Fascinating account of "Rave and Let Die" here: by no means altogether positive. But some interesting observations on the function of criticism in the present time.

It's not just the AI – it is partly that, but at least the sentient AI is not human-like. It's America, which, while having the usual cyberpunk hyper-inequality, still *exists* in a continuous and unquestioned and forceful way I haven't read for a while.

Void Star by Zachary Mason, from 2017 and set in the 2100s: a sleek high-def post-cyberpunk novel, gorgeous in parts, the sort of thing I'm surprised Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy haven't already adapted for TV; but goodness how the future changes.

Thanks to a combination of pre-orders, slow orders, review copies and straight-up impulse buys, this week has not been kind to my shelves. At least I've already read the Hall...

IT'S BACK!

I also wondered whether Niffenegger was a Person of Interest fan - some aspects of the AI plotline, you know?

I have been waiting impatiently for reviews of this to drop - I liked it a lot as well - because of how messily different it is. I can't get over the fact that it was originally announced in 2013. Really feels like you can see her grappling with that decade+ of change.

Definitely go and have a poke around and see if anything takes your fancy here. All the Bora Chungs are great; from this year, The Formosa Exchange is my pick so far.

Well, this did start with a debate about literary 'progress', which I took as in part a discussion about good and bad; happy to agree that's not really the point and leave it there, though.

CL Moore, Fritz Leiber, Theodore Sturgeon, Clifford Simak, Cordwainer Smith, Carol Emshwiller, Poul Anderson ... God, even Heinlein. Not all to my taste, but that's the point, really - all 'pulp' writers, all still obviously skillful in key respects.

Well. Maybe? I am not well-versed in crime pulp magazines, but I am a bit sceptical that they were universally of a quality that would hold up today; similarly Asimov's contemporaries include people like Bradbury, much of which people would say holds up. Need to compare apples and apples.

I'm even sceptical of "improvement" as an absolute quality or consistent direction; there is certainly much I prefer about today's SF vs a century ago, but style and value judgements reflect the context in which something is written, I think it's good to be a little bit humble about them.

True nerds know that it's been down for at least 48 hours :-(

One vote here for "Rachel Cusk in space", for what that's worth.

Casellas Brookin, like Surgeons General