   #[1]alternate

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Some Favorite Reads From 2022

   January 15, 2023

   Another year, and another [6]blog post (singular). Oh well. I always
   have aspirations to publish more! But you know, one of the joys of
   being semi-retired is not having to do anything. You know, it’s been a
   hard few years. So I tried to take it easy on myself in 2022. I spent a
   lot of time exploring, a lot of time reflecting, and a good bit of time
   just doing whatever felt right at the time.

   For example, going on a road trip with my mountain bike

   Recently I’ve been reflecting on some of my favorite things from last
   year. Maybe as a way to focus on the positive. Maybe as a way to keep
   track of time in our time sick world. Maybe just to get back into the
   habit of writing. So here’s some of my favorite reads of 2022.
     __________________________________________________________________

Books

   I really enjoy reading, but this year I kind of gave myself a pass on
   anything too serious — mostly sticking to my trusty home base
   of science fiction.
     * [7][this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war.jpg]

This is How You Lose The Time War
     * [8][rendevous-with-rama.jpg]

Rendevous with Rama
     * [9][elder-race.jpg]

Elder Race
     * [10][artifact-space.jpg]

Artifact Space

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s [11]This is How You Lose the Time War

   From the publisher:

     Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds
     a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

     Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents
     hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring
     factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes
     something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that
     could change the past and the future.

   I fucking loved this book. I started it based on a recommendation from
   a friend, and didn’t really look into it much before I started. This
   book is much less about the plot (which is a play off The End of
   Eternity) and more about the writing and world building. The best way I
   could describe it is a spy story told through love letters in a poetic
   universe.

     Think of birds as a comms channel I can open and close seasonally;
     fellow operatives relate their work to me at the equinoxes; Garden
     blooms more brightly in my belly. There’s enough traffic that it’s a
     simple matter to disguise incoming and outgoing correspondence,
     misdirect, hide in plain sight.

   It’s also a short read, which was a nice breath of fresh air after
   finishing off the Dune series prior to picking this one up. I have a
   feeling this is going to be one of my most recommended books going
   forward.

Arthur C. Clarke’s [12]Rendevous with Rama

   From the publisher:

     An enormous cylindrical object has entered Earth’s solar system on a
     collision course with the sun. A team of astronauts are sent to
     explore the mysterious craft, which the denizens of the solar system
     name Rama. What they find is astonishing evidence of a civilization
     far more advanced than ours. They find an interior stretching over
     fifty kilometers; a forbidding cylindrical sea; mysterious and
     inaccessible buildings; and strange machine-animal hybrids, or
     “biots,” that inhabit the ship. But what they don’t find is an alien
     presence. So who–and where–are the Ramans?

   I’d never read the Rama books before, so when I heard that Denis
   Villeneuve was going to be [13]tackling Rendevous with Rama, I took the
   opportunity to read the whole series (Rendevous with Rama, Rama II, The
   Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed).

   Rendevous with Rama is a fantastically Clarke book. A team of highly
   trained professionals all work together to explore a mysterious object
   in space. Does much more need to be said? This book went down like a
   peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My only criticism is that it left me
   wanting for was more.

     Rama is a cosmic egg, being warmed by the fires of the Sun. It may
     hatch at any moment.

   And unfortunately, there is more.

   Clarke teamed up with Gentry Lee to write three more novels — Rama II,
   The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed and I all I can say is: I do not
   recommend them. They are upsetting in very odd child-bride wedding
   night kinds of ways.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s [14]Elder Race

   From the publisher:

     A junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the locals he
     has sworn to study to save a planet from an unbeatable foe.

   I loved Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time, so when I heard Jason Snell
   offer up Elder Race on The Incomperable, I decided to give it a go. I
   absolutely love the premise of this book. It’s a singular story told
   from two different viewpoints, one of them science fiction, and the
   other fantasy — both happening in parallel — because the two main
   characters don’t share enough dialect to explain themselves to each
   other.

     They think I’m a wizard. They think I’m a fucking wizard. That’s
     what I am to them, some weird goblin man from another time with
     magic powers. And I literally do not have the language to tell them
     otherwise. I say, “scientist,” “scholar,” but when I speak to them,
     in their language, these are both cognates for “wizard.” I imagine
     myself standing there speaking to Lyn and saying, “I’m not a wizard;
     I’m a wizard, or at best a wizard.” It’s not funny.

   And who doesn’t love an old, cranky wizard anthropologist?

Miles Cameron’s [15]Artifact Space

   From the publisher:

     Out in the darkness of space, something is targeting the Greatships.

     With their vast cargo holds and a crew that could fill a city, the
     Greatships are the lifeblood of human occupied space, transporting
     an unimaginable volume - and value - of goods from City, the
     greatest human orbital, all the way to Tradepoint at the other, to
     trade for xenoglas with an unknowable alien species.

   This was another recommendation from a friend, and I’m glad I picked it
   up. At it’s core, it’s about highly competent people all working
   together, pushing their limits, and achieving success. It’s the kind of
   genre someone once described to me as competency porn — Star Trek: The
   Next Generation being the ultimate example.

     There was very little drama in Space Operations. In fact, every
     station projected an elaborate aura of calm, as if they were
     competing to be dry and emotionless. No one swore, no one spat, no
     one was angry or afraid. Nbaro loved it.

   This book pulls from a lot of familiar ideas — the Greatships are an
   obvious call back to Battlestars, while a lot of the socialist themes
   call back to Star Trek’s economy. My biggest criticism of this book is
   the maddening way Cameron switches back and forth between using
   character’s first and last names — even within the same scene! It makes
   it incredibly difficult to keep track of who is who with such a large
   cast, and toward the end I caught myself not even remembering who a
   certain person was.

Dennis E. Taylor’s [16]Heaven’s River (Audiobook)

   From the publisher:

     More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was
     never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite
     numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to
     organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost.

   The Bobiverse is probably my favorite audiobook series of all time.
   It’s all a part of a grand space opera spanning the galaxy… but also
   pretty sarcastic and silly? Ray Porter does an amazing job of narrating
   these books, and is a large part of why I enjoy them so much.

   Heaven’s River finds a way to pull the series back from the infinite
   and focuses back down on a single planet for a great little beaver
   adventure.

   Well, space beavers.
     __________________________________________________________________

Even More Books

   Neal Stephenson’s [17]Termination Shock: Okay, I actually like
   Stephenson, and this is a very good book about the inevitable future of
   Geoengineering and it’s political consequences. Coupled with a very
   weird Queen fetish. It’s weird. Weird enough to take away from the
   story line. But if the climate angle of the book interests you — I
   highly recommend [18]After Geoengineering as a follow-up.

   Baoshu’s [19]The Redemption of Time: A semi-official 4th book of the
   Three Body Problem. This is a great continuation of the series, and a
   good way to answer some lingering questions about the Trisolarians.

   Frank Herbert’s [20]Heretics of Dune (Dune 5): I was a little shocked
   at how much I loved this book. I mean, I love Dune. But this one ended
   up being one of my favorites of the series. Great new characters, new
   technologies, and a whole new set of powers for the Atreides genetics.

   Adrian Tchaikovsky’s [21]Children of Time: This was actually a re-read
   in preparation of reading Children of Ruin and the upcoming Children of
   Memory. What can I say? It’s one of my favorite science fiction books
   of all time — even if only for the worldbuilding. Sentient spiders?
   Sentient spiders!
     __________________________________________________________________

Newsletters

Alex Steffen’s [22]The Snap Forward

   From [23]Discontinuity is the Job:

     To be alive right now is to find ourselves flattened against the
     fact that the entire human world—our cities and infrastructure, our
     economy and education system, our farms and factories, our laws and
     politics—was built for a different planet.

   I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled on Alex Steffen’s The Snap
   Forward but the idea instantly clicked with me. His newsletter focuses
   on how climate has affected our infrastructure, our society, and our
   relationship to the world. I love his newsletter because it makes me
   feel more sane in a world that keeps trying to sell a new carbon offset
   marketplace as the solution.

   From [24]Tempo, Timing, and the Translucence of the Future

     The tempo of change, and our refusal to acknowledge its
     acceleration, has turned our visions of continuity, stability and
     value into fantasy worlds. We’re cosplaying people who live in past
     decades before discontinuity ate our societies.

   I wouldn’t classify The Snap Forward as doomerism, either. It’s a focus
   on accepting the world as it is and looking for solutions within that
   framework. Even if all emissions were cut to zero tomorrow, we’d still
   be facing a myriad of very challenging futures. What do we do with that
   knowledge? How do we prepare for the transapocalyptic now?

Matt Levine’s [25]Money Stuff

   I’ve been reading Money Stuff for a few years now, and I can’t really
   put my thumb on why I love it so much. Sure, it’s about finance… but
   kind of the weird stuff in finance. More about the cogs of the
   machinery and the weird personalities in the news than it is about
   whether the S&P 500 is going to go up or down next week.

   From [26]FTX’s Balance Sheet Was Bad:

     But then there is the “Hidden, poorly internally labeled ‘fiat@’
     account,” with a balance of negative $8 billion.  I don’t actually
     think that you’re supposed to subtract that number from net equity —
     though I do not know how this balance sheet is supposed to work! —
     but it doesn’t matter. If you try to calculate the equity of a
     balance sheet with an entry for HIDDEN POORLY INTERNALLY LABELED
     ACCOUNT, Microsoft Clippy will appear before you in the flesh,
     bloodshot and staggering, with a knife in his little paper-clip
     hand, saying “just what do you think you’re doing Dave?” You cannot
     apply ordinary arithmetic to numbers in a cell labeled “HIDDEN
     POORLY INTERNALLY LABELED ACCOUNT.” The result of adding or
     subtracting those numbers with ordinary numbers is not a number; it
     is prison.

   It’s an understatement to say I don’t love finance, but I do enjoy me
   some Money Stuff.
     __________________________________________________________________

What’s Next?

   I’ve really been enjoying re-visiting some of my favorite authors and
   finishing off big series I never quite got around to. Last year I
   finally finished off the whole of Frank Herbert’s Dune (never having
   read 5 & 6 before), and this year I’m getting the itch to do the same
   for Foundation. To be frank, I don’t even remember where I ended with
   that series. But it does feel like a good opportunity to maybe just
   re-visit the entirety of the Asimov Universe… [27]in chronological
   order. I’m also getting a terrible itch to revisit a bunch of
   Vonnegut’s work after watching the excellent [28]Unstuck in Time. But I
   like new authors too!

   I’m also interested in finding more books and newsletters about… I
   guess you’d call it urban design. Stuff like [29]Strong Towns and other
   sources of how to adapt our cities into resilient communities. I
   actually have background in city planning from my Civil Engineering
   days, but I feel like there’s been a big surge in new thinking that
   goes farther than the YIMBY/NIMBY noise of the past decade.

   Have some recommendations? Hit me up on Mastadon:
   [30]@kneath@indieweb.social.

   Est. 2003  •  Do Hard Things  •  Build. Learn. Explore.

References

   Visible links:
   1. http://warpspire.com/feed/
   2. https://warpspire.com/now
   3. https://warpspire.com/giving
   4. https://warpspire.com/offset
   5. https://warpspire.com/about
   6. https://warpspire.com/posts/money-pit
   7. https://bookshop.org/p/books/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war-amal-el-mohtar/18270911?aid=13508&ean=9781534430990&gclid=CjwKCAiAy_CcBhBeEiwAcoMRHMYspqPk88ZoP8--CUUbXYfJi5-1npSPEUSq-QroPTijJK-cIC1CAxoCIGsQAvD_BwE&listref=this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war
   8. https://bookshop.org/p/books/rendezvous-with-rama-arthur-c-clarke/8296887?ean=9780358380221
   9. https://bookshop.org/p/books/elder-race-adrian-tchaikovsky/15877279
  10. https://bookshop.org/p/books/artifact-space-miles-cameron/18367466?ean=9781473232617
  11. https://bookshop.org/p/books/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war-amal-el-mohtar/18270911?aid=13508&ean=9781534430990&gclid=CjwKCAiAy_CcBhBeEiwAcoMRHMYspqPk88ZoP8--CUUbXYfJi5-1npSPEUSq-QroPTijJK-cIC1CAxoCIGsQAvD_BwE&listref=this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war
  12. https://bookshop.org/p/books/rendezvous-with-rama-arthur-c-clarke/8296887?ean=9780358380221
  13. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/denis-villeneuve-rendezvous-with-rama-movie-1235062337/
  14. https://bookshop.org/p/books/elder-race-adrian-tchaikovsky/15877279
  15. https://bookshop.org/p/books/artifact-space-miles-cameron/18367466?ean=9781473232617
  16. https://www.amazon.com/Heavens-River-Bobiverse-Book-4/dp/B088C51F5H/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
  17. https://bookshop.org/p/books/termination-shock-neal-stephenson/18272978?ean=9780063028067
  18. https://bookshop.org/books/after-geoengineering-climate-tragedy-repair-and-restoration/9781788730365
  19. https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-redemption-of-time-a-three-body-problem-novel-baoshu/6986329?ean=9781250306005
  20. https://bookshop.org/p/books/heretics-of-dune-frank-herbert/7513860?ean=9780593098264
  21. https://bookshop.org/p/books/children-of-time-adrian-tchaikovsky/113411?ean=9780316452502
  22. https://alexsteffen.substack.com/
  23. https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/discontinuity-is-the-job
  24. https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/tempo-timing-and-the-translucence
  25. https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/money-stuff
  26. https://newsletters.feedbinusercontent.com/818/8185a1196937308adee75e80f544a29a36b34a5f.html
  27. https://gist.github.com/kneath/27a2772f5e1871e3c314ef05a4cacd44
  28. https://www.vonnegutmovie.com/
  29. https://www.strongtowns.org/
  30. https://indieweb.social/@kneath

   Hidden links:
  32. https://warpspire.com/
