Skjeggtroll started reading The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
Norwegian translation
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Wild, Norwegian bearded troll. Was a voracious reader, lately scaled back to racious or therabouts, but hoping to redisover my vo. Diet mostly consists of fantasy and science fiction, with a sprinkling of non-fiction history books and the occasional work-related book on IT.
Mastodon account at mastodon.online/@skjeggtroll
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Skjeggtroll's books
2024 Reading Goal
40% complete! Skjeggtroll has read 12 of 30 books.
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Skjeggtroll finished reading The Gray Prince by Jack Vance
Science fiction story about a rebellion taking place on the planet Koryphon.
Content warning No plot details, but discusses the story's conclusion and theme.
A classic sci-fi story from 1975, carefully crafted with great imagination and expertly told -- it's no denying that the way the various savage tribes and the colonizing "Land Barons" are described are deeply unpleasant when read with modern sensibilities, as is the story's underlying theme and message.
The whole thing is basically an elaborate "but the natives stole the land from someone first too, so that means our stealing of it from them is okay" argument from the less savory parts of Reddit, padded out with various racist tropes and straw men wrapped up in a story.
I wouldn't recommend this book unless you have a particular interest in the sci-fi of the era.
Skjeggtroll started reading The Gray Prince by Jack Vance
The Gray Prince by Jack Vance
Science fiction story about a rebellion taking place on the planet Koryphon.
Skjeggtroll finished reading The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
This is the second book in the Thursday Murder Club Mysteries, and the second novel from Richard Osman.
This is a better put-together book than his first, which, while a fun read, had some 'author's first novel' jank to it, but Osman still doesn't really stick the landing. Still a fun little book, but more for following the four main characters and their friendship than for the murder mystery itself.
Skjeggtroll finished reading Peopleware by Tom DeMarco
Few books in computing have had as profound an influence on software management as Peopleware. …
Like "The Mythical Man-Month", this book is faintly depressing in its longevity and continued relevance.
Skjeggtroll started reading The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
Skjeggtroll finished reading Night watch by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, part 29)
One moment, Sir Sam Vimes is in his old patrolman form, chasing a sweet-talking psychopath …
Pratchett at his best is a force of nature.
Skjeggtroll quoted Peopleware by Tom DeMarco
Few books in computing have had as profound an influence on software management as Peopleware. …
This is another variation of the High-Tech Illusion: the belief that software developers do easily automated work. Their principal work is human communication to organize the user's expressions of needs into formal procedure. That work will be necessary no matter how we change the life cycle.
— Peopleware by Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Dorset House (Page 34)
Skjeggtroll started reading Peopleware by Tom DeMarco
Few books in computing have had as profound an influence on software management as Peopleware. …
Seemed time for a re-read.
Skjeggtroll finished reading Terry Pratchett : a Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins
'People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.' …
It's a well written book, often funny, sometimes moving, but as a biography it's weak. The first part, which draws from Pratchett's unfinished autobiography, holds up the best, but the second part end up more as Wilkin's memorial of Pratchett than a biography about him.
It's not a hagiography, but it's all pretty surface-level. The book never really tries to get under the skin of Terry Pratchett, and neither does go into any depth about his authorship. For example, the book mentions Neil Gaiman's quote about Pratchett's anger, but it never explores this anger in any real measure, neither in how Pratchett as a person or in how it manifests in his books.
If you're a fan of Pratchett, it's a good read with enough interesting facts and details to keep you interested, but as biographies goes, it files under "mostly harmless."
'People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.' …
'Your reward for doing something good,' Terry has taken to saying, 'is to do something else good.'
— Terry Pratchett : a Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins (Page 222)
'People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.' …
By the age of twelve, Terry found himself incorporated into the library workforce as a Saturday boy. [...] Occasionally browsers would buttonhole him for guidance. 'People coming into the library,' Terry remembered, 'would stop the strange but inoffensive kid carrying stacks of books all over the place and ask questions like, "What have you got that is suitable for a child with a reading age of eight?" And I would say, "The book for a child with a reading age of twelve," because it always seemed to me that parents who have to ask the librarians for information never really understand how kids who like reading actually read. Who would want to read a book that is suitable for you? Not me, for one. I wanted the unsuitable books.'
— Terry Pratchett : a Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins (Page 46 - 47)
Skjeggtroll started reading Terry Pratchett : a Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins
Terry Pratchett : a Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins
'People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.'
At the time of his …
Skjeggtroll finished reading Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (Culture, #1)
Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain …
Content warning No details, but some mention of the overall type of ending the book has.
It must be close to twenty years since I read "Consider Phlebas" first, but I was surprised of how little I recalled of the story. I did remember it was a tragedy and didn't have an uplifiting ending, although I didn't recall the particulars, so I approach the book differently this time, a little less eager to get suck into the story.
It's a very good story and a solid book, obviously -- Iain Banks is always Iain Banks -- but "Consider Phlebas" was his first foray into science fiction, and if you take your time with it it shows. It's not exactly tropey, but there are some events and characters that don't quite feel grounded in the overall story.
Still a very good read -- "Not the bet Iain M. Banks book out there" is not saying much.
Skjeggtroll quoted Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (Culture, #1)
Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain …
For all the Culture's profoundly materialist and utilitarian outlook, the fact that Idir had no designs on any physical part of the Culture itself was irrelevant. Indirectly, but definitely and mortally, the Culture was threatened ... not with conquest, or loss of life, craft, resources or territory, but with something more important: the loss of its purpose and that clarity of conscience; the destruction of its spirit; the surrender of its soul.
Despite all appearances to the contrary, the Culture, not the Idirans, had to fight, and in that necessity of desperation eventually gathered a strength which -- even if any real doubt had been entertained as to the eventual result -- could brook no compromise.
— Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (Culture, #1) (Page 452)