Which Book Are You Reading Now? Volume XII

[Arakhor]

I remember reading The Sniper, though I'd forgotten it had a title.

 

[Dachs]

When you mentioned The Sniper in the earlier post I was trying to remember whether or not I read that back in 9th grade, and when you mentioned the Irish Civil War I remembered that I did read it but I didn't get it at the time.

I suppose it could very well have been that my English teacher gave us absolutely no context for the story beyond it was a sniper duel. Heck, I'm not even sure I knew about the Irish Civil War at the time so the story really didn't mean anything.

Though I do remember in my English literature class we covered Beowulf and Y Gododdin which I enjoyed.

Honestly, knowing that it's in the Irish Civil War doesn't add much. You'll understand the line about how it's happening in the Four Courts, of course, but there's not much flavor text in the story and so long as you get that it's in a city during a modern civil war...

Spoiler spoiler :

during which brothers fight brothers

...you'll be fine. The whole thing could've been transplanted to, say, an-Nasiriyah in 2003, or Halab in 2015, without changing all that much.

I tell my students about it, because I insist on turning English into a History class whenever I can, but it's not a point of emphasis.

"The Most Dangerous Game" has a lot more flavor text, and knowing about Cossacks and the Russian Civil War and the concept of the Great White Hunter helps kids out a bit. Not all of them care, of course, but those who do care get it.

 

[Ajidica]

To be honest, I didn't even realize the story was set during a real event which definitely added a sense of "I don't care".

 

[Arakhor]

When I read The Sniper, it was against the backdrop of the recent Troubles, so even though I don't think I'd heard of the Easter Rising et al at that point, it wasn't exactly hard for me to assume the background.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I want to plug this story I've been reading for the last two years.
It's the best slice-of-life fantasy story ever written!

I pay the author $5 a month just so they don't burn out, and he/she is getting paid over $5000 a month on Patreon to keep writing a free story.

The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba

Read the story for free here:
https://wanderinginn.com/2016/07/27/1-00/

Show support and buy book 1 here:
https://www.amazon.com/Wandering-Inn-1-pirate-aba-ebook/dp/B07G4MX1Z4

Just power through the slow start and the occasional typo and it will make you feel something in your jaded heart.
Since it is a Web Serial, think of it like a book version of a TV show with seasons.
If you don't, the pacing won't make sense.

 

[PhroX]

The Wandering Inn is indeed a good read. I've found some of the sections where the focus isn't on Erin and the titular Inn to be somewhat less interesting, but overall, I'll second the recommendation.

 

[Live trash can]

I am reading Hva er hinduisme? which translates into What is Hinduism?

 

[yung.carl.jung]

read some david foster wallace short stories. in order of the book:

little expressionless animals: liked it very much
the girl with curious hair: mind-blowingly funny
lyndon: touching and awe inspiring
the one about Kurt Gödel (forgot the title): beautiful and tense

not through with the book yet but so far I've been enjoying it very much

 

[Cutlass]

Bride of the Rat God. Hambly.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Is anyone familiar with the "terra ignota" series by Ada Palmer?

 

[sophie]

Is anyone familiar with the "terra ignota" series by Ada Palmer?

Ada Palmer is amazing. I haven’t read any of her fiction, but I’ve heard very good things about it from friends, and her class on the history of Skepticism was one of the best I took in my master’s year so....

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is considered a sci-fi classic novel. It's a mostly deserved reputation for this tale about a revolution that overthrows Earth's Lunar Authority. The book has one of the finest depictions of the personality of an artificial intelligence. Said supercomputer is more than just a plot device that makes the insurrection possible, it is one of the best characters in the novel as we see it develop from its interactions with the protagonists who are the other leaders of the revolt. Another interesting characterization is of the inhabitants of the Moon, or Loonies. Their shared experience of penal exile to the barren, remote warrens of Earth's natural satellite is suitably reflected in their culture. Their language is a curious mix of neologisms and loanwords from other languages that sounds distantly futuristic even in the early 21st century (though of course, closer observation shows the dating of the novel: стиля́ги refers to a youth counterculture found in the Soviet Union of the 1960s). Their customs are believably developed in their unique situation: the concept of group marriage provides much needed stability for agrarian communities with a male-skewed sex ratio in a harsh, frontier world.

While most of the development of the Lunar revolt is plausible and built-up, here is where the novel shows its faults. For the first one, I'll be blunt: Heinlein sucks at writing military tactics. Seriously, Terran (1.0 g) soldiers losing in CQC to Loonie (0.17 g) children?! The former being defeated in firefights by the latter, who have barely seem firearms? The worst of this is at the beginning of the third part of the book, where Earth mounts an attack of Luna with troopships unsupported by artillery, armor, or air support. Did I mention the troops Earth used have no means of IFF on their pressure suits and they also haven't trained for combat in low-gravity environments? The outcome is predictable, Luna stronk. The revolution is better written when open combat is not involved. I have serious doubts whether I want to read Starship Troopers in the future, as I might just end up throwing the book in frustration.

The book spends quite a bit of time singing the praises of libertarianism. How different the author's views are from the characters is not clear. One character declares the most basic human right is to be able to trade in a free market. I would have though life would be the most basic right, but I suppose the ideal society treats it as a basic commodity. Lot of loving depictions (gratuitous even considering the societal circumstances) of young women, even girls, being married off to older men (note that this is listed under Author Appeal on TVTropes). Gold standard is best currency standard, which is then later contradicted by a quote about money "being a bugaboo of small men" (hard to expand the money supply when you need convertibility, Mr. Heinlein). Contract law is useless, reputation is enough. And taxation is not theft, taxation is WORSE than theft.

Being written in the 1960s, any weakness in the science can be excused by the book being decades old. Much is said about how cheap shipping goods from Luna to Earth is, apparently a gravity well that is like rolling stones down a hill. Someone else will have to comment on the plausibility of the catapult mass driver they use. It is curious that it is cost-effective to grow grain on the Moon and ship it to Earth. We are told Luna tunnel farming has massive yields but consumes much water and organic material. The novel is notable for being quite possibly one of the last mentions of Malthusian theory before the effects of the Green Revolution kicked into high gear.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

@SS-18 ICBM
A mass driver to ship things from the moon is plausible and would be relatively cheap to run. Growing crops on the moon for export to the earth is laughably stupid, however.


-----

Fundamentals of Electric Propulsion: Ion and Hall Thrusters by Goebel and Katz.

I'm disappointed in this book because it's challenging in all the wrong ways. It's a book written by electrical engineers for electrical engineers. They go to lengths to explain the mathematical foundation of basic thermodynamic and fluid dynamic concepts but treat the entire topic of electrical engineering as if you already know everything there is to know about the subject.

I understand why you would want to explain the rocket equation (a fundamental thing taught in 101-level aerospace classes) but I do not understand why would treat EE concepts with the same level of due diligence. The only thing I can think of is that the authors assumed their audiences are themselves electrical engineers but that's a stupid assumption.

EE's are not the only people who get to play with plasma!

I mean it's good that I'm learning all these new concepts - it just sucks I have to spend so much time jumping out of the book to look up supplemental material from other sources just to understand the subject matter. Meanwhile the book presents a whole bunch of stuff on basic aerospace concepts that Iearned about as a freshman student. Unfortunately I can't just skip the aero stuff as it is directly linked to the electrical stuff.

 

[Cutlass]

The book spends quite a bit of time singing the praises of libertarianism. How different the author's views are from the characters is not clear. One character declares the most basic human right is to be able to trade in a free market. I would have though life would be the most basic right, but I suppose the ideal society treats it as a basic commodity. Lot of loving depictions (gratuitous even considering the societal circumstances) of young women, even girls, being married off to older men (note that this is listed under Author Appeal on TVTropes). Gold standard is best currency standard, which is then later contradicted by a quote about money "being a bugaboo of small men" (hard to expand the money supply when you need convertibility, Mr. Heinlein). Contract law is useless, reputation is enough. And taxation is not theft, taxation is WORSE than theft.

Heinlein and some other of the Postwar scifi masters had some really weird political views. Some of the newer scifi authors do as well. But it's less often the anarchist libertarian stuff that I see. Heinlein told a lot of good stories. But he's far from perfect. And got a heavy reputation for "Dirty Old Manism" in his mid to later writing. Lots more hot naked girls and sex.

 

[Traitorfish]

I always enjoyed the contrast between Heinlein's weirdo libertarian-militarist-free love politics and Asimov's aggressively boring technocratic politics.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

After a recommendation from a counselor I had the distinct displeasure of reading What Color is Your Parachute, 2019 edition, by Richard Bolles. Allegedly a life-changing book, it offers career advice. It tries to downplay the difficulties of finding jobs, even at one point claiming (in the US) that there are 10 million job openings per month! The author isn't concerned with the quality of those jobs being offered, nor by how many people are competing for those same jobs. It touts a "Flower Diagram" self-inventory as new, as if self-evaluation tests were something invented by the author. It tries to pass off some information as novel, presenting a strawman of the "traditional job search" (e.g. traditional job seekers apparently think resumes secure you a job, as opposed to an interview). Much of the advice ultimately boils down to "get lucky", which really isn't advice. And the support for his methods is anecdotes There's also a lovely contradiction in saying that not all employers are the same while offering universal bits of advice (have you considered that maybe some employers don't like receiving thank you notes, Mr. Bolles?).

Two more things. There's a section about religion that mentions how Christians are so oppressed in the world. And the author died in 2017.


This really just confirms my suspicion about self-help books: they're not there to actually help you. They're there to sell you on a vision of the world. And the book itself and associated products, of course.

 

[Takhisis]

They're there to sell

ftfy

Although some authors actually do want to help and they consider that they know faaar better than you do.

Kiyosaki did (for a time) make himself rich by writing a book on how to get rich.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I've read that one too. It wasn't until much later I found out there was no Rich Dad.

Anyway, been on a classic sci-fi bender. The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur Clarke concerns the journey of the sleeper starship Magellan, carrying refugees from a destroyed Sol system, to the distant ocean planet colony of Thalassa. Quite possible the most human of all Clarke's works, the focus is on the interaction of characters from literally different worlds, with the technology background only serving to allow the plot. Robotic seedships have created several viable extrasolar colonies such as Thalassa. Later versions have made use of a quantum drive using zero-point energy. The solar neutrino problem, unsolved at the time of writing, is what cost humanity its original home.

Consequently, there is plenty of musings on sociological issues and what might be needed for the ideal society. True democracy is said to be made possible by two things: universal education and instantaneous communication/computation. Sortition, or random selection, is the best principle to select the candidates ("those who desire power..."). Another issue is the sanitization of the colonists' cultural databanks, with works having religious and violent themes excised from collective memory. Is it worth it for a peaceful and (perhaps too) stable society? Not all of these meditations are deep enough, as the problem of evil is apparently reducible to probability calculations.

The continued failure of SETI weighs heavily among the book's themes. Are there other intelligent lifeforms in the universe? The question of how to interact with other forms of life is governed by the discipline called metalaw, which has implications for the Magellan's mission.

 

[maxmayer]

I read the "triumphal arch". Very good book, with a fascinating plot. I am a novice writer, I try to write something in the field of science fiction, but there are still some problems with writing. In case of such problems, they EssayShark help me a lot in this case. Have you ever tried to write smth interesting ( like a book) on your own?

 

[Birdjaguar]

I read the "triumphal arch". Very good book, with a fascinating plot. I am a novice writer, I try to write something in the field of science fiction, but there are still some problems with writing. In case of such problems, they help me a lot in this case

Welcome to CFC maxmayer! Where are you from? How did you hear about us?

EDIT: I looked for "triumphal arch" on Amazon, but could not find it. Who wrote it?