Books.

(Yes, I'm sick. Why else would I be posting at Pi in the morning?)

Finished: _Starfish_ and _Maelstrom_, Peter Watts. There are two glowing eyes staring at me from below the desk, reminding me of the predominant image in these books: the face of a Rifter, a human biologically and mechanically altered to be able to survive in deep ocean environments. Although I am dubious about the water flow required to extract the oxygen available at such depths, pretty much everything else rings true. The next time someone asks for "hard SF", I think I'll point them here.

Unfortunately, the future is pretty bleak. Corporations have replaced governments; the overall political climate is reminiscent of /Shadowrun/: either you work in an autocratic corp, or you live in anarchic poverty among the wreckage of old cities. For a set of books concerned with ecosystem damage, there is curiously little (read: no) discussion of farms.

Not books for the easily depressed. Otherwise, very good.

Books.

(Yes, I'm sick. Why else would I be posting at Pi in the morning?)

Finished: _Starfish_ and _Maelstrom_, Peter Watts. There are two glowing eyes staring at me from below the desk, reminding me of the predominant image in these books: the face of a Rifter, a human biologically and mechanically altered to be able to survive in deep ocean environments. Although I am dubious about the water flow required to extract the oxygen available at such depths, pretty much everything else rings true. The next time someone asks for "hard SF", I think I'll point them here.

Unfortunately, the future is pretty bleak. Corporations have replaced governments; the overall political climate is reminiscent of /Shadowrun/: either you work in an autocratic corp, or you live in anarchic poverty among the wreckage of old cities. For a set of books concerned with ecosystem damage, there is curiously little (read: no) discussion of farms.

Not books for the easily depressed. Otherwise, very good.