Hey Jared,
I’ve been a little MIA the past couple of weeks due to all the holiday stuff and some major life changes in the not too distant future. I’ve found it increasingly difficult to just sit and read, so I’m not making any promises of anymore posts for the year.
Also check out the Brandon Sanderson’s State of Sanderson post if you haven’t already.
Title: Proof of Concept
Author: Gwyneth Jones
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: CU, Distant-Future, Potential-FTL, AI
Synopsis: On a desperately overcrowded future Earth, crippled by climate change, the most unlikely hope is better than none. Governments turn to Big Science to provide them with the dreams that will keep the masses compliant. The Needle is one such dream, an installation where the most abstruse theoretical science is being tested: science that might make human travel to a habitable exoplanet distantly feasible. When the Needle’s director offers her underground compound as a training base, Kir is thrilled to be invited to join the team, even though she knows it’s only because her brain is host to a quantum artificial intelligence called Altair. But Altair knows something he can’t tell. Kir, like all humans, is programmed to ignore future dangers. Between the artificial blocks in his mind, and the blocks evolution has built into his host, how is he going to convince her the sky is falling?
Recommendation: I do not recommend this book. Nothing particularly wrong with it but I don’t feel it’s worth your time.
Another little book I picked up from the library. It’s biggest selling feature is it’s short length. Overall it was just ok, and didn’t really standout in any particular way.
I also found the prose to be rough and a bit jarring. There were several times I had to reread something several times to grasp what was being conveyed. Part way through I thought it might be attempting to be “politically correct” but in the end I settled at “dystopian” instead. Which allowed me to actually enjoy my experience.
The MC was, personally, unlikeable. As a character she sufficiently carried the plot along but I never felt anything for her. In fact, when she emphatically declares that using the word “anthropomorphic” is sexist, any glimmer of feeling evaporated.
Not much else to say.
Robert
Reading Over The Shoulder 
Not to be too nosy, but are these potential changes going to change your ’18 blogging?
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It shouldn’t. Not in the long term at least. It’s all good news but we’re waiting until after the holidays before telling people (re: family). Thus the cryptic non-answers. A couple of people know, including Jared, but not everyone so it’s still hush-hush.
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Hush hush good news is great news, whatever it may be.
I just had visions of you losing your job and suddenly having to beg for spare change on the street. Which would mean you’d lose the blog.
Priorities, right? 😉
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