Ministry for the Future, KSR, audio book
2.0 Stars
5-1-2021

We will sustainably power the world by hooking a generator up to KSR's handwaving (Book #3 of my "Spring" into the Apocalypse reading list.)

There's a lot to be said about this book, but for the most part other people have said it better elsewhere (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3500748849?book_show_action=true. I will just contribute a few more bits of snark, e.g. this book reminded me most strongly of the ending of Brazil, where the protagonist is inventing an increasingly fantastical and farcical rescue plotline in order to disassociate himself from the experience of being tortured to death. (spoilers). Ministry starts off slightly realistic, but becomes increasily absurdist as the story goes on. I've read LitRPGs where the hero gains 999 levels and defeats God which were more grounded.

That concludes the main body of the review. As a final note, I would just like to say that this book and its characters are annoying as fuck to listen to. It dug up long repressed memories, of being cornered by some Rice big-brain and being talked at about math while feeling the life-force palpably drain from my body. The book is both too intelligent and not intelligent enough. On the one hand, because of the author's enlarged brain, he fails to understand the many true things that a dumb person would implicitly understand. On the other hand, the author is not smart enough to offer any useful ways forward that other people haven't thought of before. Normally I would give this experience 1 star, but since the issue is of immense global importance I am spotting the book an additional, *full* 1 star, in the hope that this book at least sparks useful thoughts from some other person.