Grand unified books thread

[Oexmelin]

Lev Bronstein, I believe. 

[jimmy olsen]

If there existed the universal mind, that projected itself into the scientific fancy of Laplace; a mind that would register simultaneously all the processes of nature and of society, that could measure the dynamics of their motion, that could forecast the results of their inter-reactions, such a mind, of course, could a priori draw up a faultless and an exhaustive economic plan, beginning with the number of hectares of wheat and down to the last button for a vest. In truth, the bureaucracy often conceives that just such a mind is at its disposal; that is why it so easily frees itself from the control of the market and of Soviet democracy. But, in reality, the bureaucracy errs frightfully in its appraisal of its spiritual resources. In its creativeness, it is obliged perforce, in actual performance, to defend upon the proportions (and with equal justice one may say, the disproportions) it has inherited from capitalist Russia: upon the data of the economic structure of contemporary capitalist nations; and finally, upon the experience of successes and mistakes of the Soviet economy itself. But even the most correct combination of all these elements will allow only of constructing a most imperfect wire skeleton of a plan, and not more.

The innumerable living participants of economy, State as well as private, collective as well as individual, must give notice of their needs and of their relative strength not only through the statistical determinations of plan commissions but by the direct pressure of supply and demand. The plan is checked and, to a considerable measure, realized through the market. The regulation of the market itself must depend upon the tendencies that are brought out through its medium. The blueprints produced by the offices must demonstrate their economic expediency through commercial calculation. The system of transitional economy is unthinkable without the control of the rouble. This presupposes, in its turn, that the rouble equals itself. Without a firm monetary unit, commercial accounting can only increase the chaos.

Fun game: guess the author.
No cheating!

Not a Sumerian! 

[Eddie Teach]

Lev Bronstein, I believe.

Showoff!

[grumbler]

Okay, here's a fun little literary mystery for you guys to ponder.

One of the free books I was shown with my free month of Kindle Unlimited was a book called Sister Sable by an author who used the pseudonym "T. Mintebank."   https://www.amazon.com/T.-Mountebank/e/B0135YDE7S%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share  It sounded like it was a steampunk book, which is a genre I tend to like, and it was free, so i got it and read it.

It was a very strange little book, with a very complex and incompletely-explained plot involving a modern alternate-world civilization much like ours, but which is dominated by a Church whose all-female (maybe - we only ever see a single male member) clergy plan to take over the state by having the King marry, in accordance with prophecy, the titular Sister Sable.  Lots of interesting plot twists ensue, well-written but asking all sorts of questions while answering few.

So, I decided to get the second book in the trilogy, Mother of Heroes.  SS was written in 2015, MoH in 2017, so maybe the series would soon be completed, I thought.

Mother of Heroes is a title listed at Goodreads, Librarything... and a whole bunch of web sites that do not, in fact, exist.  Amazon doesn't show it as a book either by itself or under the author listing.  There are no reviews of it, anywhere.  No cover pictures exist.  None of the sites listing it show a publisher.  It pretty clearly doesn't exist, though there are six members of Goodreads who have rated it.  None have reviewed it, even with a sentence.

It appears that the second book doesn't exist.  Given that the author chose a pseudonym that basically means "the fraud," and his/her Amazon profiles claims that "T. Mountebank is a world traveller, a rogue, a renegade, an optimist, a futurist, a fearless psychonaut, and a very bad pilot" with a clearly-phony author picture, the author doesn't intend this pseudonym to be taken seriously, and maybe that the whole book series is an elaborate practical joke.

But the author did go through the trouble of getting the first book published, and through the trouble of making organizations and fans think that there was a second book, and I don't understand why.  The first book has 70% 5-star ratings on Amazon (and they don't look phony) with an average rating from 616 reviews of 4.2/5, so clearly the potential was there to make some money with a sequel.  But, instead, we have a phony sequel and a mystery.

Can anyone think of a talented author in the genre that would spend their time on such a troll?

[Josephus]

Now that I have time, I'm starting to cull my bucket list of books. Now reading Don Quixote. Started off good, but it's simmering down a bit as I reach midway,

[Syt]

Can anyone think of a talented author in the genre that would spend their time on such a troll?

That is indeed mysterious, and off the top of my head I could think of a few possibilities:

The author died before publishing their book. They shared it with a few trusted people (hence the Goodreads reviews), but during the process of releasing the book they shuffled off the mortal coil.

The author decided not to release it, though they had progressed somewhat on the path. Maybe they got cold feet following an initial modest success, maybe they had a severe case of impostor syndrome. Since they're using a pen name, maybe their writing and their career/private life don't mix and they pulled the plug before or because their employer, family, or friends find/found out. Maybe they got through the process and someone pointed out a major flaw (real or imaginary) in book 1, book 2, or how both connect that left the author throwing it into the trash or reworking all of it.

And, the most mundane possibility: they just lost interest in the whole project and left it unfinished. Perhaps they realized that the series would be a lot longer than they originally planned. Which of course leaves the possibility that they might come back eventually.

[The Brain]

Now that I have time, I'm starting to cull my bucket list of books. Now reading Don Quixote. Started off good, but it's simmering down a bit as I reach midway,

They had Don Quixote in it?

[The Minsky Moment]

Re Sister Sable and series it does appear to be an elaborate literary prank.  The only other literary reference using the words "sister sable" I could find was a parody poem by Coleridge.  The goodreads page for Mother of Heroes has a comment I suspect came from the author: "Hi! I can't wait to read this book. I know it's being translated at the moment, so I ask: how can I find it in original language? And what language is it, by the way?"

[Syt]

Literary trivia: which two famous authors died on the day that John F. Kennedy was shot?

[Sheilbh]

Frost? Maybe that's too perfect.

Plath?

[Syt]

No and no.

[Eddie Teach]

[spoiler]Huxley and Lewis[/spoiler]   

[grumbler]

Re Sister Sable and series it does appear to be an elaborate literary prank.  The only other literary reference using the words "sister sable" I could find was a parody poem by Coleridge.  The goodreads page for Mother of Heroes has a comment I suspect came from the author: "Hi! I can't wait to read this book. I know it's being translated at the moment, so I ask: how can I find it in original language? And what language is it, by the way?"

Yes, and if you look at the comments to some Amazon reviews, the author is clearly having a piss.  The response to one perfectly ordinary 3-star review reads:

Hello. Thank you sincerely for your very fair review. It is accurate and balanced and is the most magnanimous style of critique any writer could hope to receive, and for that we [the translating editors of Sister Sable] would like to make contact. You have great potential as a creative editor. If you would, please, make contact through the email you'll find on the first page of Sister Sable. Time is unimportant, so absolutely anytime you'd like, even years later, please know we'd like to work with you. Thank you again for your clear and concise insight.

[Syt]

[spoiler]Huxley and Lewis[/spoiler]   

[Oexmelin]

Literary trivia: which two famous authors died on the day that John F. Kennedy was shot?

Shakespeare and Cervantes.