Assyria soon discovered a painful truth: empires are like Ponzi schemes: financial frauds in which previous investors are paid returns out of new investors’ deposits. The costs of holding imperial territory can only be underwritten by loot and tribute extracted by constant new conquests; empires must continue to expand if they are not to collapse.” – Paul Kriwaczek, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth Of Civilization At the end of Ancillary Justice, Anaander Mianaai was openly at war with herself. One faction of the Lord of […]
Chose my aim. Take one step and then the next. There had never been anything else.
I will often hear about an award winning science fiction book and think “I should read that, but I won’t because it sounds serious and boring.” That is what I thought when I heard about Ancillary Justice. Yes, I want to slap me too. Two things happened that moved the Imperial Radch series off my “ought to, but won’t” list. One, Leckie loves Murderbot and two, all three audio books were available on Scribd during my free trial period. I was correct that Ancillary Justice does […]
Long Process, Fast DNA
When I was contemplating subscribing to Scribd’s audio book library, the book that sold me was Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone In The Dark. I expected to enjoy listening to the book, narrated by Gabri Zachman, I did not expect the book to make me miss my mother and cry. She was both proud of the fact that she had raised a strong-minded daughter and resentful of my sharp opinions.“ That dichotomy was my relationship with my mother and I did not expect to hear […]
404: Girl Not Found
Never give up your voice for a man, you fucking guppy!” I don’t know how I missed melanir’s review of The Refrigerator Monologues last year. It ticks a lot of my boxes comic books feminism sarcasm I read melanir’s review before writing my own and there were many nods of agreement. The Refrigerator Monologues is a series of short stories told in the first person by the dead and sidelined women from comic books. The stories are loosely tied together by Paige Embry, the first […]