Reviews and Comments

François

FrankAuLux@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 1 year, 11 months ago

Retired linguist/law/IT. Avid reader in all languages (see polyglot.city/@FrankauLux/ ), both paper and ebooks. Mostly fictions these days.

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La Maison Russie (French language, 1989, R. Laffont) No rating

Roman d'espionnage. À Moscou, pendant la perestroïka, Niki Landau se voit confier par une superbe …

Assez déçu par ce livre. Je ne connaissais pas vraiment Le Carré, autrement que de réputation, et pour moi elle est surfaite. C'était peut-être un beau film, mais comme bouquin, pour moi c'est pas terrible.

The Crystal World (1988, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) No rating

The novel tells the story of a physician trying to make his way deep into …

Last in the series after the downed world and the burned world, the crystal world gives us another go at an apocalypse drawing nearer when we followed some personnage tortured by their past. Again quite a good book, but to me the best of the three remains the drowned world (but I admit it's totally subjective).

finished reading The Burning world by J. G. Ballard

The Burning world (1964, Berkley) No rating

In contrast to Ballard's earlier novel The Drowned World, The Burning World describes a world …

"The drowned world" is a book I have read several times, in several languages. Just like "The Martian chronicles", it symbolizes for me the "fin de siècle", end of an era, feeling that, being old, I can't help feeling sometimes. So when I discovered that Ballard had written a trilogy of "world", I had to read the others. "The Burning world", as far as I am concerned, is a variation on a theme. Much of the mood is very similar to the drowned world; it almost seems like an episode in a series. Not bad at all, but afaic, it doesn't rise to "The Drowned world".

Angel of Vengeance (2024, Grand Central Publishing) No rating

Constance Greene confronts Manhattan’s most dangerous serial killer, Enoch Leng, bartering for her sister's life …

Well, that's a chapter closed. Not too sure about this one - it does wrap up, but not entirely satisfied for some reason. Feels a bit like cheap trick. Maybe I just read too many of those in too short a time and they become kind of predictable. Makes for an entertain reading all the same.

Accelerando (2005) 2 stars

The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits …

Gibson is the first thing that springs to mind. The first part of the book is breathtaking - loads of things to take in as the new world unfolds around you. After it slows down, and winds up to a logical conclusion. Very nice - a bit heavy at times. The book has received many sci-fi awards and is available for free amongst other places here www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html . Definitely a good read, even if I didn't enjoy the third part as much as the first 2.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (2016, Riverhead Books) 5 stars

This playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein’s general relativity, quantum …

Brilliant is the word.

5 stars

Most excellent. If you are mildly interrested in sciences, this is a must. The assumed starting level is zero and it will take you by the hand up a gentle slope. If you are a scientist, it may be a bit simple, but you might learn things outside your field as in brushes around physics, cosmology, and even philosophy. Definitely recommended.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (2016, Riverhead Books) 5 stars

This playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein’s general relativity, quantum …

Most excellent. If you are mildly interrested in sciences, this is a must. The assumed starting level is zero and it will take you by the hand up a gentle slope. If you are a scientist, it may be a bit simple, but you might learn things outside your field as in brushes around physics, cosmology, and even philosophy. Definitely recommended.