Category Books

Book reviews

Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock

The themes of Neal Stephenson’s story encompasses near future climate disruption, political upheaval, some near future scene setting, and a global stage. These are all neatly tied together through one man’s stubborn attempt to correct climate change and risk the…

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky: Going Underground

Metro 2033
Metro 2003, by Dmitry Glukhosky, is about going underground in Moscow. The claustrophic landscape is filled with the dark and the dirt of the campsites and the fear of the murderous creatures in the dark down the tunnel. Each station brings its own philosophical tale.

Tracking the ideological shift in equality

Trans by Helen Joyce
This book is an analytical examination of the trans debate from acritical point of view. This is an intellectual anlaysis rather than a manifesto. As the subtitle alludes the book attempts to take the ideology of trans identity and apply it to what is happening in reality for people who change identity, children and puberty and the societal impact of men identifying as women i.e. sex and biology versus gender and identity.

Free speech and why it matters by Andrew Doyle – Checking our thinking

Free Speech Andrew Doyle
Early on Andrew Doyle sets out how the definition of social justice has changed due to a new identity-based conceptualisation bringing with it a mistrust of unfettered speech. He goes on to point out how this has given us the confusing and rare phenomenon: the well-intentioned authoritarian. With authoritarianism comes censorship – or as it has now been termed – cancellation

Intrusion by Ken MacLeod: dystopian rules

Intrusion by Ken MacLeod

Intrusion is a meditation on a near future where life is regulated with a high level of morality and ethics. Extrapolated ideas on what that may look like a quite restrained with the occasional AI toy and truck. The main…