But India is also home to some of the most iconic games of all time. If the Middle East gave us one of the best racing games, then India is the birthplace of one of the greatest war games that humans have in-vented: the game of chess.
An outline of 80 classic games from the mathematical point of view, framed as a voyage around the world to explore the games of each continent and subcontinent. Unfortunately this framing turns out to be a bit problematic, as he sort of has to ignore the actual geography and the history of colonialism to make his points, whatever they are. There’s a weird five page chunk near the end about women writing games. The bit about Azad seems oddly familiar to me from elsewhere. There’s some very interesting material here, but I think it could have been much better organised, and the researchers whose work he has, er, depended on could have been given more credit. Still, you can get Around the World in 80 Games here.
‘Ssseize him!’ snarled Dr Harbinger, but the robots had already released the dauntless Binky Sharperton, and were e‘en now closing on Harbinger‘s escaped nemesis. The first of the diabolical automata raised the electrical tendril to which its miniaturized chronon ray was mounted, but even steel was no match for Mr Misnomer‘s legendary right hook. The leather gauntlet pounded the brute machine‘s trisilicate face, and sparks flew from its antennae as it blew a fuse.⁵ ⁵ Passages like this one demonstrate a wilful ignorance of basic cybernetics theory. Oobert Valdeburg (see Bibliography) claims this suggests a dearth of Public Domain robotics data in the 2530s, a theory which is provably untrue. More likely, it indicates a mistrust of technology typical of puritanical ‘back-to-basics’ cultures. Ironic, then, that almost all of Mr Misnomer‘s adventures were written by autolit engines. Note also how electronic menaces such as the Nemesis Doomsday Engine and Dr Harbinger‘s Megalomanopticon are always fitted with built-in self-destruct mechanisms, against all sense and reason.
I thought this was a rather good entry in the Bernice Summerfield spinoff series of books. Benny appears on a hollow world, encumbered with two junior archaeologists, and encounters various archetypes (dinosaurs, cavemen, useless Nazis (the best kind)) and threatening situations. Perhaps a little more going on than I had braincells to process at the time. But it all seemed to make sense. You can get Down here.
Next in this sequence is Deadfall, by Gary Russell.
(1) The Country must be arranged by one player, who, failing any other agreement, shall be selected by the toss of a coin.
Second paragraph of third chapter of Floor Games:
We always have twin cities, or at the utmost stage of coalescence a city with two wards, Red End and Blue End; we mark the boundaries very carefully, and our citizens have so much local patriotism (Mr. Chesterton will learn with pleasure) that they stray but rarely over that thin little streak of white that bounds their municipal allegiance. Sometimes we have an election for mayor; it is like a census but very abusive, and Red always wins. Only citizens with two legs and at least one arm and capable of standing up may vote, and voters may poll on horseback; boy scouts and women and children do not vote, though there is a vigorous agitation to remove these disabilities. Zulus and foreign-looking persons, such as East Indian cavalry and American Indians, are also disfranchised. So are riderless horses and camels; but the elephant has never attempted to vote on any occasion, and does not seem to desire the privilege. It influences public opinion quite sufficiently as it is by nodding its head.
Two very short non-fiction pieces by H.G. Wells, one about a very specific set-up for wargaming with model soldiers (infantry, cavalry and artillery) and one about a rather richer fantasy society built up by him with his sons. These are both very engaging, and Little Wars in particular is at the root of much else. Full of imperialist fervour and outright racism of course, and Wells was far from an outlier in his time and place.
A kind friend got me the reprint of both pieces as a 64-page double by Shilka Publishing, which you can get for a few quid here, but sadly lacks the illustrations which are referred to throughout the text. This is a loss for Floor Games in particular, where Wells’ own sketches really enliven it – the second paragraph of the third chapter was originally published looking like this:
Current The Iliad, by Homer, tr. Emily Wilson Deadfall, by Gary Russell Light in My Blood, by Jean Gilbert & William Dresden The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh
Last books finished Ringlet and the Day the Oceans Stopped, by Felicity Williams (did not finish) Hyperion, by Robbie Morrison et al Who Killed Nessie?, by Paul Cornell and Rachael Smith
Next books Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution, by Una McCormack Into the Mire: The Collected Works, by Casey Lucas Voyage to Venus, by C.S. Lewis
Second paragraph of third story (“The Garden”, by Isabelle McNeur):
Adams left a wife and a kid behind. I don’t know how he did it. I had enough trouble leaving my dog. For the first time in my life I had been glad my parents had already passed.
Collection of stories by Aotearoa New Zealand writers, all of which had previously been published elsewhere. I guess it was in the Sir Julius Vogel packet for 2020 as it won the award for Best Collection that year. A lot of the stories are post-apocalyptic; a lot of them are about how we lose contact with nature. Probably the two best are “Logistics”, by A.J. Fitzwater, which was on the 2018 Tiptree long-list, and “The Glassblower’s Peace”, by James Rowland, which had me looking up Venetian history. You can get Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume I here.
This was my top unread book acquired in 2020. Next on that pile is Tides of the Titans, by Thoraiya Dyer.
Technology exists in a complex, dynamic system (the real world), where second-, third-, and nth-order consequences ripple out unpredictably. What on paper looks flawless can behave differently out in the wild, especially when copied and further adapted downstream. What people actually do with your invention, however well intentioned, can never be guaranteed. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph so people could record their thoughts for posterity and to help the blind. He was horrified when most people just wanted to play music. Alfred Nobel intended his explosives to be used only in mining and railway construction.
A book about the transformative potential of AI, which I’m afraid I thought went on a bit about how amazing and societally transcending it is going to be, without really getting much into the detail of what that will look like. The final chapter goes into potential regulatory protections, and I found it rather conservative although clearer. You can get The Coming Wave here.
Really the most important thing about the AI revolution is that China is so far ahead of the rest of us that it may well decisively tilt the global economy to their advantage, especially now that the USA is no longer interested in international co-operation and has declared war on its own smart people.
This was my top unread book by a non-white writer. Next on that pile is The Principle of Moments, by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson.
Short, sweet story read by Carole Ann Ford, with the First Doctor working through his relationship with Barbara. Phipps says it is set at the very end of The Edge of Destruction. I groaned a little at the punchline which I found a bit corny, but otherwise it is nicely done. You can get A Small Semblance of Home here.
See here for methodology. Books are disqualified if less than 50% of them is set in Malawi.
These numbers are crunched by hand, not by AI.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
31,842
2,808
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (for younger readers)
William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
11,205
1,722
The Lower River
Paul Theroux
2,957
375
Galimoto
Karen Lynn Williams
332
880
The Heaven Shop
Deborah Ellis
1,233
234
Laugh with the Moon
Shana Burg
1,148
170
Venture to the Interior
Laurens van der Post
296
331
Jungle Lovers
Paul Theroux
210
110
This week’s winner, and second place, go to the inventor William Kamkwamba whose memoir in its original form is far ahead of its own YA version, which in turn is way ahead of everything else. Apparently it is set reading in a number of American educational institutions, which must help the numbers.
Apart from Kamkwamba, whose story is co-written with an American journalist, there is no Malawian writer in the above list. The top Malawian writer that I found is the poet Upile Chisala, but I’m afraid I disqualified her top book, soft magic, because it seems to be more about the diaspora experience, though I may be incorrect. Her other books, nectar and a fire like you seem to have more Malawian content but were just pipped by Paul Theroux’s Jungle Lovers.
Speaking of which, I had forgotten that American author Paul Theroux has a personal connection with Malawi. One of his sons was in the same year as me at the same Cambridge college. We did not know each other at all well – I think the one time we particularly interacted was just after our graduation, when I found myself moving into a college room that he was hastily vacating.
I disqualified eleven books for being clearly less than 50% set in Malawi. I have noted soft magic above; the others are Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, by Alexandra Fuller; Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town, by Paul Theroux (again); The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After, by Clemantine Wamariya; Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, by Alexandra Fuller; Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone, by Martin Dugard; Long Way Down, by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman; In a Strange Room, by Damon Galgu; Thin Air: A Ghost Story, by Michelle Paver (which seems to be set entirely in the Himalayas); My Other Life, by Paul Theroux (yet again); and The Ukimwi Road: From Kenya to Zimbabwe, by Dervla Murphy.
Coming next: Zambia next door, then Chad, Kazakhstan and Chile.
All of that, and she had absolutely no idea what anybody said through the whole process. She could just barely answer a question if it was put to her, and if she looked at Richard Yale she couldn’t even do that. Once the words left her lips, she had no idea what she’d said, and had to trust that even stupefied, she wouldn’t betray her or the town’s best interests.
Novella by Catie Murphy, who is known to some of you, under her Murphy Lawless pseudonym. It’s a story of capitalism clashing with culture in today’s Alaska; you know what’s going to happen as soon as you look at the front cover, but the ride is immense fun and the sex scenes very good without being gruesomely explicit. You can get Raven Heart here.
This was the shortest unread book on my shelves acquired in 2020. Next on that pile is Ventiforms, by Sean Monaghan.
All those years hearing talk of hellfire and brimstone on a Sunday morning, the vicar preaching that a life of sin and misdemeanour would lead to condemnation and torment in the next life—at no point had the young Clarence imagined the waking Hell he might first be forced to endure as a working adult. None of it had prepared him for this.
I wasn’t expecting to like this much, and I didn’t. Steampunk and zombies, neither of which are my favourite things, along with Mann’s usual leaden prose and historical inaccuracies. Did not finish. You can get The Revenant Express here.
This was my top unread book acquired in 2020, and the sf book that had lain longest unread on my bookshelves. Next on those piles are Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume I, ed. Marie Hodgkinson, and Tides of the Titans, by Thoraiya Dyer.
