Moving Fast, But Not Fast Enough

I was going to just forge ahead on another book but then remembered I hadn't blogged my last 5 reads. Unread collection in Kobo reader continues to grow - still 62 left after taking these out. A good problem to have, I guess.

1. "Auberon", by James S.A. Corey, 2019, 78 pages. An Expanse Novella. A nice little story set in the Galactic Empire pivot segment of The Expanse. Can the new incorruptible Fascist government stay that way?
   I watched the 1st 4 episodes of "The Expanse" on Prime Video last night, FTW! I feel very comfortable with these characters.

2. "The Menace From Farside", by Ian McDonald, 2019, 119 pages. A novella set on the moon of McDonald's Luna series. The title refers to a female rival of the moody, female teenage narrator. I guess I'm too far away from moody teenagers, I really didn't care for that much. Some action & plot, etc.

3. "Time Was", by Ian McDonald, 2019, 97 pages. I decided to give McDonald another chance. Another novella, this one was a evocative and charming tale of accidental time travelers and the bibliophile who is tracking them.

4. "Factoring Humanity", by Robert J. Sawyer, 1998, 343 pages. I remembered reading a Sawyer ("Calculating God" I think) from the Lexington Public Library years ago and liking it fairly well. I think this one was a BookBub bargain - I might not have bought it if I had realized how old it was. What was I'm sure germane social commentary at the time is now horribly dated. This is a 1st contact story, with some AI thrown in. The main character, a scientist, behaves in a completely unscientific way that I found unsettling.
   I looked up Sawyer on Wikipedia, he has the letters CM and OOnt after his name. CM is the Order of Canada and OOnt is the Order of Ontario. He's Canadian, and apparently they still do this goofy monarchist crap. The Order of Canada is the 2nd highest honor, 1st is the Order of Merit which can only be awarded by Canada's monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
   Is that some stupid shit or what? Maybe if Britain had gotten rid of the monarchy decades ago they wouldn't have all these old farts wanting Brexit. Very sad.

5. "Ancestral Night", by Elizabeth Bear, 2019, 599 pages. The Culture lives! Bear give props to Iain Banks' Culture series. Galactic civilization, ancient aliens, smart-ass AI shipminds, ships with long, snarky names, humans with direct control of their brain chemistry.
   The novel is very, very talky, and felt to be at least its 599 pages. The main character's mind has been extensively reconstructed, and she uncovers several versions of why. She is way beyond neurotic.
   The foil to Bear's The Culture analog The Synarche is libertarian pirates. Some timely political discussions, the pirates general being painted as freedom-loving psychopaths. "Libertaranism - the I got mine, fuck you party" is 1 of my taglines.
   Bear also quotes directly another of my taglines: "There is enough to go around", directed to the main pirate figure.
   I suspect there will be more of this series, titled "White Space", and I look forward to them.

I also went to clear the magazine stack for December after these books. Sky & Telescope is transitioning from the Zinio app to ... something else. Couldn't find the December issue, just February - they publish fairly far ahead so people can plan their observing schedules. After a very unhelpful reply from their customer service, I decided I'm going to quit reading it, and not renew my subscription, which expires in April. I get plenty of astronomy news and pix from several blogs whose RSS feeds I follow. Wow, end of an era, I have been getting S&T for 30 or 40 years. Does this qualify as an old dog learning a new trick? Or unlearning an old trick?