Libromancer's Apprentice

Islands in the Net / Bruce Stirling Like this book, my life has been a bit of a hot mess lately.  This isn't entirely a criticism of the book, Islands in the Net is a book about futureshock and war, so if it wasn't a hot mess I'd probably be a bit dubious.  We follow along with Laura as she is buffeted along the shockwave of wars and conspiracies fought across corporate rather than national lines.  An interesting read looking back through the years at how things change and how things stay the same.  I read this back in May as my Virtual Speculation read, and then missed a few months.  Almost done with the July read (which I mixed up with Augusts). Discussion Fodder: What can you say about the different political, social, and economic systems present in the book?  How are they different or similar from what you know?  How are they different or similar from each other? What do you think of the Data Pirates and their havens? How is technology r...

Wow.  I did not budget my time appropriately for the length of this chapter.  Almost 100 pages plus notes.  Whoops.  Also, it seems that while Emily was doing a subsection every two weeks, I thought we were doing the whole thing in two weeks.  So I'm both late and early on this I guess? For my next statement I also need to beg forgiveness, because I could very well be completely off the mark.  But this section reminds me of a Greek tragedy.  But maybe it's just the incest?  Regardless, the story of Turin is that of a Tragedy.  The tale of Tuor is one of gold and light, that of Turin is of dark and tarnish, though great deeds happen in both. He is born of Hurin, in a house of legacy and sorrow.  His sister dies young and her name to never be spoken but he remembers her still and speaks of her in his own way to a man of the house, Sador.  Tragedy continues, as Hurin himself is lost to Morgoth, and then the Easterlings come and Tur...