Recent reading
Sep. 12th, 2024 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaAaaah. Today I am up early to go to the appointment where the house changes owners, and tomorrow I move. I suppose it's understandable that I didn't sleep well last night, but it's ironic that this happens just when I most need to sleep well.
Babel by R F Kuang (2022, audiobook)
For book club. I thought the central idea of the book (the linguistics magic) was very cool, and found the book page-turney and interesting! Perhaps it's a little on the nose about colonialism being bad, which was reinforced by the footnotes being read by a different person, so before I understood that they were footnotes, I thought it was a little voice coming in to point out all the things that were racist. But hey, colonialism is bad, and it's good to read that perspective along with the regency romances. The other things I want to say are spoilery. I felt stupid at not seeing the end coming, because what happens with the tower of Babel? It falls, right? *facepalm* But it was clear to me from the start that their strike via takeover of the tower was going to fail, because they didn't have most of the workforce with them. What's to stop the government from giving in to their demands, them giving up the tower, and the government just installing all the loyal silverworkers there and then going to war with China anyway? If you're striking, it's not effective if you're only a few persons (unless you can permanently control important means of production)--but hey, they're teenagers and might not have the best strategies. I do think the book's claim that you could destroy as much infrastructure as you like and the upper classes won't care, because they can just go to their country mansions, is false--if nothing else, the stock market is going to crash and they deeply care about that. So I think it's unrealistic that the government didn't pretend to give way, but I see why they didn't, because then the author couldn't have had the ending she wanted. I'm undecided about the support from the working classes. I mean, yes, Luddites, definitely a thing. OTOH, the book seems to be saying that industrialism + colonialism was bad for the working classes of the colonizing country? But I suppose there isn't just one answer to that--it must depend on who you are, and where, and when, etc.
System Collapse by Martha Wells (2024)
Murderbot! Murderbot is much more stressed out than I am. I don't have anything deep to say about this book, but it's good to read another installment in a series you already know you like. Also, I'm impressed by Well's ability to write action scenes in a way that is 1) easy to understand, and 2) engaging. It's in the character voice, I suppose.
Babel by R F Kuang (2022, audiobook)
For book club. I thought the central idea of the book (the linguistics magic) was very cool, and found the book page-turney and interesting! Perhaps it's a little on the nose about colonialism being bad, which was reinforced by the footnotes being read by a different person, so before I understood that they were footnotes, I thought it was a little voice coming in to point out all the things that were racist. But hey, colonialism is bad, and it's good to read that perspective along with the regency romances. The other things I want to say are spoilery. I felt stupid at not seeing the end coming, because what happens with the tower of Babel? It falls, right? *facepalm* But it was clear to me from the start that their strike via takeover of the tower was going to fail, because they didn't have most of the workforce with them. What's to stop the government from giving in to their demands, them giving up the tower, and the government just installing all the loyal silverworkers there and then going to war with China anyway? If you're striking, it's not effective if you're only a few persons (unless you can permanently control important means of production)--but hey, they're teenagers and might not have the best strategies. I do think the book's claim that you could destroy as much infrastructure as you like and the upper classes won't care, because they can just go to their country mansions, is false--if nothing else, the stock market is going to crash and they deeply care about that. So I think it's unrealistic that the government didn't pretend to give way, but I see why they didn't, because then the author couldn't have had the ending she wanted. I'm undecided about the support from the working classes. I mean, yes, Luddites, definitely a thing. OTOH, the book seems to be saying that industrialism + colonialism was bad for the working classes of the colonizing country? But I suppose there isn't just one answer to that--it must depend on who you are, and where, and when, etc.
System Collapse by Martha Wells (2024)
Murderbot! Murderbot is much more stressed out than I am. I don't have anything deep to say about this book, but it's good to read another installment in a series you already know you like. Also, I'm impressed by Well's ability to write action scenes in a way that is 1) easy to understand, and 2) engaging. It's in the character voice, I suppose.
