Book Reviews

Who would have though that the best criticism of social media I’ve found could come from a fantasy book? “Every innovation—technological, sociological, or otherwise—begins as a crusade, organizes itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world." Two chapters in, and I was hooked. Tevanne felt like a well explained magic city, with a shadow version of machine learning serving as the magic creating a believable template for the action. I was excited to learn about the city and the plot kept me turning pages. ...

This feels like the ‘capital in the 21st century’ for individuals. Vaillant (and all the study leaders before and after him) have followed a small group of people over more than 70 years to search for long term predictions about thriving into old age. The conclusions of the book are not at all surprising, the keys to a happy and meaningful life into old age are: Loving relationships Developing mature coping habits Having a ‘warm’ childhood OK - no news there. More interesting to me was the methodology by which the study reaches these conclusions, and all the hypotheses discarded along the way. The authors created a ‘decathlon of thriving’ spanning physical activity, health, relationships, mental well-being etc. all of which I found to be a useful framework for attempting to scientifically describe ’the good life’. ...

AI Superpowers is an odd combination of tech history, economics treatise, and personal memoir. Like the eclectic topics, the book is a mixed bag, but was probably worth reading. Economics Treatise: Nothing he pointed out about potential jobs loss was unreasonable, but economics don’t seem to be Mr. Lee’s strong point, and I didn’t finish the book convinced that AI would be more important than other innovations in the past. Furthermore, all the economic studies he pointed out were about the number of jobs that could be automated, not the number that would. Having spent the last 5 years working both with AI and low-skill jobs, I see a multi-decade gap between those two words. Really, nothing in this book goes beyond what Thomas Piketty’s R>G thesis would suggest. ...

The only thing that seemed unique to me in the book was the plot twist about 20% of the way through. So short that there’s no harm in picking it up, but nothing that sticks with me.

So short… read this in about 5 minutes

It seems like every thing I didn’t like in the previous two books came out in full force. A romance plot that should have been the payoff of three books felt more like a subplot with low stakes, overabundant commentary on current issues continually crushing any sense of suspended disbelief that I could muster, and a plot in which seemingly nothing happens … I made it about 90% of the way through, realized I just didn’t care, so abandoned the book there. .

Radical economics introduces a few ideas that serve as valuable thought experiments, even though none could be considered a serious policy proposal. The one closest to my expertise was a complete waste, so even though I’d like to give the book a higher rating, landed at 3 stars. Property taxation marketplace – The premise is that we could use markets to self-enforce valuations on property tax, thus incentivizing property owners declare the actual value of each item they own. I was convinced, and like it as a means to make wealth taxes actually work. ...

A book more of ideas than plot, I liked the premise and enjoyed Le Guin’s curious explorations of gender (akin to Ancillary Mercy) rather than exhibitionist sexual deviance that seems to be common in modern Sci-Fi (Too Like The Lightning, Raven Stratagem).

This book hijacked my brain, I ended up reading it through in two sessions. Tiamat’s Wrath rewards you for being a fan. It brings up so much from the previous books, in a way is satisfying if you know it but not annoying if you’ve forgotten. I really enjoyed Teresa and Elvi’s POV plot arcs, and there are just enough twists for whole read to keep you going. The author thanks GRR Martin in the prologue, and the influences seem to become more clear as the series progresses. Tiamat’s wrath felt more political than post books in the series past, by focusing on Laconian palace politics rather than the factional three-way conflicts of previous books. ...

The title and subtitle are very descriptive of what you will find in this book: Billionaire Raj: focuses on stories of wealthy individuals, not India as a whole. A journey: don’t expect nuanced theses, this is a collection of narratives with only a loose connective thread…. Through India’s new gilded age: that connective thread is that Indian development has been unequal and corrupt. The author draws shallow comparisons to the American gilded age, but I left the book feeling like the connection was weak at best. ...