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hawkwing_lbBooks 2012: 79-82
79. Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect: Revelation. (Orbit, 2007.)
This is a bad book. Tepidly written and vacuously plotted, with a collection of tedious clichés passing for characterisation, the only reason it pulls together into a book-like shape at all is because the Mass Effect setting possesses a certain operatic charm. Not recommended.
80. John Jackson Miller & Mac Walters, Mass Effect: Redemption. (Dark Horse, 2010.) Art by Omar Francia, Michael Atiyeh, & Daryl Mandryk.
If Mass Effect: Revelation is a bad book, Redemption is a comic of very little redeeming value. Shallowly plotted, with art that, however vibrantly colourful, dwells lingeringly on the objectified female form, it's got very little to recommend it apart from a couple of half-decent one-liners.
nonfiction
81. Brit Mandelo, WE WUZ PUSHED: On Joanna Russ and radical truth-telling. (Aqueduct Press, 2012.)
A very short (~70 pages) discussion of what Mandelo contends is the major theme of Russ's career: telling the truth in a radical fashion. It's a joy to read. (Although since the problem of telling the truth begs the question of to whom you tell it, I'm sufficiently a product of academia that I'd've liked to see a discussion of Russ's audience, as well). If Russ is fundamentally concerned with demystification, Mandelo does a pretty bang-up job of demystifying Russ. Recommended for anyone who enjoys fluent criticism.
82. Hilary Gatti, Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science. (Cornell University Press, Ithaca & London, 1999.)
I confess, I skimmed the last three chapters. Epistemology is not my favouritest thing. And since I knew nothing about Bruno to begin with, I do not know if this book is any good. It is certainly not a good entry point for the history of Renaissance science. (I know, I know. I should read more in my area. But mind like magpie. Sez: Want shinier history!)
On a completely diferent topic, I believe I am developing body image issues. (More of them than I used to have, anyway.) This is an annoying complication in my self-image.
79. Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect: Revelation. (Orbit, 2007.)
This is a bad book. Tepidly written and vacuously plotted, with a collection of tedious clichés passing for characterisation, the only reason it pulls together into a book-like shape at all is because the Mass Effect setting possesses a certain operatic charm. Not recommended.
80. John Jackson Miller & Mac Walters, Mass Effect: Redemption. (Dark Horse, 2010.) Art by Omar Francia, Michael Atiyeh, & Daryl Mandryk.
If Mass Effect: Revelation is a bad book, Redemption is a comic of very little redeeming value. Shallowly plotted, with art that, however vibrantly colourful, dwells lingeringly on the objectified female form, it's got very little to recommend it apart from a couple of half-decent one-liners.
nonfiction
81. Brit Mandelo, WE WUZ PUSHED: On Joanna Russ and radical truth-telling. (Aqueduct Press, 2012.)
A very short (~70 pages) discussion of what Mandelo contends is the major theme of Russ's career: telling the truth in a radical fashion. It's a joy to read. (Although since the problem of telling the truth begs the question of to whom you tell it, I'm sufficiently a product of academia that I'd've liked to see a discussion of Russ's audience, as well). If Russ is fundamentally concerned with demystification, Mandelo does a pretty bang-up job of demystifying Russ. Recommended for anyone who enjoys fluent criticism.
82. Hilary Gatti, Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science. (Cornell University Press, Ithaca & London, 1999.)
I confess, I skimmed the last three chapters. Epistemology is not my favouritest thing. And since I knew nothing about Bruno to begin with, I do not know if this book is any good. It is certainly not a good entry point for the history of Renaissance science. (I know, I know. I should read more in my area. But mind like magpie. Sez: Want shinier history!)
On a completely diferent topic, I believe I am developing body image issues. (More of them than I used to have, anyway.) This is an annoying complication in my self-image.
