Sci-Fi And The Dumb Blockbuster
*I had started to write this just as I finished up the movie version of This Wandering Earth, having only glanced at a summary of the short story. Now having read through the fifty-ish page novella, I think that I can more clearly articulate my ideas. There’s not much to spoil about each, but if you want a fresh . . .
Book Review: Notes For A War Story By Gipi
I ended up grabbing Notes For a War Story after reading an old Library Comics review and ended up getting a used copy off Amazon which aptly turned out to be from a library. Translated from Italian, this war story comes from an unnamed war in an unnamed country. However, it closely resembles the breakdown of Yugoslavia in this translation. . . .
A Rodeo Full Of Circus Clowns
If there is one thing the media loves, it’s talking about how the golden age of media is behind us. Once upon a time, there were stout newsmen who told it like it was and gave us a sense of national unity. This golden age is set between World War I and the Vietnam War but definitively ends with Watergate. Is it any wonder that the . . .
Book Review - The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
Alternate History is usually the story of grand changes. What happens if the South wins the Civil War? Or if Charles Babbage managed to create computing in the Victorian Era? These types of big questions make for exciting World Building, but “The Only Harmless Great Thing” by Brooke Bolander is a smaller and more human story.
It . . .
Facebook Is Just An App But I Use It
I was at lunch with some friends for work, and I casually remarked that Facebook was fucking evil, and they asked if I had an account. I think that the idea that you can unplug from the mothership of the data economy in any meaningful way and organize your life with the people around you is a joke. I might not freelance anymore, but . . .
Book Review - Ruined By Design by Mike Monteiro
Professional ethics books are the closest we'll get to applied Philosophy. (That is, until someone starts paying me to shout at people in the street how they are wrong about everything, but the last time someone tried to make that a profession--they ended up having to drink hemlock.)
Monteiro is the head of . . .
Living The Bibliophile Life
Monday post for last Friday as I took some time off and never got around to being on a computer for the five day weekend.
We are awash in books. We have more of them than ever before—ebooks have allowed an explosion of publishing. We’re reading books on phones, tablets, e-readers, and print book sales are going back up. For . . .