Ruth > Recent Status Updates

For heaven’s sake.

"Carrying a child doesn't seem to slow a Motie down," Renner observed.

Renner's Motie said, "No, of course not. Why should it?"

Sally Fowler took up the task. She tried carefully to explain just how useless pregnant human females were. "It's one reason we tend to develop male-oriented societies. And—" She was still lecturing on childbirth problems when they reached the museum.

And a female alien and female human meet and no joke they are just talking about marriage and raising children. That’s basically the extent of their conversation.

The problem with classic sci fi written by men is that they will imagine a world over 1000 years into the future that is still run by men where women are still shackled to using the birth control pill and the only woman on a first contact mission will gently muse about how she has nobody to discuss recipes with. It can be hard to overlook. 🥲

This is entertaining but I figured out the cause of FMS pretty early on, which is making it feel a little slow. 🙃 Is it meant to be this obvious? Maybe I just consume too much sci fi.

“It was welcome and dreadful in equal measure.”

Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream is a quintessentially King novella, simultaneously riveting and too long. 😅 a sort of exploration of madness, as I said, very King.

First 3 stories are so good. The first is a wonderful rumination on life and potential and dreams. The second takes you by surprise and the pacing artfully mirrors the story so well, in a way you don’t realize. The third is so subtle and clever, I fear most readers might miss it - I listened to it twice. Many shades of King, he really shines in short stories.

This book is so good. It is thwarting my plan to go to bed early. 😭

“Of any book, the Bible embodies, the purest form of product packaging, the same content, repackaged a million times over, a new combinations add infinite.”

Oh. This book is brilliant.

This book is so tender 😭

Ugh I love this book

This book has me HOOKED.

This book is great. Very interesting world building.

Ted Chiang is a special person. These stories are incredible. I can’t believe how young he was when these published.

This book is seriously breathtaking. “The Prophet who was entranced by the world of the living, the corrupted human who believed the false sensations delayed by their survival program to be pure truth. I am blessed with this corruption, so take me wherever you wish. I will learn something from that too.”

Well, that first story made me feel some sort of way. Not me all teary at the campfire. What a book wow.

Well. That was a wild ride. Going to write a brief review, may revise later after some time on House of Leaves forums.

This hallway scene is giving real Cave of Amigara Fault vibes. This reminds me of horrific cave diving stories.

Back on this book. It is a very good book but like many otherwise good books, I must overlook casual misogyny. In this chapter, Karen is presented as a selfish, neurotic partner, a cheater, the truthfulness of her reported childhood SA is doubted (without any reason why it should be), she refuses mental health care bc she doesn’t want to get fat, & her husband is described as a natural authority. 🥱🙄

This book is so engaging and interesting, I cannot believe it’s not more wildly popular.

This book is immediately gripping! If you like the show Fringe, you’ll like this.

I am on a cabin trip and feverishly reading.

After reading Earthlings (excellent but disturbing) I need a palate cleanser. I suspect Martha Wells will deliver.

This author clearly loves House of Leaves.

Wow, Juan and Gaspar’s story is so complex and nuanced and sad.

I think I figured out what this book is all about.

Wow, chapter one is very intense and powerful.

This book is strange and it has strange pacing. Zampanō’s ramblings are often excruciating; Truant’s can be, but they are more interesting because we are getting snippets of character development (though he is a very disturbed person). The Navidson Record is gripping and I want more. Putting the book down now at 1:22am because I want to read the next part, but I know I won’t survive another tangent rant. 😴

Myst and D&D mentioned

The most recent stretch of pages picked up a bit. The Navidson house certainly is eerie. And these letters from Truant’s mother… I’m not yet sure what to make of all these little details that my keen editing eye catches like typos and strange font kerning. This is obviously a very intentionally crafted book.