Michael Kopp

Capitalist persecution fetish material

Revisado: 12-12-23

Given this book’s reputation, I was initially concerned that it might actually challenge my beliefs, but the events and characters featured are so laughably contrived that they lose all meaning. Rand’s socialist boogieman consists of greasy wannabe industrialists making back room deals with inept, morally bankrupt politicians in order to direct economic regulation in their own favour (which appears to me to be much more like modern day neoliberalism, but whatever). Her proposed response is to allow the Real industrialists, so called “men of the mind”, to operate with impunity, which would surely result in unparalleled economic and technological advancement for all. This is exemplified in John Galt’s hidden objectivist utopia in which everyone works for their own ends and the gold continues to ever accumulate, distributed fairly by the ultimate wisdom of the free market, I guess.

The most cringe-worthy moment in this novel is the appearance of Ragnar Danneskjöld, a pirate who’s stated goal is to destroy the cultural legacy of Robin Hood by stealing from the “thieving poor” and giving to the “productive rich”. The reader is honestly expected to sympathize with wealthy executives who would rather petulantly scuttle their own firms than allow them to serve the public good (of course, the state officials in this book are either liars or otherwise too in competent to actually act in the public interest, so blowing up every productive copper mine in the world is a perfectly rational response).

Despite all of this, the least believable plot point here is that any wealthy industrialist would ever lower himself to the position of common labourer, a demographic for whom Rand shows obvious contempt.

I honestly wish the wealthy industrialists of this world really would go on “strike” and retreat to their little summer camp in the Rocky Mountains so that the rest of us can see how well we get on without their endless wisdom while they struggle to complete their great works in the absence of actual workers.

The only value I can see in this book is it’s darkly hilarious illustration of the self-rationalizing delusion of the free market libertarian mindset.

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A fun story with an… unfortunate performance

Revisado: 12-08-23

I’ve enjoyed John Dies at the End and This Book is Full of Spiders and this novel definitely has David Wong/Jason Pargin’s signature blend of low-brow comedy and action with approachably elevated themes (with the additional benefit of not featuring the frequent use of the R-slur). I did find it a bit over descriptive at times, but overall the story was quite entertaining and, at least in theory, pretty funny.

Unfortunately, Christy Romero’s narration leaves A LOT to be desired. I’m sure she is familiar with how human speech typically sounds, so I can only assume this performance is the terrible result of poor planning, poor direction, and poor editing. It sounds like they sat her in a recording booth with a copy of a book she had never seen before in her life and told her they only had one day to record, so she should just read the whole book out loud in a single take. Her weirdly stilted delivery, with random awkward pauses and strangely emphasized words, completely pull the listener out of the story and rob most of the jokes of any satisfying comedic timing.

Ultimately, this is a fun and entertaining read that’s completely undermined by embarrassingly shoddy narration.

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Scratches the Three Body itch, but...

Revisado: 05-15-22

this book definitely serves the purpose of filling the void left after finishing the main trilogy, but it still falls short in a few places. some chapters would feel right at home in either of the previous two novels, but others just feel like gratuitous fanfic, which is to be expected. The ending is particularly needless.

Dont go into this expecting something consistently on the caliber of the rest of the series, if you do, you'll be disappointed. but if you just want to stay in the Three Body universe for a little while longer, this mostly does the job. It answers a few questions that were left over from the last one, and also a few questions that probably no one had and didn't really need to be answered.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

An epic conclusion to an epic trilogy

Revisado: 05-10-22

Through eons of time and dozens of characters living out their lives in a terrifying and beautiful universe, this tale finally reaches its ultimate conclusion. This trilogy has depicted a vividly believable future of humanity and its interaction with the universe and the entities we share it with. It is filled with innumerable twists that seem as natural as they are unpredictable. it stretches the imagination with advanced principals of physics and "cosmic sociology" that can be difficult to grasp, but are totally necessary to create the hardest sci-fi I have ever enjoyed. After finishing it in about a week, it will take some time to adjust back to the small and mundane life of the present, on an isolated planet that is mostly oblivious to the possibilities beyond.

P. J. Ochlan's narration is flawless, by far the best of the three, with excellent, unique voices for every character. If you have enjoyed the previous books in the series, don't hesitate for a moment to check this one out. It's significantly longer than the previous ones, but that just means yet more imaginative scenarios to experience over a span of centuries, and ultimately millenia. These three novels are easily among the best I have ever experienced. I'm genuienly sad to be finished, but am cautiously anticipating the Netflix series. I hope they can even remotely approach the grandure of this epic saga.

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Slightly terrifying

Revisado: 04-29-22

I listened to this over the course of two days and it never dragged for a moment. The science is hard enough to be fully believable but not so complex or in depth that a physics layman like myself would have any trouble understanding the general direction (although I'm sure a reader with a more complete understanding of physics and/or Chinese culture and history would get a bit more out of it).

As existentially terrifying as the story's implications are, the ending is strangely inspirational and makes me very eager to check out the next book in the series.

My only criticism is that some of Luke Daniel's character voices slightly broke my immersion in parts (a few lines of dialogue from an Israeli side character, in particular, seemed to change accents line by line), but I can still respect the creative decisions.

Ultimately, this story captured my imagination and I will surely continue to think about it for a long time. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in hard sci-fi and (light spoilers)

...

first contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence.

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Modern Lovecraft

Revisado: 09-03-21

Many, many questions, almost no answers beyond wild speculation. Area X almost entirely evades explaination, and yet this biologist's attempt to explain it is so utterly engrossing that I finished it over the course of two days.

Very different from the film adaptation (at least, what I remember from it) and it quickly becomes apparent why; so much of the events of this book cannot be accurately depicted visually, only loosely (but richly) described so that the reader can create their own formless mental images.

I will definitely be continuing on with the rest of this trilogy.

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