this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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Wow, so a couple people who breathlessly believed the hype and would have been at risk of being part of the first wave of settlers if they lived maybe 100 years from now did a shred of research about what colonization literally is and is like, and realized that it's so much more complicated and worse than the state-sponsored story about what colonization looks like, and that doing that all over again in space would be so much more complicated and in many ways worse than on Earth, and the upshot of the story of the book is that these people only just now learned anything about this subject, and I'm supposed to want to give them THIRTY DOLLARS for the privilege of reading what amounts to a college-level book report that doesn't offer anything that hasn't been extensively reported and discussed already?
Can I write entire books about ridiculously uncontroversial things and charge more than thirty bucks for it, too?
Yes. Yes you could.
I know I can, I'm being tongue in cheek. But would that work actually merit book reviews just because it was book length?
If it was on a topic people care to read about, and was done well, yes.
I suppose it depends on how good of a writer you are.
Some writers can say things we all know so well that it's like we're finally understanding it for the first time. Some writers have a knack for delivering facts or prose with the perfect dose of humor; it's not what they say, but how they say it that is valuable.
I suppose the question of what merits a book has is more complicated than just "does this book push the envelope of human knowledge", huh?
Yes you can. Self publishing is surprisingly easy.
Sometimes books are valued for their original informational content alone. Sometimes books are valued for conveniently anthologizing disparate works. Sometimes books are valued for the entertainment quality of the writing. This is a book which endeavors to offer information and context about a hot topic to a general audience in an informative but entertaining way. I can guarantee that you've spent over $30 on something less valuable.
I have a couple of books by Zach Weinersmith and they are entertaining and interesting.
I believe you're missing the point of this book. I also believe you're being a bit of a prat. I don't know, however, if those two things are connected.
No, I mean it's an interesting topic to me and the review makes it come across like a coloring-book level engagement with the subject. They straight up sound like hacks.