XX | Litsy

XX | Rian Hughes

#BookMail 2 - because why send it all with the same carrier when you can send two ??

Stroke of the Pen - new release of "lost" short stories by #SirTerryPratchett for #OokBOokClub (obvs) ?

XX - definitely @Robotswithpersonality's fault. Might read it before ? and give it to my son. It might be his sort of book

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

so-so

I can look at this book more favourably If I view it as an experiment. If you ripped a few pages out of Contact, a good chunk out of a couple astronomy text books, some coffee table graphic/history of fonts books, some history of language/communication books and a philosophy text book to top it off and buzzed them in a blender, you'd get the general vibe. A discussion about the virality of ideas is paramount in this SCIENCE fiction work. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? It gives decent coverage to how powerful, ideas, good or bad, can be, how people can have powerful and opposite reactions to new concepts. Also attempts to address the complicated history surrounding xenophobia, how people might view potential 'aliens': those who want not to see negative othering/immigrant experience perpetuated in humanity 's history repeated in the cosmos vs. those who will automatically be bellicose/defensive at the potential for extra terrestrial visitors. 1y

Robotswithpersonality 3/? I loved the premise of multitudinous multimedia included , as well as the manipulation of font (size, type, formatting, orientation on the page) as an aid to telling the story, and I think for the most part it didn't feel extraneous, rather the book was a little repetitive in plot beats, and therefore, not just the special aspects, but the plain narrative began to drag. Still, grateful it wasn't divided into a duology, because waiting for that ending would have been worse. 1y

Robotswithpersonality 4/? The two teams, Jodrell Bank and Intelligencia, working the problem in the earlier part of that book, along with the digital personification of past centuries as a sampling of the Internet's defence against alien ideas were the winning moments for me. 1y

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? I fear this book wanted to make a heavy handed point about ideology, (propaganda, how ideas spread, science vs religion, science vs social justice) but then distracted itself, not only with an idea about how to make humanity's/other intelligences' memories/contributions immortal, but also what appear to be well-researched/thought out explorations into how science might grapple with certain eventualities - really putting the science in science fiction in a way I wasn't fully equipped to assess as plausible, or fully interested in seeing the nuts and bolts laid out in the page. 1y

Robotswithpersonality 6/? I would like to think that the vast majority of the time, those speaking for social justice, and those speaking for scientific truth - as much as it can be verified today - (without biases associated with certain finding sources) were on the same page, so it really rubbed me the wrong way, took me out of the story, to see the opposite presented as what seems like the dominant thread between the two groups in this novel. This was technically background to other discussions going on in the book, but very distracting for me. 1y

Robotswithpersonality 7/? Heads up if you're going to read the 'novelette' included within this book, in an impressive imitation of early modern sci fi serials, it's got a lot of questionable content, and also some pretty gross descriptions. It echoes some plot points/themes discussed in the main text, so I honestly think you can skip it, no problem, and save yourself a few disturbing mental images. 🤢 How it is a work of fiction which manages to reflect the actions in the world of the story, and why it's author, who is also a professor, is repeatedly referred to as a cult leader, if its not really explored just makes me a little annoyed, having read it and not getting the full pay off. 🤷🏼‍♂️ 1y

Robotswithpersonality 8/? Fair warning from an accessibility stand point, the font choices can make the text hard to read, and for whatever reason, (paper choice?), this is an exceptionally, unusually heavy hard back. Take care of your wrists! 1y

Robotswithpersonality 9/? I did appreciate some of the side tangents into symbolism, meaning, communication, exactly how staggeringly difficult it would be to attempt to initiate conversation with a being that has absolutely nothing in common with any humans, no cultural or linguistic basis. 😵‍💫 1y

Robotswithpersonality 10/? Will need to look up own voices' reviews to see how that autistic rep is recieved 1y

Robotswithpersonality 11/11 ⚠️ r slur (delayed development/disability slur), racial slur, SA Novelette within novel specific: mention of enslavement, forced sex work/SA, bestiality (?!), cannibalism, body horror
1y

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻📊

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

'I'm an athiest' : the classy version. 🧐

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

Here's to the sci-fi skull motif. Digging it. 💀

julesG Just read The Death I Gave Him - very good, but the cover blurb is slightly misleading 1y

Robotswithpersonality @julesG Yet another reason I avoid the blurb/synopsis! Can't remember now how I found out about it, happy to go in knowing as little as possible. 1y

julesG That's a good way to approach a book. I read the ARC, so I obviously looked at the blurb at one point. 1y

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

Onomatopoeias really should have their own font.

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

This post contains spoilers

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Brings a whole new meaning to 'first contact'. 🫣🤭

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

Granted. More accurate. Though it does take longer to say...🤔

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Robotswithpersonality

XX | Rian Hughes

Aka: want to push the SPECIAL button! 😊

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StaceyKondla

XX | Rian Hughes

I have at least a dozen manuscripts in my queue to read but I couldn‘t resist bringing this one home from the book store - it‘s sci-fi but has a structure like House Of Leaves and is an absolute door stopper. Adding to my TBR pile in hopes that I will read it before I die 😂

Ruthiella I‘ve heard good things about this, particularly from the blogger/YouTuber Lonesome Reader. 2y

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