Interested in history, philosophy, social criticism, weird-fiction, sci-fi
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Named One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022 by Kirkus and Literary Hub
The …
The title is actually a bit of a misnomer, it's more about what Rushkoff calls 'the Mindset' of the financial and tech elites, which actually makes it a better book than if it would've been limited to just the escape fantasies.
From T. Kingfisher, the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones, comes What Moves the Dead, …
Great retelling of the classic Poe story, with some actual horrific moments. While some elements were pretty obvious, it was still gripping and Kingfisher managed to keep it not too long, while also extending the original store which was actually too short!
It's about books. That's it. The only good thing about this novel.
It's a somewhat dated boyhood powerfantasy, with no stakes involved at any time, a bunch of one-dimensional characters that are written as if they were to be cut from overly sweet cookie dough and a naïve, cringe worthy obsession with big tech companies.
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, …
What initially starts off as an imperfect blend of Tart's The Secret History and a low fantasy setting akin to Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell slowly shifts to its actual subject: colonialism. Seen through the lens, not of white saviours nor the faraway colonial subjects, but of it's unique product: people of both worlds, forcefully transplanted, with all the twisted allegiances that come with it. The last third act of the book explodes into a study about struggle and violence, the interwoven working of class and empire, in a way that is seldomly seen in (Western) fiction literature and for this fact alone this book deserves praise and commendation.
The official Penguin history of modern China, covering an extensive but arguably lesser-known period of …
This history books leaves a lot to be desired. Fenby seems to lack a respect for his subject that you'd expect from a historian - even a highly critical one. In the epilogue he says "as I've argued in this book" but that's exactly the problem: he doesn't really argue any points, he just posits them. He draws comparisons between the imperial era events and the later ones during the communist period without any reasoning. He makes value claims without clarifying or without contextualising in a larger, world-historical view. It's clear he has an utter dislike of the communists, which I don't mind, but this together with his lack of argumentation results in a rather myopic approach without much room for nuance or actual understanding of Chinese society except for the bare facts. Something I also missed was at least one chapter dedicated to KMT ruled Taiwan after their retreat. …
This history books leaves a lot to be desired. Fenby seems to lack a respect for his subject that you'd expect from a historian - even a highly critical one. In the epilogue he says "as I've argued in this book" but that's exactly the problem: he doesn't really argue any points, he just posits them. He draws comparisons between the imperial era events and the later ones during the communist period without any reasoning. He makes value claims without clarifying or without contextualising in a larger, world-historical view. It's clear he has an utter dislike of the communists, which I don't mind, but this together with his lack of argumentation results in a rather myopic approach without much room for nuance or actual understanding of Chinese society except for the bare facts. Something I also missed was at least one chapter dedicated to KMT ruled Taiwan after their retreat. It only gets mentioned again in a few passing paragraphs. All in all a very disappointing book.