Recent SF reading

[Duke John]

I've read some really good SF recently, most notably:

1.  Redshirts, by John Scalzi.  I knew this was going to be funny, given a couple of reviews I'd read.  I didn't realize how thought-provoking or how moving it would be.  Terrific book.

2.  A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine, who no reader will be surprised to discover is a scholar of late Byzantine diplomacy.  I've been recommending these to anyone who'll stand still for a minute.  Great stuff (although I have a few technical quibbles about the behaviour of ships in free fall, and the encoding of messages for radio transmission).

3.  The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi.  A huge complex book, set in Bangkok in the not-very-distant future.  Ecological disasters, technological collapse and recovery, racism, economics, the preservation of threatened cultures -- it's all here, with a large cast of interesting characters.

The cognoscenti will note that all these are winners of the Hugo Award.  Only three to go, and I'll have read all the Hugo winning novels (and with another six, all the Nebulas).

I'm currently reading the great Connie Willis's latest, The Road to Roswell.  It's a kind of madcap comedy, to which I prefer her more serious writing -- Doomsday Book, Lincoln's Dreams, Blackout and All Clear, Passage, that kind of thing.  But if you're a Willis fan, you'll find a lot to like in Roswell.

John R

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

I read The Windup Girl earlier this summer. I liked it. More recently, I read Borne by Jeff VanderMeer and I am currently reading the classic Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I feel like Flatland was fun, but when I tried to guess at how our reality might correspond to a fourth-dimensional being, my brain became a noodle.

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

I feel like Flatland was fun, but when I tried to guess at how our reality might correspond to a fourth-dimensional being, my brain became a noodle.

I've tried to visualize it too, by extending from the Linelander king's perception of A. Square and A. Square's perception the sphere, but I don't get far either. I've never been a physics and mathematics person. I like the book so far though. A good satire of Victorian society I'm led to believe. Maybe ours too.

[Ián Tamorán S.H.]

I feel like Flatland was fun, but when I tried to guess at how our reality might correspond to a fourth-dimensional being, my brain became a noodle.

Flatland is one of the stories (? essays? allegories?) that kindled my love of mathematics. When I was 13 I could not grasp multi-dimensions - but by the time I was 15 I could easily visualise up to five dimensions ... and now (with a degree in mathematics from UCL) I can grasp the idea of spaces with many, many dimensions - but I do not "visualise" them any more - they have become more abstract - and so much more powerful. If you really want a noodle brain <grin> then you should (try to) read some of my draft papers covering the mathematical structure in the physics of the first 600 seconds of the universe...

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I feel like Flatland was fun, but when I tried to guess at how our reality might correspond to a fourth-dimensional being, my brain became a noodle.

Flatland is one of the stories (? essays? allegories?) that kindled my love of mathematics. When I was 13 I could not grasp multi-dimensions - but by the time I was 15 I could easily visualise up to five dimensions ... and now (with a degree in mathematics from UCL) I can grasp the idea of spaces with many, many dimensions - but I do not "visualise" them any more - they have become more abstract - and so much more powerful. If you really want a noodle brain <grin> then you should (try to) read some of my draft papers covering the mathematical structure in the physics of the first 600 seconds of the universe...

I have actually read a lot of what you have written and put online in previous years, like your paper on the weight of light and the dimensions of the universe: https://benkellyarts.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/KTh1.pdf

[Danihel Txechescu]

I've just added this to my Watch Later:

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

I've just added this to my Watch Later:

Thanks, looks interesting. I will have to watch it after I'm finished with the book. That shouldn't be long. I have only about 20 pages left.

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

1.  Redshirts, by John Scalzi.  I knew this was going to be funny, given a couple of reviews I'd read.  I didn't realize how thought-provoking or how moving it would be.  Terrific book.

2.  A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine, who no reader will be surprised to discover is a scholar of late Byzantine diplomacy.  I've been recommending these to anyone who'll stand still for a minute.  Great stuff (although I have a few technical quibbles about the behaviour of ships in free fall, and the encoding of messages for radio transmission).

Having looked up the general summaries of these books, I think I'll put them on my roster.

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

I've just added this to my Watch Later:

Wow... That was exactly what I expected it to be in the sense that it was not at all what I expected it to be. I liked it though. It was more than a little strange visually, but it was bound to be and I think they did it well. Funny too.