Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
Ever since first reading Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories many years ago, I've been interested in the Dying Earth genre. It includes stories of an earth millions or billions of years in the future, one where the planet is running down, often with the sun also near the end of its life. The setting is … Continue reading The Dying Earth genre
It's strange that I've never posted about Westworld. Looking back, it might have been because the first season finished in late 2016 during a period of high distraction (at least for me), the second season happened during my "blogging winter" in 2018 (another period of distraction), and the third, while mildly entertaining, was nothing to … Continue reading Westworld and the dangers of artificial people
The latest installment of Linda Nagata's Inverted Frontier series, Needle, dropped last week, so of course I had to immediately move it to the top of the reading list. This is far future space opera, but with hard(ish) science fiction bent. Unlike typical space opera, there is no faster than light travel, so no galactic … Continue reading Needle (Inverted Frontier Book 3)
I've been a Star Trek fan since I was very young. I remember getting home from school every day and rushing to the TV to catch the next episode, which at this point, c. 1971, were syndicated reruns. Most of the episodes were individual stories, and so could be shown in any order, which the … Continue reading Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Recently I recommended Alastair Reynolds' new book Inhibitor Phase. In subsequent conversation with Wyrd Smythe, I remembered that there were a couple of books in Reynolds' backlist that I had missed. One of these is Century Rain, a novel that, based on Wyrd's assessment, was definitely worth reading. Century Rain is a standalone novel, one … Continue reading Century Rain
Yesterday The Eternals became available on Disney+. Given the reviews and discussion from its theatrical release, I didn't have particularly high expectations. I figured it would just be the typical Marvel thrill ride. And mostly it was that, but it also had a few zingers that made it interesting. I don't remember much from the … Continue reading The Eternals
The season finale for The Wheel of Time was last week. As I've mentioned before, I read two or three of the early books decades ago, but remember very little: Rand, Moraine, portals to alternate realms, and a few other things. So the show mostly feels like fresh material. In the early episodes, it was … Continue reading The Silent Sea, Boba Fett, and other TV notes
The Matrix has always been a fun franchise, albeit one whose premise doesn't stand up to too much scrutiny. It explores the possibility that we are living in a simulation. Although the scenario presented has always been a bit conservative, in that the human characters still have human bodies, rather than being simulations. (Another movie … Continue reading The Matrix Resurrections
It's been a while since I've read a book in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series. Reynolds, who has a background as a professional astrophysicist, writes fairly hard science fiction, particularly space opera. I say "fairly" because he isn't above mixing in speculative concepts to make the story more interesting. But most of his fiction doesn't … Continue reading Inhibitor Phase
I discovered the first book of The Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes, back in 2014. By then the first three books had already been out. I'm pretty sure I burned through those early books in a few weeks. I know I've read all the subsequent ones as they came out. This was a series that channeled … Continue reading Leviathan Falls (Book 9 of The Expanse)
SelfAwarePatterns 