Permutation City Blog

A collection of short stories, none of which made a particular impression on me. Several just seemed implausible, not because of technological change but because of the society. Dick was probably trying to say something when writing a story about the abortion age limit being extended passed birth up to 10 years old, but it didn't work for me.

We all know about the Lilliputians but many of Gulliver's other journeys are unknown. Each land has it's own faults as Swift makes comments on various societies. In between trip Gulliver sees his family briefly before deciding he simply must leave them for another disasterous journey.

The Coarse Actor: dreams of success but it will never come. The Coarse Actor: one who can remember his lines but not the order in which they come. Stories of such actors, tips for dealing with them, and tips for being them. A quick fun read.

An exploration of how parasites affect life on Earth. Some evolution develops at a sedate pace but against parasites, and disease, each organism must race to counter the latest inovations of the other side. It looks at why some diseases cause debilitating illness or death while others are not even noticed.

A robot who wants to die but serve instead. Humanity has fogotten itself and lives in drugged happiness. I enjoyed the exploration of this future distopia.

A war across the stars between humans and Taurans. Time dilation lets one man fight across one thousand years. It's interesting to see a war fought on such a grand arena.

The early life of an English gentleman who shows less than gentlemanly behaviour, a coward who manages to seem brave. All right to read but I won't bother with the rest of the series.

I don't know if I've ever read the original before, a nice little tale. It's interesting to see the little variations from the familiar retellings of the story. I read the whole thing on my ipod touch, a satisfactory book replacement in an emergency.

Pretty photographs along with the text of a walking guide through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, and the North Moors.

Roberts can have some interesting ideas but isn't so good at the execution. Here he wonders what judicial beheading would be like if criminals were given prosthetics afterwards. The head is thrown away and the body is given a prosthetic mind and senses afterwards. Appart from the treatment of headless as second class citizens the story doesn't really go anywhere.