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wednesday reads and things
Jun. 10th, 2026 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
isisA lot shorter this time š
What I've recently finished reading:
In eyeball, Echo of Worlds by M. R. Carey, the second book of the Pandominion duology. I liked it and thought it was a good conclusion to the set-up of the first book. Also, I just realized it's basically Mass Effect 3 with the Synthesis ending, which I guess makes Paz Female Shepard...okay, not really. But the theme of organic intelligence and machine intelligence coming to terms with each other is a relevant theme in these days of "AI" growth.
In audio, Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor, the fourth Bobiverse book. I really loved this one, even though there was a bit of idiot-balling at the climax - why would you go through the town to get to the transit station, instead of going around it and coming in from the other side, when you know your opponents are looking for you?!?! But otherwise it was a well-assembled story, another "first contact with an alien race" narrative with some interesting twists. The bits and pieces of the separate storylines come together in some surprising ways at the end. And heh, it's the same theme in a way, machine intelligence and human intelligence and human-mapped-into-machine intelligence. I'm looking forward to the fifth book!
What I'm playing (again):
No, not replaying, I never do that š but I had not started up Ghost of Tsushima since before my first bit of spring travel back in late March, so even though I was just about to do the final quest of the second part of the game, I noodled around with some random sidequests (freeing fishing villages from their evil Mongol overlords) for a few sessions, until I felt ready to free Castle Shimura. Now I'm out the other side and ready to complete the last act of the game!
What I've recently finished reading:
In eyeball, Echo of Worlds by M. R. Carey, the second book of the Pandominion duology. I liked it and thought it was a good conclusion to the set-up of the first book. Also, I just realized it's basically Mass Effect 3 with the Synthesis ending, which I guess makes Paz Female Shepard...okay, not really. But the theme of organic intelligence and machine intelligence coming to terms with each other is a relevant theme in these days of "AI" growth.
In audio, Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor, the fourth Bobiverse book. I really loved this one, even though there was a bit of idiot-balling at the climax - why would you go through the town to get to the transit station, instead of going around it and coming in from the other side, when you know your opponents are looking for you?!?! But otherwise it was a well-assembled story, another "first contact with an alien race" narrative with some interesting twists. The bits and pieces of the separate storylines come together in some surprising ways at the end. And heh, it's the same theme in a way, machine intelligence and human intelligence and human-mapped-into-machine intelligence. I'm looking forward to the fifth book!
What I'm playing (again):
No, not replaying, I never do that š but I had not started up Ghost of Tsushima since before my first bit of spring travel back in late March, so even though I was just about to do the final quest of the second part of the game, I noodled around with some random sidequests (freeing fishing villages from their evil Mongol overlords) for a few sessions, until I felt ready to free Castle Shimura. Now I'm out the other side and ready to complete the last act of the game!
