Looking for authentic Chinese restaurants and any specific dish you recommend. My usual go to are Beijing Beijing and JinLi. Not very keen on the classic UK Chinese takeaways but if some of these do authentic dishes, happy to know what to order exactly.
Just finished reading this on the train, and wow wow what an outstanding book! So many thoughts to pen down. The review is just mildly spoilery, no major plot points are given away.
The book is set on the generational ship Safina, sent from Earth by the Network Empire, an Islamic theocracy governed by an all encompassing AI. The ship is carrying two groups of people : elite members of the Network Empire in cryogenic state, and the crew who will be living on the ship and whose children and future generations will be taking care of the individuals in cryo, referred to as “Ancestors”. A decade into the Safina’s journey, the crew receive news that humanity is on the verge of extinction and the AI running the ship (which has absolute authority) wants to turn around and head back to Earth. But the crew rebel, shutting down the ship AI and introduce democracy and believe that they should do better than the previous generation of humanity and inculcate better values when they land at an outpost to set up a new colony. The story takes place 200 years (halfway point) into the ships’s journey.
- The first third of the book is spent getting to know the setting and context of the ship, the world-building is just fantastic!! You really get to know the scale of the ship, its underbelly, its bureaucracy, essentially as a reader you feel like you’re living and breathing in the ship through each character’s POV.
- The author’s use of multiple POV is excellent. It doesn’t feel jarring as the story seems to flow seamlessly.
- Language is absolutely crucial in the book and is used to convey various themes and plot points. Ship neighborhoods called “Berths” are separated based on language rather than religion or class. Just like The Expanse the author creates a ship based dialect which is spoken by the youth called “Nupol” which is a mish mash of various languages like Italian, Spanish, German etc. but Arabic is the dominant language across board. He even has a whole chapter written entirely in Nupol- this maybe tiresome for some but I personally really enjoyed it.
-While there are some major actions and sequences that move the plot, the overarching question driving the story is the unavoidable conflict that will arise between the ancestors and the crew. The ancestors represent the old empire with its ultra conservative political views where technology is at the centre of a ruthless surveillance based autocratic rule. On the other hand, the crew represents new values, a new political system or atleast hope for something democratic and more equitable. This cultural and political difference is amplified physically as well, since the crew are born on the ship and are smaller while the ancestors are taller and bigger.
-Can not wait for the second book in this duology!
Curious to hear what others thought about the book.
Since we are more than halfway through the year, I thought it would be a good time to discuss this. In the last 7 months, I have DNFed one book and almost DNFed another:
The Mountain in the Sea - Managed to get around 200 pages and just could not keep going. Initially I found the excerpts before each chapter more interesting than the main storylines and could not really connect with any of the characters. It felt like the book was trying to be simultaneously a thriller, a first contact, a philosophical discussion on what is consciousness, but sort of failed at all. Seemed like a slog so had to eventually put it aside.
A Magic Steeped in Poison - Was very close to not finishing this but the last act of the book really picked up and I did indeed finish it. To be completely honest I primarily picked up this book because of the beautiful cover art and the idea of Chinese tea making fantasy seemed very intriguing. I think it had a lot of potential, probably needed a better editor as there is a lot of meandering in the story and one can instantly make out its a debut novel. Not yet sure if I will pick up the second book.
I’d love to know what books have you DNFed this year or your opinion on the above.
DNF = "Did Not Finish"
Moved into an 1875 Victorian house, redid the bathroom as it was in a sorry state of affairs (previously occupied by students) and I always wanted a beautiful walk in shower. We kept the original fireplace which makes it so unique and very happy with the outcome.
Moved into an 1875 Victorian house, redid the bathroom as it was in a sorry state of affairs and I always wanted a beautiful walk in shower. We kept the original fireplace which makes it so unique and very happy with the outcome.