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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2151 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 6, 2025

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So, what are you reading?

I'm picking up With and Without Galton, an open access book on Vasilii Florinskii and Russian eugenics, or as the author calls it, 'eugamics' (ie. well-married), as distinguished from Galton's eugenics.

Contractor, by Bradley Buckmaster.

Cybernetically modified child shock trooper was abandoned by his government after the war, took to a life of nihilism and mercenary work, and now well into his fifties he takes a job that has him uncover the hidden history of the war that made him.

It's alright. Buckmaster hs a fairly unique style that's fun to read, and is almost completely unapologetical about the violence and the decidedly un-modern morality or lack thereof that fills his books. His world-building is fairly light, but his descriptions of combat and the technologies involved are probably the absolute best I've ever read (for what little I, an eternal civilian, know). At the same time the novel sometimes feels a little self-indulgent; and when you've read his other books, Brigador and Brigador Killers: Pilgrim, you notice a lot of re-cycled patterns. He describes the Contractor series as a writing exercise, so I suppose it must be forgiven. Then again, he subverts the expectations he sets up often enough to surprise this humble reader. It feels more predictable than it is, sometimes.

I'm not quite done with it, having a few chapters to go yet. It's fairly short overall. It's currently free on Kindle.

Edit: Finished it now. The ending is somewhat...out of scope? It's okay for Sci-Fi and I suppose the story has built up to it, but it has nothing to do with why anyone might read these particular books.

Recommended if you like boots-on-the-ground military sci-fi.

Sounds more experimental than anything but you've piqued my curiosity.

Be quick about it; I think the gratis period expires today or tomorrow.

I don't realistically have the time to get to it in the foreseeable future anyway but thanks.

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