Reviews and Comments

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Andy

andy_m@bookrastinating.com

Joined 2 years, 2 months ago

I like science fiction, science fact, situated feminisms, and speculative fabulations.

They/them. You can also find me at @andy@dice.camp.

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reviewed At the Earth's Core (Ace SF Classic, F-156) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs: At the Earth's Core (Ace SF Classic, F-156) (1961, Ace Books)

Dr. Abner Perry has invented a high-calibration digging machine affectionately called 'The Iron Mole'. While …

Review of "At the Earth's Core (Ace SF Classic, F-156)" on 'Goodreads'

Better to read Journey to the Center of the Earth twice than this racist incel fantasy.

(I did think the Hollow Earth was interesting and that the timelessness could have been something cool, in like a "Story of your Life" kind of way.)

reviewed Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

No cover

Jules Verne: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1956, Ace Books Inc)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (French: Voyage au centre de la Terre), also …

Review of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' on 'Goodreads'

Get ready for a hike, it's pretty much all walking or boating around. Minecraft the book?

Verne front loads the racism:
Calls someone So-and-so the Jew;
Describes a sooty figurehead pipe as becoming a "negress";
References savages in South America and Africa.

But mostly just stereotypes an Icelander for the rest of the book.

reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler, Damian Duffy, John Jennings: Kindred (GraphicNovel, 2017, Harry N. Abrams (Abrams Comicarts))

Octavia E. Butler's bestselling literary science-fiction masterpiece, Kindred, now in graphic novel format. More than …

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

I liked the story and, for the most part, the pace of the adaptation. Not super into the art style but it's fine. The ending is cut short though, and doesn't fully explain a part of the epilogue...

reviewed Field of Battle by Sergio González Rodríguez

No cover

Sergio González Rodríguez, Joshua Neuhouser, Hedi El Kholti, David Lida: Field of Battle (2019, MIT Press)

Review of 'Field of Battle' on 'Goodreads'

2.5/5

Some compelling ideas about space and the state of affairs in Mexico, but some parts needed more explanation or citation. The journalistic writing style was different for me, fresh I guess.

Was interesting reading a liberal book in the Semiotext(e) Interventions series lol. Not my conclusions but okay.

reviewed Machine Learning, Revised and Updated Edition by Ethem Alpaydin

Ethem Alpaydin: Machine Learning, Revised and Updated Edition (EBook, 2021, MIT Press, The MIT Press)

A concise overview of how computer programs can learn from data, what they can learn …

Review of 'Machine Learning, Revised and Updated Edition' on 'Goodreads'

Pretty good introduction to the conceptual side of machine learning, for someone who knows a bit of programming and a bit of statistics. Skimmed over some of the beginning parts and some of the later parts went over my head. Fair warning: this will not teach you how to actually write scripts/programs, but it did inspire some improvements to my own (rudimentary) work.

My main criticism is that the author can trend towards the naïve (or idealistic? or complacent? or?) in the ending chapter about the risks of machine learning applications. (Most, if not all, techies lack moral compasses and it would be better to recognize that up front. Also, automated/self-driving personal cars are inherently violent. Sorry.)

reviewed Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh (The Morgaine Cycle, #1)

C.J. Cherryh: Gate of Ivrel (Paperback, 1988, DAW)

Review of 'Gate of Ivrel' on 'Goodreads'

An entertaining adventure/quest novel. I could see a LOTR or Earthsea fan enjoying this

It does have the main flaw of Cherryh works, too many random made-up words! But maybe that's because it wasn't as genre-defining as LOTR?

Also the cover is ridiculous (they wear layers of clothes the whole time!)