Russ Allbery
Long-time Debian developer and free-software maintainer (remctl, INN, pam-krb5) who has published book reviews on his personal site since the 1990s.
Russ Allbery did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
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What they believe
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Large-scale institutional trust requires multiple major competing players rather than a single monopolistic controller, even in near-monopoly industries.
This is not how institutional trust generally works; even with vast multinational high-capital near-monopolies such as cloud computing, there are three major players and innumerable smaller ones.
eyrie.orgSaid 2 Sept 2026This on korrents
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It is not easy to change the direction of a political system, and idealistic reform plans usually do not work out as neatly as hoped.
it is not this easy to change the direction of a political system and idealistic plans usually do not work out this neatly
eyrie.orgSaid 31 Aug 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
14 October
11 October
27 September
10 September
4 September
2 September
From one piece Review: Too Like the Lightning 3 beliefs · eyrie.org
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Their words
a strangeness that we paper over in histories and modern reinterpretations.
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Their words
The only people who believe in controlling cabals this small are conspiracy theorists.
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Their words
This is not how institutional trust generally works; even with vast multinational high-capital near-monopolies such as cloud computing, there are three major players and innumerable smaller ones.
1 September
31 August
From one piece Review: The Hands of the Emperor 2 beliefs · eyrie.org
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Their words
Absolute monarchy lets you enact a political agenda without having to do the hard and frustrating work of persuasion or political (or actual) warfare.
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Their words
it is not this easy to change the direction of a political system and idealistic plans usually do not work out this neatly
16 August
1 August
31 July
30 July
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 5 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Large-scale institutional trust requires multiple major competing players rather than a single monopolistic controller, even in near-monopoly industries.
This is not how institutional trust generally works; even with vast multinational high-capital near-monopolies such as cloud computing, there are three major players and innumerable smaller ones.
Review: Too Like the Lightning Said 2 Sept 2026
Believing that a small, tightly controlling cabal secretly runs a complex system of power is characteristic of conspiracy theorizing, not realistic analysis.
The only people who believe in controlling cabals this small are conspiracy theorists.
Review: Too Like the Lightning Said 2 Sept 2026
Modern histories and reinterpretations of past cultures tend to minimize just how genuinely strange those cultures would feel if experienced directly.
a strangeness that we paper over in histories and modern reinterpretations.
Review: Too Like the Lightning Said 2 Sept 2026
Show 2 more
It is not easy to change the direction of a political system, and idealistic reform plans usually do not work out as neatly as hoped.
it is not this easy to change the direction of a political system and idealistic plans usually do not work out this neatly
Review: The Hands of the Emperor Said 31 Aug 2026
Giving a story's political reformers an absolute monarch to work through lets them skip the hard, frustrating work of persuasion or political conflict.
Absolute monarchy lets you enact a political agenda without having to do the hard and frustrating work of persuasion or political (or actual) warfare.
Review: The Hands of the Emperor Said 31 Aug 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 10 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Loved Ghostdrift
I also finished Suzanne Palmer's excellent Finder Chronicles series, reading The Scavenger Door and Ghostdrift. This series is some of the best science fiction I've read in a long time and I'm sad it is over (at least for now).
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Loved The Scavenger Door
I also finished Suzanne Palmer's excellent Finder Chronicles series, reading The Scavenger Door and Ghostdrift. This series is some of the best science fiction I've read in a long time and I'm sad it is over (at least for now).
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Loved Politics on the Edge
The stand-out non-fiction book of the year was Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge. I have a lot of disagreements with Stewart's political positions (the more I listen to him, the more disagreements I find), but he is an excellent memoirist who skewers the banality, superficiality, and contempt for competence that has become so prevailing in centrist and right-wing politics. It's hard not to read this book and despair of electoralism and the current structures of governments, but it's bracing to know that even some people I disagree with believe in the value of expertise.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Show 7 more
Loved This Brutal Moon
The best book I read this year was also the last book I reviewed (and yes, I snuck the review under the wire for that reason): Bethany Jacobs's This Brutal Moon, the conclusion of the Kindom Trilogy that started with These Burning Stars. I thought the first two books of the series were interesting but flawed, but the conclusion blew me away and improved the entire trilogy in retrospect. Like all books I rate 10 out of 10, I'm sure a large part of my reaction is idiosyncratic, but two friends of mine also loved the conclusion so it's not just me.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Liked Number Go Up
I didn't read much non-fiction this year, but the best of what I did read was Zeke Faux's Number Go Up about the cryptocurrency bubble. This book will not change anyone's mind, but it's a readable and entertaining summary of some of the more obvious cryptocurrency scams. I also had enough quibbles with it to write an extended review, which is a compliment of sorts.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Loved The Book That Wouldn't Burn
The best book I read last year was Mark Lawrence's The Book That Wouldn't Burn, which much to my surprise did not make a single award list for its publication year of 2023. It was a tour de force of world-building that surprised me multiple times.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Loved I Shall Wear Midnight
I Shall Wear Midnight was the best of the remaining Pratchett novels. It's the penultimate Tiffany Aching book and, in my opinion, the best. All of the elements of the previous books come together in snarky competence porn that was a delight to read.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Loved Iris Kelly Doesn't Date
My favorite books I read this year were Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls sapphic romance trilogy: Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. These are not perfect books, but they made me laugh, made me cry, and were impossible to put down.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Loved Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail
My favorite books I read this year were Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls sapphic romance trilogy: Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. These are not perfect books, but they made me laugh, made me cry, and were impossible to put down.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Loved Delilah Green Doesn't Care
My favorite books I read this year were Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls sapphic romance trilogy: Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. These are not perfect books, but they made me laugh, made me cry, and were impossible to put down.
eyrie.org 1 Jan 2026
Where they publish
Site eyrie.org/~eagle His personal site: software, Debian work and a book-review archive going back to the 1990s.
Recent
- Review: Ties That Bond in Gretna Green 14 Oct 2026 Review of Ties That Bond in Gretna Green by Linzi Day.
- Review: Daggerbound 11 Oct 2026 Review of Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher.
- Review: Ode to the Half-Broken 27 Sept 2026 Review of Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer.
Show 12 more
- podlators v6.1.1 10 Sept 2026 Fix a bug in Pod::Text wrapping that could go into an infinite loop with a pathological indentation level. Fix wrapping around formatting characters in Pod::Text::Overstrike.
- Add 2026 Hugo Award winner 4 Sept 2026 Add the winner of the 2026 Hugo Award for best novel (Everlasting, by Alix E. Harrow).
- Review: Too Like the Lightning 2 Sept 2026 Review of Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer.
- Review: Last Chance to Save the World 1 Sept 2026 Review of Last Chance to Save the World by Beth Revis.
- Review: The Hands of the Emperor 31 Aug 2026 Review of The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.
- Add Aurora award winner 16 Aug 2026 Add the winner of the 2026 Aurora Award winner for best novel (The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine by Robert J. Sawyer).
- Add Arthur C. Clarke award winner 16 Aug 2026 Add the winner of the 2026 Arthur C. Clarke award (When There Are Wolves Again, by E.J. Swift).
- Add World Fantasy Award nominees 16 Aug 2026 Add the nominees for the World Fantasy Award for best novel.
- Add Mythopoeic winner 1 Aug 2026 Add the 2026 winner of the Mythopoeic Award for adult literature (Snake-Eater, by T. Kingfisher).
- Review: How to Steal a Galaxy 1 Aug 2026 Review of How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth Revis.
- Review: Painting the Blues in Gretna Green 31 Jul 2026 Review of Painting the Blues in Gretna Green by Linzi Day.
- Review: In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns 30 Jul 2026 Review of In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns by Elizabeth Bear.
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
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