books
Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary (2021)
A man wakes up from a coma in a strange cylindrical room, with only a computer and robotic arms taking care of him. The reader knows he is on a spaceship, but the man himself has such a severe amnesia that he doesn’t even remember his own name. However, the man discovers he is quite competent in the natural sciences and gradually begins to recall flashes of his past too.
The story progresses on two timelines: the present on the spaceship and sometime earlier on Earth. The reader thus learns about the protagonist’s past at the same pace as the man himself. Gradually, it becomes clear that nothing less than the future of all humanity is at stake.
Weir is known for his first book, The Martian. In the movie based on that one everything goes wrong for Matt Damon and he ends up as a potato farmer on Mars. Hail Mary is Weir’s third novel, and Murphy’s Law is still strongly present. As a reader I found myself almost frustrated at some point, wondering if this thing couldn’t have gone reasonably well either.
In any case, the book was captivating, and the world that Weir had developed was detailed and interesting. The category is so-called hard SF, meaning science fiction that strives for scientific accuracy, or at least attempts to explain events scientifically, and for the lay reader, it certainly passes for the real deal. I recommend this one. 📚
PS. I just learned that there’s a Project Hail Mary movie coming in March 2026, starring Ryan Gosling! So read the book now and be prepared for it. 😃
Terry Pratchett: The Light Fantastic
Finished reading: The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett 📚
The Light Fantastic picks up exactly where The Colour of Magic left off: the wizard Rincewind and the tourist Twoflower are in serious trouble. Beyond their personal predicament, it turns out the entire Discworld is facing an existential threat.
While dodging both general and personal dangers, Rincewind and Twoflower encounter trolls and join forces with the legendary Hero, Cohen the Barbarian. Tales of Cohen’s heroic deeds have been told for decades, so naturally, the man himself turns out to be 87 years old. Still, he gets a bit offended if fewer than five enemies attack him at once — after all, life gets boring without a challenge.
In this book, Sir Terry Pratchett seems to have reined in his ideas a bit, resulting in a more coherent story than the first one. That said, I still preferred The Colour of Magic, since the whole “saving the world” plot in The Light Fantastic felt a bit tacked on. Still, it wasn’t a bad read by any means.
Terry Pratchett: The Colour of Magic
Finished reading: The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett 📚
According to a legend, somewhere on the far side of the Disc, beyond the great sea, lies the Counterweight Continent. Since it’s assumed to balance the Disc’s other landmasses, yet appears relatively small, it’s believed to consist largely of heavy gold. Few sane people, of course, believe this story — until one day, a ship sailing up the smelly Morpork river brings a Tourist to the shores of Ankh-Morpork.
The locals don’t understand what a “tourist” is, but quickly deduce it means roughly the same as “idiot”. The man dresses oddly, acts strangely, and carries an absurd amount of gold — whose value he doesn’t seem to grasp. He’s also accompanied by a sentient pearwood chest, the Luggage, which is generally docile but turns into an unstoppable, murderous beast if its master is threatened.
Rincewind, a wizard who failed utterly at wizardry and is mostly a coward — though otherwise fairly clever — finds that he can speak the tourist’s language. The tourist, Twoflower, hires Rincewind as his guide. Soon, Ankh-Morpork is entirely ablaze, and Rincewind and Twoflower are fleeing by land, sea, and air.
The Colour of Magic launched the now-famous Discworld series in 1983, and over thirty novels have followed. Quite the achievement, especially considering this book alone is so packed with ideas and events that it feels like Pratchett wanted to include every concept he had.
I originally borrowed the book for my second grader, but after he found it too confusing after the first couple dozen pages, I ended up reading it myself. I’ve probably read it long ago, but Pratchett’s absurd British humor still hits the mark for me — and presumably for other fans of Monty Python and Douglas Adams as well.
Currently reading: The Praised, The Loved, The Deplored, The Forgotten: A View into the Wide History of Finnish Games by Kultima, Annakaisa; Peltokangas, Jouni 📚
Finnish games introduced briefly, but also contains a handful of interesting interviews. 🎮
If you think about what your average citizen of today should know about the demoscene, the least would be the fact that such a long line of digital culture exists. Even if it’s quite hidden from the mainstream, it has given rise to a huge amount of talent. Another is the existence of such media art and a community, of which not much is known, but which has been very active and played a significant part for those involved. Rather than thinking of whatever useful business skills were acquired, I would like the latter point to be the takeaway from all this.
–lecturer Markku Reunanen 💬
