The chapters alternate between the POV of two characters, one who is the fourth princess in a somewhat medieval society on a planet that is not Earth,The chapters alternate between the POV of two characters, one who is the fourth princess in a somewhat medieval society on a planet that is not Earth, and the other being an anthropologist coming from the much more technologically advanced Earth to study this planet which was colonised in rough conditions and lost contact with Earth, which explains why it is medieval. The problem of the anthropologist is that contact with Earth has been lost again and he is marooned on this planet, skipping through the years by hibernating and trying to act in his role of anthropologist in case anyone from Earth comes to find him, which seems more and more unlikely each time he wakes up.
The story of these two characters who don't understand each other nor the issues the other is facing is really good. Tchaikovsky made his charcters really believable and endearing, and he brings other aspects to the story that really amazed me. It is hard IMO to make a story so original, after so many years of existence of the field of speculative fiction. The best part was that this originality was not for originality's sake but really allowed him to build interesting characters with interesting relationships.
I was a bit disappointed with the ending. I felt the main device of the plot resolution was unbelievable and came out of nowhere, but as the main point of this book is the characters, that did not disappoint me _too_ much....more
Frans de Waal names his field evolutive cognition. Cognition is how all animals, including humans, perceive their environment and other animals, and tFrans de Waal names his field evolutive cognition. Cognition is how all animals, including humans, perceive their environment and other animals, and the mechanisms which allow them to interact with their environment, learn things, solve problems, use tools, recognize and communicate with each other, etc. The idea here is that learning and behaviours are rooted in the biology of a species and that species that are close to each other genetically should have close forms of learning and behaviours. Conversely, several unrelated species may develop similar capacities through convergent evolution.
This book not only gives an overview of the field of evolutionary cognition but also of its pitfalls. He warns about some tendancies to think that human intelligence is so unique that it cannot be compared at all to the intelligence of any other species. This bias may lead to experiments which are incorrectly conceived, such as experiments supposed to compare task solving for human children and apes which are performed in vastly different conditions for the children and the apes.
There's much more to this book than this and I highly recommend it....more
This is part fantasy and part fairy tale. Mara is a princess, but an inept one. She fails at learning the subtelties of court politics and diplomacy, This is part fantasy and part fairy tale. Mara is a princess, but an inept one. She fails at learning the subtelties of court politics and diplomacy, and ends up in a convent. The story alternates between past and present, and starts when Mara is on some fairy tale quest, the goal of which we will discover little by little, at the same time as we discover what happened to her and most of all what happened to her sisters.
Mara is a very interesting and endearing character, who fights to be an actor in her life story rather than being passive as everybody is urging her, actively or not, to be. This will lead her to engage on this heroic quest and meeting a very interesting cast of characters. The books start somewhat dark but quickly lightens up. Though Mara and her friends face dangers and have to witness the darkness of human soul, the novel is uplifting on the whole.
The cast of characters and Mara's determination and ironic humour make a very pleasant novel. I have other books by T. Kingfisher in my wishlist and will certainly get to them at some point....more
Couldn't get into this one. This consits mainly of dialogues between drunk people, without any description of how the people behave while they're havinCouldn't get into this one. This consits mainly of dialogues between drunk people, without any description of how the people behave while they're having these conversations, which makes for dull reading. The fact that the characters are all horrible to each other doesn't help. Some books are criticised because the author tells rather than shows how things are. With this one i had the feeling that Hemingway neither tells nor shows, but that we have to guess what's on his minde. It was interesting to see how normal people thought antisemitism was at the time, with the characters issuing multiple antisemtic comment (there's one in the first paragraph), including to the jewish character's face....more
This is an alternate history book set in the 19th century Oxford university. In this alternate world, words have power and translators can make somethThis is an alternate history book set in the 19th century Oxford university. In this alternate world, words have power and translators can make something similar to magic by exploiting the differences between a word and its translation. The British empire uses the translators at Oxford to maintain and extend its power. We follow a group of four young translator students, who are discriminated because they are not white and/or not males. They were brought to Oxford because their skills in languages from faraway places are needed for the translation institute, but they are made to feel like they don't really belong. Little by little, they will start to question the whole system of dominations on which the British Empire was built.
I thought the magic system was really interesting and it was IMO the high point of this book. The daily discrimination and the fact that well-meaning people could be oblivious to it was also really interesting to me. However, the book was a bit spoilt for me by its last part, in which I thought the students were behaving in a completely unbelievable way....more
I was apprehensive about because I had not liked the only other novel-length book in the series as much as the other. Fortunately this turned out to bI was apprehensive about because I had not liked the only other novel-length book in the series as much as the other. Fortunately this turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed watching the Murderbot character continue evolving in new ways.
I think there are at least two more books in the series to come and I'll look forward to them!...more
Yang Fei est mort. Il découvre qu'il doit se rendre au funérarium pour y être incinéré, mais une fois sur place il y renonce, car, étant seul au mondeYang Fei est mort. Il découvre qu'il doit se rendre au funérarium pour y être incinéré, mais une fois sur place il y renonce, car, étant seul au monde, personne n'a acheté de sépulture pour lui. Il va donc errer dans la ville, revoir certains endroits qui étaient importants pour lui, et même croiser d'autres personnes décédées qui errent également. Chacun de ces lieux ou de ces rencontres va être l'occasion pour Yang Fei de se rappeler un épidode ou quelqu'un de sa vie. La vie a été dure pour Yang Fei et les gens autour de lui et on trouve dans ce livre une critique de certaines actions du gouvernement chinois (le livre a été écrit dans les années 2010), comme des démolitions de maisons occupées ou des officiels du parti qui mangent à l'œil au restaurant ce qui risque d'entraîner sa ruine. Yang Fei flotte dans une espèce de brouillard qui met de la distance entre lui et ces souvenirs, et donne un aspect assez poétique au texte très bien écrit, ce qui fait de ce livre une bien belle lecture....more
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