@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-13 06:16:23
Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
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I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading
@cdarwin@c.im2025-10-13 19:48:18
Following public outcry,
the U.S. Department of Education has restored funding for students who have both hearing and vision loss,
about a month after cutting it.
But rather than sending the money directly to the four programs that are part of a national network helping students who are deaf and blind, a condition known as deafblindness,
the department has instead rerouted the grants to a different organization
The Trump administration targeted the programs in …
@catsalad@infosec.exchange2025-11-12 07:19:26
Aurora as seen from Florida
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-12-12 16:25:21
Series B, Episode 11 - Gambit
CALLY: But you operated on the people who built Star One.
DOCHOLLI: The technicians, yes, thirty of them. I had no choice.
JENNA: Then you must know where Star One is located. How could you not?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/211/487 B7B4
@leftsidestory@mstdn.social2025-12-11 01:11:47
@scottmiller42@mstdn.social2025-11-12 23:09:41
I have an expired credit card with a metal core that I want to destroy. I originally thought the core was an aluminum alloy, but it resisted scissors. With some bending and prying, I'm 99% sure the core is steel.
After a few minutes of work, I managed to peel some of the plastic off the mag-stripe side but cut a finger in the process.
The card had a pleasant heft and feeling of durability, but given the difficulty to destroy it, I really dislike it now.
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-11-12 15:30:57
Filing: Synopsys plans to lay off ~10% of its staff, or ~2,000 employees, after completing its $35B acquisition of engineering design firm Ansys earlier in 2025 (Jaspreet Singh/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/synopsys-cut…
@arXiv_csIT_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-10-13 07:51:30
Observation Matrix Design for Densifying MIMO Channel Estimation via 2D Ice Filling
Zijian Zhang, Mingyao Cui
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.08887 https://arxi…
@cdarwin@c.im2026-01-06 23:30:48
Organizer arrested in Grand Rapids following protest in response to U.S. attack in Venezuela
https://www.wzzm13.com/video/news/local/woman-arrested-in-grand-rapids-following-…
@cdarwin@c.im2025-12-08 05:50:00
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City disciplined three nurses
who spoke to the media and to fellow staff about safety concerns
following an attempted shooting in the hospital’s emergency department last month
— a consequence their union calls unlawful.
The New York State Nurses Association alleges that Mount Sinai’s decision
to write up two nurses and suspend another the day after Thanksgiving for discussing the union’s safety proposals with fellow nurses
