We made it through all 27 chapters of Bless the Beasts.
The story boils down to this. Voyager needs repairs and dilithium. They land in the middle of a planet’s health crisis and civil unrest over a treatment that requires harvesting blood from what turn out to be intelligent sea animals. The crew gets pulled into raids, hostage situations, debates, and a medical breakthrough.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion: How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
Author: Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Janeway sits in her command chair. Marima stands beside her watching everything with fascination. Kes runs a tricorder over her. Kim works at ops, fine tuning. He has the projection and channel open to Kolias.
Every Greek speech was supposed to end with a peroration, the climax that makes the audience’s pulse jump and tells them what it all meant. Stories got morals. Lives, some philosophers thought, got judged the same way. Solon said you cannot call a life happy until it is over. Aristotle agreed. A great tragedy ends with the hero dying in a way that reveals a noble soul. Think Braveheart yelling “Freedom!” or Captain Miller telling Private Ryan to earn it.
Janeway wants Paris and Kim in the ready room for a debrief. But they are not in sickbay anymore. Torres pulled them out under her authority to work on repairs. Paris walks onto the bridge looking thinner and pensive. He is happy to be back. Chakotay calls him Poocuh with a smile.
Chapter 13 is where Jay Heinrichs finally talks about happiness straight up. And he starts with a story that made me laugh, then feel a little embarrassed for him.
B’Elanna storms into sickbay and drags a protesting Kim out to help with engineering. She tells Paris to report to the bridge for helm checks once he is cleared.
Chapter 12 opens at six a.m. on Heinrichs’s fifty-eighth birthday. He is shivering at the base of Mount Moosilauke in New Hampshire in running shorts and minimalist shoes that are basically slippers. The Baker River roars beside him. In less than fifty-eight minutes he plans to run his age to the summit. A year earlier he could barely walk without a limp.
The doctor scans the orange darra meat Kes delivered. He starts running tests with analyzers and replicators. Paris tries to get up but the doctor threatens to use him for experiments too.
Some people can describe a boring commute and hold a room. The rest of us tell “and then” stories. We drove to Boston, traffic was bad, then we parked, then we shopped. Fine for court testimony. Not great for persuading anyone, including yourself.
Paris wakes in sickbay next to Kim and Marima. He is thrilled to see the doctor. The doctor gives him a mild sedative to calm down.
By Chapter 10, Heinrichs had been training for Mount Moosilauke for a while. He was gasping up hills and folding himself into yoga poses. And the voice in his head did not match all the fancy rhetorical tools he had been learning. How could someone with an expanding waistline and moments of cowardice believe he was worthy of this goal?
The sky turns ugly and the storm hits hard. Wind screams, sea churns, lightning everywhere. Sea bats get knocked down. The boat pitches violently and they huddle in the wheelhouse with no control left.
Chapter 9 is where Jay Heinrichs stops talking about big ideas and gets into the boring stuff. Habits. Flossing. Going to bed earlier. And honestly, that is kind of the point.
Paris shows off a string of crudely made toy darra he found in Assurna’s cabin on the Micaszian boat. Kim thinks they might be decoration but Marima explains the Micaszians used to worship the darra as part of an old cult. She has no patience for it.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
By Chapter 8, you might be side-eyeing all this rhetoric. Even Aristotle’s rational logos is manipulative. Because it is.
Janeway sits with Tuvok. Borizus admitted he knew Paris and Kim were at sea with Marima. He claims he overheard it in Kolias’s office. Janeway does not buy it. Tuvok used a little tactical deception to get him talking. Janeway lets it slide.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Chapter 7 is the brain chapter. You have met your soul, set a goal, adjusted your mood, and tried to close the ethos gap. Now Heinrichs asks: how do you make the impossible feel possible?
Torres clutches the ligature and almost lets herself think about Chakotay smiling at her for real. She pushes the thought away. Klingon pride and all that. She calls for beam up but her tricorder starts beeping. A signal. Harry and Paris maybe. She cancels the beam.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Chapter 6 is about feelings. Not in a fluffy self-help way. In a “your brain will fight you unless you set the mood first” way.
On the boat Paris tells Marima it is time to come clean about the darra. Are they just fish or are they smart? Marima waves it off. Big stupid fish with useful blood. Nothing more.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Chapter 5 is where Heinrichs stops talking about your big goal in the abstract and starts asking a harder question: do you actually trust yourself enough to pull it off?
Kim is spoon feeding soup to Marima on the abandoned Micaszian ship. Paris is trying to figure out how to steer back to Vandorra. Marima perks up enough to give directions. Head toward the sun in the morning.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion: How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
Author: Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Torres is on the streets of Vandorra with a wrist beacon hunting the missing ligature. The place feels off right away. People dance in the street but ignore one woman who faints. Two merchants fight over a cab and nobody stops them.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion: How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
Author: Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Torres beams down to the planet. Fresh air feels good. She has a molecular tracer on her wrist and a medical tricorder hidden. Phaser too. She follows the signal for the missing ligature northwest.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion: How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
Author: Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Kim hates life on the water. Seasick, bad food, wet clothes. Paris eats like it is fine. Marima is getting weaker every day.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion: How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
Author: Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Marima drags herself across the deck to sit by Paris. She looks worse. The plague is wearing her down fast. She refuses food and rests in the sun.
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion: How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
Author: Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Book: Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion: How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
Author: Jay Heinrichs
ISBN: 9780593735275
Janeway and Tuvok question Borizus in the brig. She bluffs hard. Long prison time far from home. No return ever. He starts to crack. Says it is all Kolias fault. He just followed orders to get medical tools.
Kim and Paris wake up to a guard yelling. New work detail. Marima is already up. They get led to a smelly fish hold. Bloody aprons and gloves wait for them.
Torres finishes the recast with the fresh alloy. Borizus helps her move the parts to the fabricator and then to the main engineering bay. The casings fit perfectly into the conduit cradle. She welds the last connectors and feels a small thaw toward the guy. He brought the metal and stuck around through the process. She tells him it might have worked out better than she thought after all the earlier headaches.
Paris wakes up on the Micasz ship with a lump on his head from the fight. The guards now keep the two officers from feeding duty. Kim watches the darra outside and worries. If they do not eat they will start eating each other. He sneaks below, fills a bucket of the wriggling spiderworms, and heads for the deserted bow on tiptoe. The darra are already gathering and moving closer as if they notice him. He swings the bucket to pour when Assurna’s long jointed arm blocks him. She grabs the bucket and slams it down.
On the Micasz vessel the darra gather around the ship at feeding time. Paris and Kim toss buckets of squirming spiderworms over the side. The creatures churn the water with their tails as they eat. Marima drags herself on deck to help even though she is shaking badly. Her knees buckle in several places. She collapses again with her eyes rolling back. Harry catches her head in his lap. Paris calls to the guards for medical help for the lord councillor’s daughter. The guard just grunts and turns away. Paris shoves the issue and gets slugged hard. He ducks and lands solid hits on the alien’s face and neck before the big Micaszian slams him across the deck. Paris’s head hits something and he blacks out.
Janeway is done with protocol. She sends Kolias packing and tells Chakotay and Tuvok to cancel all shore leave. Find Paris and Kim now. She also wants Borizus, the engineering guild head from the reception, brought up for a private talk. He looked like he had something to say before Kolias’s daughter interrupted.
Torres has had it with the guest engineer. Jovic from Vandorra keeps poking at controls in engineering. One wrong tap and the inertial dampers could slam the whole crew into the walls. She warns him twice. On the third time she calls security and has him hauled out.
In the dim bar Paris and Kim try the local drink. Marima, Kolias’s daughter from the reception, slides in and buys them another round. She asks about their ship and travels. They dodge the tech questions.
Harry Kim is wide eyed in the market. Tall Sardalians everywhere, strange music, warm gems for sale. He buys pendants for his mom and girlfriend. He is thinking about home and all the stories he will tell.
Janeway stares at the viewscreen and sees why everyone is hooked on this planet. Vandorra looks clean and green with nice buildings and parks. The people move slow and look a little gaunt though. Kolias’s collapse still bothers her.
The plaza on Vandorra is pretty. Orange leaves, fountain, tall locals in silver outfits with braids and tattoos around their golden eyes. Chakotay and Tuvok arrive by transporter. The Sardalians act like this happens every day even though they claim to be a regular stop for other freighters.
Voyager is in trouble. The dilithium isn’t recrystallizing right and power levels are dropping fast. Torres gives them maybe twenty six hours before warp capability is at risk.
Voyager is stuck in the Delta Quadrant. Seventy thousand light years from home. They need dilithium to keep going. That’s how this story starts.
Twenty-five posts. Six months. Over 500 pages of Tim Ferriss experimenting on his own body, distilled into something you could actually read on the train.
Twenty-five posts. Six months. Over 500 pages of Tim Ferriss experimenting on his own body, distilled into something you could actually read on the train.
Your dermatologist prescribes you a drug. You take it for months. Turns out it does nothing. Happens more often than you’d think.
Your dermatologist prescribes you a drug. You take it for months. Turns out it does nothing. Happens more often than you’d think.
Tim opens this chapter with a promise: it will be the shortest chapter on life-extension ever written. He keeps that promise. But what’s packed in here is surprisingly practical.
Tim opens this chapter with a promise: it will be the shortest chapter on life-extension ever written. He keeps that promise. But what’s packed in here is surprisingly practical.
Tim Ferriss is jogging through Times Square during a blizzard with an 80-pound boxing heavybag across his shoulders. He and his batting coach went to the wrong hotel. No taxis. So they walk.
Tim Ferriss is jogging through Times Square during a blizzard with an 80-pound boxing heavybag across his shoulders. He and his batting coach went to the wrong hotel. No taxis. So they walk.
“Just remember: somewhere in China, a little girl is warming up with your max.” That’s what Olympic weightlifting coach Jim Conroy tells his athletes. Welcome to chapters 33 and 34. One is about adding 100 pounds to your bench press. The other is about a guy who was scared of water learning to swim a mile in the ocean. Both come down to the same idea: eat the elephant one bite at a time.
“Just remember: somewhere in China, a little girl is warming up with your max.” That’s what Olympic weightlifting coach Jim Conroy tells his athletes. Welcome to chapters 33 and 34. One is about adding 100 pounds to your bench press. The other is about a guy who was scared of water learning to swim a mile in the ocean. Both come down to the same idea: eat the elephant one bite at a time.
This chapter starts with a former Soviet Special Forces instructor punching Tim Ferriss in the butt. Not a metaphor. Pavel Tsatsouline was literally checking muscle tension at a kettlebell certification event. Welcome to chapter 32.
This chapter starts with a former Soviet Special Forces instructor punching Tim Ferriss in the butt. Not a metaphor. Pavel Tsatsouline was literally checking muscle tension at a kettlebell certification event. Welcome to chapter 32.
Kelly Starrett, founder of San Francisco CrossFit, casually mentioned to Tim that he just ran a 28.4-mile ultramarathon with 18,500 feet of elevation change. And that he was back to heavy lifting the next week.
Kelly Starrett, founder of San Francisco CrossFit, casually mentioned to Tim that he just ran a 28.4-mile ultramarathon with 18,500 feet of elevation change. And that he was back to heavy lifting the next week.
There’s a gym in the back of an industrial park in New Jersey, right next to a Chevy dealership. Guys in there rub horse liniment on their elbows between sets. McTarnahan’s Absorbent Blue Lotion - the stuff they use on racehorses. The fumes clear your sinuses from ten feet away.
There’s a gym in the back of an industrial park in New Jersey, right next to a Chevy dealership. Guys in there rub horse liniment on their elbows between sets. McTarnahan’s Absorbent Blue Lotion - the stuff they use on racehorses. The fumes clear your sinuses from ten feet away.
These two chapters cover very different topics. One is about saving money on medical tests by flying to Nicaragua. The other might be the most important chapter in the whole book - how to not get injured in the first place. Let’s go.
These two chapters cover very different topics. One is about saving money on medical tests by flying to Nicaragua. The other might be the most important chapter in the whole book - how to not get injured in the first place. Let’s go.
A spine surgeon who works with NHL and NFL teams told Tim Ferriss his degenerating cervical discs were something he’d “just need to live with.” Then he smiled, which made it worse.
A spine surgeon who works with NHL and NFL teams told Tim Ferriss his degenerating cervical discs were something he’d “just need to live with.” Then he smiled, which made it worse.
“God, what a beautiful beach. Calm. Turquoise water. I should go back to Thailand. I wonder what time it is in Thailand. But why is there a mangy German shepherd on my beach? Orange collar. Kind of looks like John’s dog. Actually, I owe John a call. Did I put his birthday party in the calendar? Birthdays and clowns. Clowns?! Why the hell am I thinking about clowns?!”
“God, what a beautiful beach. Calm. Turquoise water. I should go back to Thailand. I wonder what time it is in Thailand. But why is there a mangy German shepherd on my beach? Orange collar. Kind of looks like John’s dog. Actually, I owe John a call. Did I put his birthday party in the calendar? Birthdays and clowns. Clowns?! Why the hell am I thinking about clowns?!”
These two chapters are about male hormones and fertility. Tim opens chapter 21 with a story about a date where he was practically radiating pheromones after weeks of testosterone experiments. His date, a CEO, was climbing over him at the restaurant before bread arrived. Women across the room couldn’t stop staring. His scratches from the night healed like Wolverine.
These two chapters are about male hormones and fertility. Tim opens chapter 21 with a story about a date where he was practically radiating pheromones after weeks of testosterone experiments. His date, a CEO, was climbing over him at the restaurant before bread arrived. Women across the room couldn’t stop staring. His scratches from the night healed like Wolverine.
Yes, this is a chapter about female orgasms in a fitness book. Two chapters, actually. Chapters 19 and 20 are where Ferriss applies his usual method - find experts, test everything, report what works - to a topic most fitness authors would never touch. He does it with a straight face and detailed notes. Let’s do the same.
Yes, this is a chapter about female orgasms in a fitness book. Two chapters, actually. Chapters 19 and 20 are where Ferriss applies his usual method - find experts, test everything, report what works - to a topic most fitness authors would never touch. He does it with a straight face and detailed notes. Let’s do the same.
Chapters 17 and 18 are about building muscle with the absolute minimum amount of gym time. Two exercises per workout. One set each. Less than 30 minutes a week in the gym. Ferriss calls it Occam’s Protocol, after Occam’s Razor - the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
Chapters 17 and 18 are about building muscle with the absolute minimum amount of gym time. Two exercises per workout. One set each. Less than 30 minutes a week in the gym. Ferriss calls it Occam’s Protocol, after Occam’s Razor - the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
This chapter is where Tim Ferriss makes claims that most people will immediately call BS on. Gaining 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days? While losing fat? With only four hours of total gym time?
This chapter is where Tim Ferriss makes claims that most people will immediately call BS on. Gaining 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days? While losing fat? With only four hours of total gym time?
Two chapters this week. One about your butt. One about your abs. Both are short because the actual work is embarrassingly simple.
Two chapters this week. One about your butt. One about your abs. Both are short because the actual work is embarrassingly simple.
Tim Ferriss is standing in an airport security line with a medical sensor implanted in his abdomen. His hands are sweating. He almost wore a 50-pound weighted vest through TSA, but a friend talked him out of it by pointing out it looked like a suicide bomber jacket. So the vest stayed home. But the implant made it through just fine.
Tim Ferriss is standing in an airport security line with a medical sensor implanted in his abdomen. His hands are sweating. He almost wore a 50-pound weighted vest through TSA, but a friend talked him out of it by pointing out it looked like a suicide bomber jacket. So the vest stayed home. But the implant made it through just fine.
Tim Ferriss’s dad was standing outside a BBQ restaurant in San Jose when a homeless man walked up and said: “You know how I lost all my weight? More than 100 pounds? Garlic. Clove after clove.”
Tim Ferriss’s dad was standing outside a BBQ restaurant in San Jose when a homeless man walked up and said: “You know how I lost all my weight? More than 100 pounds? Garlic. Clove after clove.”
Tim Ferriss once brought a portable food scale on a first date. He pulled it out of his man-purse at a tea house in San Francisco and started weighing individual pieces of food. There was no second date.
Tim Ferriss once brought a portable food scale on a first date. He pulled it out of his man-purse at a tea house in San Francisco and started weighing individual pieces of food. There was no second date.
So you read the five rules of the Slow-Carb Diet. Simple enough. But now you’re a week in and you have questions. Why am I starving at 3pm? Can I eat cheese? What the hell do I order at a restaurant?
So you read the five rules of the Slow-Carb Diet. Simple enough. But now you’re a week in and you have questions. Why am I starving at 3pm? Can I eat cheese? What the hell do I order at a restaurant?
This is the chapter where the book gets real. Chapter 7, “The Slow-Carb Diet I,” is the part most people bought The 4-Hour Body for. Five rules. No calorie counting. One day a week you eat like a maniac. Thousands of followers lost 20+ pounds.
This is the chapter where the book gets real. Chapter 7, “The Slow-Carb Diet I,” is the part most people bought The 4-Hour Body for. Five rules. No calorie counting. One day a week you eat like a maniac. Thousands of followers lost 20+ pounds.
Your scale is lying to you. Not on purpose. It just doesn’t know any better.
That’s the message from chapters 5 and 6 of The 4-Hour Body. And honestly, once you read the data, you’ll never look at your bathroom scale the same way.
Your scale is lying to you. Not on purpose. It just doesn’t know any better.
That’s the message from chapters 5 and 6 of The 4-Hour Body. And honestly, once you read the data, you’ll never look at your bathroom scale the same way.
These two chapters hit differently. Chapter 3 tears apart things you thought you knew about exercise and diet. Chapter 4 asks a harder question: why haven’t you done anything about it yet?
These two chapters hit differently. Chapter 3 tears apart things you thought you knew about exercise and diet. Chapter 4 asks a harder question: why haven’t you done anything about it yet?
Tim Ferriss opens The 4-Hour Body with a scene that tells you everything about this man. He is backstage at a Nine Inch Nails concert, doing air squats in a bathroom stall. His friend catches his head bobbing above the divider. Forty squats, in silence, in a public restroom.
Tim Ferriss opens The 4-Hour Body with a scene that tells you everything about this man. He is backstage at a Nine Inch Nails concert, doing air squats in a bathroom stall. His friend catches his head bobbing above the divider. Forty squats, in silence, in a public restroom.
So I picked up The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. And I’m going to retell it here, chapter by chapter, in a way that’s actually fun to read.
So I picked up The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. And I’m going to retell it here, chapter by chapter, in a way that’s actually fun to read.
We are done. Seventeen chapters, a whole lot of posts, and one ugly templar’s journey from corrupt bureaucrat to druid guardian. Time to actually talk about the book.
Fires are burning inside the ramparts. The survivors of Quraite are gathered around them, beaten down, grieving, barely holding it together. And then Hamanu of Urik walks through the trees.
This chapter opens with Zvain screaming and ends with a sorcerer-king eating a man alive. It is the most intense chapter in the entire book and I am still not totally over it.
This chapter is basically a heist movie set in a fantasy hellscape. Three guys with obsidian knives break into an interrogator’s fortified house to rescue one woman. It goes sideways almost immediately. They barely get out alive.
Chapter 14 is all Pavek, and it is the slow, quiet kind of chapter that somehow hits harder than any battle scene.
This chapter is where we finally see the story through Akashia’s eyes, and it makes her way more sympathetic than I expected.
Chapter 12 opens with a sandal nudging Pavek in the ribs and a voice saying “It’s morning.” He groans. His head is full of bad memories from the night before. He argued with Akashia about zarneeka, then parked himself next to the Moonracer’s honey-ale barrel and drank too much.
Chapter 11 is a quieter one. No poison. No midnight crises. Just Pavek grinding through druid lessons and slowly building a life at Quraite. But Abbey packs so much character detail into this chapter that it ends up doing more heavy lifting than the action scenes.
This chapter opens in the middle of the night with Akashia bolting out of her hut because Telhami summoned her in a dream. Not on purpose. Telhami was asleep and her subconscious worries reached out through the guardian’s magic and dragged Akashia out of bed. That’s how stressed the old woman is about Laq.
This chapter pulls a nasty trick on you. It starts with Zvain, not Pavek, and it’s one of the most disturbing scenes in the book so far.
The Tyr-storm hits them in the open.
Pavek is riding under the bone cargo rack on the soldier-kank when Ruari jabs him awake with his staff. Pavek grabs the wood, rams the other end into Ruari’s gut, and throws the staff away. “Do that again, half-wit, and you’ll need a crutch, not a staff.”
Pavek wakes up hog-tied inside a handcart rolling over terrible pavement.
His wrists and ankles are bound together behind his back and anchored to the cart itself. His limbs are stretched to the point of screaming. His hands and feet are completely numb. There is straw thrown over him, a cloth blindfold over his eyes, and the cold air of a night outside the walls of Urik.
Living with Zvain is a special kind of torture.
Every morning starts the same way. Pavek is trying to sleep, and Zvain is running his mouth. “What’s it going to be today, Pavek? Some more groveling and toe-kissing at the west gate?” The kid has perfected the art of the early morning insult. He calls Pavek a belly-crawler, a yellow-lover, a dust-licker. He questions his manhood, his courage, his pride. All before breakfast.
Pavek wakes up in total darkness with no idea where he is or how long he has been out. His left arm, which was rotting and useless last time he was conscious, is now pain-free and working again. But it is sealed in some kind of stone cast, and the room is pitch black. For a solid minute, the guy genuinely wonders if he is dead.
Chapter 4 hits different. Up until now Pavek has been a templar with problems. Now he’s just a man with nothing.
Chapter 3 opens with Pavek still tasting zarneeka. The numbness is gone but the bitterness lingers. So do the jeers from the other templars at the gate. He’s used to being laughed at. His pursuit of spell-craft, the way he haunts the archives studying scrolls he can never actually cast, makes him a running joke in the civil bureau. Big, ugly, dirt-poor templar with a romantic curiosity. That’s how they see him.
Chapter 2 picks up a few days later. The bruise from the orphan boy’s punch has faded. Pavek is back to his regular duties, transferring salt sacks in the customhouse, ticking off counts on a wax tablet. Just another day of grunt work for a third-rank Regulator.
Chapter 1 opens with a scene-setter that tells you everything you need to know about Athas. The twin moons have set. The sky is black. The heat of day has turned to bone-numbing cold. And the first thing Abbey tells us is the law of this world: nothing changes. What was will always be.
So I picked up this old fantasy novel from 1994 and honestly? It hit different than I expected.
The Brazen Gambit by Lynn Abbey is the first book in the Chronicles of Athas series, set in the Dark Sun campaign world. If you’ve never heard of Dark Sun, let me fill you in. It’s a Dungeons & Dragons setting, but forget everything you think you know about D&D. There are no lush green forests. No friendly taverns with smiling barkeeps. No rain.