Our main character is a snarky female who fights really well. (Scalzi is the King of Snark.) She has an alien assistant/bodyguard who is conscious only due to a hardware upgrade provided by humans.
The main drama of the story comes from interaction with the godlike but completely asshole Consu race. The plot twists are excellently unpredictable. The pacing seemed uneven at times, but that may just be me. An excellent read, glad to return to this universe.
I'm so glad some asshole tech bros are going to become asshole billionaires based on this shit. From 404 Media:
AI ‘Workslop’ Is Killing Productivity and Making Workers MiserableHuman workers see their colleagues who use AI as less competent, according to another study published in Harvard Business Review last month.
...
“Workslop uniquely uses machines to offload cognitive work to another human being. When coworkers receive workslop, they are often required to take on the burden of decoding the content, inferring missed or false context. A cascade of effortful and complex decision-making processes may follow, including rework and uncomfortable exchanges with colleagues,”
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I dropped 20-30 pounds prolly within the 1st year. Prolly 1/2 - 2/3 of that is back on currently.
In December, 2019 I popped a tendon on my ring finger in a bicycle wreck. That's a guitar finger, mercifully, after being splinted for 6 weeks, it reattached & I regained I think full mobility.
October 21, 2021, I ran into a metal post going about 15 mph. 2 weeks of the (completely purple) right leg elevated, 6 weeks total before I could start exercising again.
That was the last time I rode a bicycle. At my age, you can't afford that kind of down time.
I had been occasionally doing some floor exercises, very irregular. In the late 80's, early 90's, I recorded 24 1/2 hour episodes of "Bodies in Motion with Gilad", and used those for years. A lot of these floor exercises came from there. Also from my son, who stayed in shape for judo, & from my oldest daughter, who is a certified yoga instructor.
In the absence of biking, I started doing those on Wed-Fri-Sun, & added some light weight work. I do those 1st thing in the morning; later in the morning I do 16 laps of pool walking, rotating 90 degrees after each lap.
Here is my current floor work routine.
| Floor Work; b:breath; s:snort | 8# Hand Weights 16 reps | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big inhale up, exhale down | 4 | Curls | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Neck & elbow stretch | 16 L+R | Upright rowing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Neck stretch (nod) | 16 | Military press | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pushups | 80 (88 Sun) | French curl (parallel) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chest stretch | 4 | Side lifts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chest stretch (hug) | L,R | Front lifts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lat stretch | L,R | Bent over lifts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rotator stretch | L,R | Wrist curls | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crunches | 64 | Toe touch, back bend | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crunches w twist | 16 L/R | Tiptoes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Knee 2 elbow | 16 L+R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Knees 2 elbows | 16 | Repeat with 10# Hand Weights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lower back, neck stretch | 16b L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pelvic tilts | 64 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leg lift & holds | 3x16s 1x32s | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leg lifts | 16 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groin stretch | 16b | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Side leg lifts | 64 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sponge | 16b L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plank | 4x 16b | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cobra | 16b | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cat | 16 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rear leg lift | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Toe heel toe lift | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Side leg (dog pee) lift | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rear toe point lift | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Big inhale up, exhale down | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Walking Warmups | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Heel toe | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mini one-leg squats | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rear heel lift | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leg swing | 16 L,R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The whole thing takes around 35 minutes.
I captured this because I have a 1 hour session with a trainer to make observations, corrections, & additions.
[Updated 2025-09-21]
The trainer said, good full body workout. A few tweaks are italicized.
This story is a 1st contact novel. Its wipipedia article describes it as "anthropological science fiction". It won the inaugural Otherwise Award ("An award encouraging the exploration & expansion of gender. Formerly the Tiptree Award.") in 1991.
This was a really fun read. Comparisons to Ursula K. LeGuin I don't think are unwarranted. The alien race is really interesting. Human-sized or larger Ewoks, with neolithic level skills? Fabulous metalworking & other arts & crafts. The supporting ecosystem is developed in great detail.
The females of this society never succeeded in domesticating the males. So after puberty, the males leave the villages & live in the wild. In the annual spring breeding, the females leave the villages & go to the males. The bigger males stake out the best (closest) territory around the villages.
Different tribes of the indigenes have different skills & cultures. These are interesting & amusing - like 1 tribe that has clans that view mocking the other clans as the highest pleasure.
The men cannot work together. The villages are populated by women & children & some very old, post-breeding men.
The 1st 1/2 of the book follows 2 human anthropologists interacting with the indigenes, learning their language, having adventures.
The 2nd 1/2 of the book brings more of the humans down. They left Earth maybe in the 22nd century, & maybe Earth is recovering from the Age of Extractive Industry Rape? It's interesting tho, 1991, there are some Americans, also Chinese (pretty much communist party types), & some Russians (also revolutionaries). The theme of the 2nd 1/2 is, can the humans be trusted to not somehow introduce capitalism to this planet, with the disastrous results which happened on Earth? Very political, a lot of good discussions.
I finished the book, I was definitely "OK, I'm ready for the next one ..." Oops! No next one. Wow, Arnason built such a believable, complex, & interesting world, incredible she didn't continue with it. Oh well, still a great read.
I wound up reading this book because I came across a positive reference to Arnason's politics, plus, it was towards the bottom of the Unread collection in the Kobo app on my iPad. That collection is currently at 163 books.
I am reminded of my friend David. For years, somehow, the movie "Chinatown" would come up, &, he had never seen it.
He also has never seen "Gone with the Wind", or "The Wizard of Oz".
He "has that going for him".
In his theory, say the Grim Reaper comes knock, knock, knockin' at his door. He can tell the reaper, "Hey, you can't take me yet, I haven't seen 'The Wizard of Oz' or 'Gone with the Wind', or 'Chinatown'. So, he's got that going for him.
Under this theory, I clearly have 163 eBooks going for me. "You can't take me yet, I have 163 unread eBooks."
It is amazing to me how despite being completely retired, I feel spread so thin: music, cooking, reading, writing, exercising. I try to lunch with a friend weekly. I don't see my extended family very much at all. My grandkids are starting to get beyond the age where I am drafted to babysit.
I'm starting to wonder if I need to drop something. I'm not sure what it would be.
Lots of weird utopian foo in the Just City. Eugenics out the wazoo, breeding by lottery - wow, turns out that wasn't very popular!
Athene's brother Apollo chooses to revoke his godhood for 1 generation & live as a human until he dies, at which point he goes back to being a god. He is 1 of the major characters. Another is Sokrates, brought into the experiment at the 5 year mark to teach rhetoric to the city's children, now 15 years old - of course!
A very wordy book, very philosophical. In the Acknowledgements, Walton praises Ada Palmer, with whom she has been palling around for a few years - good stuff, I luv Palmer's work & the level of philosophizing in this work is reminiscent of Palmer. It also reminds me of Dan Simmons' books of Ulysses on Mars, "Ilium" and "Olympus". He had lots of discussions of "arete", which Walton defines as "excellence".
One warning, this book has a rape scene in it. I don't like to read about rape, although my prolly fav sci-fi story of all time, "The Stars My Destination", by Alfred Bester, features a rape - but not a rape scene.
Still, very good writing, I have purchased the 2nd book of the trilogy. Check it out.
LOL, they have a counter for "Days Since Last Verified AI Catastrophe". Currently at 13, wow, that really is not bad! Maybe this AI stuff has become trustworthy? NOT!
AI Darwin AwardsMy work here may be done ...
Here's the home page/directory for my posts on Bullshit.
'
Tchsikovsky's prior book featured humans trying to survive in a killing zone: equatorial Earth, where the climate crisis has resulted in wet bulb temperatures never going below 95 degrees.
"Shroud" is set someplace even more inhospitable: a moon in a different solar system, with gravity 2x earth and a dense, non-oxygen atmosphere. No light reaches the surface of the planet.
The universe of this story is horrifying. After making it through the bottleneck caused by the destruction of Earth as a viable planet via offworld development, humanity is never going to get bottlenecked again. They will accomplish this by expanding into the universe as rapidly as possible, stripping all the resources as they go.
There seems to be a privileged (corporate) management class. Most people live in the worst of all possible gig economies: when The Concern doesn't have work for them, they are shelved, kept in hibernation for however long they are not needed. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
The planet Shroud, though, is inhabited by life that uses radio to communicate. The majority of the book follows a 2 woman team, an engineer & an administrative assistant, who wind up in a lander on the planet's surface, as they have to cover half of the globe to reach a point where they can possibly communicate to their ship. The natives get involved.
There's quite a lot of action, and the natives show Tshaikovsky's incredible imagination for forms of life and intelligence - I think that is his biggest gift.
Despite starting out reminiscent of his prior opus, this 1st contact story takes completely different & novel directions. It's a great read.
