Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Review: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality


Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



So orders of magnitude better than the original. And not just because of the rationality element; better written, better plotted, better characters. Some of the scenes bring tears to my eyes still, on the third or fourth reading. This is truly truly brilliant.

I love how it takes til about chapter 3 before Harry decides to take over the wizarding world - for their own good, as they obviously shouldn't be allowed out without a minder.



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Review: City at the End of Time


City at the End of Time
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I guessed the "twist" at the end of this on page 33 - it came to me in such a moment of clarity that I folded down the corner of the page. I don't take any credit for that though; I don't think I guessed it because I was particularly clever, I think Bear did a masterful job of leading me to it. As a result, the book has a sort of ponderous baroque inevitability to it, as things slowly draw to their predestined close, that perfectly matches the subject. The casual unearthly menace of the hunters balances the pedestrian banality of the treatment of aliens at the end of time.

A tad slow in places - I'd probably go 4.5 stars if we could do halves - but the atmosphere and the characters were well worth the ride.



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