Delphi Nation (Delphi in Space #4) (2024)

Rating: minus 5

I am revising the review for better organization, clarity and to meet the demand of certain libertarian, NeoNazi and other white nationalist fans of mine for more intellectual rigour and improved writing quality in my reviews. It was strange that these members are unable to write reviews but do manage their little offensive comments. It is also odd that they are more concerned with my writing than that of their favourite rubbish books. I am responding to this popular demand, besides I aim to misbehave.

Before performing this important task, I will visit YouTube in order to clear the mind.
This review was made possible by Doctor Who/They Break My Heart -RecklessGirl100, Red Glasgow, Marx Engels Lenin Institute, ScaredKetchup, LuckyBlackCat, Northern Narrowboaters, Kazachka, Dr Tamitha Skov, Dark Brandon, Tale Foundry, BabyMetal, Templin Institute, Don't F@ck with Ukraine, Viva La Dirt League, Riverboat Jack, Ben and Emily, Wayward Winchester, Jed Herne, Interior Design Hub, Battle Order, Annie's Literary Empire, ThePrimeChronus, It's Black Friday, Kyiv Independent, Think That Through, Andrewism, Simon Clark, Alexia Evellyn, Kirkpattiecake, The Confused Adipose, Louise DeMasi, The Historian's Craft, Dr Fatima, Owen Jones, Raw News and Politics, ATP Geopolitics, Fit 2B Read, Fun Size Reader, Mynameismarines, British Museum, Fall of Civilisations, Fundie Fridays, Keffals, Mrs Betty Bowers, Real Time History, Gutsick Gibbon, Roads with Beau, Trae Crowder, AllShorts, Ukraine Calling, Silicon Curtain, AuroraTrek, SciFi Odyssey, Media Death Cult, Cecilia Blomdahl, Fundie Fridays, Keffals, It's Black Friday, BobbyBroccoli, MechWest. Smack the Pony, Ryan Mcbeth, Zoe Bee.

One of my fans while insulting an essayist whom I reference complained to her that I list too many trans female creators. I accepted two realizations. The first is the awesome lack of self-awareness of American males. The second is that a Trigger Warning is warranted. I list channels created by bi, PhD, anarchist, straight, cis, subject expert, gay, trans, hobbyist, and other females or as I think of them Women. Not content with that outrage I also list channels which while not as threatening as the above, may cause psychological harm. These include socialist, other LGBTQ+, redhead, POC, activists and Gingers or as I think of them Human Beings. If still unable to challenge the voices in your head, I suggest a therapist, a new hobby, pastoral counselling or a Catholic exorcism. My conscience is salved.

This book has a few interesting ideas (about technology and science) but it is at best a story outline for a teen space adventure. It is also one of the usual substandard libertarian space fantasies. These fantasies all retell one of four or five stories.

The summary of all books in this particular thread, reads as follows. A small working class family or friend group or individual is poised to become the next wealthiest human in the solar system. If the main characters are lower middle class they are not privately educated nor connected to or possess great wealth. They are always surprisingly financially comfortable and of course, brilliant and self-taught.

The main characters are always heterosexual, cis-male/female and always white (within limited parameters) American with the traditional English surname, though for diversity these surnames sometimes include a Scottish, Welsh or Irish named secondary character. Within the first ten pages, it is established that what seed capital exists was accumulated by the main character with No assistance through their own hard work, etc. So libertarian fantasy.

The main character is usually adult male for certain values of adult. They will exhibit an undeserved self-satisfaction, an arrogance worthy of a hedge fund manager and limited social skills presented as befitting his obvious superiority. The main character as female will be so emotionally stunted as to be a description of a point on the autism spectrum. Despite being the female sociopath, she will magically be executing the best interest (taking direction from) of her male equivalent. The new trend was to introduce them as main character, while they perform nothing of importance in the story. Their real purpose is to be sultry/hypersexual of limited intelligence and deliver the brutal simplistic, insane governmental decisions beloved of libertarians. These female characters are sometimes part of a harem who adore their partner/master and are the models for the cover art. Catsuits and go-go boots are the preferred space gear as opposed to a spacesuit. It is very 1950's retro.

A more recent development has been the creation of the main character as a teen, more than likely a girl. The teen boy is always a supercharged maniac, expert in all things without prior training. He is usually an arrogant sociopath in training, identical to his adult counterpart. This is a print version of the first person shooter avatars from various games. The games can be fun but the justification for the game situation is almost never logical or plausible or sane. The game societies are based on overtly sad principles posing as a reflection of the present as future. This hero is designed to appeal to the 35+ year old gamer with an imagining of what his future should be in a more equitable (in their minds) society. Leaving it as a game trope is great but seeking this reinforcement in print is a sign of a predilection towards the ultra-nationalist, the antisocial or the fascist. My fanboys would hate this paragraph but I've yet to have a commenter deny its truth, which should be concerning to the rest of us.

The female teen version is even more frightening. These are the sweet heroine beset by all manner of nefarious actors, oligarchs and the evil government. Until her personality is defined as arrogant, self-absorbed and narcissistic enough to embarrass a Hollywood mean girl villain. This will include her contempt for her "Betters" prior to replacing them and even more contempt for her class fellows, if they offer her no advantage. Occasionally some other deserving working class characters of the third or fourth level of relevance will step into the story to contrivance away a plot hole and then are promptly forgotten, never to be mentioned again. Her contempt for the poor, who unlike herself are not deserving will receive a chapter or two and suddenly the term "mudball Earth" will be introduced.

A favourite term of the street thug libertarian is "Mud People", which sounds very white nationalist or Nazi. The French National Front have finally followed Steve Bannon's exhortation to embrace the label racist. Their program for saving the country (Make France Great Again) is not racist for racism sake but now is presented as a necessary purge of non-whites, citizen or not. They claim to be libertarians, who claim that these not '"real" French persons are the cause of all the country's problems. Problematic language solved. Britain has fallen to Farage and now Nazi patriots are burning London with no idea why that are rioting and looting but are draped in George's Flags. Starmer will use the excuse of these marauding thugs to increase police violence, the street patriots will spend time in prison and promptly be abandoned by the Lee Anderson, Farage and others having served their purpose

Libertarians seem to have a serious distaste for the poor, especially People of colour but to include the others who consort with the subhuman. If that reminds you of something ugly, which you are unable to identify, please allow me to help. That is Nazi fundamental doctrine from 1930's Germany to Russia's treatment of their Almost-Russian, Asian Almost-citizens to the USA nuanced application of state violence, denial of their limited social welfare to POC, LGBTQ and others. Neoliberal policies are again ushering in Fascism. I have no wish to overlook Britain's strides in openly moving to surpass even the USA in both libertarian brutality and reintroduction of the concept of non-British (subhuman) citizens into polite discourse. Farage has saved the kingdom. God save the King! "Full human dignity for me, subhuman status for thee", is the libertarian creed, after all.

Lastly, the main character will have by book's end defeated the evil government, supplanted the evil government with a Good libertarian oligarchy. The world building is weak and the political environment is bog standard libertarian fantasy. The teenager as designer, test pilot, project manager, etc is wrong on so many levels that it barely works for the preteen audience. I doubt that any normal adult needs more comment about that element of the book. Though as I glance at the rating, I am concerned.

The fantasy begins with the dream that any average family will develop the next big invention, make the next big discovery or develop the next new technology. With this they are destined to become the wealthiest of all billionaires and seize direct control of the evil government or supplant them. Of course, the main characters are a tediously moral, brilliant, attractive and charming lower middle or working class group. This is not even possible, plausible or healthy as a societal model.

There is never a successful attempt to simply seize the product/device/discovery by an evil corporation. A Chevron connected judge appointed Chevron's legal staff as federal prosecutors against an attorney, Donziger, who won a 9.5 billion dollar judgement against Chevron for poisoning the water and land of Amazonian natives for years. This was such a travesty, actual federal prosecutors refused to pursue the case against this environmental attorney. This is one of hundreds of cases of large corporations willing to spend hundreds of millions from spite. You might also think on the small number of months of profits, which would be required by Chevron to pay the settlement. A small delayed cost for decades of cancer deaths, still births and other damages because it was cheaper to dump deadly chemicals into the Amazon than to responsibly dispose of them.

Always in these books, the struggle is for our plucky heroes to prevent the government from "taking their stuff" because corporations are never evil. These books are political rants illustrating the evil of the wealthy having to pay any taxes. The working person must and so they should, since the wealthy have done their part by becoming wealthy. "The strong do as they will, the weak suffer what they must." The Greeks and Libertarians seem to share a certain social appreciation.

I do not blame my working class fellows for the crafting of that narrative, since we did not. When they choose to blame people of colour for on occasion having an almost equal status, women having agency, the LGBTQ minority, any other marginalized segment for even existing and argue that the wealthy are being unfairly taxed, that IS their responsibility. They choose not to understand or accept their place in the capitalist social hierarchy.They chose the easy answers provided by the same source that pushed the narrative that tells them that the wealthy are not responsible but those other undeserving poor preventing the thug's achieving their dreams of becoming the next billionaire.

Sociopathy is the label for that surrender of any pretence of critical thought. Since the writer's purpose (as do all writers of libertarian drivel) is to reinforce that insane view of reality, he needn't create actual characters. The interactions and dialogue follow the same juvenile path. The plot isn't but in its place are a series of somewhat connected scenes of the victories of our heroes. This is a standard storyline for low-end US science fiction print. I admit to prefer watching science fiction at the moment. The streaming services, YouTube channels DUST, Omeleto and others provide better stories and far better writing generally.

I was unfamiliar with YouTube until a little more than two years ago, when I began searching for decent science fiction. I was stunned by the number of special interest channels and am still impressed. I found essayist and educational channels which was a welcome surprise but finally stumbled upon the book channels which were wonderful. 😍 They foster communities of readers who are thoughtful, curious and love all things bookish. I recommend a visit to several book channels for any reader and have listed some above and below. Nebula and the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction are very good sites for science fiction recommendations.

About Goodreads discourse, it is non existent. About three years ago I wrote a six or seven sentence review of Powers of the Earth, a pathetic, juvenile salute to the sociopathic January 6, 2021 hero by Travis Corcoran. He self-described as veteran, proud libertarian and advocate for the return of chattel slavery to the USA, an admirer of Putin's Russia and employee of an unnamed US. He was somewhat upset that I thought glorifying the overthrow of the US government with the aid of the military while common in Kindle's selections was both unhealthy and dangerous. He and six or seven friends spent months and pages attempting to force me to engage those barely human animals. The final comment was from Claes Rees Jr aka cgr710 now ka Clayton R Jesse Jr wrote a gleeful comment that They had "won" (?).

They had launched a year long+ tsunami of vile comments sexual, racist and anti-LGBTQ comments against channels which I listed. The physicists, hobbyists, essayists and the many other female creators were neither silenced nor impressed. The world's overabundance of unpleasantness was successfully increased and an eerily accurate self-portrait of the vicious, mental American man-child in full outrage was delivered to a multinational audience. Goodreads, Yay?? USA, Yay??

My YouTube picks of the moment.
Verilybitchie, Because Science, Hailey in Bookland, Red Wrench Films, Red Plateaus, J Draper, Dark Docs, Tom Nicholas, Mia Mulder, Real Engineering, Bernadette Banner, Potential History, Peter Coulson, Lily Simpson Harbo Wholmes.

As for Amazon, please consider treating this as a potentially hostile site. 🤔

Ominous music begins. 😊 I visited one example of Goodreads discourse above. For a more detailed account of that almost year long ordeal and other incidents see my review of Powers of the Earth. These little comment clouds can be found by scanning one star reviews of Goodreads science fiction titles. They tend to vary between three and six, though I have seen larger. They are personal, ugly, never direct attention to elements of a book that a commenter thought done well and I have Never found a review by a commenter.

Before my review of Powers, I had seen Goodreads modifications to my pages but after any attempt by site employees at stealth went by the wayside. My access to others' reviews are almost all Blocked, the automatic shift from end of book to the Rate and Review page had been disabled, I was not Allowed to unfriend my last lurkers, my ability to upload to Goodreads had been regularly Blocked for days at a time, all Kindle services have been interrupted for several days at a stretch with no explanation, my sparse message history was given to these members with Claes Rees Jr or Corcoran managing to involve Australian security as a favour apparently through Pine Gap Intelligence Centre in attempting to discover my personal information. I discovered the last when contacted by my Australian friend, who feared for my safety and there were other actions of harassment.

You may find the above normal, sane or justified because of my opinions. If so, ignore the following. I would make a suggestion. Consider minimizing profile information, removing lurkers,Deerstalker (they are monitors not admirers), avoiding Goodreads messaging and screenshotting the odd and the ugly given the Goodreads penchant for altering reader's pages. Avoid Kindle Files, Email, Contacts or Calendar. That information is a very dangerous vulnerability. It might also be helpful to bear in mind that the techs you query are the same who take the above actions with little fear of consequences and that both these mental members and techs alike are Americans. Ominous music ends. 😊

May we all enjoy Good Reading! 🤗

Some favourite YouTube channels. Note that I am unsure of basic terms (Chad, clapping, slapping or until a month ago "shipping") and so am not the best source for channel recommendations but I do like these.

LuckyBlackCat, Well Deck Diaries, Tom Nicholas, Artur Rehi, Cruising Crafts, Some More News, Kavernacle, Munecat, Travelling K, Verilybitchie, Sarah Z, Munecat, 2Cellos, DUST, Owen Jones, Forgotten History, Novara Media, Weir on the Move, Harbo Wholmes, Philosophie the Widebeam, Philosophy Tube, Red Plateaus, Engineering with Rosie, Atun Shei Films, Abney Park, AI the Sciencephile, SideProjects, Beautifully Bookish Bethany, Alt Shift X, It's Black Friday, NerdForge, The Templin Institute, Roomies Digest, Kings and Generals, Vlad Vexler, Steve Shives, Renegade Cut, J Draper, Prime of Midlife, Historical Fashion, Rowan J Coleman, DW News, Brittany the Bibliophile, Red Plateaus, The Book Leo, The Present Past, Sarah Millican, Spacedock, Thirdworld Booknerd, Mrs Betty Bowers, TrekYards, The Who Addicts, Knowing Better, Lily Alexandre, Then & Now, Kazachka, SciFi Odyssey, The Juice Media, Randy Rainbow, Kathy's Flog in France, Danni and Joe, Bobbing Along, Lady knight the Brave, Brandon F, Dan Davis History, Crecganford, Malinda, With Olivia, Lilly's expat life, What Vivi did next, Abby Cox, Jean's Thoughts, Narrowboat Pirate, AlysOtherLife, The Shades of Orange, Karolina Zebrowska, Snappy Dragon, OrangeRiver, We're in Hell, Adult Wednesday Addams - 2 seasons, Mia Mulder, Eleanor Morton, Mandy, Nini Music, Fantasy and World Music by the Fletchers, May, Elina Charatsidou, Dinsart, Truth to Power, BensBoatBramble, RobWords, Military History Visualized, Historia Civilis, Chloe Stafler, Art Deco, Kalaripayattu, Radio Retrofuture, Matriarchetype, Fantasy and World Music by the Fletchers, The Physics Girl, Jessie Gender, Holly the Cafe Boat, Jake Broe, WION, Lady of the Library, May, Hello Future Me, Michael Lambert, Mia Asano, The Science of Science Fiction, Michael Siegel, Book Furnace, A Day of Small Things, Lily Simpson, Dominic Noble.

I wish you a good morning, a great afternoon, a pleasant evening, a splendid night and may we all continue learning.

When Another speaks for you without challenge, you adopt the Other's sins.
My Grandmother