For weeks I’ve been earnestly waiting for the release of Ian McEwan’s latest novel, Machines Like Me. McEwan is one of my favourite authors, he has an uncanny ability to be able to build a series of apparently independent scenes which, only when reviewed in the full context of the story, mesh beautifully with the theme of the novel. So when it was announced that he was to release a science-fiction novel I was ecstatic, especially one dealing with artificial intelligence. So, when it arrived I jumped straight in.
Dune by Frank Herbert
It’s an Absolute Truth that Dune, Frank Herbert’s 1969 classic novel, is the greatest work of science-fiction ever put to paper. The sci-fi equivalent of Lord of the Rings, Dune is a without competition, a fully realised world of ecology, history, and human societies that interact and devour one another. Dune is the finest the genre has to offer, of that there is no doubt or argument.
What’s in a name?
Like any twenty-first century man, I’m too focused and important to be bothered by the minutia of every day life. Time which should be spent tending to my micro-avocado farm is wasted having to deal with such things as electric bills, TV licenses, doctors appointments and the other thousand things which keep my house standing, food on my table, and my son arriving at school on time every morning.
Everything I read in 2017 and 2018
In January 2017, two years ago, I decided that I needed to read more. I installed an app on my phone and discovered that I was spending a shocking number of hours every day just scrolling through social media newsfeeds…
I’ve earned a short post today
Yesterday I fell through a rabbit hole and came out the other side with a 2000 word article on a movie which was released six years ago. That possibly wasn’t the most effective use of my time, but I found…