@picklish@books.theunseen.city Well expressed. I enjoyed it quite a lot too, for the same reasons.
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Researcher and educator from Sydney, Australia. You’ll usually find me on the forgotten parts of the web.
My ratings ★ Not recommended ★★ Not for me, but may be okay for you? ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good, recommended ★★★★★ Exceptional, couldn't put it down
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Ben Harris-Roxas's books
2026 Reading Goal
8% complete! Ben Harris-Roxas has read 1 of 12 books.
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Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Slow Gods by Claire North
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
…
Meandering, meditative, brutal
5 stars
North gives you a detailed vocab but not really glossary. The Shine, arcspace, the Slow. You end up working it out, but it’s more disorienting than usual and it helps with world building.
The technology gets the same treatment and I think that’s where many readers will give up on this. What the Slow actually is, what happened to the narrator at the moments that determined the course his life, etc.; none of it is really ever explained. The narrator never really understands it either. He’s telling you what he remembers, which is less than I'd expected.
The revenge takes centuries and comes to nothing much. He lives long enough that the vengeance accounting stops making sense. There’s just nobody left it all means anything to.
I enjoyed this quite a lot. It’s more literary than genre in its aspirations.
North gives you a detailed vocab but not really glossary. The Shine, arcspace, the Slow. You end up working it out, but it’s more disorienting than usual and it helps with world building.
The technology gets the same treatment and I think that’s where many readers will give up on this. What the Slow actually is, what happened to the narrator at the moments that determined the course his life, etc.; none of it is really ever explained. The narrator never really understands it either. He’s telling you what he remembers, which is less than I'd expected.
The revenge takes centuries and comes to nothing much. He lives long enough that the vengeance accounting stops making sense. There’s just nobody left it all means anything to.
I enjoyed this quite a lot. It’s more literary than genre in its aspirations.
Ben Harris-Roxas finished reading Slow Gods by Claire North
Slow Gods by Claire North
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning …
Ben Harris-Roxas started reading Slow Gods by Claire North
Slow Gods by Claire North
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning …
Ben Harris-Roxas replied to Ben Harris-Roxas's status
I jus saw that second hand versions of this are going to AUD $800+ so it might be worth paying the replacement fee…
Ben Harris-Roxas started reading Ulm Design by Herbert Lindinger
Inspired by recent interest in the Ulm School of Design, I went and borrowed this print book from the university library.
Ben Harris-Roxas started reading Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
Ben Harris-Roxas finished reading The Care of Things by Jerome Denis
What does a coffee machine, a car, road signs, a smartphone, a cathedral, a work …
Worthwhile and brimming with ideas that speak to our current moment. I’ll have to sit with it for a while before writing a review.
Ben Harris-Roxas finished reading Minority Rule by Ash Sarkar
More of a polemical slog than I’d expected.
Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #2)
"In the second volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy, questions are answered, stakes are raised, …
Grounding
4 stars
A re-read, and one that brings home how important this book is in grounding the series in some sense of reality, bureaucracy and the mundane. It’s a necessary second work, handled well.
Ben Harris-Roxas finished reading Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #2)
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #2)
"In the second volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy, questions are answered, stakes are raised, and mysteries are deepened. In …
Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what …
Charming
4 stars
Charming and original. I want to see more fiction like this!
Ben Harris-Roxas finished reading Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what to do with the surviving …
Ben Harris-Roxas started reading Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #2)
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #2)
"In the second volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy, questions are answered, stakes are raised, and mysteries are deepened. In …