Month: December 2017

December Third 2017 Site Update

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Well, the year is almost done.  It’s been a busy but good year.  Starting to get the hang of this routine.  Mixing work and blogging is always a challenge but I’m liking it.  We’ve started to get some feedback from the readers (which is always appreciated and encouraged).  I’ve decided to stop attaching the survey to each post.  We got 47 responses and they are literally across the whole gamut of ideologies (well no actual Cthulhu Worshippers self-identifying).  Here is the break down:

Conservative 17
Moderate 4
Liberal 2
Alt-Right 3
Civic Nationalist 0
Traditionalist 3
Progressive 0
Alt-Lite 1
Alt-West 2
Dissident Right 2
Libertarian 5
Reactionary 0
Neo-Reactionary 0
Nationalist 2
Human Biodiversity Adherent 0
Dark Enlightenment Adherent 1
Ayn Randian 1
Ron Paul Follower 2
Bernie Bro 2
Total 47

 

Plenty of conservatives and other right leaners but also plenty of libertarians and even a few lefties to provide atmosphere.  Looks about right.

My first article submission to “American Greatness was accepted and published last week and I am told was viewed positively so I’ve been told I can submit some more which I will do very soon.  I like that publication.  They have a good mix of writers but I think I can provide a unique point of view they’re missing, a sort of combination of Ambrose Woolfinger and Harold Bissonette with just a dash of Ralph Kramdan and George Jettson thrown in for flavoring.  So that’s coming up.

Also upcoming is a series of photo articles on some of the amazing landscape vistas in the southwestern US.  I have an associate that I think I have convinced to put together a little travelogue of his recent trip to some of these incredible locales.  That I’m looking forward to.

I’m currently reading Vox Day’s SJWs Always Double Down.  I’ll share my thoughts on this timely sequel to his earlier SJW survival manual.

And I’m working on a number of other reviews and projects so stay tuned.

Greg Bear’s Hardfought – A Science Fiction Book Review

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Hat tip to Tom (one of our most active site denizens) for recommending this story.  I knew of Greg Bear but when he was most popular my reading habit was curtailed due to SYFMS (struggling young family man syndrome).  After reading Hardfought I’m looking forward to reading some more of Mr. Bear’s stuff.

Hardfought has a pretty complex structure and several important plot elements are intentionally obscured.  This makes the beginning of the story confusing.  But hang in there.  It builds to a good effect.  Because of the structure of the story I can’t go into much detail of the plot without spoiling it.  Suffice it to say that this is a very interesting take on human-alien war.  I liked the way Bear uses the details of stellar evolution (lack of heavier elements in first generation star populations) to define the contrast between the human and alien characteristics.  The human characters appear strange to the reader.  Their environment and social structures are very unusual and so it takes a little bit of plot revelation to start to put their behaviors into context.  The alien protagonist’s behavior and motivation are intentionally inhuman but his interactions with his own species and with humans highlights several traits that make him useful to the resolution of the story.

The story is a meditation on the consequences of total war or war to extermination.  I think it is asking whether survival at any cost actually is surviving.  If what is left of you at the end is unrecognizable did you actually survive?  And I don’t think Bear is answering the question.  He is just illustrating the end of the trajectory.  It is obvious to the reader what has been lost but everyone gets to decide if the price is too high.

A very interesting read.  I’ll have to look through Bear’s other stuff and see what else I should try.  Thanks again Tom.