At first I thought this book was just a descriptive work about a decidedly interesting alternate culture. That would have been in line with a lot of the Baroque Cycle. However, this book is so much more. There is an adventure store, some really interesting philosophy, and even a bit of romance. I enjoyed this…
Legion of the Damned
This is a quite good combat science fiction book. I’m not really sure how I discovered this series, but I’m glad I did. There are some new ideas here, as well as some that mirror John Ring (incompetence in command) and Keith Laumer (alien invasion). Overall and enjoyable read, and I’ll be reading more from…
A World Out of Time
I was reading about cryogenics a couple of weeks ago, and that got me interested in stories around that topic. This book was one of those recommended as exploring the implications of being woken up after a long time. The first half of this book is better than the last half to be honest. I…
Igniting The Reaches
1,000 years after interstellar society has collapsed, a new empire which is suspiciously like Canada rules most of the planets and their most valuable resources — slaves and automated silicon chip factories. Two gentlemen from Venus set of to make their fortunes as what can only be described as slavers and pirates. They’re clearly not…
The Big U
This book is really good for a first book, and you can see some of the ideas that Stephenson explores in later books starting here. The characters are believable, and the story line interesting if a bit odd. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. [isbn: 9780380816033]
And Another Thing
I was disappointed by this book. The previous Hitchhiker’s books set a very high bar, and the humor in this one falls flat for me. Additionally, the seemingly constant “guide note” interjections are just plain annoying. Overall, I didn’t like this one. Title: And Another Thing … Author: Eoin Colfer, Douglas Adams, Genre: Fiction Publisher:…
Von Neumann’s War
A Von Neumann probe is an automated self replicating machine which is sent into space to map and possibly prepare for human exploration. What would happen if we were the victims of someone else’s Von Neumann probes run amuck? This book is typical Ringo in that it is about an apocalyptic invasion from outer space,…
Princess of Wands
This book is very different from John Ringo‘s books (or at least the ones I have read). This one revolves around a cross between a soccer mom and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Its a fun, relatively light read and doesn’t have nearly as much combat as the other Ringo books I’ve encountered. The book takes…
The Stainless Steel Rat Returns
Harry Harrison is back to reprise his Stainless Steel Rat series. This book is much like the others — think light fiction with contrived situations, but a bit of fun. In other words, much like the rest of Harrison’s work. This book isn’t the best Rat book, but it also isn’t the worst and given…
Canberra’s LCA2013 bid
I’m really proud of the hard work that all of the Canberra 2013 team has done in preparing our bid for LCA 2013. I just sent off the emails making our bid formal. Here’s what I said on the linux-aus mailing list: Hello. I am pleased to present Canberra’s bid for linux.conf.au 2013. It is…