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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Success! Ben Harris-Roxas has read 15 of 12 books.
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.
More of a polemical slog than I’d expected.
"In the second volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy, questions are answered, stakes are raised, …
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.
"In the second volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy, questions are answered, stakes are raised, and mysteries are deepened. In …
On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what …
Charming and original. I want to see more fiction like this!
On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what to do with the surviving …
"In the second volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy, questions are answered, stakes are raised, and mysteries are deepened. In …
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature …
Hard to describe without spoiling. It has a propulsive style that belies the almost physical senses the words and the text evokes. Wholly original.
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature …
A re-read. The first time I read this I was in a deep depression so I recall almost nothing. As a result everything I’ve read so far is familiar and unfamiliar, and deepens the unnerving nature of the text.
Iain M. Banks: Matter (EBook, 2009, Orbit)
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it …
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a …
My failure to connect with this on rereading may be more about changes to me, and perhaps changes to reading itself in the intervening years. It seemed unnecessarily drawn out and kind of… dull? I hasten to reiterate that I think this reflects on on me than the author or the work. I struggle with books that resemble shaggy dog stories or don’t seem to really be about anything other than the plot. That means there are many narrative forms that are artful that I now feel… alienated from perhaps?
If I have a chance to revisit this again in my life I think my view will change.
What does a coffee machine, a car, road signs, a smartphone, a cathedral, a work of art, a satellite, a …
Iain M. Banks: Matter (EBook, 2009, Orbit)
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it …
@pelagikat It’s v good imho
@crumbleneedy@aus.social @ben_hr@old.mermaid.town They were amongst my most-loved books as a young adult (in the not-a-teenager sense, not the current book marketing one) but they're much more flawed that I recalled. I think my tastes are now more literary, but I've also read a lot of dumb shit over the years so I may also be less tolerant? 🤷🏽♂️
@crumbleneedy@aus.social @ben_hr@old.mermaid.town They were amongst my most-loved books as a young adult (in the not-a-teenager sense, not the current book marketing one) but they're much more flawed that I recalled. I think my tastes are now more literary, but I've also read a lot of dumb shit over the years so I may also be less tolerant? 🤷🏽♂️
