Review: Galaxy in Flames

Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If history and fake history teaches you anything, its dont trust heiarchical structures and glorious leaders. Particularly ones that are secretly plotting to take over the human race and to betray their former comrades.


This book takes place right after the events in book two of the Horus Heresy. It shows the first moves by Horus in what will wrack the galaxy in war and bring a downfall of the great expansion of humanity. While these stories are not super heartfelt or deep, they still are really exciting and expand the already rich universe of Warhammer 40k. I have been a longtime fan of this story of humanity's decline and resistance and this book is the first of the 3 I have read so far which starts to undertake the rebellion itself. The series is fun, but dont expect tolstoy.

View all my reviews

Review: Fool Moon

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was not worth reading. The first book was meh and I figured maybe the second book would be better. But it was actually worse. The only part that captivated me at all was this conversation Harry Dresden had with a demon he trapped. One that was trying to steal his name in exchange for information. However, that conversation in no way relates at all to the rest of the book and is just kinda thrown in either as forshadowing or just to add some flavor.

I was reading just before posting this review that some people say the books get good on book 3 or 4 but I dont want to read another book about some weird pretentious bro with a kinda meh magic system hanging out with cops and fighting villains who dont seem to have real good reasons for why they are doing bad things... with friends who dont seem to be super 3 dimensional.

its got werewolves in it too, which are some of my least favorite of fantasy lore... and it was so cliche as to be irritating. Unless someone makes a good argument otherwise, this will be the last of the Dresden files for me.

View all my reviews

Review: Storm Front

Storm Front by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I didn't know that this book was written in 2000, I would have sworn it was written in the 1950s/early 1960s. It has a style, and description befitting that era of sci fi, but a little bit grittier.


Anyway, whats not to like about a wise ass wizard who is also a private detective. He sometimes gets pushed around by others but when his magic comes out, everyone gets really surprised. He tackles the cases that no one else can and uses wit a and snark to persevere through hard situations. The book is good, not a great emotional masterpiece, but entertaining and hopefully the series can keep me busy until Scott lynch or Patrick Rothfuss decides to finish a book.

View all my reviews

Review: What Is to Be Done?

What Is to Be Done? by Nikolai Chernyshevsky
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had been meaning to read this book for a while, so after finishing another Russian book, "The Master and The Margarita", I picked it up. What surprised me most is how few radicals I know have actually read the book. It was extremely influential on the growth of the Russian Socialist movement and is the oldest feminist novel I have ever read.

The book itself is a very thinly vaneered revolutionary propaganda story told through a number of young people in middle russian society. It uses a drama story about relationships and society as a way of pushing more radical messages through the tsarist censors. Though it wasn't the most exciting story, it was still very interesting from a historical perspective how it discussed the rationality of socialism and feminism. There was also a vivid example of a garment workers collective and long descriptions about the economic and social logic of doing so as well as critiques of marriage, the rich, the nuclear family, and others. Definitely an interesting read and a classic of Russian literature.

View all my reviews

Daniel Viglietti - Sólo digo compañeros

Review: The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am very thankful to Dan to showing me this book, which would have had even more influence on me had I read it a few months earlier.

It is a Faust like story taking place in Russia with the Devil and his minions traveling through Moscow causing trouble and setting up multiple threads of peoples lives toward destruction or pain. Two characters are particularly effected and connected to a story traversing 2,000 years.

Reading this, I had been reminded how much I loved reading Russian literature which includes all matters of psychological issues and a manic/agitated pace which is indescribable elsewhere. I didn't give it 4 or 5 stars because I never felt particular sympathy for most of the characters, nor did I feel pain or relief when good things happened to them (maybe with the exception of Rimsky). Still a good iconic read.

View all my reviews

These Anthropological Synapses

My latest poem....



"These Anthropological Synapses"

Critical brain failure
a desire unquenchable
while repressed memory is unleashed

..yet the longing remains.

What I perceive as love is a damaged brain
coping with a memory of you
brilliant and formidable, beautiful and bold
burned into my existence with a searing fire

And I open myself to it

knowing it is material... mechanical

like the whirring of machines

chained in place as the sweatshop worker

Freedom would be a relief

an intensity mirrored by your own

lost are the stories, the teargas

the sensation of dark eyes and penetrating intelligence

Incidents, moments, milliseconds

interpreted through an algorithm

digesting culture, music, and danger

... the reality of struggle.

I can live in this heightened state

feeding off your memory

the silver spoon wrapped in dressings of poverty and contradiction

boundaries.... but walls too.