BOOKS!!!

Sometimes I read things, i will post about those things here sometimes

Currently reading The Female Man by joanna russ, i basically just started so no comments other than i like the writting style well enough

I read around half of woman on the edge of time by marge piercy and gave up, it isnt for me and all the points that i think are good are unintenional by the author, she is also a terf which actively shows through the book and was part of my reason for dropping it (i didnt know that when i started)

The Man in The Maze by Robert Silverberg is an amazing novel about a man in a maze and its soooo good and amazing and literally not even 200 pages and an easy read like litterally just find a copy and read it, its not life chaning or anything but treatyourself read it.

some plot and such is that there is a man, he is in a maze in self exile, the maze kills people and he sits in it so nobody can get to him and some people need to get to him and not die in the process, the book alternates between the man, the group trying to get him, and the mans life before the self exile.

Then I read stand on zanzibar by John Brunner and augh is it amazing if you are into sociology

so the book is a dystopia set in 2010, though it rarely feels actually dystopic because many of the things presented to make it dystopic are just things that happen (like mass public violence) with the only thing really left being eugenics and overpopulation which is a central bit. the book is better if you try to place yourself in the mid to late 1960s. I love how the book is strucuted with four kinds of chapters "context", "the happening world", "tracking with closeups", and "continuity" which all provide different looks into the world and from different people which massively adds to the worldbuilding and story. one of my fav chapters is titled obituary near the end, which just lists all the named characters who died throughout the book, which is a strange thing to like but it does showcase the chapter structure well as what other book would be able to follow and kill off like 20 ish somewhat major named characters its great.

I have few issues with it it even has a good ending but i feel as though the length isnt the best, both that it could have been ~100 pages shorter (of ~560) but also that there was so much more the world could have offered, which could have made the book far longer or had sequals which is missing. outside of that i dont really have any issues with the book, it is kinda considered Brunner's peak for a reason though

following reading of foundation i reread Triton by samuel R deleny which is maybe my fav book even though it is kinda rubbish

the big thing i like about it is that i really really see myself in Bron (the protag) who is an awful person but has struggles in life similar to mine and who views transitioning as a solution to that, which in truth only reveles more issues that are then kinda sorta able to be delt with (maybe). you also have some amazing characters such as The Spike who does microtheatre to people like thats just what she does. and the society on triton is fascinating to me (its a kinda unique take on vaugely socialist vaugely utopic society common in sci fi) and is overall an imaginable world but only barely.

despite how much i love the story of this book the writting in it is (intentionally as far as i know) difficult to read and follow, which in a way adds to the book but my god does it make actually reading it quite unpleasent in various ways. I would reccomend the book but not to people who dont read quite a lot.

A few months ago i read the entire Foundation series by Asimov (as in the books with foundation in the title) and i have some thoughts on them

so the first book, simply titled foundation is a great book well paced and fun though not a lot to say still a great book, this largely continues though foundation and empire and second foundation both of which follow the structure and pacing of the first, though with some differences, this is also where maybe the best bit of story in the series happens with everything involving the Mule which i will not spoil here but it is phenomena. these three books are the sort of thing that makes asimov a highly praised author.

the next two books Foundations edge and foundation and earth are bad, edge is okay as a good chunk of the characters are interesting enough and much of the pacing and such is similar to the first three (though not quite as good in my opinon) but this is also where asimov's pervy old man phase starts, so every female character is kinda awful (even the ones i like) and the ending of this book makes sense but is somewhat antithetical to the premise of the serise (to me) which is largely a "what if we could predict society into the future" rather than asking if that works. foundation and earth is the worst book in the series, poorly paced with only the annoying characters of the last book (which side note edge and eather ~1000 pages covers less than a year of time compared to 500 years or so of the first three books ~800 pages) who are also really horny but not in a fun or interesting way just in a pervy way. the book was a slog to get through though the later parts are good (although a genderless character is not handeled the best) but the ending to this (which ends the series overall) is maybe the worst ending and was also very much set up for a sequal which was never written because asimov died.

the next two books prelude to foundation and forward the foundation follow Hari Seldons life and are prequals. these books are great, you get a little pervy old man, and i dont like how asimov tries to connect the robot and foundation series' but other than that they are just silly fun and interesting books