Science Fiction Book Review

 The Age of the Pussyfoot

If I Were a Rich Man
Charles Forrester died in 1969, was frozen, then revived and restored to health in 2527. He emerges a new man, unencumbered by the past, with no responsibilities, and a whole new world to enjoy. And what's more, he's rich.

It's all been done before
I've read The Age of the Pussyfoot before, it turns out. I don't recall the title or the cover art so I suspect I read it as part of Bipohl where it was printed in one volume with another Pol story, Drunkard's Walk. I have distinct memories of the scene where the main character discovers he is not, in fact, rich: he's been revived after centuries of cryosleep, his assets have appreciated significantly and he's worth a quarter of a million dollars, but that's not a lot anymore. I also recall vividly when he discovers it's not because of inflation. A quarter million dollars is worth the same in the 26th century as it was in the 20th, it's just that lifestyles have gotten more expensive. I didn't quite buy that at the time—five hundred years with zero inflation? That strains credulity—but I did (and do) take the point that lifestyle inflation is a real thing. We expect more, and that costs more.

Joymaker = smartphone + AI assistant
The most interesting bit of future technology that Pohl includes in The Age of the Pussyfoot is the joymaker. It's a wand-shaped device that connects wirelessly to a central computer, through which a person can talk to an artificial intelligence assistant. People use the joymaker to request information, order food, buy and sell products, make phone calls, send voicemail messages, seek employment—basically anything and everything in 26th century life goes through the joymaker.

The joymaker is a smartphone and AI assistant. Interestingly, Pohl didn't foresee a need for a screen, so the joymaker's interface is entirely audio. Also interestingly, the joymaker has built-in functionality for dispensing medication and drugs, so, you know, it can cure a headache or give you a little LSD pick-me-up.

The AI is pretty advanced even by 2024 standards, although with some of these large language models we're getting closer to what Pohl envisioned.

Forced incompetence as a plot device
With the joymaker to guide him, Forrester should have plenty of help navigating the 26th century world. In a convenient plot device, Forrester is habitually impatient with the joymaker and rarely gets any useful information from it. When he asks a question and doesn't immediately understand the answer, he declares the joymaker to be inscrutable and useless rather than asking any clarifying questions. When the joymaker prompts him to listen to important incoming messages, Forrester yells at it to keep quiet and stop bothering him. This allows Pohl to gradually reveal the true nature of 26th century society, which is clever writing but it is also infuriating. Forrester is comically, deliberately, incompetent. Pohl forces him to act this way because it's necessary for the structure of the storytelling, but it makes no sense. By all accounts Forrester is a typical 20th century man. He should be able to ask some smart questions and figure out what's going on. Instead, he continually refuses to see what the joymaker and all his friends are trying to tell him, he's always in trouble and two steps behind, and he makes rash and snap decisions instead of asking for advice. It's perhaps believable the first time he does this. It's less so the second, third, fourth, fifth, and dozenth time. Unfortunately it's necessary for the plot.

Oh, there's a plot
Sure, there's a plot. Forrester meets a woman named Adne Benson and starts a relationship, which leads to all sorts of 20th-century-man-meets-26th-century-girl culture clashes and misunderstandings. Forrester inadvertently angers a Martian who then takes out a murder contract on him, so he has to dodge assassination attempts. He spends all his money and has to take a job working for a Sirian prisoner, which is socially frowned-upon because Earth is at war with the Sirians. When he loses that job, he ends up penniless and living on the streets with the Forgotten Men who don't have access to joymakers and make a living through begging and bartering. Finally, Forrester accidentally helps his former Sirian employer to escape from Earth and return to Sirius, which is bad because Earth's location has been kept a secret until now. Being hidden is all that's kept Earth safe since the Sirian war began. (That is, since humanity discovered the Sirians and massacred some of them.) Given the impending Sirian attack, most people opt to enter cryosleep and awaken when the threat is gone. With the population in deep sleep, a group of Luddites seizes the opportunity and begins systematically destroying Earth's technology. Forrester manages to stop them, which sort of makes up for his role in helping the Sirian escape. It's not mentioned, but it seems Earth manages to repel the Sirian attack. Forrester lives happily ever after in the 26th century. The end.

Science Fiction Book Review

 Exit Strategy

Book four.

Christian Book Review

 The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended

After some years of listening to their podcast, I figured I ought to read the book. It's about what I expected. It does what it sets out to do.

Science Fiction Story Review

 The Tissue-Culture King

The Tissue-Culture King's claim to fame is that it's the first story to feature a tin-foil hat as a defense against mind control. It does not, however, actually contains the term "tin-foil hat." It calls them variously:

• "caps of metal foil"
• "metal coverings"
• "metal headgear"
• "mind-protectors"
• "metal telepathy-proof head coverings"

Not as punchy as tin-foil hat, but there's honor in being first to an idea.

It's available online at RevolutionSF.com: The Tissue-Culture King

Science Fiction Book Review

 The Gods Hate Kansas

In The Gods Hate Kansas they can’t block alien mind-control with tin-foil hats. They have to use hats made of silver. Much more expensive.

Christian Book Review

 Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor

A syncretistic perversion of the gospel
In Disarming Leviathan pastor Caleb E. Campbell explains what Christian nationalism is, why people become Christian nationalists, and how to engage with Christian nationalists.

In brief: an American Christian nationalist is not just a politically conservative Christian or a patriotic Christian. American Christian nationalism is a syncretistic faith that blends Christianity with American civil religion and populist tribalism. It has many of the trappings of Christianity but ultimately its fruits are antithetical to the gospel. This is not to say that Christian nationalists are not believers. Many surely are, and are deceived by this syncretistic perversion of the gospel. Some Christian nationalists may indeed be believers—but it is a perversion of the gospel.

Mission Field
Pastor Campbell suggests treating Christian nationalists as a mission field. Learn their cultural and tribal traditions, understand their desires and their fears, and gently lay some seeds that will cause them to recognize that their belief system is inconsistent and contrary to the teachings of Scripture.

The first and only practical guide for engaging Christian nationalists
To that end, the most important chapter is chapter 7, where Campbell gives specific examples of how to talk to Christian nationalists. He lists common views and beliefs that Christian nationalists will express, then he explains the fears and desires that underlie those beliefs. He gives specific talking points for responding, and (crucially!) he lists shibboleths and red flags to avoid. This is the first and only practical guide I've found for engaging Christian nationalists.

I believe Pastor Campbell has done an excellent job of identifying what American Christian nationalism is and how to interact (and not interact) with people who are caught up in it. I'm not 100% sure his strategy of treating Christian nationalists as a mission field is the right strategy, but I'm also quite sure I don't have a better idea. So a mission field it is.

A pessimistic note
Incidentally, much of what Campbell says are things I've already come to believe. He hasn't surprised me. I've done some of what Campbell has suggested in the way I've tried to interact with people over the last seven or eight years. However, I am much less sure than Campbell that American Christian nationalism can be effectively disarmed. I'm still wondering if Rod Dreher's Benedict Option is still the better idea.

Science Fiction Book Review

 The Rebellers

SF Encyclopedia and Wikipedia both tell me that Jane Roberts is most well-known for her series of writings where she channels a spirit named Seth. The Rebellers is a science fiction story published prior to her turning to the occult and publishing the work of (presumably) literal demons.

The Rebellers is not a satisfying story.

Gary Fitch, artist
The overpopulated world is bursting at the seams. Our hero is Gary Fitch, an artist whose job is to produce inspirational propaganda to ensure that the people Work Work Work. Without everyone working all the time, the public will starve. Fitch and his fellow artists live in the Gallery. In fact they've never been outside the gallery. They spend every moment of their lives producing propaganda and know almost nothing of the conditions outside.

Outside
The conditions outside are brutal. Food shortages lead to continual riots. During one riot Gary Fitch escapes the Gallery and experiences the outside world. Hunger and madness are rampant. The poor and unhealthy are euthanized if they can no longer work productively.

Plague
Into this savage overpopulated world, enter a plague: it's fast and deadly. The government has a vaccine but has no plan to give it out. Nobody would trust a government doctor anyway, since everybody knows that a doctor's only job is to euthanize the unfit. The plague is spreading and this may be the end of civilization.

The Rebellers
Fitch falls in with the Rebellers, a revolutionary group that's seeking to overthrow the government. Fitch thinks this is a great time for the Rebellers to overthrow the government, seize the vaccine, and save the world. But the Rebellers have no intention of actually taking action. That would be risky. No, they'd rather sit tight in their underground hideout, wait for the plague to wipe out civilization, and then emerge to pick up the pieces. They'll be kings of the world.

Just making things up now
Fitch is having none of that, so he forces the Rebellers to actually rebel. They do, and they seize the vaccines and begin inoculating people. Then the story goes off the rails. The author seems to be making things up at random. There's some nonsense about a second plague virus that is relatively mild except if the patient is pregnant and has been previously vaccinated against the first plague. In that case, it's deadly. Oh, and conveniently the vaccine also prevents pregnancy for about ten years, so, you know, it's kind of helpful against both plagues (as long as it's not given to women who are already pregnant) and it will help solve the overpopulation crisis.

Fin
And then, without wrapping up the plot or coming to any resolution, the book abruptly ends.

Science Fiction Book Review

 Rogue Protocol

Book three. Murderbot

Science Fiction Book Review

 Supermind

Space vampires. Ugh.

Supermind is the worst. Two-thirds of the book is about vampires. I do not want to read about vampires. Furthermore, the three component stories that were jammed into this fix-up "novel" don't cohere at all, and Van Vogt's attempts to tie them together don't work. The best thing—the only good thing—about Supermind is the cover art.

I know that van Vogt's novels are fix-ups, so I shouldn't be surprised, but this one is truly disappointing.

Science Fiction Book Review

 Artificial Condition

Book two.