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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Autumnal" data-source="post: 9598413" data-attributes="member: 6671663">Underland is here waiting for me. Read in the last few weeks:A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. This is one of those rare books where you really do miss something significant in the audio version: Zach W.’s cartoons, which are gently funny but also illuminate key points. Read it in print or ebook. This is an extended argument for the idea that the complications of long-term survival in space are so big, and still so much entirely unexplored, with some things that cannot be known without multiple decades’ experiments, that this is no time to be pushing any sort of vision of significant permanent presence off Earth. This is a time to learn things like “what challenges to the offspring of creatures born into space face throughout their lives?” and to work out space law that can withstand careless greedheads with no interest in respecting any rights but their own greed and ambition. The chapter on space law is particularly good for making the case for its crucial importance and how its being downplayed/dismissed so much now by space enthusiasts (which the Weinersmiths clearly are) is a really bad sign. The time for building cities on Mars (and elsewhere) is after we know a bunch of those things, and also after we have dealt more with the terrestrial calamities that space development can’t spare us from. I felt seen by this book. The authors speak my language. If reading my comments makes you curious, particularly if they make you inclined to argue you with it, read it. Darned good stuff. The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson Amazingly good horror short stories. I bounced off this a couple years ago, but I think it just wasn’t a good time on my end. I loved it this time around, and was fascinated by how much science fiction there is in here, along with elegant little connections between several of these pieces,,like the protagonist of one dreaming of being the protagonist of another. Some of the best-written horror I’ve read lately. The Genocides by Thomas Disch. This book is as old as I am, since it came out in 1965, and wow is it bleak. We start seven years after something seeded Earth with a monoculture of plants that are taking over the surface of the Earth. They grow up to six hundred feet or more, their leaves interlock and cut off light to everything below, their roots interweave tightly enough to completely cover the ground, and they soak up enough water to noticeably lower water levels worldwide. It takes tremendous work to keep any arable land open, and everything is losing the battle. The shared experience of constant loss is doing nothing good to the survivors’ minds. There are characters alive at the end, but…things are clearly not going their way. There’s some gorgeous writing here, including a few genuinely funny moments, which only sharpen the overall effect. One of the best dystopias I’ve ever read. No audiobook for this one, it’s long out of print. Soul Hunter (Night Lords #1) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. This is a Warhammer 40K novel focusing on members of the Night Lords, one of the heretic Space Marine legions. Aarons’s got an amazing gift for writing very engaging evil characters. You never lose sight of the fact that they are villains. They do bad things for evil reasons. But they’re interesting. Every character here has a history, goals arising for their shared and individual histories, fears and hopes, personal friendships and rivalries, the whole deal. They have successes and failures and deal them in various ways. Even the basic scumbags make sense. I had a great time following them and look forward to the rest of the trilogy. Andrew Wincott does an excellent reading for the audiobook, managing distinct voices for multiple characters all becoming inhuman at varying paces.</blockquote>

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