Book Review: *Strata* by Terry Pratchett

Book: Strata

Author: Terry Pratchett

Goodreads rating: 3

Strata is interesting for a few reasons: 1) the proto-Discworld and prototypical Pratchett(ian?) themes and humor 2) the moral that systems and worldviews can be taken one level deeper, as the protagonist discovers at the climax of the book. It's a deep philosophical point that's fairly well hidden in a story that otherwise feels like an overlong Discworld prototype, not quite as engaging or well written that series and more direct in it's criticisms of religion and human behavior. I think it would've been better as a shorter work.

Still, even a rough version of the quirky yet identifiable characters Pratchett does so well makes for decent reading, and as a big Discworld fan, I found them to be both familiar and alien in an interesting way. Definitely worthwhile reading if otherwise exhausted Pratchett, it's still a decent book even if you're not familiar with his work, though I'd recommend one of the top Discworld books before this one both from a quality standpoint and from an, er, intertextual standpoint.

7 Books On Being More Than Human

7 books on being more than human, a reply to Zach's "5 Sci Fi Books to Read in 2013" and at his suggestion. I picked a few books that I hadn't previously recommended, distilled a theme and then added a few more. And found that I had 7 books. As Vernor Vinge cannot be denied when it comes to the technological Singularity as a plot element, I've broken my previous rule about only including each author once

• The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag. Robert Heinlein.

Novella and short story collection. The best pieces in the collection are the title novella -- which is more existential horror -- and "All You Zombies", the ultimate time travel story.

• Accelerando. Charles Stross.

Stross attempts the impossible and writes a story across the Singularity. It starts in the near future at a personal level with a strong hard scifi feel and gets somewhat wackier but still plausible as the story progresses and expands across the Singularity.

• Ilium. Dan Simmons.

First book in the Illium/Olympos series. As Wikipedia notes, it 'is a form of "literary science fiction" which relies heavily on intertextuality' where allusions abound and give depth and texture to the story and world. Even without understanding many of the references, I found it to be a great story -- posthumans living as Greek gods re-enacting the Iliad, decadent humans in a quasiparadise on earth, cybernetic intelligences comptemplating Shakespeare and a wily Odysseus on odyssey tying the threads together. I really need to reread this.

• Rainbows End. Vernor Vinge.

Near future world in the grip of the Singularity with AIs, universal augmented reality and a hint of dystopia thrown in. Vinge is the Singularity guy. Check out Marooned in Realtime by Vinge for a different, post Singularity take set in his The Peace War universe.

• The Demolished Man. Alfred Bester.

A murder mystery in a world of powerful and potentially manipulating mind-readers and a perfectly rational computerized justice system.

• More Than Human. Theodore Sturgeon.

A different take on telepathy... what constitutes an individual when people can share thoughts?

• A Fire Upon the Deep. Vernor Vinge.

To me, the epitome of Vinge's work. A godlike, malovent AI has been dug up by humans in the outer reaches of the galaxy, where the speed of light can be exceeded. It can only be defeated by ensconing it the "Slow Zone", where physics behaves as we know it. Most of the action takes place on a medival world inhabited by Tines, pack-intelligences the recall the gestalt from More Than Human.

Book Review: *The Persistence of Vision*

Book: The Persistence of Vision

Author: John Varley

Goodreads rating: 4

Overall a strong collection of stories with a good mix of both Varley's Eight Worlds stories and several stand alone pieces.

• The 'Phantom of Kansas' is a well done mystery that reminds me of Heinlein's 'All You Zombies'.

• 'Air Raid' is the prototype for Millenium and, while I like the setting less than any of the other worse, doesn't die off the way Millenium does.

• 'Retrograde Summer' is a classic Eight Worlds, and provides a worldview from which the modren concepts of family appear perverse while showing that even the gender swapping Eight Worlds characters can fall victim to their assumptions about gender roles. The quicksilver falls and swimming hole are pretty cool, too.

• 'The Black Hole Passes' is another Varley piece that strongly reminds me of Heinlein -- Characters are technically brilliant, highly sexualized, romantically and erotically bonded and chivalrous with regards to each other.

• 'In the Hall of the Martian Kings' is not set in the Eight Worlds, but starts off in a strange but almost Bradbury-esque way with Mars somehow adapting to an abandoned human exploration team. It builds quite well with a nice dynamic between the team members, but ends too suddenly and patly.

• 'In the Bowl'. Another Heinlein-like piece (in the interact between the protagonists, at least) that does a good job of relating both how potentially alien the universe can be and how we can neglect the importance and value of a process, particularly a mysterious one, for its end product.

• 'Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance' -- Fairly sexy exploration of the creation of art through synthesis and connection and the loss experienced after disconnecting told through the eyes of Eight Worlds Human/Sym pair.

• 'Overdrawn at the Memory Bank' -- Fun exploration of the potential consequences of human mind recording and running a human in silico and how his interactions with the human world might be."

• 'Persistence of Vision' -- Reminds me of Richard Bach's Illusions, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Vonnegut's Slaughterhourse Five, etc. The Messiah interaction from those pieces is flipped, though, with the Mesiah character actually manifesting as a small, loving utopian culture of deaf-mutes. Sounds weird, works really well. Like those pieces I compare it to.

Book Review: The Multiplex Man

Title: The Multiplex Man Author: James P. Hogan

The Multiplex Man is a decent read, with a clever and twisting story arc revealed in a nonlinear way through the various viewpoints of the eponymous character. Published in 1992, it inverts the East/West ideological divide by creating a authoritarian West that has turned to a ideologically Green command economy purportedly to stave off a Malthusian disaster. In contrast, former Soviet bloc has become a freedom loving, apparently strongly capitalistic and libertarian society that's enjoying the benefits of a healthy connection with human colonies throughout the solar system.

Against this backdrop, the hook is dangling quickly, with the reader drawn in with the mysterious as to why mild mannered Dick Jarrow awakes from a doctor's visit to find himself in a hotel in a different state with all of the trappings of an adventerous life -- lipstick on the pillow, guns and cash in a bag and a set of mysterious notes -- as well as well as a different identity. As he searches to understand his situation, we're given ever deeper layers of mystery to uncover.

Plotwise, the story arc twists and turns, with the situation rarely being entirely what it seems. While the characters' constant obsession with ideology can be offputting, it isn't entirely inappropriate for the world it's set in. It does detract from some of character building, making the characters feel flatter than I think they otherwise would. The point of view shifts, while occasionally fitting well within the plot and system of the universe, are often jarring and I think could've been executed more smoothly. Still, they do likely avoid unnecessary exposition which is generally a good thing.

All-in-all, a worthwhile read that kept me interested despite feeling excessively ideological.

Letters of Thanks

Today's the last day of November and, for much of the month, people have been giving thanks publically for a variety of things in their lives. I think that's a fine idea, but I've been pondering a variation of the theme.

Like many of the November thanksgivers, I'd like to focus on the people I'm thankful for. Naturally, this includes my parents, siblings, wife, friends and extended family, but there are also others who've touched, shaped and improved my life in a variety of less personal, though still very important, ways. I'd like to thank those people who, despite not (or just barely) knowing me personally, have made my life what it is today.

I'm slowly putting together a list that at the moment consists primarily of authors and founders of organizations I've benefited from. There are undoubtably other categories and persons I should consider and I welcome suggestions.

Many of these people are quite advanced in age, so I'm going to prioritize such that I first address those whom I worry are nearest death. The oldest member of the list so far is former Mississippi governor William F. Winter who established Mississippi Governor's School -- a revolutionary influence on my life -- in 1981.

My wife's card project has shown just how meaningful a single letter or card can be, particularly today when phones and the internet are the preferred media for casual conversation. So, for now, the preferred tool of expression will be a written (well, typed, my handwriting is atrocious) letter. In Winter's case, that leads to the question of how to send him a letter as I haven't found a mailing address for him. I appreciate any suggestions.

I think a regular pacing, perhaps a letter every one or two weeks, makes a good practice.

Some Books Worth Reading

I put together a list of books worth reading for a friend of mine. It's based on a mix of his and my tastes and intended to introduce him to new works. Originally, it was more balanced, but I decided to flesh out some more of the speculative fiction works (which is my favorite genre, no doubt).

I've read everything on the list. I limited it to one book per author (mostly, an author might show up more than once due to collaborations).

It's not a ranking or anything. Many of the books are my favorites by a particular author, but not all. (For instance, Prelude to Foundation is probably my favorite Asimov book).

Note: Categories are fuzzy with overlap. Very Rough. I'd love to get feedback.

Non Fiction

Physics

• QED, Richard Feynman
• The Age of Entanglement, Louisa Gilder
• The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
• The Black Hole Wars, Leonard Susskind

Math

• Group Theory in the Bedroom, Brian Hayes
• The Drunkard's Walk, Leonard Mlodinow
• An Introduction To Information Theory, John R. Pierce

Engineering

• The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, Henry Petroski.
• Roving Mars, Steven W. Squyres

Music

• This Is Your Brain On Music, Daniel J. Levitin

Speculative Fiction

Hard Sci-Fi

• The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
• Red Thunder, John Varley
• A Deepness In The Sky, Vernor Vinge
• Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
• Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
• Footfall, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
• The Integral Trees, Larry Niven (This is an edit. Originally, I had listed A World Out of Time.)
• Neuromancer, William Gibson
• Tangents, Greg Bear (specifically for "Blood Music")
• The Uplift War, David Brin

Potpurri

• Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
• The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
• The Complete Compleat Enchanter, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• David Starr, Space Ranger, Isaac Asimov

Fantasy (fairly broad definition of Fantasy)

• His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik
• Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
• American Gods, Neil Gaiman
• A Spell For Chameleon, Piers Anthony

Alternate History

• Death Is Lighter Than a Feather, David Westheimer
• A World of Difference, Harry Turtledove
• 1632, Eric Flint
• Lest Darkness Fall, L. Sprague de Camp
• Birds of Prey, David Drake

Backpack

Components of my backpack. Eventually, I'd like to go as modular as possible with my backpack system, but I still like to be prepared for unexpected events.

Front compartment

1. Zagg USB Wallcharger/Backup battery
2. Mini USB cable
3. Micro USB Cable (long)
4. Sandisk Sansa Clip Music Player (with 16 GB Micro SD card)
5. MicroSD to SD card adapter
6. Stanley 4 in 1 pocket screwdriver
7. 2 black ballpoint pens
8. 1 blue ballpoint pen
9. 1 mechanical pencil
10. Tire gauge

Middle compartment

1. Business Card holder
2. Stanley Small Screwdriver set
3. Kindle in case with reading light
4. Small Umbrella
5. Vivatar 5x30 Binoculars
6. Small electrics bag
   1. Small, cheap LED flashlight (3xAAA batteries)
   2. Sprint Wall and Car outlet to 2x USB charger
   3. Mini USB Cable
   4. Micro USB Cable

Main Compartment

1. Ultrabook (Zareason Ultralap 430)
2. Ultrabook power adapter
3. Various notebooks, usually Moleskins
4. Overnight/Emergency supplies bag
   1. Bag of bags: Multiple sandwich and gallon sized ziplock bags
   2. 2 Toothbrushes
   3. Notebook bag: old moleskin datebook, mechanical pencil in ziplock
   4. deoderant
   5. 2 toothbrushes
   6. triple antibiotic ointment
   7. Eton Hand crank Flashlight/Weather radio/USB charger
   8. Hotel Bar soap
   9. Hotel shampoo bottle
   10. Spare underwear
   11. Spare socks
   12. Small items subbag
       1. Matchbook
       2. several rubber bands
       3. 4 AA batteries
       4. 7 AAA batteries
       5. 1 9V battery
       6. Spare headphones

At the moment it's not overly heavy, but I can still add more stuff.

Things I'd like to add:

1. Small bottle of sunscreen.
2. Hat
3. Spare glasses
4. Towell
5. Shorts
6. T-shirt
7. Toothpaste
8. Multitool
9. Deck of cards
10. High calorie snack of some sort.
11. Tablet (Nexus 7?) probably replacing Kindle

A Ham radio would be cool, too, but I'd need to learn how to operate one and get a license.

I don't think all of that is going to fit in my current backpack, though at the moment, I could accomdate a couple of full size textbooks as well. The towel, in particular, would need to be cleverly done.

What else should I have?