Guillaume Pitron (2018)

Is the “green” revolution actually a “ruse”? This book would have one believe so.

It’s certainly useful to have “the dark side of clean energy” explored in some depth. Many of the observations are chilling, from the environmental impacts of mining to their political consequences in those parts of the world where they occur – and the ever-present shadow of China seeking to get a lock on strategic minerals that will power a world increasingly dependent on rare-earth magnets and specialist semiconductors. In many ways these consequences are the “resource curse” of oil repeating itself, as countries with minerals to extract are exploited and bullied by the companies (and countries) wanting to extract them.

I have to say that the book isn’t a convincing read, despite its wealth of anecdotes and quotes. Perhaps this is because the quotes tend to be unattributed, and the science quite shallow. Having said that, it’s pacey and well-structured, and a warning that the move away from fossil fuels involves a lot of shady dealing.

3/5. Finished Saturday 24 June, 2023.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Meriel Schindler (2021)

A vivd memoir of pre-war Central Europe and the café culture that so much defined it (and still does). The Schindlers of the title are not the now-more-famous branch of the family, but they attained centrality by their catering and social status centred around their Innsbruch café.

This is both a family history and a broader social treatment of how confused and interwoven the various stories from that period and location can be. Schindler starts on her quest to understand her own family after the death of her awkward and domineering father leaves her with access to tantalising clues as to his own involvement in the events, as well as her memories of her refugee relatives, their allusions to their previous eminence, and her own childhood memories of running from her father’s creditors. In the process she uncovers the ways in which Jews integrated into Austrian society – and were then expelled and victimised, amid much confusion, when the political tide turned.

The inclusion of recipes in the back of the book is just a joyful addition to an already quite fascinating tale.

4/5. Finished Monday 19 June, 2023.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Alison Gazzard

A look at the BBC Micro through a very academic prism: I’ve never seen some popular games dissected or considered as topics for post-modern readings! In this sense it’s a very different treatment to the more common histories of computers from this era, and one that I suspect for most people will be a lot less satisfying.

3/5. Finished Friday 9 June, 2023.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

William Gibson (2020)

The follow-up to The Peripheral, where the plot gets weirder and the motives of everyone become more murky. I don’t think it holds together as well as its predecessor, and there’s none of the pace or surprise that made the earlier book so enjoyable. It might make good material for a further TV adaptation, though.

2/5. Finished Saturday 3 June, 2023.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022)

A thoughtful and well-paced sequel to Shards of Earth. It’s notable for its ambitious premises, but also for its incredibly flawed protagonist and genuinely alien aliens. These include humans hybridised to increase their longevity and robustness, the Parthenon group of cloned female warriors, the Architects dismantling planets seemingly at random and the Originators who developed artefacts that prevent this, and the far more advanced (and inscrutable) Essiel.

The complexity and richness of the book come from the lack of knowledge that everyone seems to have about everyone else and their motives. Why are the Architects destroying planets? Why did the Originators develop ways to stop them? And what exactly are the Essiel up to at all? It makes the plot somewhat akin to a detective story as well as being classic space opera, and that’s unusual: science fiction that ventures into the essential un-knowability of aliens.

4/5. Finished Saturday 3 June, 2023.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)