That's one of the rarest books I own. Bought directly from the author!
But more to support the idea than because I was expecting it to be good.

And the idea is cool: it's a history book from the future, covering the next 200 years.

The execution is as dry as a proper historical book. It is dense with ideas though. Some are standard if you've read a lot of sci-fi, some are intriguing (the separation of color charges in gluons), some are confusing (free-floating fuel streams. Why not shoot pellets instead and have something concrete to catch?), some are underveloped nonsense (computer "networks" die worldwide at the same time).

There's also a lot of politics, as there should. It's not as marvellous as The Expanse the series, but some plausible factions are drafted well. I just don't have much faith in the scales presented. On one hand, the current slide into the far-right is surprising, and that is the second time within a century. I expect a lot more churn over 2. On the other hand, no ideology ever took over the entire world direction, so the portrayal of the future looks simplified.

I can't say that I had fun reading this book. It explored some enjoyable directions, but it couldn't settle on a single formula, so none of the sections really work great enjoyment-wise, and some I just skimmed while daydreaming.

But I'm stll glad I read it. This exploration is an oddity worth seeing. And it also did plant one truly novel idea in my brain: what if there's an intelligent species somewhere on the edge of human influence, like in the oceans, one that's intelligent enough to collectively recognize that humans should be avoided at all costs? Would we ever know about them? Could it be that we already do? Could it be that it's one of the species we know, but we don't realize the intelligence of the individuals because the only ones that let us be seen are the dumb: demented or sick? Or those who end up without the cultural aversion to humans and are the equivalent of uncivilized cavemen or trampling adolescent elephants (yes, that's a thing)? We wouldn't glean the existing civilization from them.

The book is part of a series, but I think I'm going to skip the rest for now. I know there is an officially translated version in English out there.

galactic-developments.de/

#scifi #books #literature #hardscifi

Galactic Developments - Die Geschichte der Zukunft

Eine Science Fiction Geschichte der Menschheit von der Besiedlung des Sonnensystems bis zur interstellaren Zivilisation.

^{www.galactic-developments.de}

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I found this movie after finishing the book. Reviews were very mixed, meaning there was something unusual in it.
And there was.
Filth. Dirt. Shit. Mud. Chickens. Bare butts. Asses. Ass dicks. Spilled guts.
Uncouth behaviour. Smearing mud in your friends' faces. Insane singing. Laughing. Rawness and sex and the fall of any standards.
I haven't seen anything as visceral as this, yet instead of feling exhilirating, it felt oppressive. Characters did all this while maintaining a regular cadence of speech, not raising the voices too much. How can you make the screams of the tortured dull and washed out? Apparently you can.
And that's before you get to the scenery. If makes you feel as if you're one of the peasants snooping into the lives of the aristocracy - or other peasants. You squeeze through between bodies, between hanging carcsses, weapons, animals, and you only get glimpses of the action (which you hear quite well, but who is speaking?) because there's always something in the way - a hanging rope, someone passing through, a flying chicken, the wall, some fool making faces at you.

This article: filmcomment.com/blog/aleksei-g… got it right. The movie is in a class of its own. It pulls you into a world full of atmosphere, heavy, thick, unpleasant atmosphere. It doesn't matter that it hardly contains any plot - it could have been based on any vaguely medieval story. What matters is that it does something no one else tries.

Film of the Week: Hard to Be a God

The filth and the fury: Aleksei German's final film is an orgy of Bruegelian grotesqueries

^{Jonathan Romney (Film Comment)}