Neal Stephenson: Seveneves – Hneď na začiatku niečo rozbije Mesiac. A zistí sa, že úlomky začnú pomaly padať na Zem, pričom za dva roky ju urobia úplne neobývateľnou na niekoľko tisíc rokov. Ľudstvo má teda pomerne presne ohraničený čas na prípravu, a tá nejde ani zďaleka podľa plánov. Ako názov napovedá, Ev, ktoré prežijú, nebude veľa. Kopu zaujímavých podnetov na rozmýšľanie, ale kniha sama o sebe je taká nerovnomerná. Miestami výborná, miestami otrasná a pôsobí trochu pozliepane. Tri hviezdičky z piatich.
Doob, who had raised three children to adulthood, had figured out a long time ago that any event largely organized by elementary school teachers was likely to come off extremely well from a logistical and crowd-control standpoint.…[explains] why so many top athletes were African. It wasn’t because they were naturally better athletes but because the bell-shaped curve of random genetic variation was wider. For every African who was a great athlete there was presumably another who was miserably uncoordinated, but no one paid any notice to the latter.…Actions taken here today will cast long shadows into the future.
N. K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season – Pri tejto Zemi Mesiac nie je. A je to trochu problém. Táto kniha je výborná celá, krásne napísaná, chytľavo vybudovaný svet so zvláštnou mágiou, plastické postavy. Autorka je tmavej pleti a keď hovorí o predsudkoch, tak príslušné kúsky by sa dali vystrihnúť a bez akéhokoľvek editovania použiť aj v našom skutočnom svete. A donúti čitateľa uvedomiť si, ako sme prepletení s ostatnými ľuďmi, ako veľmi je to, kto sme, ovplyvnené vzťahmi, blízkymi aj ďalekými. Hviezdičiek? Päť a dobrá správa je, že toto je prvý diel trilógie.
When we say “the world has ended,” it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine. But this is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. For the last time.
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You will have to make do with the broken bits of herself that Jija has left behind. You’ll jigsaw them together however you can, caulk in the odd bits with willpower wherever they don’t quite fit, ignore the occasional sounds of grinding and cracking. As long as nothing important breaks, right? You’ll get by. You have no choice. Not as long as one of your children could be alive.
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For all those that have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question.
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“We aren’t human.”
“Yes. We. Are.” His voice turns fierce. “I don’t give a shit what the something-somethingth council of big important farts decreed, or how the geomests classify things, or any of that. That we’re not human is just the lie they tell themselves so they don’t have to feel bad about how they treat us.”
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There passes a time of happiness in your life, which I will not describe to you. It is unimportant. Perhaps you think it wrong that I dwell so much on the horrors, the pain, but pain is what shapes us, after all. We are creatures born of heat and pressure and grinding, ceaseless movement. To be still is to be… not alive. But what is important is that you know it was not all terrible. There was peace in long stretches, between each crisis. A chance to cool and solidify before the grind resumed.
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You’ve read accounts of attempts by the Sixth University at Arcara to capture a stone eater for study, two Seasons back. The result was the Seventh University at Dibars, which got built only after they dug enough books out of the rubble of Sixth.
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Who’s she kidding? It’s love. She loves her son. But that doesn’t mean she wants to spend every hour of every rusting day in his presence.