I have been amiss in keeping up to date my reading list. I have finished several books since my last two posts on the subject[1, 2]. I've read considerably more since then.
First off, let me address something quick. Homeward Bound just plain sucks. Don't buy it, even if you want to finish the series like I did. I enjoyed the first trilogy. Not from any PoV of rigorous AH, but as a fun romp through mil-SF. HB was just plain horrible. *sighs* I had hopes after Ruled Britannia that HT would improve again, but, alas, no.
Siberian Curse was much better. Unfortunately, I have a few disadvantages there. I Am Not An Economist. There are points there that from the discussion on ahf that I spawned that it might be a little (or more than a little) out of my league to really discuss it other than read. The discussion of one of the models from the book was really good and informative though. I do have to wonder how much TPC really is a valid economic measure or not. The same issues could have been pointed out about having too high of a TPC and a heat tax as you could about too low and a cold tax.
Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs was pretty good as well. I have to say that I am a bit disappointed that the era that I am interested in is not really covered that well. it might be that we are simply not knowledgable about the period between the Olmecs and the Classic Civlizations, but...alas...it is where I am most interested for writing purposes.
Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath was a very good book. It was technical and had a heavy bias towards oceanic data, but it was fun and interesitng. I was intending on doing a long and detailed post on it here today, but I seem to have left it at home, so that's a no go for now.
The Olmecs: America's First Civilization was a nice, but light read. It did give me the one most important aspect out of it all. That is that the Olmecs are not the civilization I am looking for. Alas. They effectively ended around 500 BC according to current understandings of their civilization. There is the so-called Epi-Olmec civ that would be of the right time period, but it was only lightly covered.
Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities : The Causes of Mass Extinctions I just started. It's a condensed and updated version of Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath in that it covers a lot of the same territory if in less detail and is more up to date (2004 vs 1997 for publication date) and it has one of the first book's authors. It looks promising. We'll see.
After that I think I'll be reading Chavin: And the Origins of the Andean Civilization. It looks like its a light read though. We'll see.
First off, let me address something quick. Homeward Bound just plain sucks. Don't buy it, even if you want to finish the series like I did. I enjoyed the first trilogy. Not from any PoV of rigorous AH, but as a fun romp through mil-SF. HB was just plain horrible. *sighs* I had hopes after Ruled Britannia that HT would improve again, but, alas, no.
Siberian Curse was much better. Unfortunately, I have a few disadvantages there. I Am Not An Economist. There are points there that from the discussion on ahf that I spawned that it might be a little (or more than a little) out of my league to really discuss it other than read. The discussion of one of the models from the book was really good and informative though. I do have to wonder how much TPC really is a valid economic measure or not. The same issues could have been pointed out about having too high of a TPC and a heat tax as you could about too low and a cold tax.
Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs was pretty good as well. I have to say that I am a bit disappointed that the era that I am interested in is not really covered that well. it might be that we are simply not knowledgable about the period between the Olmecs and the Classic Civlizations, but...alas...it is where I am most interested for writing purposes.
Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath was a very good book. It was technical and had a heavy bias towards oceanic data, but it was fun and interesitng. I was intending on doing a long and detailed post on it here today, but I seem to have left it at home, so that's a no go for now.
The Olmecs: America's First Civilization was a nice, but light read. It did give me the one most important aspect out of it all. That is that the Olmecs are not the civilization I am looking for. Alas. They effectively ended around 500 BC according to current understandings of their civilization. There is the so-called Epi-Olmec civ that would be of the right time period, but it was only lightly covered.
Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities : The Causes of Mass Extinctions I just started. It's a condensed and updated version of Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath in that it covers a lot of the same territory if in less detail and is more up to date (2004 vs 1997 for publication date) and it has one of the first book's authors. It looks promising. We'll see.
After that I think I'll be reading Chavin: And the Origins of the Andean Civilization. It looks like its a light read though. We'll see.
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