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Unsong, a fantasy novel where the universe is programmable with Hebrew (2015)
- Khelavaster 5y agoBy Scott Alexander
- Banana699 5y agoTried adding it to the title but HN complains about it being too long. Thanks for adding it as a comment.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- perihelions 5y agoI think it's fine; anyone familiar with the author can probably infer it anyways from such a descriptive title.
- dmitriid 5y agoI quite enjoyed it (but I'm also a sucker for bad puns). I highly encourage to follow the links to all the references listed at the end of chapters. Some of the more silly, outrageous or wtf objects, names, events, descriptions don't even do justice to the insanity of real things.
- mvo 5y agoI enjoyed this a lot (best book in years for me). There is also an audio version available which is also really good. Thank you Scott Alexander! I found it unique in many ways and would love to hear if people know more similar books.
- x62Bh7948f 5y agoAll the birds in the sky, by Charlie Jane Anders, has similar themes and I found it very entertaining.
- filoeleven 5y agoI just learned of Unsong today and will be reading it. The premise though sounds similar to Foundryside, where objects can be “scribed” to change their behavior. A wheel could be told, “the force of gravity is always at a forward angle,” and it would roll forward on its own. It would also pick up speed and momentum and probably break something, so the scribing to get the desired behavior (a self-propelled controllable wheel) quickly becomes more complicated. That is book one of a trilogy, and the third book is not out yet, so be warned! It’s a great yarn so far though.
- Razengan 5y agoWorlds where “magic” is “programmable” just might be in The Matrix.
- x62Bh7948f 5y agoI enjoyed most of the book. Very interesting references about Judaism for those like me who have no idea.
- rutierut 5y agoI just finished this and as a big fan of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality I enjoyed this a lot as well. Anyone with an analytical/rational mindset will probably love both, even if you're normally not into fiction. Don't expect to be able to discuss it with anyone that hasn't read it - or something like it - though.
- werzum 5y agoHey, I am a big fan of HPMOR too, and can absolutely feel your pain of not being able to discuss the book with anyone. Do you have more books that went in a similar direction? I started reading the Eternal Golden Braid after, which was really good but dense, and for some light fantasy The Name of the Wind was an overall impressive book.
- Otter-man 5y agoThe two books I usually recommend for HPMOR fans are Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ https://parahumans.wordpress.com/) and The Mother Of Learning (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning) Both considered to be a part of "rational fiction" sub-genre the same as HPMoR.
- jack_pp 5y agoHPMOR is my all time favorite book, I've read it multiple times and I am still in awe of it. From the same genre I liked stuff from Alexander Wales, mainly The Metropolitan Man [1], The Dark Wizard of Donkerk [2] and, to a lesser extent, Worth the Candle which was just finished. While not really intended as rational fiction, Threadbare was a nice read too if you enjoy litRPG. [1] https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man [2] https://alexanderwales.com/the-dark-wizard-of-donkerk-chapter-1/ https://alexanderwales.com/the-dark-wizard-of-donkerk-chapte...
- brian_cloutier 5y agoSignificant Digits is a quite good sequel (by a different author): http://www.anarchyishyperbole.com/p/significant-digits.html http://www.anarchyishyperbole.com/p/significant-digits.html The Martian and, recently, Project Hail Mary, are written in a completely different style but manage to hit many of the same buttons.
- blue1 5y agoall good fiction deserves a dead tree version
- cauliflower2718 5y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/unsong/comments/fhoumv/new_readytoprint_version/ https://www.reddit.com/r/unsong/comments/fhoumv/new_readytop... Fortunately, you can make one fairly easily and cheaply!
- spxtr 5y agoI felt like this book was incredibly clever, but at times it felt like the pacing was infuriatingly slow. Especially near the start, it feels like there are too many chapters of world building per chapter of story. Still, thoroughly enjoyed it.
- sideshowb 5y agoI ended up skipping a lot of the Talmud related bits but thoroughly enjoyed the rest. As another commenter said it deserves to be printed, I suspect an editor would cut the length a bit.
- samatman 5y agoThis is the experience of reading a serial as though it's a novel. Some of us like that! I'll read Dickens and Dumas cover to cover, I even read Worm at a pretty steady pace. But I read Unsong as it was being published and it was great. I would eagerly look forward to the next chapter, and each one left me wanting more. I suggest that the next time you take on a serial, be it a modern web serial or one of the great serials of the Western canon (David Copperfield is excellent), slow your roll. Read a chapter a day, or a chapter a week. They have an inherently different pacing and if it's frustrating you, slow down.
- new299 5y agoThere's also an audiobook version, which I found pretty enjoyable (and generally well made considering it's free): https://unsong.libsyn.com https://unsong.libsyn.com I enjoyed all the interludes, the main plot seem mostly like a story on which to hang various ideas (but that might reflect my own limited ability to keep the whole story in my head).
- satori99 5y agoI just read chapter one, and it has intrigued me enough want to read the rest. It brought to mind the Aronofsky film Pi -- particularly this scene; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vi7043z6tI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vi7043z6tI
- mhd 5y agoReminds me of "Wizard's Bane" by Rick Cook, where a programmer is summoned into a fantasy world where the magic is highly volatile, and he tames it with Forth.
- blisterol 5y ago> A majestic golden eagle flew onto the Vatican balcony as Pope Paul VI was addressing the faithful. The bird gingerly removed the Pontiff’s glasses with its beak, then poked out his left eye before flying away with an awful shriek. This refers to Vatican II. Nostra Aetate. The action that removed the teeth of Christianity and spelled the beginning of the end of Western Civ. Jews now rule the West with hatred. Sorry, not sorry. The record is clear on this and anything to the contrary is gradeschool propaganda meant to deceive the foolish into believing that the aggressors are the victims. Time will tell, and it won't take much more time.
- endofreach 5y agoDidn‘t read it yet, but I certainly will. This was what i was thinking about when i read an introduction to the Kabbalah and about the hebrew letters. This book sounds very exciting. Thank you.
- rob74 5y agoHmmmmm... I have to say the title and the concept of "a universe programmable in some kind of special language" reminds me very much of a webcomic I follow (and wholeheartedly recommend), called Unsounded (https://unsoundedupdates.tumblr.com/ https://unsoundedupdates.tumblr.com/). It has the concept of "pymary" (http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php?title=Pymary http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php?title...), which can be used to "reprogram" reality (which to the uninitiated is indistinguishable from magic), and for that it uses a mysterious language called "Old Tainish". And before anyone raises that objection, from what I can see the comic is older than the novel by ~ 5 years. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, and both these works could be inspired by another source which I'm not aware of...
- tashbarg 5y agoUrsula K. LeGuin, Earthsea. From Wikipedia: One vital aspect of magic is that it is impossible to lie in the old language, so that magic works by forcing the universe to conform to the words spoken by the magician.
- savingsPossible 5y agoSo spells just accumulate? That is, if a mage says something general, all the rest of reality and other mages will just have to deal with it?
- tashbarg 5y agoDisclaimer: it's been a few decades since I read that. I may be completely wrong. It's not like you can simply say something universe-altering just because you know the right words. You still need the magical ability and if you're not powerful enough in that ability for what you want to say, you simply can't say it. But otherwise, if the mage is THAT powerful, then, yes, the rest of the universe has to deal with it.
- brian_cloutier 5y agoPart of the plot to HPMOR is exactly this: https://hpmor.fandom.com/wiki/Interdict_of_Merlin https://hpmor.fandom.com/wiki/Interdict_of_Merlin
- jonli91 5y agoSounds a bit like Snow Crash to me.
- Lio 5y agoThis is exactly what I thought! I love the idea that "consciousness" is a self replicating idea that we as humans have learned somewhere in our past and spread to each other like a virus. The idea that positive memes can improve the human race over time gives me hope for the future as an antidote distopia. :D
- edent 5y agoIs there a way to download the entire thing as an ePub?
- dmitriid 5y agoAvailable from several places: https://github.com/JasonGross/unsong_scraper https://github.com/JasonGross/unsong_scraper https://github.com/Wagk/Unsong-In-Ebook-Format/ https://github.com/Wagk/Unsong-In-Ebook-Format/ https://hiltonbooks.com/details/28589297-unsong.html https://hiltonbooks.com/details/28589297-unsong.html Can't remember which one I downloaded, but I guess they are all based on the scraper version
- edent 5y agoCheers mate!
- bencollier49 5y agoHow interesting. I'd like to know how heavily this is drawing on Qabalah. And a cursory glance gives the impression that the author is familiar with the Anglican tradition. I'd buy this if it was available in physical form. EDIT: References to RA Wilson on first click. Very interesting indeed.
- kragen 5y agoIt draws very heavily on Qabalah and the rest of Jewish mythology. I'm tempted to spoiler it, but let's just say if you're familiar with Jewish mythology you will have a lot of kneeslapper moments as you read through Unsong.
- AccountAccount1 5y agoThe book is amazing, but Scott Alexander having such a prodigious writing pace (he also kept writing his blog posts, and working full-time as a psychiatrist) hurts the final rendering of the book. It definitely needs some editing made and changes in the plot pace (MINOR SPOILER: the plot goes slows at first, and suddenly fast in the middle...) but definitely one of the best things I've ever read.
- AccountAccount1 5y agoAlso, he has written a lot of short story fiction like "The Study of Anglophysics," "it was you who made my blue eyes blue," etc...
- bencollier49 5y agoWait, this is the Slate Star Codex guy?
- jspiral 5y agoyes
- shezi 5y agoIf you liked this, you might also like "Friendship is optimal" (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/Friendship-is-Optimal https://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/Friendship-is-Optimal) And "the metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (https://web.archive.org/web/20040401174623/http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html https://web.archive.org/web/20040401174623/http://www.kuro5h..., strongly NSFW) Both are stories about a singularity that turns the world into a simulation, in which some can program the simulation.
- mnw21cam 5y agoThere's also "Ra" - https://qntm.org/ra https://qntm.org/ra
- throwaway81523 5y agoI haven't looked at this book yet but I did like HPMOR. In a different vein, "The God Proof" (a mystery novel revolving around Kurt Gödel's ontological proof of God's existence) was a fun read: https://jeffreykegler.github.io/personal/gp.html https://jeffreykegler.github.io/personal/gp.html
- MaurizioPz 5y agoThere's also the audiobook version https://unsong.libsyn.com/ https://unsong.libsyn.com/
- bitwize 5y agoThis dropped on hackernews literally the day after I discovered Grabovoy numbers, supposed "cheat codes" to the universe used by Law of Attraction types to enhance their putative manifestation powers. Grabovoy is an anti-Semite. None of this is a coincidence, because nothing is a coincidence.