Reddit mentions of Echopraxia (Firefall (2))

I love it. I often assign it as reading in my philosophy of technology classes. It's one of the better philosophical stories out there, and sets the stage for a great discussion of the relationship between computation, information, entropy, science, and intelligence.

If you liked the story, you'd probably also enjoy the novel Blindsight by Peter Watts, and its follow-up Echopraxia, two of the other best sci-fi/philosophy blendings I've ever read.

//This is a summation of several months of recent reading...it sounds like a lot, but it isn't as much as it sounds like.

Just finished reading The Phantom Toolbooth to my 5-year old for the 3rd time (first time was more to $spouse when the kid was still nursing, but I'm counting it anyway). It's an awesome book to read when you are a kid, and doubly-awesome to read aloud to a kid.

For me, I recently finished The Founding Fish by John McPhee (one of my favorite writers).

I just started reading Rust: The Longest War which seems good so far (similar in style to McPhee).

I've also recently read:

• Flagship by Issac Hooke,
  
• Outsystem by M. D. Cooper,
  
• Nightblade by Ryan Kirk,
  
• The Shadow Order by Michael Robertson
  
• Columbus Day by Craig Alanson
  
  All as part of some sort of Amazon Prime Kindle deal. I can't really recommend any of them. The first two are formulaic in the extreme, and because everyone is the best supersoldier/pilot/captain/hacker ever, and there's no question they will "win," and I just didn't care. I couldn't finish the 3rd, although it wasn't bad; I just wanted to read something else. I honestly can't remember anything about the 4th, it was that bad. The last one (Columbus Day) didn't suck.
  
  Also from Amazon:
  
  
• Red Hope by John Dreese, which so far is like a not-as-good version of The Martian by Andy Weir (I DO recommend The Martian, but think it is one of the very rare cases where the movie is better than the original source material).
  
• Meta by Tom Reynolds was decent.
  
  Most of the Amazon Prime Kindle selections are the first of a series, and while I like a good series as much as the next guy, I'm not going to bother with any of them, except for Columbus Day and Meta. Maybe.
  
  I mistakenly read Echopraxia for the second time, but it's good enough that I didn't mind. It has some pretty creepy parts, but I like what I've read of Peter Watts so far, and it's a fairly deep book in parts, so a second read wasn't a waste.
  
  The local library has some Terry Prattchet as a digital loan, so I read one or two Discworld books too.
  
  Anyone have any suggestions for a good biography of Eisenhower?

Things I've read, or reread, recently that might be interesting:

[Echopraxia] (https://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/0765328038) by Peter Watts.

"Sequel" to Blindsight, but it doesn't really matter if they're read in order or not. Echopraxia is full of interesting ideas - Vampires (cloned pre-stone age apex predators with superhuman intelligence), technology-enabled hive intelligences, military zombie soldiers, amidst the backdrop of civilization cannibalizes itself in a battle between post-human factions.

It's also difficult to follow, with it's perspective being that of an unmodified human who is functionally incapable of understanding the motivations and actions of the various super-human intelligences that are the driving forces of the story.

The author's background as a biologist add a level of veracity to the story, and the research is near-peerless.

If you like complex hard-science fiction, with a side order of philosophy of mind, you may love this book. If you don't, it might be a huge miss.

[The Fifth Ward: First Watch] (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Athe+fifth+ward%3A+first+watch&keywords=the+fifth+ward%3A+first+watch&triggered-weblabs=SEARCH_SPELLING_122845%3AT1&ie=UTF8&qid=1509561625) by Dale Lucas

Pure escapism. One part detective story, one part middle-earth style fantasy. Elfs, dwarves, orcs and murder.

The writing was solid enough to carry the book, and it was a fun read.

[Easy Strength] (https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Strength-Stronger-Competition-Dominate/dp/0938045806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509561859&sr=1-1&keywords=easy+strength) by Dan John & Pavel Tsatsouline

An easy enjoyable read, with a lot of useful information and anecdotes if you're interested in coaching.

This rekindled my interest in kettle bells for GPP, and has given me a bit to think about regarding programming and athletic development.

It's also made me interested in reading more of Pavels stuff - Pavels writing style made me basically discount him the when I glanced at one of his books in the past, and I suspect I need to re-evaluate that impression.