site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 9, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Piranesi, by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's a very different book from her first - the whole book is entries from the protagonist's journal, and it takes place almost entirely in a weird magic pocket dimension. It's oddly reminiscent of the journals you find in the Myst series, as the journal-keeper has a suspiciously large vocabulary and erudite manner for someone who lives alone in a giant labyrinth with no books, little company, and no memory of ever living anywhere else. (A deliberate choice here - you get hints quite early on that he did in fact once live somewhere else but something has happened to his memory. I will spoil no further, because I highly recommend this book.)

Also featuring a protagonist with memory issues, we have Across the Void, a thriller author's first venture into science fiction. Alas, I cannot recommend it, and therefore will spoil away. We've got the first-ever manned mission to Europa! But oh no Europa's icy waters contain a virus which promptly causes a mini-pandemic among the crew! But the head guy at NASA had a contingency plan for this - kill them all and make it look like a space accident! But the protagonist isn't actively ill anymore, so now we're going to forget all about the virus and focus on getting her back to Earth, while head NASA guy tries to kill her so she won't reveal his crimes. At no point does anyone wonder about the broader implications of alien planets having diseases that can infect humans, nor whether such a virus may have any long-term effects on a human who survives the initial infection.