Mini review: Lustrum – the audiobook

To kill a Consul.

To commit treason against the state.

To take control of the most powerful city in the world.

The most heinous crimes.

Planned and carried out by those entrusted to run the Republic?

Following on from Imperium, this book covers the five years that include Cicero’s year as Consul and the subsequent events.

If Caesar was emerging from the shadows before, he is front and foremost here.  He dominates the second half of the book.   He is breaking all the rules in his desire for ultimate power.

But Caesar is not the only threat to Cicero…

Less politics, more action – a great thriller, constantly surging forward.

How long will we have to wait for the final part of the trilogy?

R.I.P Clarence Clemons

 

I’ll never forget hearing you play Jungleland live – I closed my eyes, everything else seemed to go quiet, and it was note perfect.  Stunning.

Rest in Peace, Big Man…

Mini review: Imperium – the audiobook

Ambition.  The quest for personal stature, riches and influence.  A calculated bid for power.

Alliances, manoeuvres, counter-manoeuvres.  The repercussions of a war on terror.

And Caesar emerging from the shadows…

The author of the stunning Pompeii breathes life into Roman politics – well realised and well performed.

What Nature Wants

I’ve started reading Kevin Kelly’s “What Technology Wants”, and it seems to me (although I may be jumping the gun somewhat) that one issue that he faces is explaining how and invisible force can have a “want”.

Recently, I’ve had the chance to see a newborn baby being breastfed and I’m starting to understand (I believe) what Kelly is saying.  A baby, despite all the things that it cannot do, has the ability to suck to a remarkably powerful degree.  Highly impressive.  Obviously, this is so that it can feed from its mother.

In addition, there is the relationship between mother and baby when it is being breastfed – a mother can feel discomfort when she produces milk but the baby does not feed.  This is one of the ultimate mutually beneficial gestures.

So it seems that nature – the greatest invisible force? – is providing the necessary conditions and skills to give a baby the best chance of a healthy start to life.  Nature “wants” life to continue, and it has done since before the human race existed.  Indeed, it has done since life began – whatever form it has taken.

If nature can “want” in that sense, why can’t technology?