When leaving the US, I stayed in the Wild Palms Hotel. I selected it for three reasons: I’d stayed there before; it is part of the Joie De Vivre chain which I have had good experiences with before; and it was very cheap on Expedia ($77 compared to an average rate in the area of…
Bolos 4: Last Stand
This book continues on from many of the previous short stories, which is a nice touch. It also starts to fill in some of the historical gaps between the collapse of US society (night of the trolls), to the Concordiat Empire, to the Melconian wars. I found one story in this book pretty hard to…
Bolos 3: The Triumphant
This book is a little different from Bolos 1 and Bolos 2 in that it is several short novels instead of a collection of short stories. On the other hand, they’re very good short novels, and I quite liked Nike’s character. I’m glad I read this book. Title: The Triumphant Author: Keith Laumer, David Weber,…
The Book of General Ignorance
I seem to be on a bit of a trivia book kick, which is at least partially motivated by getting through all my Christmas presents so I can pack them into a box and move to a different country. This book was written as part of the production of the very excellent BBC quiz show…
Why do men have nipples?
This book is pretty light weight. The font is big, and there is lots of “chrome” on the pages, which conspire to make a book which would probably be only 100 pages in a normal font more like 200 pages. The book also suffers from trying a little too hard to be funny, with numerous…
Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Alliance
Given how disappointed I have been in other books in this series, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The style is very readable, and the content is interesting. The plot seems more nuanced than some of the others in the series, and the characters aren’t as one dimensional either. This isn’t the best book…
Why don’t penguin’s feet freeze? (and 114 other questions)
This book was really fun. Its a collection of 115 questions sent into New Scientist magazine, and the answers provided by other readers. Sometimes the answers and sarcastic or funny, and sometimes they are incredibly detailed. I found this book really interesting to read, and I certainly picked up some trivial to annoy my wife…
Bolos 2: The Unconquerable
This is another collection of short stories involving Laumer’s Bolo artificially intelligent super tanks. None of these stories are written by Laumer, but they are written by some very good SF authors. I enjoyed the collection, although I do think Honor of the Regiment was marginally better. Title: The Unconquerable Author: Keith Laumer Genre: Fiction…
Books read in May 2009
Friday Logan’s Run Deathworld One Deathworld Two Dragonflight Dragonquest Deathworld Three Galactic Dreams A Time of Omens Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment
Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment
I’m quite partial to the idea of artificially intelligent super tanks. I think they’d simplify my social life quite a lot, for example. I’m also partial to short story collections, and this book is both of those. The short stories are written by some excellent authors as well, which certainly helps. This book continues on…