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65,000 alien probes appear in a flash above earth, a forgotten deep space probe picks up signals from the very edge of known space and a crew composed of broken zombies and a monster are sent to have first contact with an alien intelligence.
That is the biggest undersell I've ever done. Peter watts manages to scare the shit out of you while making you think your little brains out. I spent the book equal parts in fear and in awe at the ideas, speculative philosophical debates and all round future-y stuff. The book starts off slow and a little confusing but it quickly changes and becomes an amazing journey with discussions and uncomfortable arguments about the state of being, of consiousness, of our place in our own world as we rapidly invent things better than we could ever hope to be. Each character is broken in some fundemental way and uses technology to make up for that problem. I won't spoil it by analyising everything because I'd rather you did it for yourself, its damned fun and rewarding too.
I havn't even spoken about the plot yet, the plot is deceptively simple on the outside, while seemingly just another First Contact story, it is so much more. It has a concept of aliens that has never been done before (As far as I know), First contact ends just about as you'd expect but the journey to that ending is way different than you could imagine.
My only real complient is that half way through it feels like our perspective shifts and we're following another character for a little bit, but thats probably my fault. It gets hard to keep up when one of the characters is split into 4 different personalities and one lives through machines and sensors.
Really really read this. The genius has even left it up for free on his site. Right within these bloody words
Maybe I might ended up overselling it a bit but only because it was such a bloody good book. read it nowww.
Book 21 - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time. This is the story of a man who suffered through one of the worst bombings in history, and also happened to time travel to a different planet sometimes.
I didn't really intend for my last book of the year to be anything specific. In all honesty it would have ended up being either Dracula or Blindsight or Getting Stoned with Savages, had it not been for my plane getting delayed.
As it turns out, Slaughterhouse is a fantastic read. A great anti-war book with some fasinating passages and parts that will blow your mind (imagine an alien who can see in 4 dimensions. Now imagine what he'd think when he saw a dead body).
I really really enjoyed this book. It was very meaningful without being overly in your face about it, it had a nice tight storyline and it was very very well written. Sometimes the time traveling leaves you a bit disorientated, and the constant repetition of So it Goes gets comedical at some points, but overall, I highly recommend this book.
I didn't really intend for my last book of the year to be anything specific. In all honesty it would have ended up being either Dracula or Blindsight or Getting Stoned with Savages, had it not been for my plane getting delayed.
As it turns out, Slaughterhouse is a fantastic read. A great anti-war book with some fasinating passages and parts that will blow your mind (imagine an alien who can see in 4 dimensions. Now imagine what he'd think when he saw a dead body).
I really really enjoyed this book. It was very meaningful without being overly in your face about it, it had a nice tight storyline and it was very very well written. Sometimes the time traveling leaves you a bit disorientated, and the constant repetition of So it Goes gets comedical at some points, but overall, I highly recommend this book.
Book 20 - Short Story Collection by Ted Chaing
A big collection of short stories by Ted Chaing who you may remember write Hell is the Absence of God.
Ted Chaing is a very talented person. Every story he writes is guaranteed to have a very very interesting concept and 9/10 will have a very good story and good writing to top it all off. The problem arises only when he tries to write endings. The poor man can not do endings at all.
Its hard to review short stories, so I'll just go ahead and say that Ted is fantastic at writing amazing worlds. Every story in this collection is magical and amazing and unbelieveable. Its just a shame that sometimes his writing ability stops him from pulling it together in one nice package.
Still suggest you give him a read, if only for the story about Golems, or the one on AI.
Ted Chaing is a very talented person. Every story he writes is guaranteed to have a very very interesting concept and 9/10 will have a very good story and good writing to top it all off. The problem arises only when he tries to write endings. The poor man can not do endings at all.
Its hard to review short stories, so I'll just go ahead and say that Ted is fantastic at writing amazing worlds. Every story in this collection is magical and amazing and unbelieveable. Its just a shame that sometimes his writing ability stops him from pulling it together in one nice package.
Still suggest you give him a read, if only for the story about Golems, or the one on AI.
Book 19 - The High Frontier by Gerald O'neil
Not a sci-fi book, not a hopeful utopic look at the world, not overly hopeful but solidly realistic in his estimations. A roadmap to human orbital development, C.1979
I've wanted to read this book for years now. I really wanted something that could show me the hows and whens of the whole issue. I think in my head I built it up as some bible of orbital development, something that explains everything and makes it easy for me. And somehow I was right. If you ever want to be completly sold on the idea of space development, read this. It clears up everything and makes every element of the process clear and obvious and shows how we could have fantastic structures in space for cheap. On 1970s tech. It also helps that he massively overestimates everything. Makes you think he understands better.
My only criticisms are that O'Neil seemed fixated on 3 activities; Ballet dancing in space, 0G Love Hotels and man powered flight. Three things one can understand being excited about but maybe a better time would be while righting a tourist guide for the station, not while writing a speculative paper on how one might build a station. The only other thing is that the first 3 chapters are full on Doomsday mode. He makes some excellent points but comes out sounding a little depressing.
buy it buy it buy it
I've wanted to read this book for years now. I really wanted something that could show me the hows and whens of the whole issue. I think in my head I built it up as some bible of orbital development, something that explains everything and makes it easy for me. And somehow I was right. If you ever want to be completly sold on the idea of space development, read this. It clears up everything and makes every element of the process clear and obvious and shows how we could have fantastic structures in space for cheap. On 1970s tech. It also helps that he massively overestimates everything. Makes you think he understands better.
My only criticisms are that O'Neil seemed fixated on 3 activities; Ballet dancing in space, 0G Love Hotels and man powered flight. Three things one can understand being excited about but maybe a better time would be while righting a tourist guide for the station, not while writing a speculative paper on how one might build a station. The only other thing is that the first 3 chapters are full on Doomsday mode. He makes some excellent points but comes out sounding a little depressing.
buy it buy it buy it
Book 18 - Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
An insomniac and his best friend attempt to destroy civilisation and thousands of idiots around the world miss the point.
Fight Club is a popular movie. It's also a very good book, which is obvious seeing how I'm currently reviewing it now. The thing about Fight Club is that almost no one who watched or read it really understood it. They walk away from the text with the idea that Tyler is right, that Tyler is wise and intelligent and Fighting is a good idea. This is basically the worst interpretation possible. Fight Club is about being yourself. Despite the movie/books constant assurances that you are not special, the message of the book is that you can be. Its not about fighting the system through self destruction, its about being more than normal by taking charge of your life and moving forward with your own goals and mind at the forefront. It is a parody of the whole, raging against the machine thing we all go through, its a joke against the overtly masochistic way men aim to be. Every character in Fight Club, besides the narrator and only right at the end, are laughable, pitiable wrecks of human beings that you are supposed to feel sorry for. You are supposed to walk away from the piece with the knowledge that you do not have to be a butch manly man, you do not have to be anything other than yourself.
I can't say much else in these short reviews. Just read it because it is great and also its short and I know you like that. Keep what I said in mind and enjoy it. Its a misunderstood but good book.
Fight Club is a popular movie. It's also a very good book, which is obvious seeing how I'm currently reviewing it now. The thing about Fight Club is that almost no one who watched or read it really understood it. They walk away from the text with the idea that Tyler is right, that Tyler is wise and intelligent and Fighting is a good idea. This is basically the worst interpretation possible. Fight Club is about being yourself. Despite the movie/books constant assurances that you are not special, the message of the book is that you can be. Its not about fighting the system through self destruction, its about being more than normal by taking charge of your life and moving forward with your own goals and mind at the forefront. It is a parody of the whole, raging against the machine thing we all go through, its a joke against the overtly masochistic way men aim to be. Every character in Fight Club, besides the narrator and only right at the end, are laughable, pitiable wrecks of human beings that you are supposed to feel sorry for. You are supposed to walk away from the piece with the knowledge that you do not have to be a butch manly man, you do not have to be anything other than yourself.
I can't say much else in these short reviews. Just read it because it is great and also its short and I know you like that. Keep what I said in mind and enjoy it. Its a misunderstood but good book.
Book 17 - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
A woman finds herself the execurtioner of an old boyfriend's will. While processing and sorting his effects, she stumbles on evidence of a secert conspiracy regarding an underground postal service.
What can I say? Its a classic. Its a novel about a million and one different subjects and subtexts. Ranging from the British Invasion of the 1960s, to Humanities need for certainties in life. I really enjoyed this read. I've been meaning to read it for a very long time but just wasn't able to get around to it. The book is utterly differnt from what I expected but in a very very good way. The characters are fantastic, the story is great and the world is very well done. I'm being very general but if I say anything more then I'll just spoil it for you.
The one big issue is the writing. Even Pynchon has said he hates the way the book is written. I found it pretty hard to follow at times and required quite a bit of effort to get through. some passages are really hard to parse and the story jumps from location and event over and over. It fits the story undoubtably but it does make for a difficult read.
What can I say? Its a classic. Its a novel about a million and one different subjects and subtexts. Ranging from the British Invasion of the 1960s, to Humanities need for certainties in life. I really enjoyed this read. I've been meaning to read it for a very long time but just wasn't able to get around to it. The book is utterly differnt from what I expected but in a very very good way. The characters are fantastic, the story is great and the world is very well done. I'm being very general but if I say anything more then I'll just spoil it for you.
The one big issue is the writing. Even Pynchon has said he hates the way the book is written. I found it pretty hard to follow at times and required quite a bit of effort to get through. some passages are really hard to parse and the story jumps from location and event over and over. It fits the story undoubtably but it does make for a difficult read.
Let me tell you about Consolevania
Video games have a harsh time when it comes to TV. Currently the most popular video games show is actually some horrible channel called G4, a show so bland, so offensively mediocre it has to rely on youtube content that it can steal to avoid its viewers killing themselves out of desperate need for some sort of stimuli. Shows paid for by advertising and made with the sole reason of getting you to buy the shitty games they cram down your throat over and over again. Places that genuinely act like the Kinect is a good idea.
Dark times indeed. Most people who play games these days are probably too young or too stupid to remember the golden age of games shows, Gamesmaster on a Friday night with the amazing Dominik Diamond radiating class and suave, showing off the newest games and systems before they had even been anounced. and Sir Patrick Bloody Moore telling us all cheats. They'd have contests where two hapless little kids like me would battle to the gruesome end trying to collect the most coins in Mario 3. Amazing times, Pure times. You had the feeling the show wanted to tell you about the games for their own sake, and in a time before the internet this was amazing.
Gamesmaster and shows like it weren't bogged down with endless drivel, with female hosts who act as little more than nerd candy, with male presenters acting like some horrible pathetic dickhead version of geek culture, no pandering to the audience here, no acting like being a asshole VIDEO GAMER is somehow a good thing, no indirectly advertising the biggest and most well paying advertisers, just video games, contests about video games, news about video games, a childlike, raw love of this new medium that was only just emerging, tadpole like, from the primordial ooze. It was fantastic.
I know what you're all thinking. You're all going "oh but nems you're just remembering it different cause you're an old fogee with cataracts and a bad hip and you're mental" Well fuck you you little shit I bought all the dvds years ago from some knock off site and I watched them all a couple years ago so fuck off. I know what I'm on about here.
Your only real comment on this would be "Well times have changed. You'd be right, times have changed. Its acceptable to say things like "rofl" and "lol" in public now, TV like G4 is apparently 'good' now. Its a shame. If only there was something better, a shining star in an otherwise shit stained sky. You know where I'm going here don't you you little bastard.
Meet Ryan and Robert. The two best video game reviewers that have ever lived. That might be a bit much but they were very very very good. I say Were because unfortunately they have both moved on from that world now. Robert is now doing boardgame reviews at RockPaperShotgun.com and writing shit for the BBC. Ryan is...Well I have no idea what Ryan is doing but it sure as hell isn't more episodes of Consolevania I am bloody sure of that.
Rab and Ryan used to do a show called Videogaiden, and a show called Consolevania. I won't mess around and try to work out which came first because honestly I have no clue. Both were very similer with the main difference being VideoGaiden seems to have been given a small budget due to it being on the BBC, and Consolevania is basically them two and their mate Kenny bombing around Glasgow doing silly game related stunts. This was pretty much the best review show ever made. possibly the best video game based show ever.
Its all down to those two guys up there. You see, they are friends. You can tell they are friends just by watching the show, go, click some of the links at the bottom and watch these two. They are best mates and you can FEEL it. They are also equal parts honest, funny, entertaining and insightful. If either of them ever read this and see I called them Insightful they'll probably kick my teeth in. But they are. and its wonderful. All they really seemed to care about was telling you about stuff they liked and stuff they thought was naff and why. It was never about telling you all about the latest flash bang whiz super call of duty 6 future space combat elves game, just about whatever amazing or utterly horrendous game they wanted to talk about. and it was always one of the two. Never have I seen these two review a mediocre thing, wheres the point in that?
They spoke to you as a person, not you as a wanky GAMER, not you as a pretentious GAMES AS ART dick but just you as a guy who wants to play some games. They was their charm, that was their uniqueness, that was probably their downfall. Neither of their shows were ever popular which is a massive shame. I would have loved to hear what they had to say about games these days. They always had this way of cutting through the bullshit and just telling you if you'd have fun with a game, you don't get that much at all these days. It's just unique. At times its downright lynchian, with Kenny going off and ruling alternative dimensions, implied evil overlords and unnerving sets. Rab expanded this in Downtime town, another amazing thing you can find below.
Please. If I have any readers at all (I do not) and you want to watch some really funny and interesting stuff about video games you might not have played, look these two up. You can watch all of Consolevania through the million and one links on their website, and you can watch series 1 and 3 of Videogaiden on youtube and the BBC respectively. If you find Series 2 please mail it to me you git. (Edit, An amazing mentalist left a comment with every episode of every show Rab and Ryan have ever done, What a world of dreams we live in)
Consolevania
Some mental who has loads of Videogaiden
An even BIGGER mentalist with litterally everything your tiny heart could desire
Rab sums up my entire feelings of GAMERS
The best intro to Consolevania
Videogaiden on the BBC
Rab's old new boardgame site (thanks for making me spend mad cash on a hobby I didn't even have Rab. You asshole)
Zaa Ooo Zaa
Nems
Dark times indeed. Most people who play games these days are probably too young or too stupid to remember the golden age of games shows, Gamesmaster on a Friday night with the amazing Dominik Diamond radiating class and suave, showing off the newest games and systems before they had even been anounced. and Sir Patrick Bloody Moore telling us all cheats. They'd have contests where two hapless little kids like me would battle to the gruesome end trying to collect the most coins in Mario 3. Amazing times, Pure times. You had the feeling the show wanted to tell you about the games for their own sake, and in a time before the internet this was amazing.
 | ||
| Pure Class Act |
Gamesmaster and shows like it weren't bogged down with endless drivel, with female hosts who act as little more than nerd candy, with male presenters acting like some horrible pathetic dickhead version of geek culture, no pandering to the audience here, no acting like being a asshole VIDEO GAMER is somehow a good thing, no indirectly advertising the biggest and most well paying advertisers, just video games, contests about video games, news about video games, a childlike, raw love of this new medium that was only just emerging, tadpole like, from the primordial ooze. It was fantastic.
I know what you're all thinking. You're all going "oh but nems you're just remembering it different cause you're an old fogee with cataracts and a bad hip and you're mental" Well fuck you you little shit I bought all the dvds years ago from some knock off site and I watched them all a couple years ago so fuck off. I know what I'm on about here.
Your only real comment on this would be "Well times have changed. You'd be right, times have changed. Its acceptable to say things like "rofl" and "lol" in public now, TV like G4 is apparently 'good' now. Its a shame. If only there was something better, a shining star in an otherwise shit stained sky. You know where I'm going here don't you you little bastard.
Rab and Ryan used to do a show called Videogaiden, and a show called Consolevania. I won't mess around and try to work out which came first because honestly I have no clue. Both were very similer with the main difference being VideoGaiden seems to have been given a small budget due to it being on the BBC, and Consolevania is basically them two and their mate Kenny bombing around Glasgow doing silly game related stunts. This was pretty much the best review show ever made. possibly the best video game based show ever.
Its all down to those two guys up there. You see, they are friends. You can tell they are friends just by watching the show, go, click some of the links at the bottom and watch these two. They are best mates and you can FEEL it. They are also equal parts honest, funny, entertaining and insightful. If either of them ever read this and see I called them Insightful they'll probably kick my teeth in. But they are. and its wonderful. All they really seemed to care about was telling you about stuff they liked and stuff they thought was naff and why. It was never about telling you all about the latest flash bang whiz super call of duty 6 future space combat elves game, just about whatever amazing or utterly horrendous game they wanted to talk about. and it was always one of the two. Never have I seen these two review a mediocre thing, wheres the point in that?
They spoke to you as a person, not you as a wanky GAMER, not you as a pretentious GAMES AS ART dick but just you as a guy who wants to play some games. They was their charm, that was their uniqueness, that was probably their downfall. Neither of their shows were ever popular which is a massive shame. I would have loved to hear what they had to say about games these days. They always had this way of cutting through the bullshit and just telling you if you'd have fun with a game, you don't get that much at all these days. It's just unique. At times its downright lynchian, with Kenny going off and ruling alternative dimensions, implied evil overlords and unnerving sets. Rab expanded this in Downtime town, another amazing thing you can find below.
Please. If I have any readers at all (I do not) and you want to watch some really funny and interesting stuff about video games you might not have played, look these two up. You can watch all of Consolevania through the million and one links on their website, and you can watch series 1 and 3 of Videogaiden on youtube and the BBC respectively. If you find Series 2 please mail it to me you git. (Edit, An amazing mentalist left a comment with every episode of every show Rab and Ryan have ever done, What a world of dreams we live in)
Consolevania
Some mental who has loads of Videogaiden
An even BIGGER mentalist with litterally everything your tiny heart could desire
Rab sums up my entire feelings of GAMERS
The best intro to Consolevania
Videogaiden on the BBC
Rab's old new boardgame site (thanks for making me spend mad cash on a hobby I didn't even have Rab. You asshole)
Zaa Ooo Zaa
Nems
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