The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
this post was submitted on 30 May 2026
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Bhagvad Geeta
I just got through ask for Andrea and it was decent af.
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Truly magnificent, just like the movie by Tarkovsky.
In parallel to that I went also down the rabbit hole about what cybernetics was and what happened to it.
Apathy And Other Small Victories.
Malazan
I'm reading The Light of all that falls by James Islington (3rd book in The Licanius trilogy)
Licanius was so good, I like Hierarchy but so far it hasn't captivated me like that first trilogy did
Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl book 8. Reading Witcher: Crossroads of Ravens
Just hopped on the dcc train! Definitely recommend. It will never go down in history as a sublime piece of literature, but it sure is good. I would also recommend giving the audio book a try, the narration is hilarious.
I'll do you one better. The narrator, Jeff Hayes, he founded Soundbooth Theater. DCC in an immersion tunnel, with full cast and sound effects.
Been absolutely crawling through Black Reconstruction, but it's extremely well written and informative.
I recently started The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The Philosophy of Pinball by Godwin
ES6 by Dr. Axel
I'm reading Hatemonger, the book on Stephen Miller. And just re-started Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton.
I just got a kobo for Christmas so I've been catching up on a ton of Stephen King I hadn't made time for, re-reading some Michael Crichton. Trying out some of Clive Barker's horror stuff (never read it before).
Just read Back To The Island, a companion/episode guide to Lost. Which has made me want to watch the show again.
Poject Hail Mary, The Martian
Both by Andy Weir.
Also M.O.N.A. and S.I.N.O.N. by Dan T. Sehlberg
The books by Andy Weir are hard sci-fi books. Very grounded in physical/realistic expectations but with a sprinkle of "the future".
The books by Dan Sehlberg are IT thriller-like novels.
Basically something like current 'Neuralink'.
The first books plot is about a scientist developing a brain-computer interface enabling the user to visit cyberspace in a sort of advanced VR like world but full on inside instead of just goggles you put on.
His wife trials it, visits her job sites web page during a cyber attack on the jobs IT-infrastructure, get's in contact with the malware there and brings the digital virus inside her to the real world.
Now the digital malware/virus has become a biological one. The scientist now wants to find the cure for the illness.
The Fifth Season. I'm currently on the second book The Obelisk Gate so can't attest for the quality of the whole thing but it's geological fantasy and I find it quite fascinating. The scale of the world and conflict keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's very dark but also really draws you in as things ramp up. Themes of the paradox of tolerance, and the challenge of preparing for future crises. The magic system she came up with also feels very fresh to me
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte was fun
Dungeon Crawler Carl. The premise is that aliens take over the world and immediately kill 99% of the population. The remaining 1% are forced to compete on an intergalactic reality TV show called Dungeon Crawler World.
The series is a scathing critique of modern capitalism, dressed up like a fart joke. If you liked The Good Place, youβll likely enjoy DCC.
Glurp glurp!
I'm on book three of the Bobiverse. I'm enjoying it. The nice thing is that they're not super dense.
Yup. It does a good job of breaking up the action by having multiple parallel storylines going at the same time. This helps it avoid feeling like βall gas, no brakesβ that many fiction authors tend to fall into.
And the βsciβ in sci-fi is typically kept fairly light. Lots of authors (looking at you, Crichton) get bogged down in trying to explain all of the minutiae of how their science works. Itβs like theyβre afraid that if they fail to explain the science, their world-building will all fall apart. But this means they can be a slog to get through, because the author spends entire chapters explaining background features, instead of focusing on the action. The Bobiverse managed to avoid this, and only touches on the science side when itβs relevant.
I mean Iβm a communist so YMMV, but Iβm re-reading the Vietnamese textbook on Dialectical Materialism that Luna Oi translated. Iβm re-reading it because I also have the second textbook she translated (on Historical Materialism) and I wanted to brush up before diving in to that one.
Luna Oi is a great comrade! She is doing so much for the cause!
Noice. I hope to get this sometime.
Iβve found it to be the most concise and straightforward (and yet thorough) primer on dialectical materialism that Iβve come across so far. In particular I liked how the book split dialectical materialism (the philosophy) from materialist dialectics (the tools of analysis).
Not exactly a new book, but All Quiet on the Western Front was a fantastic read. It's a grotesquely frank depiction of the unfortunate "Have Not"s fighting a meaningless war for the "Have"s in society, set in the german trenches of WW1.
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I recently read (listened to the audiobook actually) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.
It's about the life of Thomas Cromwell. The narration style is not for everyone, but it's the best historical fiction story I've read.
The show is also excellent
We are legion we are Bob
Non-fiction:
- The Demon-Haunted World
- The Fourth Turning is Here
Fiction:
- There is No Antimemetics Division
Did you like Antimemetics Division? I saw the Short video with Jasika Nicole (Astrid from Fringe), and it felt like a mix between bad sci fi that took itself too seriously and a dumb joke.
I did like the book, it's not a 10/10, but it's fun and I like weird fiction. I think both SCP and the Remedy Connected Universe are delightfully mysterious.
I hadn't watched that short yet, just did. I see what you mean, but it was relatively true to the first chapter of the book. It's really had to do this genre justice in video form I think. Partly due to budget, but partly because what you didn't like about it is a perfect description of the entire SCP universe: a giant, very serious conspiracy theory that fans swear is completely true and "THEY" don't want you to know about it...while obviously being a absurd work of fiction. It's like 80s horror, you have to embrace the campiness to enjoy it.
The notion of an anti-meme is interesting to think about too. Not really in a supernatural sense, but in a sociological/anthropological one. Are there things in this world that people have trouble wrapping their head around, things we can't seem to pin down and understand and assign an easy-to-proliferate name to, but nonetheless hurt us?
Demon Haunted World is very timely
Always has been :(
I had put off reading it because I assumed it would be mostly preaching to the choir, but there are some challenging chapters to think about.
Ex. the idea that all the people who believe in aliens, and reject vaccines, and wear tinfoil hats, they're all doing the first step of science: which is to doubt. The problem is that people are generally untrained on what to do next.
The question is whether this modern era of science is an anomaly, or if there's something about the scientific method that gives it an advantage. If we fell completely into a dark age, is it inevitable that we find our way back? Or was this time period just a fluke?
It notes that throughout history, the dominant nation has always been the one who wields science most effectively. And the US wouldn't be the first to fall because it failed to.
The blade itself is what Iβm current reading (when not frantically trying to catchup on one piece)
Joe Abercrombe is great. His books only get better. I haven't read his YA stuff but I've read all his other books and love, love, loved every one of them.
New Scientist magazine, the paper version so that I can put it down, think about it, and come back a week later. Iβm not a scientist, and not highly educated, but Iβm curious about the world, and many of their articles are easy to read at my level.
I'm currently on book 5 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, I started book one In January.
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Currently reading about all the horrors of the CIA - finished The Jakarta Method and Washington Bullets, currently reading through Killing Hope, and next on my list is Operation Gladio.
If you are into fantasy, then I need to recommend you the books of Brandon Sanderson, especially the Stormlight Archive series. It's so epic, nothing else comes close
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