Ken Newquist's Blog at Lafayette College
Aurora is Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel about the crew of a generational starship finally arriving at their destination … and dealing with what they find there. It’s the first Robinson book I read since I finished his Mars trilogy about a decade ago.
My summer reading list is progressing nicely. I finished up my first print novel on the list, Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon, and I’ve moved on to the second, Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves. The book opens with the destruction of the moon by an unknown “Agent”, and humanity’s desperate attempt to escape the impending lunar apocalypse. … Read more
The Courts of Chaos is the final book in Roger Zelazny’s first Chronicles of Amber series. The series involves the scheming of the royal family of Amber — the one true city in the one true world, of which the rest of the universe (including Earth) is but a shadow. It’s protagonist, Corwin, has finally seen … Read more
F.A. March Elementary School held its annual egg drop on Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Students create a device to protect their egg from a fall, and then bring it to school where it is dropped from three different heights. If the device survives the third drop, it makes it to the finals in which it’s … Read more
The second volume in Moon’s “Vatta’s War” series starts a hell of a lot faster than Book 1. It picks up about where Book 1 left off — young Kylara Vatta, kicked out of the Slotter Key Spaceforce Academy, is now captain of one of her merchant family’s spaceships. The book opens with a clandestine … Read more
Each summer I kick up my weekly reading time considerably. Aided by vacation and the occasional conference road trip I aim to read 12-15 books a summer. Below is an image galley highlighting the covers of the books I’m either reading or have read this summer. Check out my full Summer 2015 reading list on Goodreads.
It’s time to get Moodling again. CLAMP’s Moodle Hack/Doc Fest for Summer 2015 is being held at the College of Holy Cross in June 2015. This is our 16th Hack/Doc, and our first time back in Massachusetts since Summer 2011’s event at Hampshire College. Last summer’s Hack/Doc at Macalester College saw me spending three days … Read more
Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice plays with the concepts of gender and identity with the framework of a conventional space opera. The main character is an “ancillary” — essentially a human being who’s consciousness has been overridden an artificial intelligence. That intelligence once controlled an entire starship and dozens of such ancillaries, and over the course … Read more
