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BEHAVE: the Biology of Humans at our Best & Worst - Robery Sapolsky

4/21/2022

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Every so often a book comes along that genuinely makes a viable case for a complete paradigm shift. This book is certainly one of them!
          Reading this is certainly a monumental undertaking, being that it's nearly 800 pages of intensely detailed scientific rigor, but the result is entirely worth the effort! I will say that some parts of it, particularly a few of the early chapters, are a slog for anyone who is not familiar and keening interested in the finer point of microbiology, cellular neurology, or endocrinology. Sapolsky's writing is exceptionally clear and his points in these early chapters are well laid out, but, even so, the material is simply dense.
             While I wholly understand the reason that these chapters are placed early in the sequence of the thesis (being that the book scales outward, starting with the literal smallest piece of potentially relevant biological influence and incrementally moving out to the macro-scale evolution of globalized, cooperative culture), it's a shame that the intensity and niche specificity of the early chapters come before the parts that a layperson could more easily connect with... I'm sure plenty of readers who would have delighted in the second half of this work were unable to make it past the first half.
             Still, I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the mess that is the modern human, go for the audio book and just let the words wash over you (possibly skipping many of the early chapters).
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​          The most important piece of this, in my realm of study, is actually the introduction. This is the first book in the realm of so-called 'hard science' in which the reality of Academia is called out and appropriately decimated. The divisions between subjects taught and studied in schools are arbitrary and nonsensical. They are useful boxes to make people feel like they have a safe and comfy niche to work in and use to declare their own identities via pre-defined shortcuts. But if you're truly in a venue to 
learn you absolutely must approach a subject with interdisciplinary awareness. In learning sciences, we call this mixing of disciplines interleaving and I mentioned it a while ago in my review of How We Learn by Benedict Carey.
         Sapolsky is the first truly respectable hard science guru I've found to laboriously press home the point at this arbitrariness being useful only in the sense of easing personal identity definitions and creating a sense of in-group cohesion. (There is also an argument for varied disciplines that raises its head in terms of budgetary concerns for academic institution, which is an avenue to explore another day and is itself an argument in favor of how considering something through multiple lenses is the only way to truly understand it).

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          Beyond the critically important thesis presented in the Introduction, there are a good dozen chapters within which material that is exceedingly valuable to the everyday person's interaction with the world around them.
            The adolescence chapter (chapter 6) is one I highly recommend, as it both shows how unfortunate it truly is to exist as a teenager and proves beyond any entitled, obnoxious parental whinging that grown ups do NOT remember what it was like to be a teenager. You absolutely cannot recall with any degree of accuracy, while utilizing your currently operational frontal cortex to draw on the memories, what it was like to experience life when half of your adult brain was essentially offline. (I have a soap box for this. And I scream from it on an almost daily basis. A solid half the reason I hate most parent is that most parents are the primary reason their teenagers hate life.)
               Furthermore, this book has 2 additional pieces that I adore.
             Chapters 10 through 15 are the core of the reason I find this book valuable to the lay-person. They examine the circumstances of behavior through lenses that the average human can negotiate and with a congenial frankness that invites readers to consider their own circumstances, as well as those of others they encounter, on a continuous and casual level of expanded comprehension. It's not necessarily the kind of eye-opining that  forces people to rethink their entire existence, per se, (though it certainly has that potential for some readers), but it does a thorough job of helping an already open-minded person clean off their windshield from the inside where you can't even tell there's a layer of grime until you've wiped it off.
              And then Chapter 16 pops up. 16 is the most controversial chapter of this book, being that it discusses the concept of abolishing, not just the police, but the entire modern criminal justice system as a whole. It also delves into the concepts of free-will (and the Hobbes / Locke / Rousseau argument, though it does fail, somewhat, to fully explain what that argument entails or who stood for which side of it...), which actually ties well into the arguments of Time Progression in physics and the Causational theory of History. It gets WILD. But it manages to make a solid, logical case for a rehashing of the considerations of what Justice truly means and how Punishment needs to be understood to be utilized effectively in a modern world.
               All in all, it's quite amazing. And the congenial, down-to-earth delivery is delightful. The narrative voice is one of inviting friendliness and pervasively judgement-free guided exploration. Rather than a didactic lecture with pejorative weight behind it, reading this book feels like playing a teaching-game with a beloved grandfather.

              That said, it's not 100% perfect, obviously.

              It's LONG. And while I loved every second of my reading of it, I'm sure I'm the outlier. This is NOT, on its own, a layperson book. Unless you're willing to skip chapters or deep dive into nearly incomprehensible strings of abbreviations, a normal, casual reader will not make it through this beast.
            Secondly, while it does call out other respected scientists for cherry-picking data (like Steven Pinker, whom I bear a particularly spikey and resolutely low threshold for bullshit), Sapolsky fails, himself, to discuss the on-going issues of replication being grappled with regarding some of the studies he references. Now this IS a new enough book that some of that failure can be forgiven as optimism that in the near future other labs will be able to replicate the findings of certain circumstances, but it still ought to be addressed (particularly as some of the studies are a great deal older than the book presently reporting on them).
         There is clear personal stake in these matters, too, which makes sense as it's not a cut-and-dry piece of research publication and is instead a personal entreaty to consider the broader view from the perspective of someone infinitely too privileged to respect beyond the safe boundaries of Stanford's sunny promenades. Like seriously, if I took this guy on a foot tour of Queens, I'm like 80% sure we'd both just drop dead. If not, I'd probably kill him myself when he quibbles over the price of a banana (often a whooping full dollar per pound with tax, these days).
            Honestly, if we got stuck in an elevator together and he were even a smidgeon less fascinating than he is, he'd be walking out of there with a black eye.
          In the same way as he elucidates that a grown-up cannot recall being a teenager, he fails to truly recognize how unbelievably wealthy he is to the point of inevitably causing a painful degree of friction. He even acknowledges his privilege, and that of the reader, but he fails to connect that privilege to the particular rosiness of his glasses. It's a fact that makes chapter 16 more amusing than truly compelling, and it threatens a lot of his credibility in that, when combined with his congenial tone, can potentially make a lot of this come off as condescending. I think he manages to avoid that, for the most part, but that's coming from a place of being, myself, atrociously over-educated, painfully under-stimulated, and deeply indulgent toward my own aggressive curiosity.
        All that said, however, this is easily my favorite Hard Science book from the last 5 years. It's the first book I've actually purchased in 2022.
         Again, though you might have to skim or skip a few chapters, I HIGHLY recommend it!
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House of Sky & Breath - Sarah J Maas | Book review

3/6/2022

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Not great, but it's still an improvement over the last few releases...

            Whelp... I'm not mad at it. I set the bar really low going into this one and I'm pleased to say that it has managed to surpass those wary expectations. I'm not actively offended to the point of having to write an angry letter to her publishers / editors / agents...
         Which, despite being the lowest bar ever set, still makes this the best thing SJM has released in years. Seriously, the last time I wasn't actively disappointed by an SJM release since 216 with A Court of Wings & Ruin, way back in 2016.... And even then, I wasn't angry at it, but I also wasn't terribly pleased with it.
House of Sky & Breath is very much a relief, because I'm not actively angry, but it's also still kind of disappointing because even though I'm not offended there's not a lot to like.

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            Now, despite the fact that my over all read is that I didn't like it much at all, there are some good points. The sex wasn't super creepy, for one! (I mean, it was still largely inappropriate and awkwardly squicky, but it wasn't actively glossing over the whole concept of rape... Consent was proactively acquired and reaffirmed throughout). The actual language of the narration was lovely, nothing truly lyrical, but lovely. And the banter was nifty enough to keep the conversations feeling mildly entertaining.
         The most glaring issue with it is that it's too fricken long. It does not need to be 800 pages. Is should not bee 800 pages. First off, the only real reason that it's 800 pages is that there's filler sub-stories about side characters that are followed with absurd detail. And even then, most of those sub-stories shouldn't have even been included in this installment, period. Following Tharion and Ithan and Ruhn, as an interwoven trio of stories, should have been it's own novel, one that might interact with the plot of this one, but can be read separately. In fact, that might actually have made both pieces a lot more interesting and intensely mysterious.
          Instead, we see like 4 or 5 different versions of the same storyline with very limited set-dressing alterations. It's hardly even a 'variation on a theme' kind of thing. There's a whole bunch of angsty, honorable, super-jock, alpha-males facing unwanted / awkward engagements to shy-ish wallflowers with secret bad-assery potential that they've been too sheltered to feel ready to reveal. The stories play out slightly differently, but not with nearly enough unique and significant variation to warrant watching 5 separate iterations.
          Speaking of a lack of variation: there's still ZERO diversity. Like you can call a group of people whatever you want, give them all kinds of different powers and theoretical inter-group rivalries and grudges, but unless you make something about the sects culturally unique, it's not diversity. There's only two body types mentioned for female characters (supermodel / action-hero and pixie-lithe ballerina), and only one for guys (supermodel / action-hero). Nobody's fat. Nobody's short. Nobody's pale enough to have freckles instead of a Cali-perfect suntan, nor dark enough to use any word but 'bronze' to describe their flawless skin tones. Hell, nobody is even the smidge of not utterly pristine biological perfect that is needing glasses with corrective lenses.
             There's a mostly-off-camera solitary gay couple, and a surprise-for-the-shock-value lesbian couple that makes like a 30 second appearance, in flagrante, and there's one mention of a vegetarian being slightly uncomfortable with the vague concept of meat.... and that's it... Seriously, there's not a single, genuine ideological difference between any of the factions that are supposedly diametrically opposed and have been hated enemies for centuries.
           Still on the lack of diversity factor: EVERYBODY'S ROYAL. When ALL your characters are politically significant of more or less equals in technical political standing, basically it means that none of them are facing power-imbalance dynamics that could make being Royal or whatnot interesting. It's special snowflake syndrome, but with political titles.
Also, none of the characters change they take a few, teeny tiny baby steps towards dealing with specific traumas and such, but no one actually changes through the narrative, they reveal that they'd been changed by the magic of insta-love, but none of them actually, visible evolve in any notable manner. And Bryce is an idiot about throwing her royal title around like it's Harley Quinn's hammer and is appalled when no one else is surprised that her continuous stupid choices led to horrible consequences.
           It's just boring.
           And beyond that, the bore-factor is ramped up by the utter lack of stakes. 
         There's a period of interest, when we're caught up in looking for a lost, potentially super-powerful kid. But that plot-line gets buried under the layers of other-people-with-awkward-engagements sandwich and it resolves pretty quickly (all told, that plotline probably takes like 300 pages, max, to run from start to finish). The rest of it is a search for a vague secret, a secret that no one involved even manages to care about without outside agents acting full-on deus ex machina to prompt investigation. There's even a moment with Bryce addresses the lack of Endgame, but it settles with a deeply unsatisfying conclusion of 'search for truth, for sake of truth'. 
          And the secrets that get 'revealed' are painfully dull. I seriously didn't realize that the 'secrets' had been revealed when I read them. I honestly thought it was a bit of framing as a reminder for the current status quo that could he altered in a paradigm shift of wow, that's unexpected and dramatic... and instead we just got, yeah, that's the status quo as it currently exists... No life-altering hidden truth. Just the curtain coming back on the obvious machinations of the current world, most of which could be guessed at by even a half-savvy reader with a few poli-sci or electrical engineering podcasts under their belt. I did like the lure bit of the secret reveal, but it's like showing up to a birthday party for the cake and just being given a particularly neatly shaped bit of a flower made of icing.
      Beyond all that? The whole army from hell thing? And the super-badass female who doesn't want the responsibility of rule but somehow earns the devotions of an abused super-powerful, military famous and respected male? With a cabal of super gorgeous, super powerful, politically significant friends? With a random bad-ass maybe-dragon?
       WE HAVE SEEN THIS STORY BEFORE.... AND I'M GETTING BORED WITH IT.
       Fortunately, there's nothing in this that I'm actively angry about (though, I'll admit, my threshold for what counts as angry is way higher for this author's work than for that of any other, so I probably should be angry about some things, but I'm sticking to my guns and letting it go unless it's actively harmful to real people (like the vile nonsense of A Court of Silver Flames).
      (Okay, that's a lie. I AM actively angry about the way Male and Female are the exclusive references to both gender presentation and biological sex. Like my Trans and Fluid friends are still people, yo.... And no one should simply BE their gender or their biology, personhood is significant without a shred of reproductive potential... But I've decided to pick battles I feel actively endanger safety and while casual erasure is damaging on some level, the mishandling of PTSD in Silver Flames WILL cause some dumbass reader to trigger some unfortunate soul into self-harm, possibly suicide).
        SO.
        I do NOT recommend it. 
        I WILL actively warn my clients against it. 
      And I CANNOT whip up any BS about it as a decent showing that I can ignore while reserving judgement on the whole series. 
       This series is crap. End of story.
       It's sloppy and insulting and pathetic; and it treats the reader like a pitiable, ignorant, idiotic little child.

     I will probably read the 3rd one, when it eventually comes out, simply because I can't reasonably hate on a book I haven't read and still look like a genuine authority, but I likely won't make it a priority read.
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the Last Graduate - Naomi Novik | Book Review

3/4/2022

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          A deeply satisfying sequel to a Deadly Education and an absolute Master Class in how to utilize plot bits to effectively ratchet up intimate emotional tensions! I am absolutely delighted by this series, and the second installment is an excellent addition to the over-all enterprise of it!
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         Still exercising the glorious flex of how the first book absolutely eviscerated the foundational concepts of the modern education industry, Book 2 delves into the consequences of system correction efforts (and the potential for over-correction), and how such seemingly benign endeavors, at best, swap the disadvantages of one group with the privileges of another, and at worst, further entrench a brand new sort of inequality that can hardly be accurately identified, let alone emolliated. 
The inevitable conclusion is just so poignantly visceral that it almost belies the genuine reality of the allegory. The system isn't working. And it cannot simply be 'fixed'. It needs to be entirely torn down and created anew.
          This novel also delves into the concept of blame for the entrenchment of inequity. The founders of the system meant it to be far better than they built it to effectively accomplish. Yes, exploitation and inhumanity was present at the conception, but for all their faults they tried to do right by the next generation and it's not fair (let alone productive) to simply castigate them for their failings without both acknowledging their efforts and also doing something to fix what they got wrong. Both within Novik's magical world and within our external reality, the school-system is abysmally flawed and needs to be entirely reimagined if we are to make any more significant strides of advancement as a species. The clear cut allegory of Novik's delightfully satirical explication is GLORIOUS.
          More than that, the story itself is fun, engaging, and masterfully written. The characters are all unique, well-developed, and have arcs of growth that move elegantly through the plot. The story's set-up and pacing are exquisitely handled and managed in such a way so as to entirely prevent the sense that Book 2 is simply a bridge from 1 to 3. It is its own critical piece of the puzzle and a uniquely worthwhile read without reliance on its place within the trilogy.
           I absolutely LOVED this book and HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to anyone over about age 10, though the more frustrated with the education industry you are (ie, high-schoolers, college kids, and their immediately concerned parents), the more viscerally you will react to the commentary presented here. I do however want to smack someone upside the head for allowing that ending to exist prior to the release of Book 3. I anticipate stalking through life like a trapped tiger until September when such misery will be granted absolution.
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From Eternity to Here - Sean Carroll

7/28/2021

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                This is another investigation into the realm of Quantum Mechanics, but unlike the Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, this one requires a bit of familiarity with the topic before a reader can effectively delve into the material's summary / arguments.
Date Read: ​July 5th, 2021
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​Final Score: 7 / 10 !
           Now, I did this one as an Audiobook, and I regret that decision. It's not in any way that Erik Synnestvedt failed to do a good job with reading it, quite the opposite (he was rather remarkably successful). My problem was that there were a great many moments in this where a diagram would've been really nice to look at and we've not yet managed tech were one such image can be beamed into my brain during the smooth narration around when it could be beneficial.
               (Note, since I didn't
read the physical copy, I have no way to guarantee that said diagrams will actually be present, but if they are NOT there, I would have to be very disappointed in Carroll's otherwise very detailed and patiently laborious effort to communicate these tricky concepts.)
              That was the primary drawback I noticed. Otherwise, this was a very well done overview of our current theories about why the 'Arrow of Time' apparently exists when just about everything in classical mechanics says it shouldn't.
                    The bulk of this book is not about time.
                  Because Time is a concept that has proven to be entangled in two dozen other physics debates that are still raging in the Science World. I knew that this would not be
about Time, exactly, but even so I was surprised by how much not-Time stuff needed to be covered to get the reader to a point of understanding what the debates on Time are actually about. While I would've liked a little more of the narrative focused on Time, I perfectly understand WHY so little was devoted to it, and I appreciated the carefully rigorous stage-setting of the background physics discussion.
          (I recall the laws of Thermodynamics, but even with an interest in physics I still get them mixed up rather easily.)
         Thermodynamics, Entropy, and Gravity all get discussed in excellent detail (with both sides of the current relevant debates being given equal examination) and then all related back to our observable conception of Time and the perception of our tangible Universe.
          This narrative doesn't come to any truly solid conclusions about what Time is, exactly, or why it only seems to flow in one direction, but that's largely because Physics CAN'T explain it wholly. And nether Physics nor Neuroscience is quite at the point of being able to work effectively together on a cohesive unified theory to explain it, but that door is starting to more effectively open.
           I definitely enjoyed this one, but it is NOT a starting-point stepping-stone for anyone just getting interested in the governing mechanics of reality.
          Still, I highly recommend it (in physical book form) to anyone who really would like to sit down and investigate one of the biggest mysteries of our day to day lives within this fantastical universe we call home!
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Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson | Book Review

7/21/2021

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            As one of Time's 'Top 100 Books in English' of all time, this novel genuinely does make some really fascinating comments on the state of the human condition, individual consciousness, and general societal decay. Personally, I wouldn't say it's one of the best books ever written, or anything, but it's definitely significant.
Date Read: ​June 20th, 2021
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​Final Score: 8 / 10 !

​          As a Hyper-Futuristic novel that was originally published in 1992, this definitely has a very Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell kinda vibe-- mainly that Life is still Life despite the calamity of the Technopocalypse, 90's grunge became more than just a fashion statement as the Government basically collapsed, and everything goes more smoothly when we all roll up to every negotiation with a health dose of sarcasm to play ball with.
         I definitely enjoyed the acknowledgement of the fact that people want Life to be a cliche and chipper-yet-dramatic action movie, to the point that people literally shape their lives into fitting the mold they'd envisioned, but I did feel it missed the mark in some places, simply because the narrative's official 'victory' didn't really deal with any part of the real Problem, it just removed the present Threat. There's likely an intentional comment in that, but I feel like it's rendered ineffective because I'm more concerned with how the story feels unresolved in the big-picture view of it than I am with how it shows that leaving problem resolution unfinished is one of the main reasons the world collapsed to begin with...
          The best part of the ending, absolutely, is the bit where when the world-ending threat is dealt with and all that, it's time to call Mom for a ride home (and she shows up to help, no questions asked, happy to not-quite participate and simply support her child).
            I did also like the brief comments on the rest of the world. American dystopia lit is chronically awful at remembering that the rest of the world exists (and that, as a whole, most of it is better suited to adapting to Apocalypse World than the US population).
           The narrative style was dramatic and highly unique. While I didn't enjoy it, per se, I do think it was well-accomplished and that it suited the story it was meant to tell. It DID produce a ton of really great quotable moments, though, which I highly appreciate.
            The characters were great, even though we only got to view them on a fairly surface level (a symptom of it being both an adult novel and being a product of 80's & 90's dystopia narrative convention). More importantly, I really enjoyed how our two main characters were essentially accidental BFFs and the narration never so much as hinted at there being any legitimate romantic potential between them.
             The plot was fun and worked into the grit of complex world building as an intrinsic and inevitable aspect of what a world like this would produce, so while I didn't actually like some of what happened, I DEEPLY enjoyed that the world's mechanics were so closely linked to what occurred within it and vice versa. It also had some really great mythology allusions and well-researched inter-connections between language, psychology, and the structure of reality.
           The best bit over all though were the Nice Doggies. Super Creepy? Check. Effectively utilized as narrative tools? Check. Rendered as both immoral and beneficent in turns? Check. PUPPERS BEING PUPPERS? CHECK PLUS! It's an apocalypse in America story, so obviously, someone shoots a dog. But in this case the dog more or less survives and things work out well enough to make things feel optimistic.
             It's an excellent novel, that feels both dated and hyper-futuristic.
            It misses the point, a bit, on how and why tech develops as rapidly and all-consuming-ly as it does, but it also makes great comments on why gangs develop and will never be eradicated (there's seriously very little way to corral the problem because the 'problem' is that gang-structure is the single-most efficient governing structure that humans have ever devised and the 'solution' being implements to solve it is a mish-mash of overlapping agencies that serve more to prove the gangs' point than anything).

         I highly recommend it as a modern classic, and a necessary read for anyone to consider themselves well-rounded persons, but it's certainly not one that I'd consider a favorite of mine, personally.
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the Choices of One (a Star Wars Story) - Timothy Zahn | Book Review

7/16/2021

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           So, I've got another Star Wars Expanded Universe novel under my belt! I'm trying to keep a good balance going of Legends media to Canon media, so here's another story from the Legends array! I really, deeply enjoyed this one, definitely enough to recommend it with substantial enthusiasm!
Date Read: June 24th, 2021
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Final Score: 8 / 10 !
          This novel continues (and purportedly ends) the Hand of Judgement duology, the first one being Allegiance, as reviewed a few weeks ago.

          I enjoyed this one MUCH more than the first on in the sub-series. I felt like the inclusion of Chewie, Han, Luke, & Leia made a lot more legitimate sense in this novel than it did the other one (where they were essentially just bandied about as prop pieces). Here, they actually have ROLES in the story's plot progression, and more than that they have genuine personalities. I DEEPLY enjoy the way in which Luke is basically universally disparaged by everyone on all sides of the conflict as well-meaning, but absolutely useless at 99% of the Things that Need Doing... It's adorable (and as rendered here, it's actually endearing). And as we're still in a setting that's only about 8 months out from the destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin IV in Episode IV, it makes perfect sense to include the mainline protagonists.

​       But, as with the first one, the real bit of excellence in this story is the Storm Trooper dynamics with all their complicated loyalties and dedications. The crew we've gotten to know in this sub-series is excellent and they show off their training and inter-personal coordination extremely well here. It's AWESOME. Even their interactions with Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker, and the crew's new Troukree associates are all delightfully character-exposing, for everyone involved!
            The part I was most surprised about in this story was Thrawn's involvement. I think it was well rendered, even if there was a bit of a bait-and-switch about it where the reader really had no chance at figuring out the truth of the matter until Zahn only exposed it.
           Though I have to admit I am SUPER confused at the repercussions of Thrawn's declared stance at the end of this one... Honestly, without the little bit right at the very end, like seriously the last 5 pages at most, I think it could be considered fully canon still. While I'm not exactly yet a model of Canon expertise, nothing about this story (at least while reading it without that last little assertion of Thrawn's place as a particularly significant figure in the Outer Rim) contradicts anything I've read/seen that's still considered Canon.
           I'm not really sure where Zahn was going to go with all that, but since it's now Legends it doesn't exactly matter any more, so I'm not counting that confusing-bit as a negative.

         What I didn't like about this story was only that it felt like a little exposition and then a GINORMOUS battle sequence. While the battle was epic and interesting, I would have liked just a little more post-battle follow-up. Mara Jade totes deserves to know her Troopers are alive. How exactly Han and Chewie got out of the Golan Battle Station and away without anyone in the rest of the battle even commenting on their presence beyond a brief 'oh, right, they're still up there and stuff', is something I would've liked to see more detail on... Along with exactly what supplies and new toys were successfully acquired by the Rebels in the aftermath. And then most importantly: the whole Nuso Esva schtick needs a bit more explanation (or really, a LOT more explanation)...
           This is why I mentioned earlier that this novel purportedly ends the Hand of Judgement duology... It doesn't END shit... Nuso Esva comes out of no where, proceeds to be awesomely interesting as he challenges Thrawn to a bout of War Games, and then vanishes into the Black as a problem to be Dealt With Later... Google says he dies 8 years after the Battle of Yavin IV, but then says not much else about him at all. I'm sure there's other media with him somewhere, but it really seems like a waste of a potentially interesting character (and potentially interesting character interactions) to just end.
            I love Thrawn and I think having some weird, hyper-competent Unknown Regions warlord regularly challenge him would be cool, so I at least HOPE there's more media with the pair of them competing against each other in it. And honestly, having the Hand of Judgement Trooper Crew working sporadically with Thrawn and Mara Jade to train Outer Rim Aliens to fight Nuso Esva? THAT sounds like bestseller material to me...
             Anywhoo~, the only other thing I disliked was the way Zahn did his chapters / PoV jumps, but as I think that's just a conversion error with the eBook version, I'm not holding that against him.

        I liked it better than
Allegiance and I think it can be read well enough without the first one, so it's definitely becoming a staple-recommendation of mine for the Star Wars EU!
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Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (Book Review)

7/7/2021

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Date Read: ​May 28th, 2021
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Final Score: 8 / 10 !
         Wow. Like seriously WOW. This was an AWESOME treat to read!
 
      It was a really intricate world and had absolutely EPIC characters! When combined with a plot that was halfway between an Agatha Christie novel (a la 'And Then There Were None') and a Space Opera remix of Max Max, this was AWESOME.
        Action packed, full of personal politicking social intrigue, intricate discussions of anatomy and theoretical science... It was an encompassing swirl of deeply engaging storytelling and 'couldn't put it down' drama!
It's also a great representation of LBGTQ+ Lit in adult SciFi where there romance is secondary and Not-A-Big-Deal-TM, while still keeping the notion of gender/sexuality being a spectrum at the fore. It's a great example of how to run a universe with LGBTQ rep, entirely because it doesn't stop to Examine-Things every time a non-binary blip pops up on the reader's radar.
          Everything about this was epic. And it was one of the very best versions of 'how to make a character a badass super-fighter' without just making them ridiculous or overpowered. Gideon is Epic. And she's an insecure disaster of a human. And she loses a lot. But she's shown very elegantly as being an incredible swordswoman.
          All in all, it's very well done.
          I only have 2 complaints, and one is really only half a complaint:
       Mainly, there was like zero comprehensive world building. This is the half-complaint because it was part of Gideon's character building. Gideon doesn't frickin care how the world functions. So she didn't really discuss it in her mental monologue. It was great, even as it got a bit annoying/confusing towards the very end.
        The only other piece of complaint I've got is that the final fight scene was excessive. It was just too long and too over the top to really play well with the pacing of the rest of it. I do understand why the choice to make it that way was made, but I disagree and I dislike the outcome of the final rendering. I would've shortened it by a few pages. Nothing too drastic, but it just got long ...
         Otherwise, this is probably the best book I've read thus far this year!

​And it's a GREAT transition for readers in Upper YA who are thinking about jumping into the mixed-bag of adult-SciFi!
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Bel Canto - Ann Patchett (Audio Book Review)

6/11/2021

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Date Read: May 2nd, 2021
Picture
Final Score : 8 / 10 !

           This one has been on my list of a hella long time. The waitlist at my Library was like a solid YEAR long, but I finally got it early last month, and I am DEEPLY pleased with it.
         I got this as an audio book, which is something I don't normally do (because I read print REALLY fast and it's hard for my brain to actually pay attention to a story being read aloud these days, ADD took away my ability to enjoy that around 8 years old, when I discovered I could get through the third Harry Potter in a decent afternoon...), but THIS little gem is definitely one that I enjoyed the reading of nearly as much as I enjoyed what was being read. In all honesty, I don't think I would've liked this one half as much without Anna Fields' spectacular feat of narration.
          (Mum recommended the AudioBook and wow was she right!)
          The best parts of the story came in the form of its uniqueness in terms of main character and expanded cast. Now, it took about 15% of the reading to actualy get to the point of meeting the main character, which initially irked me, but it set the scene extremely well for highlighting the fact that, in any other circumstances, translator Gen Watanabe would be in the background and unobtrusive.
           The uniqueness of the setting, which lead to the wonderful array of characters, and to the unexpected rise to prominence of Gen Watanabe, is decidedly AWESOME.
           However, like all books meant for adult audiences, it was painfully slow in developing an actual story. Unlike most adult fiction, that actually worked in its favor. The plot here follows a several-month-long incarceration by terrorists of attendants to fancy dinner party and a key theme it plays with is what happens when humans get bored (answer: dangerous things happen, VERY dangerous things).
            Also, unlike most grown-up books, this one had a point.
            This one took a situation and looked at it from a whole bunch of varied angles, but instead of just showing it to you, it made an active comment about that situation: namely that there's no such thing as 'the Bad Guys' in the real world, they only crop up in the stories that people tell to try explaining what happens in the world.
           It was definitely the best adult straight-fiction book I've read in a long while.
          That said, it was still REALLY slow and rather more boring that I generally prefer.  I did like it, though, and it was decidedly well-crafted (and EXCEPTIONALLY well-narrated), so I do certainly recommend it.
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