Our modern society in a nutshell, folks:
"My concern with AI is a fake voice taking my work. I really don’t worry about who actually writes the material I’m getting paid for."
A real comment made by a real voice actor.
Our modern society in a nutshell, folks:
"My concern with AI is a fake voice taking my work. I really don’t worry about who actually writes the material I’m getting paid for."
A real comment made by a real voice actor.
En una habitación vacía, la única defensa contra lo que no debería existir es un recuerdo banal: un café derramado, un teclado pegajoso y una concentración absoluta. A veces, para cerrar un canal, solo necesitas estar...
https://fictograma.com/d/2836-capitulo-19-registro-final
Quasit's Book Recommendations: "Lord of Light" (1967) by Roger Zelazny
This is simply one of my very favorite books. Apart from being quite possibly the greatest work ever produced by one of the two finest craftsmen of prose in science fiction, "Lord of Light" is one of the rare books which I find deeply moving. I can never read the ending without getting a lump in my throat.
Winner of the 1968 Hugo award for science fiction, the novel could easily be mistaken for fantasy. On a distant planet in the far future, human colonists have created a culture based on Indian mythology—except that in that world magic is made real by highly advanced technology.
Some of the ship's crew have assumed the roles of Hindu gods, using both technology and paranormal abilities. The colonists and their descendants live as mortals beneath the rule of the gods, with limited technology and enforced subservience. But technology has made reincarnation possible, so those who obey the gods have a chance at another life when they die.
Not everyone is happy with this arrangement, and the inevitable result is, of course, revolution.
At 257 pages it's a remarkably slender book compared to most modern genre novels. Yet it contains more poetry, emotion, humor, and sheer •imagination• than any HUNDRED science fiction novels published in the last twenty years.
One point: After the first chapter the bulk of the novel is an extended flashback. Zelazny didn't try to hide that, but he didn't make it obvious either. The sheer length of the flashback confuses some readers, so please don't forget.
Another bit of trivia: There were once plans to film "Lord of Light" and turn the sets into a permanent theme park. Jack Kirby (yes, THE Jack Kirby) made sketches for the sets. Sadly the movie never came to be, but the CIA obtained the sketches and used them to help convince the Iranian government that they were looking to film the movie in Iran. This was during the hostage crisis, and was the means by which some diplomats were smuggled out of the country. A movie was made of THAT story, "Argo" starring Ben Affleck. You can see the sketches and more information here.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110724150727/http://lordoflight.com/
Every time I read "Lord of Light" I end up wishing there was more. And yet...how could more be anything but a diminishment?
The book is very much worth owning; I've re-read it many times, and I'll read it many more. But you can borrow it for free from the Internet Archive, too:
https://archive.org/details/lordoflight0000roge
Again: this is one of the greatest classics in the field of science fiction, a true work of art. If you haven't read it, you have a wonderful experience ahead of you.
#Books #Bookstodon #ScienceFiction #ScienceFantasy #SF #Classics #QuasitBookRecs
Currently reading:
METAtropolis: To Hie from Far Cilenia - Karl Schroeder
METAtropolis - John Scalzi @jscalzi
I'm rereading Snow Crash to capture the essence of what I liked about Neal Stephenson when I first read him. After that strong start, I developed this idea that he got too popular and his editors became fearful of making him angry by cutting too much.
The trouble is, on rereading Snow Crash decades later, I see all the excess that bothered me about his later work. I suspect that I"ve changed, rather than Snow Crash having subtly changed while it sat on the shelf.
I'm almost afraid to read more Pournelle and Niven. My last read of Lucifer's Hammer, once one of my favourite books, filled me with distaste.
You know who stays strong over time? David Brin. William Gibson. J.R.R. Tolkien. I suspect John Mortimer will stay the course - while I'm new to written Rumpole, I've loved the televised version for most of my life.
A new author in my world is Peter F. Hamilton. I quite enjoyed Sonnie's Edge on Love Death & Robots, and I was intrigued to learn that it was based on a written story. I've decided to start a Hamilton binge with A Second Chance at Eden, a collection of short stories in what would become his Night's Dawn universe. I'm not yet sold on his style but he tells compelling stories, and I'm eager to see what he does long-form once I'm done with his short stories.
In no other department is a thorough knowledge of history so important as in philosophy. Like historical science in general, philosophy is, on the one hand, in touch with exact inquiry, while, on the other, it has a certain relationship with art. With the former it has in common its methodical procedure and its cognitive aim; with the latter, its intuitive…
— Richard Falckenberg
https://palimpseste.vercel.app/#text/65a93601-d913-441e-89d1-2a44a95ac97c
#philosophy #bookstodon #books #literature
A path, old tree, goes by thee crooking on,
And through this little gate that claps and bangs
Against thy rifted trunk, what steps hath gone?
Though but a lonely way, yet mystery hangs
Oer crowds of pastoral scenes recordless here.
The boy might climb the nest in thy young boughs
That's slept half an eternity; in fear
The herdsman may have left his startled cows
— John Clare
https://palimpseste.vercel.app/#text/ea44ab39-f585-4da9-b24b-83727bf5d39b
#nature #bookstodon #books #literature
"No es lo que viene. Es lo que queda". 🌑
Una presencia que se alimenta de la atención, un canal abierto hace años y una madre dispuesta a quedarse en la oscuridad para que ellos puedan huir. Si lo miras, lo alimentas. Si te encuentra, se fija.
https://fictograma.com/d/2835-capitulo-18-lo-que-no-debe-abrirse
「EMOTION BIG JACKET COLLECTION」楽天ブックス特別施策の実施決定! – V-STORAGE(ビー・ストレージ) 【公式】 produced by バンダイナムコフィルムワークス
ニュース | ニュース(BV速報) 2026.5.7 UP この度、楽天ブックスにて「EMOTION BIG JACKET COLLECTION」の特別施策実施が決定いたしました!
対象期間中、楽天ブックスにて [...]
#MAGMOE #JP #JAPAN #Book書籍 #book #books #書籍
https://www.magmoe.com/2959489/book/2026-05-09/
May 9
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`[629] 'Gardener's Chron.,' 1855, p. 54; 'Journal of Horticulture,' May 9, 1865, p. 363.`
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“The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2)” by Charles Darwin
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28897