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The exhaustion/stress from fixing crud and trying to get my thesis done at the same time hit me hard today, so I came home at 4pm and immediately fell asleep.

As these things usually go, this resulted in me awakening sometime later, still feeling like a zombie, but unable to go back to sleep. I completely failed to read a magazine because I found myself skimming before I'd read a couple of sentences. So I figured I'd go mess about with flickr... time flies, and I find I've written a greasemonkey script making it easier for me to blog photos. Which is fine, except how the heck does it work that I can't concentrate long enough to read two sentences, yet I can write JavaScript code just fine?

I am concerned that in the dystopian future, some evil megacorp will take advantage of this and generate worker drones who are incapable of reading but perfectly good at writing code.

No, wait, that's just the exhaustion talking. In that spirit, though... Have some tentacles, and I'm going back to bed:


Re: Vernor Vinge

Date: October 15th, 2009 06:28 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Signed,

Asad

Re: Vernor Vinge

Date: October 15th, 2009 07:11 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Next I will have to convince you to start reading C. J. Cherryh :)

Asad

Cherryh

Date: October 16th, 2009 05:45 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Her oeuvre is large spanning a number of subgenres of SF and fantasy, but I suggest Foreigner. It's about a (fairly large) lost colony of humans that gets stranded on a planet with an indigenous sentient species, the atevi, with a barely just industrializing civilization. Most of the story takes place 200 years later when the atevi have a generally technological civilization, and focuses on the lone human diplomat who lives among them, representing humanity's interests---a human polity which has "paid the rent" via gradual tech transfer. Until something happens that disturbs the delicate equilibrium.

The world, characters, and the culture of the atevi are so well-realized that she's now writing her 12th novel in that world, and it's still good. Never fear, while they are in chronological order, they all have episodic/conclusive endings, so you can just read as far as you want without generally being left at a cliffhanger. I started reading them grade 10, and they've had a considerable effect on me. I also own them all and would lend them to you but I am in the wrong country at present :)

If you end up not liking it, you may instead like The Faded Sun trilogy. I had a friend who did not like Foreigner but loved The Faded Sun. Or the Chanur series.

Asad

Re: Cherryh

Date: October 16th, 2009 05:47 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Oh, and I recommend reading them before Vinge because they're shorter and less of a commitment while you are thesifying.

Asad

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