I've never read anything by KSR before since reviews by GR friends & the community make it sound as if he's into intricate world building which isn't I've never read anything by KSR before since reviews by GR friends & the community make it sound as if he's into intricate world building which isn't my thing. That was certainly true here in a near future story about social & political upheaval spurred by the wealth gap. It's focused on China & the moon with the US also playing a role. The overall idea wasn't bad, but it didn't do a lot for me since the characters were flat. There were a lot of opportunities for great characters, but he missed them all as he continually told the story in a pretty boring fashion. It never really grabbed me even in moments that should have been tense.
Amazingly, the early info dumps were kind of interesting due to the narrator, an old guy who uses feng shui as a basic philosophy. It got old & strained as the story moved on, though. The story wasn't helped by the current state of Hong Kong, something KSR couldn't have foreseen.
I wasn't thrilled with the ending which was abrupt, but I did like the birth scene. I've helped a lot of animals through the process & watched all 3 of my kids being born. His observations on the woman's grip strength were right on target. The narration was good.
All in all, not a bad read, but I doubt I'll read another by this author. My opinion of his writing seems to have been correct. I wouldn't have read it this time except it is the BotM for the Evolution of SF group. We're discussing it here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ...more
A pretty good thriller with a lot of detail about methods & equipment, more than I normally would have appreciated. However, I recently read how he haA pretty good thriller with a lot of detail about methods & equipment, more than I normally would have appreciated. However, I recently read how he has attended classes for much of what was described. That gave it a basis in fact that made it more interesting. He certainly isn't easy on his characters. Well narrated, too....more
I'm conflicted with how to rate this book, but it kind of pissed me off. The story was a good one & highlights a problem with higher education. The hiI'm conflicted with how to rate this book, but it kind of pissed me off. The story was a good one & highlights a problem with higher education. The high cost which burdens students with enormous debt. If the school isn't well rated or the job market declines, these poor kids are screwed. If the story were fictional, but the basic facts were true, that could make it a 4 or even 5 star read. It seemed like one until the afterword when Grisham states that he played fast & loose with the legal system. That's all he says. How much of this is actually a real problem? How much of what the kids did (could have done) or the court system has some basis in fact? Since I don't know, the story immediately lost a lot of its impact.
Well narrated, but a bit slow & I never fully engaged with the characters. Something about the tone & delivery kept them a bit distant. Due to the problems above, I'm tempted to give it just 2 stars, but the end kept me guessing the whole time. It was a train wreck & I wasn't sure how it would end. That suspense makes me bump it up a bit, so I'll settle for 3 stars - barely....more
This course devotes 4 lectures (about 30 minutes each) to 12 presidents that had a great deal of influence both on the office & the country. Don't getThis course devotes 4 lectures (about 30 minutes each) to 12 presidents that had a great deal of influence both on the office & the country. Don't get the idea that Lichtman thinks they were perfect or even right all the time. They all had their good & bad points, but they were 'great' meaning influential. He briefly covers their early life, the events that shaped the attitudes they brought into office, the highlights from their presidential terms, & afterward when appropriate. With so much material to cover, the facts are often bare, but he does a pretty good job of describing customs & attitudes that had a lot of bearing on their actions. He's a very good speaker & made the course interesting.
George Washington - (1789-97, #1) Certainly the greatest & Lichtman does a creditable job showing just how tough a job the first terms were. I read Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations not long ago. If you like this section, I highly recommend it. There's a lot more to the story, but he manages to tie the Federalist ideals in well with the opposition that Jefferson created.
Thomas Jefferson - (1801-9, #3) Impossibly, Lichtman does an excellent job showing just how confused Jefferson's ideals & practical applications were. Probably the most quoted & misunderstood president, Jefferson aspired to much higher goals than he actually practiced. He was both far ahead of his times in some ways, yet very much a man of his times in others. This is most evident in his views & relationships with blacks, but it's also obvious in his politics. The more I read about him, the more intriguing he is. Like so many of the presidents that followed him, he defies the good/bad label, so 'great' has to do.
Andrew Jackson - (1829-37, #7) the first 'common man' president, he's best known for extending the power of the presidency even further than before & removing the Indians along the Trail of Tears & tearing down the Bank of America. Some of his greatest achievements came before & after his term in office. Before, he pushed the Spanish out of Florida & afterward his proteges Van Buren & Polk continued his policies. The Democratic party also coalesced under his presidency & he recognized Texas as separate from Mexico. On top of all that, he was a scrapper.
TGC ends Part 1 at the end of the third of the Jackson lectures & starts Part 2 with part 4 of AJ. Why? If you're buying this, beware. Annoying, even though I got the whole thing from the library.
James K. Polk - (1845-489, #11) I was surprised to see him listed since he's not often mentioned & he's the only 1 term president on this list, but he accomplished everything on his agenda which included a war with Mexico to settle Texas in as a state, grab the SW & California, as well as the Oregon territory from Great Britain. While Lichtman points out the advantages to trade, he doesn't mention how securing the west coast protected the US from foreign powers geographically. He also established an independent Federal treasury system. Wow!
Abraham Lincoln - (1861-65, #16) Another good job & he really managed to show Lincoln's attitudes toward slavery well against the practicalities of achieving his position & power. He left me with a lot of questions on how much better the reconstruction would have been had he been in charge.
Theodore Roosevelt - (1901-09, #26) I've read several books by & about the Colonel, so no surprises. His story is a whirlwind, of course. It's wearing just trying to keep up with synopsis of his accomplishments.
Woodrow Wilson - (1913-21, #28) The League of Nations & many other foreign policies that pushed the US into the International scene as well as the Federal Reserve Act & WWI. Like his predecessors, pretty bad civil rights, though.
Franklin Roosevelt - (1933-45, #32) The only president elected 4 times, although he only served 3 terms since he died early in the fourth. He dealt with the Great Depression with the New Deal & WWII finally saw the economy turn around. Terrible civil rights record.
Harry S Truman - (1945-53, #33) I never knew how much of an unknown he was until his post as VP propelled him into the presidency. He had a lot to deal with & seems to have done really well setting up the basics for those that followed. I'm sure a lot will second guess his use of the atomic bomb, but Lichtman managed to get across the Soviet pressure as well as the Japanese fanaticism well.
John F. Kennedy - (1961-63, #35) an excellent background & hit the high points well, not sparing him for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Good, if quick coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis & the middling road he took despite LeMay's push. NASA, Peace Corp, & more.
Lyndon B. Johnson - (1963-69, #36) a southern Democrat with an incredibly liberal home agenda, I forget that LBJ saw the founding of so many of JFK's reforms & added his own by leading NASA, the Civil Rights Act, Clean Air, & welfare. His legacy is overshadowed by his idiocy in Vietnam & the riots that mocked his efforts at reform. Strange times where he was the figurehead of many of the injustices he worked so hard to end.
Ronald Reagan - (1981-89, #40) Dutch, the Teflon President was a somewhat surprising pick since it's tough to put the term great on so recent a figure & his legacy is so mixed. I was married & raising my kids during his terms, so was paying attention. I remember the double digit unemployment & mortgage rates that turned around with his economic policies & was gratified that Lichtman included Clinton's adherence to them, something that too many forget. Since I'm not a Conservative (or a Liberal), I wasn't happy with most of his other domestic policies, though. His foreign policies against the Soviets sure seemed to have worked out, though. Having grown up in a MAD world, his work with Gorbachev & the INF sure seemed pretty great.
As usual, Connelly delivered. It was a nice break from the Bosch books. This started off a bit slow for me. Too much whining from Jack, I think. It quAs usual, Connelly delivered. It was a nice break from the Bosch books. This started off a bit slow for me. Too much whining from Jack, I think. It quickly picked up & sucked me in, though. There's a really good issue revolving around the ethics of reporting versus informing the authorities. Take a chance on lives being lost, being scooped, or letting the authorities take control. It's not a clear cut choice & that was well shown. Definitely recommended....more
In Rogue Lawyer, "Partner" is working with Sebastian as his guy Friday, body guard, & driver. This is why he does so. Good, short, & to the point. WelIn Rogue Lawyer, "Partner" is working with Sebastian as his guy Friday, body guard, & driver. This is why he does so. Good, short, & to the point. Well narrated....more
Not for me. Pinker's first example of Richard Dawkins' writing was great, but his second was of his wife's & that did nothing for me. It went downhillNot for me. Pinker's first example of Richard Dawkins' writing was great, but his second was of his wife's & that did nothing for me. It went downhill from there until I found myself drifting off. I finally decided the boring drive was better than the book, so I paused it. I tried it later & again drifted. Well narrated, but just not my thing, so no star rating. I've liked Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, so I'll give other books of his a chance....more
Overall, this was one of the scariest books I've ever read in light of our current political climate. Of course, most of the population was in very baOverall, this was one of the scariest books I've ever read in light of our current political climate. Of course, most of the population was in very bad straits due to the harsh reprisals & rampant corruption from the days of the Tsars, the 1905 Revolution & then the Revolution of 1917 which deposed Tsar Nicholas II plus the horrors of WWI. This lead to the October Revolution of 1917, AKA: the Ten Days that Shook the World.
It was a nightmare. People were starving & no one really knew who was in charge. For most of the ten days, the Bolsheviks' didn't seem to have things in hand, but Lenin, Trotsky, & Stalin came out on top, of course. The sheer amount of lies, bull shit, & propaganda that was shoveled by all sides was incredible. The confusion was intense & this book paints that picture very well. John Reed may have been sympathetic to the socialists, but that just gave him better access. His reporting was pretty straight forward leaving it to the reader to make up their mind about the morality of the situation.
He didn't even condemn the gross censorship imposed. That's ironic given his welcome in the US where the magazine he was originally reporting for had been closed by the Post Office for being unamerican. He was strip searched & had almost everything confiscated by the authorities, too. Yes, the 'Land of the Free' often hasn't been since John Adams signed the Alien & Sedition Acts back in 1798. Of course, the press then gave him plenty of ammo by being at least as full of shit as they were in Russia & are today. It's a point to keep in mind.
I missed out on a lot in this book due to my ignorance of Russian history & geography. It wasn't helped by being written in 1918 when the names of many places were different than they were when I was growing up nor by the bewildering variety of Russian names & political parties. That's all on me, though. If you're in the same boat, I highly recommend reading the articles I've linked above. It's also helpful to have a separate printed copy of the descriptions of the political parties listed early in the book.
Very well narrated & well worth reading. I got this version from my library, but it is free in text from Gutenberg.org here in multiple etext formats & in audiobook format from Librivox.org here, so there's no excuse not to read it....more
Another good addition to the series. Theodore & his friends deal with being taught to the test & a scandal involving teachers changing the test gradesAnother good addition to the series. Theodore & his friends deal with being taught to the test & a scandal involving teachers changing the test grades due to pressure. Well done both in form & ideas. As usual, John Boy Walton did a great job of narrating it....more
Lamas starts off with telling us "I became the resident who didn’t let anyone die." A seemingly laudable goal, but she never looked beyond that momentLamas starts off with telling us "I became the resident who didn’t let anyone die." A seemingly laudable goal, but she never looked beyond that moment. These are stories of what comes after extreme life saving measures are taken. The stories start out pretty gloomy, but get more hopeful as the book goes along, so don't bail. I almost did, but I'm glad I didn't.
Still, I don't think she dug deeply enough. Her stories left me with a lot of questions she didn't answer. For instance, finances didn't seem to be a problem for anyone in her stories. I find that very difficult to believe. Even 20 years ago when I had the best health insurance available, we took a huge hit when my son had his chest crushed by a horse breaking its leg. The bills trickled that in for over a year were staggering & he only spent a week in ICU with very little aftercare. I can't imagine what the bills would be like today.
Well narrated & put together. I'm glad I read it, but I'm torn between 3 & 4 stars. She just didn't dig deep enough for all the good info she did present. Still, I recommend it.
Table of Contents Introduction: She sets up what her work was like, briefly seeing patients as they came in & needed life saving treatments. The tech was dazzling in what it could do that night, but eventually she wanted to find out what happened after that.
1: You Can Stop Humming Now: This is the first case where she got close enough to a patient to want to see what happened to him afterward. She was upbraided by the administration for checking without any work-related need & prior authorization. IOW, the system wanted her to remain focused & distant. That's not terrible since the constant pain could tear a doctor apart. Still, it's not great, either. People become room numbers.
2: Ten Percent: In far too many cases, too few people ever make it out of critical care units. Sure, their lives are saved, but they might be vegetables or zombies drugged into accepting the tubes & machines that keep them 'alive'. That's not life, IMO. I watched 2 grandfather's suffer that way for weeks against their & family wishes. It's plain torture, but the sadistic assholes 'saved' them again. Hell no! So make a Living Will & make sure you have a proper Health Proxy filled out even if you're on the same page with the person you've been married to forever. We have.
3: Life on Battery: This is the first hopeful story about a guy that has a heavy duty pacemaker & has to wear a battery pack unless he's plugged into a 20' extension cord. He still manages to live, though. His story is followed up in the Afterword, too.
4: Nightmares After the ICU: PTSD from the torture of ICU care. Yes, it's a real thing. My son has told me about it. Many medical procedures are tough to distinguish from torture, but life saving ones, complete with drugs & restraints, are often scarring.
5: Emergence: A sad case of the aftermath from a drug overdose where the brain was starved of oxygen for too long. IMO, another case where saving the patient wasn't worth it.
6: Where the Bridge Ends: A lung transplant is horrendous, but this young lady has managed it fairly well.
7: Networking for a Kidney: The hospital donor lists are long & tough to get on, but this guy managed to find one through social media. Strange as hell. I can't imagine anyone would give up a kidney to a stranger. I'm far too self-centered to even contemplate it.
8: An Unexpected Adulthood: Cystic Fibrosis treatment has come a long way very quickly. Kids from the 1980s thought they'd die before they were 20, but now they're approaching 40 & still surviving, sometimes very well. How the hell do you live a life like that? Marriage, kids, & a house weren't in the cards, but suddenly become possibilities. Wow! Mind blowing.
9: How It Begins: The transplant process. If you've ever thought about one or know someone who has, this is worth reading.
Afterword: Follows up on her & the folks mentioned in these pages. Pretty good ending....more
This was a lot of fun with interesting, if somewhat 2D characters. The main theme is self confidence & good leadership can turn the dregs into the besThis was a lot of fun with interesting, if somewhat 2D characters. The main theme is self confidence & good leadership can turn the dregs into the best during interesting encounters. It's told from the butler's point of view, so his rather dry wit adds to the flavor. It's a quick read, great in either text or audio. It has no redeeming features other than being a hell of a lot of fun. That's still enough to earn it 4 stars from me, though....more
I'm a computer guy, but I don't know much about how AI works. Russell added a lot to my knowledge & did so in basic steps that I appreciated. As in anI'm a computer guy, but I don't know much about how AI works. Russell added a lot to my knowledge & did so in basic steps that I appreciated. As in any field, there's a vocabulary to pick up & while it often resembles typical speech, there can important differences that need to be spelled out. This holds especially true with concepts that we don't understand well in ourselves & yet are trying to build into machines, specifically "intelligence". Just what that is only partially answered in the second chapter because it carries a lot of caveats with it.
Even fuzzier are all the assumptions we can make when defining a goal. He uses some great examples that show we don't always literally want what we ask for. If we tell a car to get us to the airport ASAP, we really don't want it to break speed records or play demolition derby simply to save a few minutes. By the same token, if we want to make sure we get to the airport on time, we don't want to leave the day before & camp out overnight, but both might make sense in a purely logical manner.
Many seemingly simple commands need to use the uncertainty principle, probabilities, & a host of data on real world conditions including our preferences. Of course, our preferences can change over time & we're often irrational. No one is identical in their preferences either, so a robot serving 2 masters has to resolve priorities, too. And on and on down a rabbit hole of complexities. He kept them sorted out very well.
I was really impressed by the control problem in regards to self preservation. If we don't specify it, a program would quite reasonably conclude that allowing itself to be turned off would mean it couldn't fulfill its function. He mentioned Hal 9000 in this regard.
Early on, he promises not to mention SF in the section & that was a mistake, at least in communicating to me. About halfway through the book he starts mentioning SF & has some decent examples. He even says that SF authors are the one group that have given many scenarios a lot of thought. He missed some great books & examples, unfortunately. I was able to fill them in mentally. Maybe it's just me, but the dry recitation of the wire-head experiments (A rat with a wire stuck in its pleasure center & the ability to pull a lever to cause pleasure will do so until it dies.) is sad & disgusting, but it doesn't viscerally affect me the way it did when Gil the ARM dealt with it in Niven's short stories. It's been several decades since I read one of those short stories & I still have a vivid memory.
I loved the audiobook & highly recommend it, but get a print copy, too. Look at the Appendices & skim them early on, maybe even read them. They fill in some gaps that help with the text. I read them & listened to them. I think understand them now. There's a lot to think about, though. I think I could reread this right now & not be bored, but get even more out of it. Now that's a recommendation since anyone who has read my reviews knows how much I detest repetition....more
Leeds is an interesting character & there is much discussion about the definition of sanity due to his peculiar way of coping with eidetic memory, shaLeeds is an interesting character & there is much discussion about the definition of sanity due to his peculiar way of coping with eidetic memory, sharp senses, & genius level intelligence. He has too much data & acquires skills too quickly to keep them all sorted out, so he creates aspects each with unique abilities & knowledge. These imaginary people are kind of real to him & that's a cornerstone of the stories. He falls into various mysteries & sorts them out in a unique way.
I enjoyed the first one "Legion" & probably should have stopped there. It wasn't quite a 4 star story. "Legion: Skin Deep" had issues. It was barely OK; long & the end had too many flaws. (view spoiler)[A super cold assassin who, just in the nick of time, gets a case of the willies so bad she misses a point blank shot? Please! (hide spoiler)] "Legion: Lies of the Beholder" was better, a solid 3 stars, so that's my overall rating for the book.
The book was well narrated, but never really excited me. I can understand how writing them could have been cathartic for Sanderson which made the introduction quite good. It was short, too. Well worth reading....more
I've read quite a few of his books & really enjoyed them, but this one just lost me. His writing style is somewhat bloated, but that's always been carI've read quite a few of his books & really enjoyed them, but this one just lost me. His writing style is somewhat bloated, but that's always been carried by the characters before. Smart-mouthed Sean Drummond does it well & he's a character I could really get, but I just don't have any empathy for the main character in this one. The bad guys are too bad & it's just boring me, so DNF.
The narration was good, though. Scott Brick again. ...more
I listened to this narrated by Scott Brick. Very well done. I wasn't paying attention to the time & the book was long. A quarter of the way through I I listened to this narrated by Scott Brick. Very well done. I wasn't paying attention to the time & the book was long. A quarter of the way through I was sure I knew what was going to happen. I expected it at the halfway mark, but he threw in a cuckoo's egg. (view spoiler)[The coating really did work. I didn't expect that. (hide spoiler)] The question was how he'd get out of it & still wind up at the same point, not if. He managed it, just drew it out longer. Anyone who has read any of my reviews knows I detest that, but somehow I didn't mind it this time. I enjoyed the ride even though I was sure where it was going to end up. I was right. It did, but it was a really fun ride watching the screws turn ever so painfully into people who really deserved it....more
Another excellent addition to the series featuring a smart-mouthed lawyer. As usual, it was a twisty tale of corruption, greed, & murderers. Drummond Another excellent addition to the series featuring a smart-mouthed lawyer. As usual, it was a twisty tale of corruption, greed, & murderers. Drummond barely seems to hold his own until a brilliant ending. Great fun & well narrated. Highly recommended. Each book stands well alone, but reading them in order is recommended....more
If you're really into diving, you'll get more out of this than I did. I found a entire chapters on the technical aspects of a specific sort of diving If you're really into diving, you'll get more out of this than I did. I found a entire chapters on the technical aspects of a specific sort of diving rather boring, although the history was often really interesting. Our ignorance of how pressures affect us is as incredible as what people have endured.
The chapters about subs & the various robots were more interesting. I just finished watching "Greyhound" (2020) with Tom Hanks which is about how the U boats took a toll on shipping during WWII in the center of the Atlantic. This gave me a lot more context. The Russian drone with a nuclear bomb in its belly is chilling. I wonder how many we have? I wholeheartedly agreed with the last bit about conservation, but both were far lighter in detail. It was great to hear about the really deep dives, ones that I knew nothing about.
The author isn't particularly exciting, but does have a long history with the sea so he knew his stuff. That said, I managed to get through the entire book. It was well narrated & I did grow up on the ocean, so I had some reference points.
He never once mentioned how the limitations of the senses contributes to some people's fears. I certainly found it in myself. 10' or 20' down, without the ability to see or hear properly in the dark waters of the Long Island Sound had me nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers. On one memorable occasion, I saw a shark & my cousins still tease me occasionally about my ability to run into the boat across water with a pair of tanks, flippers, & a weight belt on. My uncle went down to have a look (Crazy man!) & said it was just a 6' sand shark that wouldn't bother me. Right. It looked a hell of a lot bigger & this was before the movie "Jaws" came out. I didn't go back in the water, yet I'll walk a 3" wide ridge pole 4 stories up with a 30 pound tool belt in bad weather & bend over double or kneel to nail in joists without a qualm. Go figure. I guess we're all different.
Not quite a 4 star read, but I'll round up....more
Fairly short & a very interesting look at how our brain evolved which keeps us from approaching anything like true rationality on a regular basis. He Fairly short & a very interesting look at how our brain evolved which keeps us from approaching anything like true rationality on a regular basis. He discusses many brain bugs, but from a different perspective than Dean Buonomano did in Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives. Marcus gives the evolutionary perspective.
Well narrated & enthralling throughout. Highly recommended.
Table of Contents 1-Remnants of History - Under stress, our reasoning falters as the latest layer is deprioritized by the underlying parts with so much more evolutionary history. Marcus does a great job of showing this with a variety of examples.
2-Memory - The postal-code memory systems used by computers is as powerful as it is simple. Yeah, we don't have that. Instead we use what he calls "contextual memory". Items out of place often require a lot more thought than they should & we often make up stories to smooth out bumps.
3-Belief - Because evolution built belief mainly out of off-the-shelf components that evolved for other purposes, we often lose track of where our beliefs come from — if we ever knew — and even worse, we are often completely unaware of how much we are influenced by irrelevant information.
4-Choice - Building on the previous chapters, we don't make rational decisions & it drives models of economics & other predictors wild.
5-Language - Like so much else, it's pretty awful, but good enough. How the speech parts evolved out of existing structures was fascinating. It makes me wonder how we manage to talk at all.
6- Plearsure - Without it, we wouldn't exist. It's our reason to keep going, but it's also our downfall all too often.
7-Things Fall Apart - Engineers would probably build kluges more often if it were not for one small fact: that which is clumsy is rarely reliable. The idea that we were designed perfectly is laughable & no where is more clear than in our minds. They often fail spectacularly. If it happens often enough in the same way, we call it a disease. Good chapter, but I disagree with his take on psychopaths. He lists them as a failure, but I'll bet a lot of top executives would test out as one. They're just better adjusted & thus very successful.
8-True Wisdom - The value of imperfections extends far beyond simple balance, however. Scientifically, every kluge contains a clue to our past; wherever there is a cumbersome solution, there is insight into how nature layered our brain together; it is no exaggeration to say that the history of evolution is a history of overlaid technologies, and kluges help expose the seams. ...more
Highly recommended! Written in late February, early March 2020, Giordano's short essay makes a lot of sense out of the mess we're in months later. HisHighly recommended! Written in late February, early March 2020, Giordano's short essay makes a lot of sense out of the mess we're in months later. His explanation of contagion is good & simple plus he makes sense out of the conflicting experts & policies. Not much was new to me, although the olive tree example was, but it was nice to have it all repeated in one concise dose. He didn't get into face masks at all, but did show very well how this isn't about me, but all of us & how anyone can exacerbate the situation by simply being thoughtless.
My copy is an audiobook downloaded from my public library, a surprise find. It's an essay & very new, yet it was readily available. Unfortunately, that means few are reading it. Originally written in Italian, the translation seemed quite good to me....more
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