archytas's reviews
1709 reviews

Vector: A Surprising Story of Space, Time, and Mathematical Transformation by Robyn Arianrhod

informative medium-paced

2.5

By halfway through this, I will confess to having to admit the maths had the better of me, and calculus will need to remain the obscured art it has been for some time. I found it very difficult at school, so I suspect this is more me than the writing.
I did enjoy the history here, and I know understand much better how mathematics advances were essential to physics advancing, and also how they have laid the basis for so much modern technology. Maths is about modelling how things work, an approach I still wish I had had more embedded in my teaching. And by using abstractions, we can model things that we can't easily imagine (or measure - it was a revalation to me to realise how difficult calculating the length of a curve is when you can't just use string).

Birth Canal by Dias Novita Wuri

informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

A powerful, tangled piece of writing that opens up discussions about the trauma of women, largely focused in the stories of Eurasian women under the Japanese occupation.
The writing carried me along, but I found it difficult to trace the logistical (as opposed to thematic) threads between sections, and I did not engage as strongly with the more contemporary sections. There is lots of difficult material here too.

Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer and the Century-Long Search to Discover Its Secrets by Jo Marchant

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

This is a very engaging written account of the search to identify the purpose of the Antikythera artifact. Marchant blends together an interest in how driven so many of the protagonists are with an interest in ancient astronomy. This works very well for a reasonably casual-level read, which still respects the subject matter. That Wright clearly chose to collaborate with Marchant does show in the account, but she is scrupulous in trying to show all points of view as modern imaging narrows in the reveal of what the artefact does.
Any GLAM sector employee will likely wince at the absence of airconditioning in a few scenes. And the looting bit. And the dying divers bit - actually, that one goes for everyone. But Marchant manages to make this feel heroic all the same.

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I've been tracking my reading and writing these reviews for 13 years now, and reading books like this reminds we why. I've read this before - but not since I starting writing, and I just had tantalising memories of reactions floating across, reminding me of a person I used to be.
Anyway, this ia great, luscious read, exploring the world of Istanbul, the world of medieval illustration and the challenging questions of progress, appropriation and hegemony.
There is also a murder mystery, which does work as a puzzle, but Pamuk doesn't really give you much reason to care about (you know the motive, just not the identity, and the cast of possibles are some of the least engaging characters - I much preferred the horse) and something I hesitate to call a love story, but which is a sensitively drawn marraige story at least. 
The whole is rich, sometimes verging on indulgent, but also replete with details. It evokes a time and place wonderfully, and allows you to sink into that other world for a while. Which right now, might be something we all need.

Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters by Marlene Zuk

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

"Animals are not cars, and a more recently evolved species is not an improvement on one that has not changed in millions of years. By that token, microbes and viruses, which evolve rapidly, should be the pinnacle of evolution, because they have changed into new forms literally in our lifetimes. But evolution does not have a goal or try to improve anything. Yes, those individuals with characteristics better suited to the environment leave more copies of their genes to future generations, but everything that is alive now is just as evolved as everything else. Some animals, such as cockroaches and crocodiles, look more like their ancestors than others, but evolution has been acting on them just the same. And just as your brain does not have a tiny lizard inside, the brains of birds do not represent more primitive versions of mammal brains that were improved upon when mammals, or humans, came on the scene."
Aside from wonderful anecdotes, there is little here that is new in Zuk's repetoire. Once again, she writes amusingly and provokingly about how we need to abandon a simplistic view of nature vs nuture, with the focus here on the evolution of animal behaviours and how environment, genes and social interaction all influence the results. I honestly didn't really care about the absence of new materials, or even that, as usual, I could take issue with her on a few points because this is just so wonderfully, wittily grumpy I could hang out with her words all day. 

Once a Stranger by Zoya Patel

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm a little surprised this book didn't get more buzz, given how strongly it is constructed. There are moments where the writing can be a little too close to cliched phrasing, but Patel draws us steadily into the world of the characters and their navigation around sense of self and family, and how those tug with each other. I suspect it is because this is a book dealing firmly with interpersonal relationships, which, while dealing with weighty issues, does not carry the particular flavour of angst that marks so much current Australian literary fiction.
Of course, that is a very Melbourne angst and this is a book with a distinctly Canberra flair. I used to love reading books set where I live, and thought I'd be really keen on the trend for more Canberran books, but it just feels uncomfortably far from escapist.
But other than that problem, this is a thoughtful novel about a group of women navigating their relationships, which gives space for each perspective and room to breathe.

The Ottoman Empire: 1300-1600 by Halil İnalcık

informative medium-paced

3.75

Inalcik wrote this in the 1970s, but it holds up as a primer on the Ottoman Empire. The four sections read very differently to each other - the first is by far the most tedious, outlining the who, what, when of history at a brisk, unleavened pace. There are better alternatives for this, and it could be skipped for those. The book comes to life in the middle two sections, where Inalcik examines the cultural organisation and features of the Empire, looking at how Janissaries, the royal court, the economy and tributes work. This was the most comprehensive account I have yet read of these aspects, making it worth the read. 

The Salmon Who Dared to Leap Higher by Ahn Do-Hyun

informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.75

I expected to hate this, and I didn't. I mean, I didn't love it, but I found it amusing and I'll call that a win. I expected some quasi-philosophical/quaint read when really this is, actually, a book about salmon and the lives they lead. Somewhat angsty salmon with a tendency to philosophise, yes, but still - this is about Salmon. And it is better for it. But it is not so good. I'm going to go about recommending this for anyone not already interested - there are better books about salmon (although none so gorgeously illustrated, maybe).

The Jade Setter of Janloon by Fonda Lee

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I hadn't realised how much I had enjoyed this series until I had the chance to return to it. This is a lovely, well in a violent and occasionally gruesome way, quick take back into the martial arts fantasy island world Lee has created. I like the sharpness of the rules by which both the fantasy and the caste-driven world itself works, and Lee creates these slightly-larger-than-human characters you can root for even as you wish they would make better choices (and know, of course, that better choices would make for a more boring novella). 

Unlimited Futures: speculative, visionary blak+black fiction by Rafeif Ismail, Ellen van Neerven

informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

There are some outstanding stories in this volume, especially the contributions from Amberlin Kwamullina and Alison Whittaker and the poem from Tuesday Atzinger. The recently revived story from SJ Minniecon is a bit of a standout as world. Unsurprisingly, not every story works, but when it is strong, it is very strong indeed.