Books Received, September 7 to September 13

[james_davis_nicoll]

Six books new to me, evenly divided between science fiction and fantasy.

Books Received, September 7 to September 13

Poll #31888 Books Received, September 7 to September 13

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 68

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison (March 2025)
55 (80.9%)

Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis (February 2025)
17 (25.0%)

Rose of Jericho by Alex Grecian (March 2025)
6 (8.8%)

Under the Eye of the Big Bird: A Novel by Hiromi Kawakami (September 2024)
11 (16.2%)

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal (March 2025)
32 (47.1%)

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi (March 2025)
29 (42.6%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
40 (58.8%)

Comments

[jhetley]

Why are cats lagging?

[julian]

Katherine Addison is just *that awesome*, maybe? We should let her know, in that case!

[fred_mouse]

People who like dogs like Katherine Addison?

[jreynolds197]

I am going to assume that Hiromi Kawakami's work is authorized fanfiction about Big Bird of Sesame Street fame.

[ba_munronoe]

Heh. The big yellow guy came immediately to mind for me as well.

Can anyone offer me a plausible explanation for how a far-less-than-dinosaur-killing meteor impact somehow leads to a slow-burn global warming effect that will eventually lead to an uninhabitable Earth? Because I'd like to enjoy Kowal's series, but as long as that bit continues to bug me, I just can't read it.It's sort of the way that I could never watch the various "Stargate" series, in spite of my fondness for cheesy SF, because I could never get past the idiocy of the "Ancient Astronauts built the pyramids" stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

Note having seen any of the books I can't say whether they are compatible with either of the hand waves below.

The earth is fairly close to runaway greenhouse already - on the scale of tens to hundreds of millions of years the sun is warning, and eventually even reducing the CO2 level to zero will keep the temperature at present levels. If an asteroid impact has the effect of triggering an increase in volcanic activity that will result the accumulation of atmospheric CO2 as long as the increased activity continues. Permafrost methane, methane clathrate and ocean-CO2 feedbacks add further CO2 to the atmosphere. If the wrong tipping point is reached rainforest collapse could also add to the CO2 and warming. Ice-albedo feedback also contributes to warming. Add in water vapour feedback, and perhaps the earth is uninhabitable before a new equilibrium is reached.

Alternatively, the impact vaporises a carbonate outcrop adding lots of CO2 to the atmosphere at once. (The ecological severity of the K-P impactor is said to have been increased because it hit carbonate-rich crust). The climate has inertia, so the earth warms steps by step as it approaches the equilibrium associated with the new CO2 level. The feedbacks mention above extend the magnitude and duration of the transition.

[agharta75]

James, will you ever review Cats?