thogek's reviews
419 reviews

Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World by Theresa MacPhail

hopeful informative

5.0

The description often posted with Theresa MacPhail's Allergic ends with: "This is the story of allergies: what they are, why we have them, and what that might mean about the fate of humanity in a rapidly changing world." This seems to me a very appropriate summary of what this book covers—and covers very well.

MacPhail draws on extensive input from past medical publications, studies, and interviews with current medical, other specialists and patients, weaving a very readable collection of stories into a history of many aspects of allergies in humans. From the various types of allergies, to the medical tests to detect and identify them, to management and treatment options; how they've all evolved over time, how they all fell (and continue to fall) short, some promising recent developments, and how frustratingly elusive a true understanding of allergies continues to be.

This story is necessarily incomplete, as a full understanding of allergies and how to cure them is still nowhere in sight, but it is quite a story, sure to engage those interested in the human immune system and the ways in which it can go haywire on us, and perhaps useful background to those navigating the experience itself.

Note that this is not (and does not claim to be) a guide to treating and living better with allergies. This is a history of human understanding of allergy conditions, a "biography of allergies" as a quote on the cover puts it. So don't expect the former and then knock it for failing to deliver what it isn't. For what it is, it delivers quite well.

Parallel Realities: A Turing Fiction by K.R. Simms

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

2.0

Simms's Parallel Realities builds on an interesting concept. With a new brain implant embedded with advanced AI to assist his recovery from a severe brain injury, the main character struggles through multiple concurrent "realities" to sort out what's really going on, along the way touching on many possible implications the growing use of advancing AI could have on human society.

Unfortunately, for me at least, multiple shortcomings of the implementation outweigh the interestingness of these motivating ideas.

The narration throughout felt clumsy and often repetative as might a quick middle-school first draft. Frequent scene contradictions stuck out as sloppy and distracting—a character walks the sidewalk in a new-to-him city alongside a five-story building while describing details about its flat rooftop; a character follows a path around the city perimeter until stopping in the city's center—like cognitive speedbumps along the way, also suggesting the author hasn't really thought out the details of the story.

One could assume that only a generative AI model would make such inconsistency mistakes and thus the clumsier parts must've been among those written by the co-authoring AI, but that seems a weak excuse to me. I've read poorly written books with these same sorts of issues and no AI involvement, and if the AI used isn't ready to produce narration that isn't riddled with these kinds of errors, then it isn't ready to produce this sort of a book.

Meanwhile, various scenes along the way add commentary on possible effects increasing use of advanced AI might have on various elements of life, from policing to courts to fiction and performance art and more, perhaps too many to try to address in one story without feeling forced. Assorted other concepts are also introduced as AI-assisted skills to level-up the main character, such as emotional intelligence and pattern recognition as predictive and manipulative tools, and something along the lines of Zen acceptance. However, all of these elements are hugely simplistic, almost cartoonish characatures of themselves, as though written by someone who's heard of these concepts but doesn't really understand any of them.

The book's description asks if the reader can separate human-written from AI-written. Honestly, I lost interest in the question because it was all equally poorly written.

Finally, the story just ends on a sort of step forward but no real resolution. I suspect it may have been going for an open-but-dismal 1984-like ending, but if so the pieces just don't hold up strongly enough to deliver it.

Overall, I think the author has some interesting ideas to ponder, but for multiple reasons had great difficultly weaving together a coherent story that illustrates them all in any meaningful way. The result just doesn't work for me.

To be fair, the book's copyright page calls it a "beta edition", so perhaps it has some awareness of the need for further iterative training of both authors' learning and generative models?

Content Warnings

Vagabonder by R.T. Coleman

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adventurous tense medium-paced

3.0

Vagabonder has an interesting world-building setting: a future in which much of our civilized world has been lost to rising oceans; a virus that neurologically altered many humans to create what most consider a new species (known as NiCIes or Dua) generally more equanimous and community-oriented but treated by most as damaged and less than human; multiple authoritarian cronyist governments that support a single massive corporation in oppressing and exploiting Dua; and the myth of a lost Dua tribe some think might be key to ending their oppression.

The story doesn't delve much into scientific explanations, as most of the main characters (and the primary main character) aren't scientists; the POV navigates through life and challenges in this possible future rather than explaining it, but the setting does feel like a reasonably consistent whole.

Much of the description and story is told relatively simply without a lot of scenic musing, carrying the story forward effectively and (IMO) for a fun read. Most of the characters feel reasonably well developed and three-dimensional with their own distinct backgrounds, contexts, and motivations, except for the main character who often seems relatively bland despite being the main lens through which we experience the story. One could argue that latter is due to the evenness of the MC's Dua mind or his particular background, although nothing in the story specifically calls that out.

Nothing I see in the book description calls out this being first of a series, but the story cuts off a bit abruptly just as events are significantly ramping up, so I presume sequels must be coming. I did enjoy the story that threads through the broad-stroke rendering of this semi-dystopic future, and am curious enough to maybe pick up the second in the series when it shows up.

Content Warnings