Galileo's Dream

Aw man. DNF @ 30%.

I held on for as long as I could, but I just could not suspend my disbelief. This is a historical fiction sci-fi mashup, where Galileo gets regularly abducted by far future human(oid)s who beam him up to Jupiter's moons (aka, the moons he famously discovered with his famous invention, the telescope).

I love KSR. He is very special to me, definitely one of my formative inspirations. I have read 6 of his books (and they are bricks, people), and DNFed 2 of them. That's kinda how it goes. I was hoping this would be like his alt history masterpiece, The Years of Rice and Salt, and it is indeed written with enormous intellectual brio - Galileo is FUN - but... like I said, I just could not get past the sci-fi elements. They were too wacky, even for me!

I also fwiw love Galileo, and ADORE, nay WORSHIP, this time and place in history. A sign of my commitment: I have a 8” tattoo of Brunelleschi's dome on my shoulder. I'M TELLING YOU, PEOPLE, I LOVE THIS STUFF.

So it was with extreme disappointment that I slogged through this, WILLING myself to like it, before finally giving up. sob. Maybe I'll try it again. :(

This book is very very slow. There are large swaths of 1600s bureaucracy and letter writing which you have to read to get to the very interesting ideas in the 24th century