Hernando
A slog of a book, very so, but is so unique in itself.
The following are probably one of the best lines I've ever read in a SF book:
“We are the centuries.
We are the chin-choppers and the golly-woppers, and soon we shall discuss the amputation of your head.
We are your singing garbage men, Sir and Madam, and we march in cadence behind you, chanting rhymes that some think odd.
Hut two threep foa!
Left!
Left! He-had-a-good-wife-but-he
Left!
Left!
Left!
Right!
Left!
Wir, as they say in the old country, marschieren weiter wenn alles in Scherben fällt.
We have your eoliths and your mesoliths and your neoliths. We have your Babylons and your Pompeiis, your Caesars and your chromium-plated (vital-ingredient-impregnated) artifacts.
We have your bloody hatchets and your Hiroshimas. We march in spite of Hell, we do– Atrophy, Entropy, and Proteus vulgaris, telling bawdy jokes about a farm girl name of Eveand a traveling salesman called Lucifer.
We bury your dead and their reputations.We bury you. We are the centuries.
Be born then, gasp wind, screech at the surgeon's slap, seek manhood, taste a little of godhood, feel pain, give birth, struggle a little while, succumb:
(Dying, leave quietly by the rear exit, please.)
Generation, regeneration, again, again, as in a ritual, with blood-stained vestments and nail-torn hands, children of Merlin, chasing a gleam. Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens– and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn't the same. (AGH! AGH! AGH!–an idiot screams his mindless anguish amid the rubble. But quickly! let it be inundated by the choir, chanting Alleluias at ninety decibels.)
Hear then, the last Canticle of the Brethren of the Order of Leibowitz, as sung by the century that swallowed its name:
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Christe eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison, eleison imas!”
Side note, the way Miller found death and looking at this book and see how he wrote the discussion about euthanasia is indeed staggering. Depression devours.
A slog of a book, very so, but is so unique in itself.
The following are probably one of the best lines I've ever read in a SF book:
“We are the centuries.
We are the chin-choppers and the golly-woppers, and soon we shall discuss the amputation of your head.
We are your singing garbage men, Sir and Madam, and we march in cadence behind you, chanting rhymes that some think odd.
Hut two threep foa!
Left!
Left! He-had-a-good-wife-but-he
Left!
Left!
Left!
Right!
Left!
Wir, as they say in the old country, marschieren weiter wenn alles in Scherben fällt.
We have your eoliths and your mesoliths and your neoliths. We have your Babylons and your Pompeiis, your Caesars and your chromium-plated (vital-ingredient-impregnated) artifacts.
We have your bloody hatchets and your Hiroshimas. We march in spite of Hell, we do– Atrophy, Entropy, and Proteus vulgaris, telling bawdy jokes about a farm girl name of Eveand a traveling salesman called Lucifer.
We bury your dead and their reputations.We bury you. We are the centuries.
Be born then, gasp wind, screech at the surgeon's slap, seek manhood, taste a little of godhood, feel pain, give birth, struggle a little while, succumb:
(Dying, leave quietly by the rear exit, please.)
Generation, regeneration, again, again, as in a ritual, with blood-stained vestments and nail-torn hands, children of Merlin, chasing a gleam. Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens– and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn't the same. (AGH! AGH! AGH!–an idiot screams his mindless anguish amid the rubble. But quickly! let it be inundated by the choir, chanting Alleluias at ninety decibels.)
Hear then, the last Canticle of the Brethren of the Order of Leibowitz, as sung by the century that swallowed its name:
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Christe eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison, eleison imas!”
Side note, the way Miller found death and looking at this book and see how he wrote the discussion about euthanasia is indeed staggering. Depression devours.
Cixin Liu did something really impressive with this trilogy. Keeping the high quality throughout the 3 books is a great achievement, considering that a lot of series just go deep down after a second book .
The last 100 pages of this book were simply one of the most outstanding sections in all of three books. Such a dread and nostalgic sensation with all the memories of the old Earth.
Though the main character of the book is very naive and behave very odd for most of the situations , it did not compromise the whole experience of the story.
Cixin Liu did something really impressive with this trilogy. Keeping the high quality throughout the 3 books is a great achievement, considering that a lot of series just go deep down after a second book .
The last 100 pages of this book were simply one of the most outstanding sections in all of three books. Such a dread and nostalgic sensation with all the memories of the old Earth.
Though the main character of the book is very naive and behave very odd for most of the situations , it did not compromise the whole experience of the story.
If you have never come across the Fermi paradox then this book has a fantastic way to explain one of its solution. The dark forest hypothesis.
I consider this one of those slow but great books in speculative fiction. Much better than the previous one in my opinion due solely to its sheer scale.
The aliens found in the previous book, called Trisolarans, are coming and will reach the planet in roughly in 400 years. They become substantially dangerous as they are able to send subatomic particles that allows them instant knowledge of all human information, leaving us with barely anything to protect us as everything we can think of is already known by them and therefore end up sabotaged. The only thing they cannot know is what is inside peoples mind.
How do humans deal with Trisolarans with just that is the main plot of the book .
There are too many things here that are utterly insane. Reading the book for the first time was quite an experience. If you like mind bending ideas, plot twist, don't care much about the characters and are fascinated by old school Sci Fi, then this book is a must read.
If you have never come across the Fermi paradox then this book has a fantastic way to explain one of its solution. The dark forest hypothesis.
I consider this one of those slow but great books in speculative fiction. Much better than the previous one in my opinion due solely to its sheer scale.
The aliens found in the previous book, called Trisolarans, are coming and will reach the planet in roughly in 400 years. They become substantially dangerous as they are able to send subatomic particles that allows them instant knowledge of all human information, leaving us with barely anything to protect us as everything we can think of is already known by them and therefore end up sabotaged. The only thing they cannot know is what is inside peoples mind.
How do humans deal with Trisolarans with just that is the main plot of the book .
There are too many things here that are utterly insane. Reading the book for the first time was quite an experience. If you like mind bending ideas, plot twist, don't care much about the characters and are fascinated by old school Sci Fi, then this book is a must read.
Comencé a leer este libro simplemente porque estaba basado en los inicios de la vida pública de Julio Cesar y desde hace mucho había querido leer a Posteguillo.
Al inicio mientras leía me tomó desprevenido el uso de onomatopeyas, no me lo esperaba, pero no influyó en nada mi apreciación por el libro en general.
Es un libro elegante, en el cual creo que la forma de contar la historia que realiza Posteguillo es lo mejor. Quizás se deba a mi parcialidad de mi interés por la Roma antigua, pero en esas 700 algo páginas el libro nunca se hace aburrido, aun siendo del tamaño que es.
No hay mucho en los libros de historia sobre Julio Cesar cuando era abogado, por lo que el hecho de que el libro vaya contando los eventos desde esa perspectiva es algo que en lo personal me gustó.
Aquí también se encuentran interacciones interesantes entre Silas (Sulla), Mario, Dolabela, Cinna, la familia de Julio Cesar y hasta un joven Cicerón.
El único pero (que muy mínimo) que le encuentro es que hay un suceso específico (relacionado con Dolabela), que se describe como algo sobrenatural, algo que no esperaba ya que todo lo acontecido había sido sin ningún tinte fantasioso.
En términos generales, excelente libro.
Note: There is finally an english-translated version of this book called 'I Am Rome'.
It is quite surprising that at this point there has not been english translation of any of his books, considering that he is a best selling author.
Here is hoping for more to come.
Comencé a leer este libro simplemente porque estaba basado en los inicios de la vida pública de Julio Cesar y desde hace mucho había querido leer a Posteguillo.
Al inicio mientras leía me tomó desprevenido el uso de onomatopeyas, no me lo esperaba, pero no influyó en nada mi apreciación por el libro en general.
Es un libro elegante, en el cual creo que la forma de contar la historia que realiza Posteguillo es lo mejor. Quizás se deba a mi parcialidad de mi interés por la Roma antigua, pero en esas 700 algo páginas el libro nunca se hace aburrido, aun siendo del tamaño que es.
No hay mucho en los libros de historia sobre Julio Cesar cuando era abogado, por lo que el hecho de que el libro vaya contando los eventos desde esa perspectiva es algo que en lo personal me gustó.
Aquí también se encuentran interacciones interesantes entre Silas (Sulla), Mario, Dolabela, Cinna, la familia de Julio Cesar y hasta un joven Cicerón.
El único pero (que muy mínimo) que le encuentro es que hay un suceso específico (relacionado con Dolabela), que se describe como algo sobrenatural, algo que no esperaba ya que todo lo acontecido había sido sin ningún tinte fantasioso.
En términos generales, excelente libro.
Note: There is finally an english-translated version of this book called 'I Am Rome'.
It is quite surprising that at this point there has not been english translation of any of his books, considering that he is a best selling author.
Here is hoping for more to come.
This book hooked me from the very first 20 pages. One of the best generation ship stories I have ever read.
There is such a sense of wonder when the book tries to explore an idea , which is basically impossible to achieve with current technology, while trying to keep the very idea grounded in modern understanding of physics and playing with the speculative tech of the future.
A few thousand people aboard a sentient or semi sentient ship wanting to go far and beyond our solar system to settle and make a new home is the main premise of the book. The plan for them is to terraform one of our neighbor planetary systems (home of the Tau Ceti star) or at least one of the main planet's moon.
All kinds of situation start happening when they find out that things are not going as expected with the biological system of the sentient ship.
I have seen many people disliking the end of the book, but to me it was just excellent. It gave the needed doses of adrenaline and makes you really think about what lies ahead of human exploration and all the risk that comes with it.
This book hooked me from the very first 20 pages. One of the best generation ship stories I have ever read.
There is such a sense of wonder when the book tries to explore an idea , which is basically impossible to achieve with current technology, while trying to keep the very idea grounded in modern understanding of physics and playing with the speculative tech of the future.
A few thousand people aboard a sentient or semi sentient ship wanting to go far and beyond our solar system to settle and make a new home is the main premise of the book. The plan for them is to terraform one of our neighbor planetary systems (home of the Tau Ceti star) or at least one of the main planet's moon.
All kinds of situation start happening when they find out that things are not going as expected with the biological system of the sentient ship.
I have seen many people disliking the end of the book, but to me it was just excellent. It gave the needed doses of adrenaline and makes you really think about what lies ahead of human exploration and all the risk that comes with it.
Cixin Liu did something really impressive with this trilogy. Keeping the high quality throughout the 3 books is a great achievement, considering that a lot of series just go deep down after a second book .
The last 100 pages of this book were simply one of the most outstanding sections in all of three books and it also felt a bit nostalgic with all that memories of the old Earth.
Cixin Liu did something really impressive with this trilogy. Keeping the high quality throughout the 3 books is a great achievement, considering that a lot of series just go deep down after a second book .
The last 100 pages of this book were simply one of the most outstanding sections in all of three books and it also felt a bit nostalgic with all that memories of the old Earth.
I would give it a 4.6 rate and I understand why it is still considered a masterpiece.
The book is quite a slog, very so, but is so unique in itself.
Aside, the way Miller found death and looking at this book and see how he wrote the discussion about euthanasia is indeed staggering. Depression is quite a thing.
The following are probably one of the best lines I've ever read in a SF book:
“
We are the centuries.
We are the chin-choppers and the golly-woppers, and soon we shall discuss the amputation of your head.
We are your singing garbage men, Sir and Madam, and we march in cadence behind you, chanting rhymes that some think odd.
Hut two threep foa!
Left!
Left! He-had-a-good-wife-but-he
Left!
Left!
Left!
Right!
Left!
Wir, as they say in the old country, marschieren weiter wenn alles in Scherben fällt.
We have your eoliths and your mesoliths and your neoliths. We have your Babylons and your Pompeiis, your Caesars and your chromium-plated (vital-ingredient-impregnated) artifacts.
We have your bloody hatchets and your Hiroshimas. We march in spite of Hell, we do– Atrophy, Entropy, and Proteus vulgaris,
telling bawdy jokes about a farm girl name of Eve
and a traveling salesman called Lucifer.
We bury your dead and their reputations.
We bury you. We are the centuries.
Be born then, gasp wind, screech at the surgeon's slap, seek manhood, taste a little of godhood, feel pain, give birth, struggle a little while, succumb:
(Dying, leave quietly by the rear exit, please.)
Generation, regeneration, again, again, as in a ritual, with blood-stained vestments and nail-torn hands, children of Merlin, chasing a gleam. Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens– and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn't the same. (AGH! AGH! AGH!–an idiot screams his mindless anguish amid the rubble. But quickly! let it be inundated by the choir, chanting Alleluias at ninety decibels.)
Hear then, the last Canticle of the Brethren of the Order of Leibowitz, as sung by the century that swallowed its name:
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Christe eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison, eleison imas!
”
I would give it a 4.6 rate and I understand why it is still considered a masterpiece.
The book is quite a slog, very so, but is so unique in itself.
Aside, the way Miller found death and looking at this book and see how he wrote the discussion about euthanasia is indeed staggering. Depression is quite a thing.
The following are probably one of the best lines I've ever read in a SF book:
“
We are the centuries.
We are the chin-choppers and the golly-woppers, and soon we shall discuss the amputation of your head.
We are your singing garbage men, Sir and Madam, and we march in cadence behind you, chanting rhymes that some think odd.
Hut two threep foa!
Left!
Left! He-had-a-good-wife-but-he
Left!
Left!
Left!
Right!
Left!
Wir, as they say in the old country, marschieren weiter wenn alles in Scherben fällt.
We have your eoliths and your mesoliths and your neoliths. We have your Babylons and your Pompeiis, your Caesars and your chromium-plated (vital-ingredient-impregnated) artifacts.
We have your bloody hatchets and your Hiroshimas. We march in spite of Hell, we do– Atrophy, Entropy, and Proteus vulgaris,
telling bawdy jokes about a farm girl name of Eve
and a traveling salesman called Lucifer.
We bury your dead and their reputations.
We bury you. We are the centuries.
Be born then, gasp wind, screech at the surgeon's slap, seek manhood, taste a little of godhood, feel pain, give birth, struggle a little while, succumb:
(Dying, leave quietly by the rear exit, please.)
Generation, regeneration, again, again, as in a ritual, with blood-stained vestments and nail-torn hands, children of Merlin, chasing a gleam. Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens– and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn't the same. (AGH! AGH! AGH!–an idiot screams his mindless anguish amid the rubble. But quickly! let it be inundated by the choir, chanting Alleluias at ninety decibels.)
Hear then, the last Canticle of the Brethren of the Order of Leibowitz, as sung by the century that swallowed its name:
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Christe eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison, eleison imas!
”
Comencé a leer este libro simplemente porque estaba basado en los inicios de la vida pública de Julio Cesar y desde hace mucho había querido leer a Posteguillo.
Al inicio mientras leía me tomó desprevenido el uso de onomatopeyas, no me lo esperaba, pero no influyó en nada mi apreciación por el libro en general.
Es un libro elegante, en el cual creo que la forma de contar la historia que realiza Posteguillo es lo mejor. Quizás se deba a mi parcialidad de mi interés por la Roma antigua, pero en esas 700 algo páginas el libro nunca se hace aburrido, aun siendo del tamaño que es.
No hay mucho en los libros de historia sobre Julio Cesar cuando era abogado, por lo que el hecho de que el libro vaya contando los eventos desde esa perspectiva es algo que en lo personal me gustó.
Aquí también se encuentran interacciones interesantes entre Silas (Sulla), Mario, Dolabela, Cinna, la familia de Julio Cesar y hasta un joven Cicerón.
El único pero (que muy mínimo) que le encuentro es que hay un suceso específico (relacionado con Dolabela), que se describe como algo sobrenatural, algo que no esperaba ya que todo lo acontecido había sido sin ningún tinte fantasioso.
En términos generales, excelente libro.
Note: There is finally an english-translated version of this book called 'I Am Rome'.
It is quite surprising that at this point there has not been english translation of any of his books, considering that he is a best selling author.
Here is hoping for more to come.
Comencé a leer este libro simplemente porque estaba basado en los inicios de la vida pública de Julio Cesar y desde hace mucho había querido leer a Posteguillo.
Al inicio mientras leía me tomó desprevenido el uso de onomatopeyas, no me lo esperaba, pero no influyó en nada mi apreciación por el libro en general.
Es un libro elegante, en el cual creo que la forma de contar la historia que realiza Posteguillo es lo mejor. Quizás se deba a mi parcialidad de mi interés por la Roma antigua, pero en esas 700 algo páginas el libro nunca se hace aburrido, aun siendo del tamaño que es.
No hay mucho en los libros de historia sobre Julio Cesar cuando era abogado, por lo que el hecho de que el libro vaya contando los eventos desde esa perspectiva es algo que en lo personal me gustó.
Aquí también se encuentran interacciones interesantes entre Silas (Sulla), Mario, Dolabela, Cinna, la familia de Julio Cesar y hasta un joven Cicerón.
El único pero (que muy mínimo) que le encuentro es que hay un suceso específico (relacionado con Dolabela), que se describe como algo sobrenatural, algo que no esperaba ya que todo lo acontecido había sido sin ningún tinte fantasioso.
En términos generales, excelente libro.
Note: There is finally an english-translated version of this book called 'I Am Rome'.
It is quite surprising that at this point there has not been english translation of any of his books, considering that he is a best selling author.
Here is hoping for more to come.
A book about the lives of the first emperors of Rome, plus Julius Caesar. Written by Suetonious, a historian who, at the time, had access to Emperor Hadrian's library.
It has been framed as a historical book and some other times just like a gossip account about the emperors.
Suetonius describes their most famous achievements, some disgraceful actions, and even how they look physically. Though the very first characters get more time, I guess mainly because he was not Hadrian's personal secretary anymore before finishing the book, or because there was not much interest in the later ones, or maybe it's just that they did not do much in Suetonius's eyes. For instance, Julius Caesar and Augustus will get more ink pages than Vespasian, Titus and Domitian combined.
A good accompanying material for this book is listening to the first 30–40 episodes of the podcast Emperors of Rome by La Trobe University, roughly up until episode XL or so, where they talk about Emperor Domitian. In this podcast, Rhiannon Evans talks in detail about other significant events during this period of Roman history, including commentaries on not only Suetonious work but also Livi, Tacitus, etc.
A book about the lives of the first emperors of Rome, plus Julius Caesar. Written by Suetonious, a historian who, at the time, had access to Emperor Hadrian's library.
It has been framed as a historical book and some other times just like a gossip account about the emperors.
Suetonius describes their most famous achievements, some disgraceful actions, and even how they look physically. Though the very first characters get more time, I guess mainly because he was not Hadrian's personal secretary anymore before finishing the book, or because there was not much interest in the later ones, or maybe it's just that they did not do much in Suetonius's eyes. For instance, Julius Caesar and Augustus will get more ink pages than Vespasian, Titus and Domitian combined.
A good accompanying material for this book is listening to the first 30–40 episodes of the podcast Emperors of Rome by La Trobe University, roughly up until episode XL or so, where they talk about Emperor Domitian. In this podcast, Rhiannon Evans talks in detail about other significant events during this period of Roman history, including commentaries on not only Suetonious work but also Livi, Tacitus, etc.
