Reviews and Comments

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Daniel Keast

dmk@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 1 year, 4 months ago

Computer programmer living in Exeter, UK.

Loves open source, retro video games, food, and anxiously watching the unfolding UK political catastrophy.

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finished reading Out of the Blue by Harry Cole

Out of the Blue (2022, HarperCollins Publishers Limited) No rating

This book was written in a rush and then hastily extended and edited during the disastrous Truss government. It shows in places, reading like a tabloid opinion column and lacking depth. It's fair enough given how little time they had to write it I guess.

Liz Truss comes across as someone who enjoys being oppositional, and doesn't really understand human relationships very well. She also doesn't seem in any way interested in detail or the responsibilities of office. A large amount of time seemed to be spent trying to get the best photo for her Instagram feed.

She seems to have a very simple supply-side economics mental model that she has confused with actual reality. It doesn't seem like her ideology is anything more than "cutting taxes makes the line go up". I'm no economist, but I'm pretty sure there's more to it than that.

The final sentence describes the …

finished reading Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

Moving Pictures (Paperback, 2005, Corgi) 4 stars

Moving Pictures is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, published in 1990, the …

This is a return to the earlier style of books where the plot is only there to ferry you from one joke to the next. The dungeon dimensions don't really serve much purpose other than to add some "boding" as Gaspode would call it. I guess also to be able to wrap it all up in the end so that Holy Wood doesn't exist again.

Gaspode the Wonder Dog stole every scene he was in, brilliant character. It was also the introduction of Mustrum Ridcully and Ponder Stibbons.

I think this might be the first mention of Headology as well, although interestingly it's by the Wizards when making their real beards appear fake with wires.

finished reading The places in between by Rory Stewart

The places in between (2006, Harcourt, Inc.) No rating

In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan--surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian …

Rory Stewart walks from Herat to Kabul in Afghanistan not long after the fall of the Taliban. He does the walk in the winter months, stopping off at the villages and towns along the way.

The book is much more about the people and places on the journey than about the author, he doesn't go into much about why he's doing this other than talking about retracing the steps of the first Mughal emperor Babur.

I knew almost nothing about the places, and found the description of the Minaret of Jam in particular fascinating. His encounters vary from being welcomed with food and shelter, to a particularly tense meeting with people from the Taliban. Some of the contrasting of his experiences with the out of touch state building were very eye opening.

I felt pretty uncomfortable with the amount of times he comes across as entitled to what little food …

finished reading Guards! Guards? by Terry Pratchett

Guards! Guards? (Paperback, 2001, HarperTorch) 4 stars

Guards! Guards! is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the eighth in the …

Absolutely amazing. I remembered this being my favourite for a long time when I was a kid, and I can see why. This is such a massive step up from the previous books in the series. Pyramids had something to say about tradition and dogma, this has something to say about human beings. The characters have significantly more depth to them, and the plot threads are followed in more detail and tie together brilliantly.

Also it's hilarious. I particularly laughed at 32 people dying because of an attempt to stone a cloud to death.

finished reading Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

Babel (EBook, 2022, Harper Voyager) 4 stars

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …

This month's book club pick. I loved most of this, but wish it spent less time lecturing me and gave some more nuance to the characters. I don't really need convincing about it's themes, and I think the message might have come across as more powerful if I was allowed to think about what was happening rather than being told how I should feel about it all the time.

When it was focusing on the plot and characters it was wonderful.

finished reading Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

Pyramids (Paperback, 2001, HarperTorch) 4 stars

It's bad enough being new on the job, but Teppic hasn't a clue as to …

This is the second book I've read this year that features pyramids being built very quickly due to time being controlled (after Echoes of the Great Song). I don't know if that's a thing, or a coincidence.

This is about being held back by tradition, ritual and religious fundamentalism. I've got a feeling that Small Gods has a lot of the same ideas, but I've not read it in a very long time.

Lots of fun to read, but Discworld books always are right?

finished reading The KLF by John Higgs

The KLF (2001, Orion Hardbacks) 4 stars

They were the bestselling singles band in the world. They had awards, credibility, commercial success …

I didn't really know much about the KLF other than some of the hits and that they burnt a million quid. I was expecting this to just be a simple musical biography, it is a lot more interesting than that.

It talks about invisible rabbits, chaos theory, discordianism, Lee Harvey Oswald and ties them together in a funny way. It also discusses "the map is not the territory" / "all models are wrong" ideas in such a brilliant way at the end that I think I'm going to have to reread this at some point.

finished reading Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018) 4 stars

A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice. With winter looming, a small …

The pacing felt much too slow. There are points where something exciting is supposed to be happening and the author spends paragraphs detailing where people are sitting and what clothes they're wearing.

I saw the ending a mile away too.

It wasn't awful though, there were some quite sweet character moments.

finished reading Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart

Politics on the Edge (2023, Penguin Random House) 4 stars

This is a very depressing read. Stewart clearly has a deep love of the UK and it's institutions, but describes his experiences of how its politics have been completely hollowed out. All the incentives are wrong, power is not truly in the hands of either the people that claim to have it or should have it. People are only interested in their position, and no one seems interested in the actual improvement of people's lives. It ends with the rise of Boris Johnson and populism arriving in the UK.

I guess the only way this stuff can be fixed is people actually being honest about the situation so in a sense is hopeful to have things like this written.