At any given time, I am probably reading one book in paper form, another as an audio book, and another on an e-reader. I also keep an anthology or collection in my car, for those long waits. My average rating is between 3 and 4, because I try to seek out good books and authors. One goal is to read all the SF award winners and SF Masterworks. See my profile at Worlds Without End.
Finally, the "social media" info - I am a long-time reader, proud to have completed several summer reading programs as a kid. I recall reading more than 50 books one summer. When I'm not reading, you might find me gaming (board and role play) or working, either as a baseball umpire or with software.
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Right back on track, and finally bringing in the history! Still a heck of a lot of keys to keep straight, and just one more graphic novel (plus a few miscellaneous issues) to go.
Still a good book and a good series, but it felt much more random than the other books. Only the last few pages are a real dive back into the story... and a big cliffhanger for Vol. 5.
Nicholas is a would-be poet and video-store clerk with a weeping hole in his hand …
Between the stream-of-consciousness narration, the unlikeable characters and the inevitable ending that took forever to arrive, I just didn't like this book.
The plot is this: Nicholas, a video store clerk finds a mysterious hole in an abandoned storage room. He shows it to Nakota, who wants to explore it - lowering items into it, and eventually a camcorder. She becomes obsessed with the resulting video and he with the hole itself.
The unexplained provides the horror here, but not to society or even the town - just to the main characters. Unlike them, I felt no obsession to this book, and finishing it was a chore. This would have been much better as a short story.
Author Kathe Koja is well known for young-adult books. This was her first novel, in the Horror genre. I read it as part of the Women of Genre Fiction reading challenge at Worlds …
Between the stream-of-consciousness narration, the unlikeable characters and the inevitable ending that took forever to arrive, I just didn't like this book.
The plot is this: Nicholas, a video store clerk finds a mysterious hole in an abandoned storage room. He shows it to Nakota, who wants to explore it - lowering items into it, and eventually a camcorder. She becomes obsessed with the resulting video and he with the hole itself.
The unexplained provides the horror here, but not to society or even the town - just to the main characters. Unlike them, I felt no obsession to this book, and finishing it was a chore. This would have been much better as a short story.
Author Kathe Koja is well known for young-adult books. This was her first novel, in the Horror genre. I read it as part of the Women of Genre Fiction reading challenge at Worlds Without End. It was nominated for the 1991 Philip K. Dick award.
Jack Holloway works alone, for reasons he doesn't care to talk about. Hundreds of miles …
Really liked this reboot of the classic Little Fuzzy, though there was more John Grisham than Science Fiction. Solid plot carried the novel, which is good because the characters were fairly flat. May have read the original as a kid, definitely didn't read any of the many sequels.
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his …
Picked this up to read before the movie. Result - this is a very good book. Just when it starts to slow, the story of Altaussee starts to build to an exciting finish - more so because I didn't know this story going in. The chapters are in general fairly short, except for the final "where are they now" chapter. Definitely looking forward to the film, and inspired to seek out Frankenheimer's The Train (based on a book by Rose Valland) and other supplementary materials. Recommended!
The scene: The United States after World War III, after the communist reign, after the …
A fairly good set of four stories, or two novellas and two short stories. Read about Gulf in the afterword for Glory Road, and immediately sought it out (I plan to re-read Friday sometime soon). Enjoyed Lost Legacy quite a bit also.
This book contains an excellent breakdown of the "I Have a Dream" speech and some good anecdotes. Not much improved from my first assessment, which was:
Each chapter starts is labeled for a holiday, which has little or nothing to do with the rambling contents. Occasional bits of funny, but in general nowhere near as good as God No. Also, if I never hear Penn talk about Clay Aiken again, it will be too soon. Sheesh!
Overall rating - 2 star, "It was Ok".
A collection of fourteen fantasy stories by well-known authors, set in the age of steam …
This collection of Steampunk stories mostly avoid Victorian England and range from the Roman Empire to the future. They are generally quite good, though not all of course. I especially enjoyed Dylan Horrock's Steam Girl and Cory Doctorow's Clockwork Fagin.
Read with daughter, 9. Really liked the cast and story, Pearl is a strong female character. The illustrations were well done and with just the right frequency. Has the makings of a good series. Recommended!
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is a novella by American writer Ted Chiang, originally published …
The two main characters are hired by Blue Gamma (I was reminded of Blue Ant) to help create "digients" - digital entities built on an animal (and then robot) frame. Instead of having programmed behaviors, these learn, and a good portion of the novella explores the impact of that learning.
I was reminded of early AI programming, learning game strategy. It doesn't take much suspension of disbelief to see them developing personalities. Other neat factors include illustrations and Ted Chiang's general descriptions of the future "web".
The book ended quite abruptly, with the future of most characters left unresolved, and this brings the rating down a tad.
A travel book exploring the physical places and connections of the infrastructure of the Internet. …
A travelogue of the physical connections (and data centers) that make up today's internet, along with a bit of history on how it came to be. The evocative writing is quite good, some rambling less so - all tolled this is a decent book. It helps that halfway through I listened to Jason Taylor talk all about the data center that I would read about in the last chapter. Some pictures, maps or illustrations might have helped.
Basic point made, but could use a bit more...
The Star Beast is a 1954 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a …
Not the usual science fiction, this deals more with diplomacy and politics. Good character interactions and manipulations make this a very enjoyable read.
Science-Fantasy novel by Robert Heinlein, famous American writer known for 'hard' Sci-Fi. Glory Road represents …
This book is really two parts - a fantasy romp and then the after happily ever after portion. I read this as a teen, but somehow the second half didn't stick with me at all. Heinlein knew his sword play and proves it here, but I didn't enjoy the moral rants and there was far too much talk of spanking. Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.
Coming back to this series after a 3 year break. Things are moving nicely - it feels like the kids have got some control now. Have they lost too many keys to make the difference?
