"I have emphasized what I consider the two most remarkable features that I have learned in my research on space and time: (1) that gravity curls up space-time so that it has a beginning and an end; (2) that there is a deep connection between gravity and thermodynamics that arises because gravity itself determines the topology of the manifold on which it acts".

In “The Nature of Space and Time by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose” by Stephen Hawking in the lecture "Quantum Cosmology"

"We should think of twistor space as the space in terms of which we should describe physics."

In “The Nature of Space and Time" by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose by Roger Penrose in the lecture "The Twistor View of Spacetime"

"These lectures have shown very clearly the difference between Roger and me. He's a Platonist and a positivist. He's worried that Schrödinger's cat is in a quantum state, where it is held alive and held dead. He feels that can't correspond to reality. But that doesn't bother me. I don't demand that a theory correspond to reality because I don't know what it is. Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus pap. All I'm concerned with is that the theory should predict the results of measurements. Quantum theory does this very successfully. It predicts that the result of an observation is either that the cat is alive or that it is dead. It is like you can't be slightly pregnant: you either are or you aren't."

In “The Nature of Space and Time" by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose by Stephen Hawking in the lecture "The Debate"

Can I write a review on such a book? Hawking and Penrose... It's staggering...I don't even know what day the mailman comes...After having re-read this oldie after Hawking's passing, I'd say it depends on where you are in the universe, whether you're on/near some sizeable object (of mass), its rotation, distance from other masses, or whether you live in my neck of the woods...

If you're into Physics, and Quantum Mechanics in particular, read on.

This book held a lot of promise but I feel that ultimately it didn't really deliver.

This is a far future hard science fiction novel where a young woman called Abigail Gentian who lived a good thousand years in our future cloned herself a thousand times (and varied her traits or at least the different phenotypes sufficiently to produce visibly different people so it's not exactly cloning, especially since half the clones were male) and sent her "clones" out to explore the galaxy. The clones are called shatterlings because the original was "shattered" into a thousand pieces of herself. Other people from her era did this too and so there are multiple "Lines" roaming the galaxy, trading knowledge. So far, so good, mostly. There are also more normal humans that spread out and adapted themselves to the new planetary environments that they encountered.

The story trades POVs between two shatterlings, Purslane and Campion. Campion is a kind of ne'er do well and his antics make them both late for the planned reunion. Purslane puts up with him. Since this is a reunion after each Gentian shatterling finishes his or her circuit of the galaxy, being a few years late isn't normally a big deal, but they manage to be more than a few years late and arrive to find that the reunion has been attacked, devastating the Gentians. Cue space battles and a search to figure out who was responsible for the attack, who may have betrayed them, and why.

There were some very interesting facets to the book but I also experienced periods of boredom where I felt things weren't going anywhere. There were also long pauses for entering stasis because sixty-two thousand light year space chases. I'd say that overall I was entertained but not engrossed. YMMV.

Previous updates:

17 % - I feel like the Doctor Meninx storyline never really went anywhere

13 %

Death of first Kobo Aura One

4 %

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~BOOK BLURB~

Honor Among Thieves

Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre

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Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead of moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell.

Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead, Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.

Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.

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~MY QUICKIE REVIEW~

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Full disclosure:  In the beginning, I was totally into this but once she (Zara) started "bonding" with the spaceship (Alien Life-form), I became more interested in winning the games of Free-Cell I was playing (while listening to audio) than in actually comprehending what was going on in this story.  The "bonding" threw me off, it was like an odd sexual experience reminiscent of the 80's movie Cocoon. 

Freaky! 

From there, I'm not fully sure what went on in this…I believe there was a lot of action and more freaky bonding.  I just didn't connect with this, but clearly, there are many who have.

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~MY RATING~

☆3☆STARS - GRADE=C

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~BREAKDOWN OF RATINGS~

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Plot~ 3.5/5

Main Characters~ 3.7/5

Secondary Characters~ 3/5

The Feels~ 2/5

Pacing~ 3/5

Addictiveness~ 3/5

Theme or Tone~ 2/5

Flow (Writing Style)~ 4/5

Backdrop (World Building)~ 4/5

Originality~ 4/5

Ending~ 3/5 Cliffhanger~ ???

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Book Cover~ It's decent

Narration~☆4☆  -Adenrele Ojo…she was little too soothing. ☆3.7☆ -Adam Lazarre-White…was a little too easy to tune out.

Series~ The Honors #1

Setting~ New Detroit and Deep Space

Source~ Audiobook (Library)

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Once again Yang wins not loses by the grace of Reinhard.  This one doesn't feel as believable as the other ones, since it's more or less a Deus Ex Machina.

Though it does showcase how smart Mariendorf is in pulling it off.

We also get to see Julian on his own with the Terra-ists.

Doctor Meninx is wonderfully paranoid...or is he?