth is just as satisfying as arriving there myself was.

This book just really hit the spot for me. I implore you to seek it out and experience it yourself.

#books #book recommendations #book review #reading #i love this book

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The Infinity Link by Jeffrey A. Carver (1984)

I think I'll just start talking about books I read on here. A few months ago, I finished this one. This is not really a review, I'm just getting some thoughts out. Also some spoilers ahead.

An alien spacecraft is on course towards earth and several US-agencies prepare the ambassador to meet them long before their arrival. This embassador, David Kadin, is an artifical and digital human personality assembled from the traits of dozens of unknowing people. The protagonist Mozelle "Mozy" Moi is one such participants in the project, and ends up falling in love with Kadin on their simulated training missions.

Believing that Kadin is a real human living on a space station and soon to be sent away through a tachyon link, she bands together with a programmer from the program to join Kadin. In reality, a copy of Kadin's personality will be uploaded to the board computer of the Father Sky spacecraft, and the same happens to Mozy.

Later, Mozy's consciousness will again be altered as she joins the Talenki's mind net. Throughout the book, three different versions of Mozy exist, placed in different bodies, supported by different systems, and heavily altered in the process.

I'm always pleasantly surprised when decade-old science fiction gets the technological advancements so down that it almost feels like a vision of the future someone could have come up with today. The technologies described made sense and were not over-explained in scientific terms.

What Carver didn't get right were political and societal developments. In his 2034, the USSR still exists, there is a new superpower called the Southasien Alliance (iirc) and homosexuality is still illegal. But then again, there's 10 more years to go, so what do I know.

While I was reading The Infinity Link, my partner, who is much more well-read regarding 20th century science-fiction than me, shared some of their frustrations about those books with me. Most prominently, them always turning into an account of political theory and processes in their last third. I doubted this would happen in this book, but they were right.

About two thirds into the book, the role of the main protagonist moves from Mozy to Joseph "Joe" Payne. He is a journalist looking to piece together what the Father Sky mission really is about, since the US government has kept the approaching aliens secret from the public. Joe Payne acts as the person to put everything together and connect the different plots with another. At this point, the politics really ramp up, since there may be illegal nuclear weapons in play.

All these discussions made sense to me though, and I wasn't bogged down by dry descriptions of political processes, speeches, treaties, etc (as my partner warned me might happen). Everything was viewed through the lenses of the characters of the journalist, scientist and politician. In that way, the bits that were relevant to them, as well as their feelings on them, took center stage.

At the same time as the politics increased, there was continually less attention paid to Mozy, and the book really had me yearning to know more about how the Talenki worked. The way Mozy changed throughout and Kadin's existence as an artificial human pose interesting questions about what it means to be human. Sadly, I feel like these metaphysical questions were only ever explored on a surface level, leaving more subtext to the reader than I would have wished for. The characters are rich in history and motivation, and very enjoyable to follow, but also too pre-occupied with the main conflict of the story to think twice about the metaphysical questions.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and I had a good time with it. I might add to this if I have more thoughts.

#books #books and reading #reading #book review #not really a review though #book ramblings

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#pokemon #pikachu #i dont usually use tags but people need to see him #pokémon

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depressed steampunk inventor:

let's cog and bawl

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orange and green were actually my picks as well. we compromised on peach for the orange-pink debate. dark green very good

thanks for the input/confirming the choices

what color should we paint our bedroom walls

green and pink. The pink with a bit of orange in it. The green a bit darker than you think.

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what if I used your pronouns

if you refer to me, do it with your own pronouns

is that a genuine idea to consider

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If you read this I love you

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I appreciate my partner also being into women because we can look at one and go :O together

prime bonding activity

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when you parallel play with other rich white men and your imaginary numbers have a tangible negative effect on billions of people

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my brain goes #### when i hear someone refer to me using my name or pronouns

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I'm in peril but peril is my girlfriend

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what if a faery stole my name and pronouns and I didn't min

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migraine aura is so funny

brain ne like, no u can't see now, here's a kaleidoscope in the center of your vision instead

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I wish I wasn't allergic to cats

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please stop caring about imaginary numbers :(

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I despise economics