Day 3: A long and tiring day of running around making sure captions work and doing impromptu tech support for professional development day at work. The frog shirt is another birthday addition.
Photos
Photos, usually taken by me. May be mirrored or imported from other services.
Year 50 Day 1
For my 50th year, I’m going to try to post an selfie (or image with me in it) a day. Day one: From my birthday trip to Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, having fun with their new A Bug’s Eye View exhibit.
📚 Semiosis by Sue Burke
23/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fascinating story of colonists struggling to survive on a new planet and working to communicate with the intelligences already on this world. Rather than a single central protagonist, the first few chapters are almost individual standalone stories, jumping a few decades at a time, before events accelerate towards the latter half of the book into a somewhat more traditional narrative. Really neat ideas on how very different species might find ways to communicate with each other. Enjoyed this enough that I just ordered its sequel.
📚 A Choice of Catastrophes by Michael Schuster and Steve Mollmann
22/2023 – ⭐️⭐️
Much of the story focuses on McCoy being forced to deal self-doubt driven by his past mistakes. While it’s meant to be an exploration into McCoy’s psyche and history, it ended up just kind of dragging on and getting monotonous.
📚 Otherness by David Brin
21/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not bad, but it as it turns out, I definitely prefer Brin’s novels to his short fiction. To my mind, he does better when he can really dive into something. His shorter works are missing a certain spark.
📚 The Uplift War by David Brin
20/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1988 Hugo Best Novel
I find it kind of fascinating that Brin wrote his first three Uplift novels (particularly the second and third) as obviously connected and part of the same universe, but not directly continuing the story, even when the story is obviously unfinished. The events of Startide Rising are referred to and influence the events of this story, and the same overall mystery is a major driving element of both, but they’re otherwise unconnected. It’s a neat way to approach a very fully realized universe. I also really enjoy the way Brin creates aliens (both extraterrestrial and terrestrial) and other intelligences; close enough to human to be relatable, but also different enough to be alien. I’ve really enjoyed all of his first three Uplift novels, and one of these days plan to continue on to the second trilogy.
📚 Allegiance in Exile by David R. George III
19/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not quite what I expected. There’s a pretty standard Trek adventure as a framing story (with a surprising connection to post-TOS Trek that I’m curious about), but it’s really more focused on Sulu and his having to deal with a tragic event. Not bad, just be aware the back cover blurb is a very small part of the actual plot.
📚 Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
18/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not the strongest book in the series, but with a series this strong, that’s not at all a bad review. A good end to Ender’s story, and wraps up the various pieces in satisfying ways.
(That said, see my earlier disclaimers on OSC and his works. Extremely good writer, but one with rather unfortunate beliefs. While I’ve enjoyed reading through these, it’s time to move on to other authors for a while.)
📚 Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
17/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This series continues to impress, with ever deeper explorations of compassion and empathy for others who are different than ourselves, and at what point the differences become so great that life- and world-altering decisions may be justified (or may not be, or may be pursued even if not justified). And once again, I’m struck that an author who wrote so compellingly on this subject failed to see how to apply his own ideas in the real world.
NOTE: It should be noted that OSC had long held and promoted viewpoints that I vehemently disagree with. The books of his in my collection were purchased before I knew of his standpoints, from secondhand stores, or both. I knew going into my Hugo reading project (which this is an extension of, though the later books in the series weren’t Hugo winners) that there would authors and works I would find problematic, and that there might be situations (like this one) where I enjoyed a work by a problematic author. I do what I can to mitigate those situations by purchasing used copies of books so as not to directly contribute to those problematic authors who are still with us, and by noting when I run into those situations – like here.
