It’s Not Happening

I’m torn between writing down all the mean book-review-y things I felt while reading this and just saying “Look, this isn’t his best work by any means, but if you’re into Doctorow and Neal Gaiman, this will probably keep you happy for a while.” But there, I said it and I don’t feel done, so here goes:

Cory Doctorow is at his best when he’s nerding out and explaining ideas or projecting trends - that is, when he’s writing nonfiction (though, yes, he can get preachy). His short fiction can be great fun because he sticks to what he’s good at, but his novels, especially SCtT,SLT feel crowded and too clever by half. In this one, he tries to force an over-technical Neal Stephenson idea into an over-whimsical Neal Gaiman fable, which is just as ill-considered as it sounds. Then he stuffs in far too many one-dimensional secondary characters, a naming conceit that probably felt playful to him but comes across as clunky and distracting, and a story that feels as if it’s drowning in miscellanea when the reader can remember it at all. For all that, it would still make a fine airplane read for those with reasonable expectations; I kept at it and I’m glad I finished it despite my reservations.

Because he is who he is, you can get the book for free as a Creative Commons-licensed download.

This is the best thing I’ve seen on the Internet since that kitten with the frog hat:

The comic goes on longer and gets funnier, especially if you like xkcd, which you should. He’s running to unseat a jackass in Kansas and is asking for a bunch of small donations. I sent him some bucks and so should you, if only to help this awesome proof of concept!

UPDATE: Wow, I am an idiot! Click here to help out. And don’t ever listen to me again. Thanks, Paul!

I’m working my bottom off right now, but need to alert you to this awesome local news story. An instrument company that has labored under the name Analtech (short A, people) for almost fifty years has decided it needs a viral video to increase its market share. The article is all kinds of funny and well worth a read. I’m especially impressed that they’re taking that horrible name and both working it and downplaying it. Quixotic!

Oh, and in case you’re as skeptical as me: Either it checks out or they’ve invested millions of dollars in hoaxing the world. I wonder if the Arrested Development folks were familiar with this company?

Singh is an excellent science writer, capable of great feats of both explanation and inspiration. Even readers who were brutalized by math and science teachers at a tender age (I’m looking at you, Junior) should have a hard time finding anything in here to trigger their Post-Trigonometric Stress Disorder.

His explanations of the various theories and experiments that led to the modern Big Bang theory are lucid and all the formulae he presents are easily skipped, leaving plenty of room for the big personalities and weird conflicts that make top-shelf, big-issue science so compelling. George Gamow fled the Soviets with his wife in a kayak! The Pope jumped all over the Big Bang because the alternative was a universe without a beginning! Tycho Brahe was a duel-fighting badass!

The book starts with early efforts to understand the world, its origins, and our place in it, and quickly skips ahead to the confluence of astronomy and cosmology. Along the way, Singh compares each theory to the one that preceded it, which is a neat trick that drives home the long-term process of science pretty thoroughly. A brief epilogue discusses what’s left to learn - there’s an awful lot. Get thee to a radio telescope!