Finished: The Secret Commonwealth

I was really looking forward to this. It deals with some really interesting ideas - most notably the battle between rationality and missing out on the magic of life. However, it also deals with a bunch of modern real issues (such as the refugee crisis, and the turmoil in parts of the middle east) without a huge amount of sensitivity. It also ends in quite an unsatisfactory manner.

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Finished: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

This is a really enjoyable, sexy queer book, with a somewhat flat ending. It felt like the whole book was building to a big gradual reveal, that came about two chapters before the end of the book. Then it just carries on, without really having anything more to say.

Finished: Zendegi

It was good enough, but not one I would recommend. The books backdrop - a changing Iran - provided an interesting setting for the book. The two lead characters had lots of depth, and there were a couple of unexpectedly emotional bits that felt very real. Ironically, it was the technology - normally the most interesting aspect of Egan's books - that was lacking. The premise was "side loading" a specific humans behaviour into a template of a human brain. It was interesting to see this intermediate technology explored (i.e. on the way to, but not yet at, uploading human consciousness into a computer - a frequent occurrence in Egan's books). However, the story wanders around before simply stopping without really saying very much about it.

Now Starting: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Birthday present from Kim. I am slightly apprehensive about this - as it is a "classic" sci-fi, with all the baggage that that normally entails.

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