Lotus and Thorn

Sara Wilson Etienne

Set on an expeditionary planet undergoing the woes of colonization, we are introduced to two populations. Those who live in the dome, protected from the elements and controlling all technology, and those living outside the dome, exposed to the elements. Sometime in the past a disease called Red Death decimated the population of the colony and now the outsiders scavenge old civilization for technology so they can trade the domers for food. Classic colonization power dynamics. And classic uprising/hero story. Etienne develops the characters well and gets buy in on the story. She has created a mystery (what is actually going on in the dome) that sustains the plot. While somewhat typical in the dystopian YA world, I found myself attached and read through pretty quickly. 

3 stars (out of 4)

The Invisible Man

H.G. Wells

A man has made himself invisible, thinking of all the benefits this would entail in his personal wealth and power. The story begins with the man experiencing all the detriments that were overlooked in his quest. Sort of a tragicomedy, I can imagine these themes being a modern telling of a Shakespeare story. As the story progresses, the protagonist becomes more and more convinced of his "right to power" which only makes things worse for him. Great short read - I'm surprised it took me this long...

3 stars (out of 4)

Lexicon

Max Barry

This is a sci-fi-ish book, if linguistics is considered science. Maybe just magical realism. The setting is a world where someone has figured out that the way sounds are processed in the brain (which neural pathways fire, which hormones are produced, etc.) can actually be weaponized and used to lower a persons defenses and become "extremely persuasive". This very much has Babel vibes in terms of how language is used. While Babel was primarily bringing a subtext of colonization, Lexicon is talking about personal power and corruption. It is into this world Emily is recruited off the Venice Beach hustle circuit and finds herself learning to be quite powerful, as well as to be wary of others in the organization. Ultimately, power and corruption are the guiding forces that drive this plot and Emily and her beau become pawns/catalysts at various points in the story. I actually appreciated the time jumps in the story telling, alternating between present and past to provide a backstory snippet just in time to understand what is next, without revealing the entire history. Engaging, with a fascinating interpretation of language processing. 

4 stars (out of 4) 

James

Percival Everett

A retelling of Huck Finn from the perspective of Jim. The fist half of this book is pretty parallel to the Huck Finn adventures (at least according to my memory of having read that book decades ago). The second half is new material based on when Huck and Jim are separated. I listened to the audio version of this book and I think that is probably the way to go. One of the most striking ideas was the amount of langauge based code-switching that Jim/James does as he interacts with whites and slaves. Striking largely based on the massive confusion expressed by the white characters when Jim didn't speak "slave". The reader was able to communicate these language switches in a way that I am pretty sure would have been lost to me were I reading the text. Although this is fiction, it felt remarkably biographical, and reminded me frequently of the Harriet Jacobs/Linda Brent autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Highly recommend. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing)

Sal Kahn

This is a review written by Kahn (of Kahn Academy) trying to 1) describe the current state of AI in education and 2) prognosticate about the future of AI in education. First and foremost, Kahn has a particular point of view - he is selling an AI product that has been developed by Kahn academy. The book has some useful nuggets and is pretty straight forward about how AI is affecting students right now. But even on reading it, I found it to be behind. The LLM world and educational culture is moving too fast. Or maybe more likely, the educational culture has been shifting since Covid, and we are only now, as educators, seeing the chasm between where we are and where students are (mostly I am talking about motivation and educational culture here, not student content acquisition). So Kahn's product is selling a particular point of view (highly regulated tools for motivated learners) that is simply not the reality of the current wild west of AI. 

2 stars (out of 4)

Karen Memory

Elizabeth Bear

Set in the NW in the 1800's where lawman Bass Reeves is a legend, but with a subtle steampunk thread including mechanical surgical machines, airships and tesla coils. The protagonist is Karen Memory, a young woman working in a brothel. She meets Reeves and helps solve a series of murders while protecting other young women and learning her own loves and passions in life. Pretty fun, easy read. 

3 stars (out of 4)

The Brass Giant

A Chroniker City Story - Book 1

Brooke Johnson

A cyberpunk feel set in an early 20th century London where mechanism is king. The engineering college is the highest caste and Petra Ward is going to find a way in. Unfortunately, she is battling history since women are not allowed to be engineers. But when a self driven automaton walks by with a bunch of engineering students, she puts herself in the middle of the pack, knowing they will mock her and knowing that she sees a better way to build the thing. Fast forward and she gets involved with a project to do exactly that, but as with everything mechanical and political (and we see this coming a mile away) machines always end up being made for war. Petra, like many scientists and engineers, struggles with the love of discovery and knowledge and the ethical implications of her work. Sort of a lightweight, YA writing style. Not sure if it is engaging enough to continue the series. 

3 stars (out of 4)