10 Jan 2026
My reading goes in phases; the last phase was a lot of phantastic Science Fiction.
Blindsight/Echopraxia, by Peter Watts
 
In one unimportant tangent, we built AIs, which improved beyond our understanding, and now we have a quasi-religious order to figure out whether their output is brilliant or gibberish. How prescient a comment from a book from 2006.
Apparently, the author is a biologist, which is refreshing with its unexpected metaphors and surprising insights. That’s exactly my kind of dense, science-philosophy-fi…
10 Jan 2026
My reading goes in phases; the last phase was a lot of phantastic Science Fiction.
Blindsight/Echopraxia, by Peter Watts
 
In one unimportant tangent, we built AIs, which improved beyond our understanding, and now we have a quasi-religious order to figure out whether their output is brilliant or gibberish. How prescient a comment from a book from 2006.
Apparently, the author is a biologist, which is refreshing with its unexpected metaphors and surprising insights. That’s exactly my kind of dense, science-philosophy-fiction. It reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 in its wild inventiveness, and that is about the highest praise I have for a science fiction book!
Shards of Earth/Eyes of the Void/Lords of Uncreation, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  
What a beautiful ride from a scrappy salvage barge, gradually and inexorably towards the destiny of the entire universe. A perfect space opera.
All three books were somewhat slow to start, but impossible to put down once they did. Some recurring characters felt perhaps a bit forced when they re-appeared a tad too often. But the payoff was always worth it, so I don’t begrudge the fan-service. And finally a space opera where humans are not the center of the universe.
Most of all, I admire the richly textured word, with various truly alien species and customs. Knife-wielding lawyers! Unspeakable Clams! Immortal Lobster-people! Yet all with thoughtful motivations and cultures that a make of mockery of normcore Star Wars/Trek. Just beautiful!
Rubicon, by J. S. Dewes
A mil science fiction tour de force, about a future war in which soldiers are reincarnated into clones whenever they’re killed in action. For Sergeant Valero, this has happened 96 times already, and it’s getting old.
But then she’s transferred to a new company, and there are evil robot aliens, rogue AIs, and a surprisingly human story of overcoming depression, finding friendship in harsh places, and perseverance.
Suffice it to say I couldn’t put this book down at some point, and had to continue reading at every waking moment. Absolutely brilliant!
And then there’s that ending...
Notable Shoutouts
to the Fallout and Murderbot TV shows, which were delightful. The book series Arcana Imperii series by Miles Cameron, and Singularity Sky/Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross were great reads, too.