This is the novel that served as the seed for the "The Pandora Sequence" blogged about last time. It was really not good. The philosophical rummaging in search of a definition of consciousness is way lame. Of course this was written years before Dennett & "Consciousness Explained" (1992), etc. But still, lame. The computer terminology is beyond dated. Plus we have 1 of the crew of scientists experimenting on herself with tailored cannabinoids to find the nature of mind - I bet we loved that during my college years. And, of course, the way heavy-handed ending. Well, hopefully that cures me of old foo for a while.
So next up my fav relatively newly discovered modern sci-fi author. "Cage of Souls", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2019, 720 pages, 196k words, $1.99 at Kobo. This is set in the far distant future when the sun is starting to expand, so almost more like fantasy. A Devil's Island story. 2 interesting flashback threads. Well paced, well written, yay modern stuff!
For my middle daughter, I next read "Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland", by Lisa Schneidau, 2018, 180 pages, 49k words. An enjoyable set of short folk tales, with some interesting twists to some of the better known stories. So off to my daughter it went.
Finally, "The Time Ships", by Stephen Baxter, 2014, 608 pages, 165k words, $0.99 at Kobo (all these bargains!). Written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the original H. G. Wells "The Time Machine", by a very reliable British hard sci-fi author. It does not disappoint, cosmic in scope but still very respectful of the original.
Next up ... Music In.
Note, most of Music Out has transitioned to the Jaz Dumoz blog. With today's Song of the Day - stardust - I posted the following:
Today is the 2nd birthday of Song of the Day. 1st video posted September 27, 2020.Today is Song of the Day #158!
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