To what extent do the books that come down to us from long ago do so because they are exceptional and there have been deliberate efforts to preserve them throughout the ages, and to what extent are they books that, by accident or happenstance, have happened to survive into the present?
TENGs in Space
Years ago, I shared an article about triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), and I suggested I might follow up with more detail someday. Since then, I launched one on a rocket.
History of the Peloponnesian War Review
The Peloponnesian War was a world war, drawing in all the Greek polities through a network of alliances, and, over twenty-seven years, involving diverse foreign powers, from Persia, to Egypt, to Italy, and even parts of Europe. To the Greeks, that was the world, and for twenty-seven years the world warred.
Nature Writing
In a more recent book, you are more likely to find a stand of trees, or maybe a stand of pine trees, while in an older book, you are more likely to be shown a stand of blue spruces.
Hume’s Essays Review
To say that Hume’s essays are not worth reading would be untrue. There is a reason that they endure, and, as is evident from this review, there are insights to be gained. Perhaps it is unfair of me to compare a collection of essays to some of the most influential works of political thought in the past thousand years.
Impressions Map
I somehow wrote almost all of Impressions, which features a significant amount of travel for Raven, and lots of luxuriating in the worldbuilding, without even a sketch of a map. Only when my writing group began going through the story did I think to rectify the story’s tardy cartographic situation.
New Spring Review
It is Jordan at probably the height of his powers, managing with skill and finesse a task that stumps other skilled authors.
Diagrams in Storytelling
I want to consider what the best way, from a storytelling perspective, is to convey this information to my readers. A diagram or solar system map might work, but it isn’t all that elegant.
Philip and Alexander Review
I could have read about Alexander the Great from one of the many historical sources who wrote about him, either contemporaneous with his campaigns, or within a few centuries, but such ancient works tend not to capture what I hoped to find in Philip and Alexander: an exploration of both kings’ reigns, and how the one informed the other.
Ideal Realism
Rather than grittiness, I see realism in how long it takes to walk from point A to point B, or in the equipment and technologies to which the characters have access and can carry, or the odds that they can reasonably face.
IGC Publishing 