Linkies.- Go Ahead, Make My LessonSo cool!I'm proud to announce that we now have a simple interface for editing and translating lessons on wikiotics.org! This is some great work by Jim that lets us get on with the fun part, making and playing with lessons. If you have a minute, take a look at our example lesson (in English) and play around. The "edit" button at the top will le […]
- gothfox pushed to master at gothfox/Tiny-Tiny-RSSthat is a very strongly worded commit message Andrew Dolgov committed c90a028 daemon2: properly abort stuck children […]
- Distaste for Corona saves geologist from assassinationSEE the leaks are valuable. Now we know not to drink crappy beer oh wait. Buried in Wikileaks' Afghanistan documents is a largely ignored 2007 warning that Pakistani spies were planning to poison booze intended for American soldiers using sulfuric acid. It sounds a little far-fetched. Until you hear the story of James Yeager, an American geologist who c […]
- Top 10 DIY Food Geek Projects [Lifehacker Top 10]Ok, for the to-read bucket The best-tasting food is the kind that comes from your own efforts, because victory tastes oh-so-sweet. Conquer KFC-style fried chicken, smoky barbecue, wood-fired pizza, five-minute bread, and other DIY delicacies with these great food-focused projects. More » […]
- Go Ahead, Make My Lesson
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Books: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
I finished the book and put up a longer review of Anathem
When I got home from going San Francisco and the Caymans this Sunday I had a pleasant surprise. I had a nice advanced reader’s copy of “Anathem”, the upcoming novel by Neal Stephenson*. I’d heard reports that it was either post-apocalyptic or a space opera, but neither seems an apt description 100 pages in. So far it seems to be another new genre: Long Now Fiction. You’ve got a monastic (“mathic”) order where different sects sequester themselves away from the ever changing world outside for periods of a year, a decade, a century or a millennium.
There’s an awful lot of worldbuilding words to keep track of, which is a bit annoying, and it is starting off slow. That’s fine, though. Stephenson’s books generally don’t move like other books that have a slow rising action to a climax. Stephenson’s books tend to be first immersion in a world for a few 100 pages, then a radical spiraling climax that is vertically asymptotic against the presence of the end of the book. It’ll get exciting soon enough.
The book isn’t due out till September 30th, and assuming that I’ll finish the massive thing by then, do let me know if you’d like it next.
*Apparently I’m quite the lucky duck. I got this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program and was one of the 25 recipients out of the 1375 requesters.
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