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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
GUUUUUH This was class. So many wild weird ass references: 19th century poetry, Scientology, 80s music technology GAHHHH love this shit. Can't believe I haven't read any Douglas Adams before. Has that lovely wry british humour and mixes it with stupidly dense ideas in a really short page count. A few jokes/lines definitely feel out of place though, either that or they haven't aged particularly well and that's kinda what let it down for me.
adventurous
lighthearted
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4 stars only because I know that Doug can and does do better
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I head a lot of praise for the author but never have read him. The fault is mine for he is quite good. The book is a strange mix of hard and soft fiction with Schrödinger cats, robots, time machines and ghosts (the later doesn’t makes in a fantasy, even an urban one). It reminded me, especially at the start, with its satire about Academia the old Soviet weird SF by [a:Arkady Strugatsky|1159886|Arkady Strugatsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1371815170p2/1159886.jpg] and [a:Boris Strugatsky|7170730|Boris Strugatsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373635599p2/7170730.jpg] [b:Monday Starts On Saturday|1255119|Monday Starts On Saturday|Arkady Strugatsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348591262s/1255119.jpg|1039633]. It is beautifully written and some ideas are deeper than they look at a first glance.
Just a glance:
Well,” he said, “it’s to do with the project which first made the software incarnation of the company profitable. It was called Reason, and in its own way it was sensational.”
“What was it?”
“Well, it was a kind of back-to-front program. It’s funny how many of the best ideas are just an old idea back-to-front. You see there have already been several programs written that help you to arrive at decisions by properly ordering and analyzing all the relevant facts so that they then point naturally toward the right decision. The drawback with these is that the decision which all the properly ordered and analyzed facts point to is not necessarily the one you want.”
“Yeeeess . . .” said Reg’s voice from the kitchen.
“Well, Gordon’s great insight was to design a program which allowed you to specify in advance what decision you wished it to reach, and only then to give it all the facts. The program’s task, which it was able to accomplish with consummate ease, was simply to construct a plausible series of logical-sounding steps to connect the premises with the conclusion.
“And I have to say that it worked brilliantly. Gordon was able to buy himself a Porsche almost immediately despite being completely broke and a hopeless driver. Even his bank manager was unable to find fault with his reasoning. Even when Gordon wrote it off three weeks later.”
Just a glance:
Well,” he said, “it’s to do with the project which first made the software incarnation of the company profitable. It was called Reason, and in its own way it was sensational.”
“What was it?”
“Well, it was a kind of back-to-front program. It’s funny how many of the best ideas are just an old idea back-to-front. You see there have already been several programs written that help you to arrive at decisions by properly ordering and analyzing all the relevant facts so that they then point naturally toward the right decision. The drawback with these is that the decision which all the properly ordered and analyzed facts point to is not necessarily the one you want.”
“Yeeeess . . .” said Reg’s voice from the kitchen.
“Well, Gordon’s great insight was to design a program which allowed you to specify in advance what decision you wished it to reach, and only then to give it all the facts. The program’s task, which it was able to accomplish with consummate ease, was simply to construct a plausible series of logical-sounding steps to connect the premises with the conclusion.
“And I have to say that it worked brilliantly. Gordon was able to buy himself a Porsche almost immediately despite being completely broke and a hopeless driver. Even his bank manager was unable to find fault with his reasoning. Even when Gordon wrote it off three weeks later.”
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated