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In the author's view, a visioneer is a scientist and visionary, one who sees the technology and its application. The Visioneer examples saw the published Limits as a challenge instead of a barrier.

This book is a history of these two movements and the world around them, including the L5 society, OMNI magazine and governmental nanotechnology investment. This is a social history, not science, but it is fascinating for that. In both examples, the Visioneers lost control of their message, taken by publishers to mean more. The natural reaction played out in both cases, much to our loss.

My "flying car" was O'Neill's power satellite, part of his vision to get us from ground-based to lunar colonies and then space stations. As a kid, I was sure this would work, and if I had been a little older, I would have joined L5 and looked for work in this industry. Instead I graduated college under the cloud of the Challenger explosion and a downturn in space exploration. I can't remember which book I read this year that contained this in bibliography, but I am glad I read it, and it makes a fitting end to 2020.

This book, translated from the French, was the genesis of a series of films and books - though they didn't share the ending of this social commentary.

This is soft science fiction. The travelers use relativistic travel to reach Betelgeuse, then an unspecified landing craft to arrive on one of the planets. From that point on, this is about first contact. Boulle's main focus seems to be demonstrating that caging animals and animal testing are very wrong. The weak female characters (and lack of female crew) can be attributed to the 1960s, I suppose.

I enjoyed the book. The telegraphed ending didn't match the later films and books, but that's not a huge issue. I can't decide if this ending was better or worse. I do plan to read other books by the author, especially [b:The Bridge Over the River Kwai|1351174|The Bridge Over the River Kwai|Pierre Boulle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320532738l/1351174.SY75.jpg|1340854]. 3 stars out of 5 feels about right for this book.

An encyclopedic collection of computer adventure games, with content derived from the hardcoregaming101 website.

Purchased a bundle containing this ebook, and have read that it is the preferred format to read this in - the printed version has grey scale pictures and isn't easily searchable ;). This large tome contains reviews of a TON of graphic adventure games and series. Sections are sorted by company, with a huge end section of single titles. These sections also contain a bit about the company or series in question, and there are a few choice interviews as well.

The reviews are written by individuals, and vary widely. While this is useful to get a feel for a game, it is not at all useful to compare between games played by different reviewers. My understanding is that this is collected from material on the website. While not as useful or complete as wikipedia, it was nice to have it in one volume to read through. And yes, I've spent months reading through this, entry by entry, and at times it was like reading an encyclopedia. That said, I encountered plenty of games I have never heard of.

For Zork and Spellbreaker, they included the text adventures that launched the series. It wouldn't have been many more pages to include all of Infocom's work, and it may have been more relevant than including a few RPGmaker games towards the end. Minor quibble - I will visit their website next to see if those games (particular favorites of mine) are there.

This John W. Campbell award winning fiction seemed slow to me, and great worldbuilding is not enough to compensate for the lack of a strong story.

The worldbuilding is told from a character's perspective, so we don't know a lot of space science or history. We know there is an ocean world and a stone world, and each is referred to as a "moon" of the other. The stone has a standard human society, the inhabitants of the ocean world have modifications - and very different speech, physiology, and outlook on life. We also know that these two worlds are part of a much larger domain (protectorate), with relativistic space travel. The conflict stems from stone world residents on the ocean world, and an inauspicious visit from the protector whose simple order launches a massive conflict.

This clash, while central to the theme, is shown mostly from one side - even though character perspectives on both sides are used. Worse, there are other factors that are left very unexplained - the recent destruction of a separate civilization, the occupation of one character's stone world village, and the nature of the visiting protector (a robot?). Worse yet are the individuals within the two people groups. Standard female advantages (growth, caring, learning) are nearly exclusively from the ocean world, despite the balanced population on the stone world.

As many other reviews have noted, good world building, but the story seems long - it took me more than a month to read. From descriptions of torture to continual threats of genocide, the latter part of this book feels ponderous. The author is a microbiologist, wrote the first half from an in-depth knowledge, and it shows. They are also a Quaker, and perhaps this is why only the failing of war is shown.

Their are three other books in the same universe. I'll probably not be adding them to my list - barring a positive conversation with a fan of this series.

His last complete novel, this covers a middle-aged spy who feels likely to be moved out of active service soon. Events fall into place around him (both locally and internationally), resulting in this tale.

I've seen a few of le Carré's films - The Constant Gardner most recently - but have never read his novels. I liked the prose, the details, and hints of future events. I plan to read more, probably starting at the beginning. Many say he transitioned from Cold War to Capitalism (company war?) to this novel, where the anti-Nationalist views of the main characters mirror the author.

The narrative took a while to develop. Without spoilers, the turn was predictable, though it was 180 pages in before we got to that point. Some of the groundwork was both good and necessary, but far from all. I was surprised to have only 20 pages left in the midst of the concluding operation - the ending felt VERY quick.

Rating this in genre, it is a shade over 3 stars. As I read more le Carré and discuss this novel with friends, that rating may round up to 4. Time will tell...

Started in the morning, finished in the evening. We didn't need this sequel, which was just okay. It felt like the target audience was Hollywood, not me.

The first third of the story covered years, the last two thirds covered hours. Cline dials down the pop culture references from his previous two books, and yet here they often feel forced. At least they range wider than the first book. But enough about that - to the story!

I "fit the profile" for the first book, computer geek heavily involved in RPGs in the early 80s. One thing I really liked about that story were the clues - I could try to solve the mysteries before the characters did. This book has none of that. Wade takes no part in solving the first mystery, so we the reader are also locked out. After that, the ticking clock reduces the other mysteries to narrative. Conveniently, a character with fore-knowledge of that universe or mystery is available to lead us through the solution. Another reviewer likened it to playing a game by reading the walkthrough - less satisfying. The least fun (and quickest) was Tolkien's Arda.

I'm fine with the bad guy, and exploring the creepier side of Halliday. Wade idolized the guy, so knocking him down a peg makes sense. The climactic battle seemed too quick, but worked for me.

I didn't like Wade much in the first book, and I like him less here. Many who liked the first book speculated that a sequel would have a different perspective - Sam or Aech primarily. This story could have worked with that.

Stepping back, we know that Cline wrote the majority of this after working on the screenplay for the RP1 movie. I wonder how much of this was written for Hollywood instead of the readers. The characters decide to embrace their real appearance, replacing their avatars? Loving adoration of Prince, and Pretty in Pink? Halliday's quests were a challenge, these feel scattered.

Overall rating - 2 stars. A friend said "If you liked the first book, you'll find something to like here" and I did - but barely enough to cover the investment of time. Back to the library you go!

A good biography with a lot of physics, or a great book on quantum physics with biographies of Feynman and Wheeler. Take your pick, this is pretty readable - though probably not for the beginner.

The author is a professor of physics, and interviewed one of the two principals in the book. His way of describing particle and quantum physics is smooth, especially in historical context. The early interactions of these two giants led to where we are today, and their continued contact influenced both. Chapters are nicely sectioned, though perhaps the section titles end up a little too cute ("Diet of Worms" for the section where wormholes were first theorized, for instance).

I was favorably reminded of Isaacson's [b:The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution|21856367|The Innovators How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution|Walter Isaacson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410191571l/21856367.SY75.jpg|41129225], which emphasized the creative impact of collaboration. This team of physicists discovered and dreamed more than most, and creativity is part of the most impactful discoveries. A decent index, good notes and further reading all help with cross reference. There are a few photos but no diagrams - search engines are your friend here. Recommended.

Before satellites and better weather tracking, summer fires could blow up to be massive killers. This is the story of a tragic one that the author's grandfather survived as a child. Well-researched, this is the story of the people and the land and the strategies of the time.

The first few chapters introduce a LOT of people, and you know going in that many of them won't live much longer. Their stories are told by the survivors, and this book honors them in a way too. That said, it is a bit overwhelming.

Outside the personal stories are comparisons to other fires (Peshtigo, Priest River, Chicago) and their impacts. The medical story is briefly told, and this book also touches on PTSD in the survivors. Conclusions are scarce - this is a book of history, not a rant against logging or climate change. I added this book to my reading list after reading [b:The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics|16158542|The Boys in the Boat Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics|Daniel James Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1354683116l/16158542.SY75.jpg|21998925]. I've not seen it in local bookstores, but the library had a single copy, which I was able to check out and read during the pandemic. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Cafe Funiculi Funicula, the coffee shop where you can time travel, was a grand prize winning play in 2013. The book followed in 2015, a translated version and a film after that. Unfortunately, this reads more like a play than a book.

The story is fine, as it goes, and the time travel is why it ended up on my reading list. This time travel has plenty of rules, but they don't really get in the way. The time travelers, on the other hand, are not as good - or maybe a bit lost in translation.

That leaves the writing, with many descriptions of the colors, the people, the place - all that is missing is the stage directions. Some of the descriptions are a bit conflicting, and despite being on the cover - there is no cat.

I wonder how the play would have delved into the flashbacks and story elements, half of which were outside the cafe - a narrative? Again, maybe it was the translation, but putting them into the story (as the steam rises, blah) wasn't smooth.

Would I see the film? Sure - it looks like they flipped a few things, and the cafe is quite a bit larger. Would I read the sequel? I'd skim the first chapter, to see if the writing is better - or if it still feels like a play. Would I learn Japanese for this? Nope. This book rates a "just okay" of 2 stars out of 5.

This is a very good story, with plenty of action and history. It proves Batman's title of the Worlds Greatest Detective also. My only minor quibble is how much Gotham feels like a small town here.

This was my first introduction to the Court of Owls - I haven't read those comics. As an institution that's been "watching over Gotham" for so long, the history portions of this novel were both appropriate and excellent. Chapters set in 1918 advance the story in the present, and vice versa. Batman's detective skills are used to solve a modern day murder and also a historical mystery - a nice combination.

Several of Batman's allies factor in, and a few enemies are mentioned. When going back to the founding fathers, a lot of familiar names are mentioned - perhaps too many. I think villains can opposed the Bat without a lot of historical reasons. But really, that is a very minor quibble. Without spoiling the story, I can safely say that it is a good and consistent narrative, with plenty of well-described action. 5 stars.

Details the Supreme Court's drift from left to right over the last 50 years. Demonstrates with court cases and history, but frequently ends up overstating and speculating - could have done a much better job with the material.

The first chapter sums up the liberal Warren court, touching on cases emphasizing gender and racial equality. This chapter also shows the pipeline of cases about the poor, hoping to highlight their plight and minority mistreatment - but it was not to be. The book then veers into the dirty tricks that Nixon and his cabinet used to counteract the court - known during the time as the Nixon court.

From that point on, a majority of the book focuses on loss after loss for cases involving the poor. The book repeatedly spends time speculating on "what would have happened" had Warren not been replaced by Nixon, had Fortis not been forced off the court. These muddy the message. At a guess, these are here to provoke the reader to anger, hardly useful in context.

Towards the end, the book dives into more recent rulings, helping prop up corporations and white collar crime, while removing restrictions on campaign spending. The outcomes here are more straightforward, and the author reduces speculation. The direction is frightening, with legal scholars and even the justices noting that an end result is a prison state - at least for the vast majority of Americans.

This book does make the case that many votes are along idealogical lines, even going as far as invoking a "constitutional doctrine that it all but made up." Far from ruling on constitutionality, the court has often used its power to shape the country without passing laws - and those actions are becoming more frequent.

The conclusion is excellent, though it brings up a direction not noted in the book. "For many conservatives, the real battleground has always been the New Deal and the way in which it vastly expanded the federal governments role in the life of the nation." While it is true that the recent court is hostile to those programs, it is hardly the job of the court to provide alternatives. Unfortunately, no president or congress will be able to create the right laws to back up vital programs like Social Security, leaving a 6-3 Court to erode them completely.

The book has 76 pages of references of the various rulings discussed, leading it to seem shorter than its nearly 450 pages. A better history with less speculation would have made this a better and more impactful narrative. 3 stars out of 5.