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Homophobic

Revisado: 08-06-24

Over and over, I find myself getting lulled into enjoying this series, only to get startled by some seriously regressive anti-gay jokes. I get that the author clearly has conservative leanings--the previous book's anti-academic story arc made that clear enough--but enough already!

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Absolutely disastrous

Revisado: 05-16-24

In the Audiobook version of "The Kaggle Book," the narrator, Alex Freeman, consistently pronounces "Kaggle" KAY-guhl, like "kegel." The word "kaggle" is used in almost every sentence, sometimes more than once per sentence.

Kaggle (KAH-gul) is a data science platform. Kegel (KAY-guhl) is a pelvic floor exercise. Astonishingly, he does this even in the sentence where he says that the name was chosen to rhyme with "gaggle."

I contacted Packt to see if they could provide an explanation, but I couldn't get passed their GPT-generated form letters. All in all, a shameful adaptation to audiobook, and a bad sign for any Packt books I might see on Audible in the future.

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Just painful

Revisado: 07-12-23

This book consists of watching a capable, hard-working, brilliant man get repeatedly shafted behind his back, often by people who are knowingly exploiting him. I put it down and came back several times. Finally, after one particularly infuriating betrayal, I resolved to put it down for good. Who wants to spend their time thinking that you can be exactly the right person, and yet everyone will just keep messing you up, sometimes for no good reason?

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A dangerously selective reading of biology

Revisado: 11-24-22

The idea that it eating whatever you want is in your best interest is obviously a very appealing concept. To support it, the author turns to the biological starvation response. Conveniently, she overlooks the evolutionary novelty of abundant calories and highly concentrated sources of simple carbohydrates and sodium. Contrary to the author’s claims, our body does NOT know what it’s doing when it comes to these. Use this “diet” at your own peril.

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Great framework, but irrelevant politics drift in

Revisado: 09-23-22

I really like the IFS framework. After learning about the related Structural Dissociation model, I decided to learn more about IFS. I was eagerly listening for the first couple of chapters, although I found myself cringing at some of the tortured links to ecology and dynamical systems. (I have a PhD in theoretical evolutionary biology.) But when the author began proclaiming that healthy integration with parts will lead me to become an environmental and social justice activist, I had to return it.

Don't get me wrong; I am politically aligned with the author. But this book is claiming to provide a framework for understanding and treating trauma. This is an empirical claim: the framework is, or is not, sufficient to understand and address traumatic damage to the psyche and consequent behavior. Metaphors to science that Schwartz doesn't understand is one thing. Claiming, entirely without appeal to evidence, that healing will lead to liberalism, is absurd.

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Great framework, but irrelevant politics drift in

Revisado: 09-23-22

I really like the IFS framework. After learning about the related Structural Dissociation model, I decided to learn more about IFS. I was eagerly listening for the first couple of chapters, although I found myself cringing at some of the tortured links to ecology and dynamical systems. (I have a PhD in theoretical evolutionary biology.) But when the author began proclaiming that healthy integration with parts will lead me to become an environmental and social justice activist, I had to return it.

Don't get me wrong; I am politically aligned with the author. But this book is claiming to provide a framework for understanding and treating trauma. This is an empirical claim: the framework is, or is not, sufficient to understand and address traumatic damage to the psyche and consequent behavior. Metaphors to science that Schwartz doesn't understand is one thing. Claiming, entirely without appeal to evidence, that healing will lead to liberalism, is absurd.

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Enjoyable, but implausible behavior

Revisado: 06-09-22

LitRPG books obviously require a generous suspension of disbelief. But there is still the basic assumption that the characters will behave in an understandable way given their totally ridiculous circumstances. I found that to be entirely untrue in this book, both with regards to the main character and all of the secondary characters. Without giving any spoilers, I just kept finding myself thinking, “it doesn’t make sense that [character] would do/say/think that.” I enjoyed it, but that aspect was repeatedly jarring.

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Waited for months — didn’t disappoint

Revisado: 05-27-22

Even my five year old knew that Daddy was waiting for the next “lava lama” book. I woke up this morning at 5am so I could have some time to listen before my family woke up. It didn’t disappoint. This series is probably my favorite ever, and I’ve read a lot of books. I just wish I could find something I liked 50% as much for the time in between volumes.

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Waited for months — didn’t disappoint

Revisado: 05-27-22

Even my five year old knew that Daddy was waiting for the next “lava lama” book. I woke up this morning at 5am so I could have some time to listen before my family woke up. It didn’t disappoint. This series is probably my favorite ever, and I’ve read a lot of books. I just wish I could find something I liked 50% as much for the time in between volumes.

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Not going to win any literary awards

Revisado: 05-05-22

I recently read that this series is approaching 500,000 words. I wonder how many of those words are “Lex’s golden eyes.” I get it. Her eyes are gold. Also, she is “the woman he loves” and “the love of his life, and Haley has “thin lips” and her father looks like an owl.

I like the story, I really do. I might even listen to the next one. But the eighth-grade intimacy and the grinding repetition of phrases really makes my cringe.

Yes, Greek epics use the same phrase to describe the same thing over and over. That’s because they weren’t written down and orators had to memorize them. The tower may be madness, but this isn’t Sparta.

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