Another year of superb non-fiction books kept me supplied with plenty of fascinating reading. .. What Kind of Creatures Are We? .. Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs .. Keep Watching there Skies ..
A book about brain emulations, The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth by Robin Hanson (Oxford University) struggles without merit to deny obviously science fictional content, if not its groundbreaking approach to genre concerns of identity, immortality, and virtuality. Although as nonfiction it is cursed by a somewhat unreliable narrator, the assured depth of its varied speculative aspects - taking in post-scarcity economics, social philosophy, and political futurism - makes this contribution to genre scholarship an invaluable guide for fellow travelers on the roads to quasi-utopian states.
.. The Impossible Has Happened .. My six-of-the-best list concludes with Spaceships ..