Critiques et Commentaires

I definitely enjoyed this more than (Surface Detail)[https://book.dansmonorage.blue/book/18939]. If nothing else, it is notably shorter, which suggests an instance of "established authors need editing too".

Banks does love to shock, and loves to write "cinematically", which occasionally a bit tiresome.

While I think describing the Culture series as "Literary Science Fiction" is a bit of stretch, there are some interesting big picture ideas, and some of the characters have some depth, or at least some interior life. The choice of having a "bad guy" protagonist already elevates it beyond a lot of more pulpy SF.

shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/01/book-review-inglorious-empire-shashi-tharoor/

As a CS academic, this is more a "should read" than a "want to read".

A definite maybe, based on the blurb.

commodore 64 (the follow-on) was my first computer. Same form factor, and iirc same processor family (6502).

Most of these stories are very old, and even the translation dates from 1909. I can forgive the (in modern terms) lack of character development and somewhat weak plotting in most of them. The glimpses into the early modern Arab world are occasionally fascinating (Sinbad was particularly interesting for me the discussion of trade and ancient Iraqi cities). The lack of interesting women characters is probably no worse than more recent "prince rescues princess" genre fiction.The casual violence and questionable morality is occasionally a bit shocking, but I guess one can make an argument for that as "thought provoking". I don't think I can excuse the occasional antisemitism and pervasive anti-black racism in the same way. Eventually it just dominated my experience of the book, which is kindof ick.

The story of Sinbad the Voyager is probably the most interesting in the volume, although it is not without problematic levels of racism.

Finished Codadad and his Brothers. The plot is moderately amusing, but the racism is really turned up to 11. The villainous giant is called simply "The Black".

I enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

The story is free to read, what could possibly go wrong?

I know nothing about this book but the author.

(That turns out to be because there a duplicate books; search by author to find reviews).

Finished two more stories, both of which I thought more interesting than Aladdin. The store of the Prince Agib and the Story of the the City of Brass are both allegories about greed. The City of Brass has one character who succeeds because he is devout and learned, which makes a change from just lucky.

I also happened to look at a few of the illustrations (by Maxfield Parrish) in the print edition, and they definitely add to the stories.

Finished Aladdin. Our plucky hero triumphs in the end. Sadly the princess does nothing very interesting.