Tag: TODO: Reviews

Locked In

The last couple of years have really broken my suspension of belief for Scalzi’s “Lock In.”

Brain-interface full VR internet and remotely-pilotable robot bodies for people who suffer from lock-in syndrome? Sure!

A massive effort to actually accommodate people caught up in a mass disabling event?

Of course the wrangling to preserve those accommodations, the disparity between those who can afford a good VR environment and IRL caretakers vs. the ones who only afford a low-resolution home that shows them advertisements through their brain interface, etc. are still all too believable.

Dark Forest spoilers (3/4 through)

Fascinating as the Year 200 setting has been up to this point, the naivete & overconfidence has been maddening.

You *know* the enemy has vastly superior technology & knows way more about physics than you do. You don’t send your entire fleet to intercept one ship that you’ve decided is harmless based on the fact that *your tech* couldn’t be destructive enough based on *your* knowledge of physics.

#books #DarkForest #amReading

On Wandering.shop

Awakened hibernators seem to be more…paranoid? Cautious? Perceptive?

I guess the idea is that those who grew up in this era figure humanity has already faced the Great Ravine, we can face *anything*, while those who lived earlier don’t have that overconfidence.

Or maybe the Imprinted tech is out there, the polarity fixed, and in wider use than anyone thought.

But it’s still been frustrating pages & pages of “when will the big dummies figure it out?”

On Wandering.shop

Finished re-reading Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire. Imagine all the hitchiking ghost stories you’ve …

Finished re-reading Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire. Imagine all the hitchiking ghost stories you’ve heard are true, and they travel the ghosts of long-dead highways.

It’s told episodically as a collection of stories about the same ghost, what she does, how she died, and her quest to stop her killer.

It made me think about the difference between a horror story and a ghost story. I don’t like horror much, but I do usually enjoy ghost stories quite a bit.

#amreading #books