piracy – Made by Mikal

Igniting The Reaches

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 18, 2011
Post category:Book

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 nice people, but they are the heros of this book. The book is very readable, and like other books by Drake it is clear that the heros aren't always nice, and are haunted by their crimes. Yet they continue, and in the end might have accidentally done something nice. Overall, a good if different book. [isbn: 0441001793]

The Confusion

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 3, 2010
Post category:Book

The Confusion is a merging of Bonanza and The Juncto, which I think is more than the mere sum of the two parts. The weaving of the stories together makes for a very readable volume, with slow patches in each individual story line being covered nicely with a switch to the other. Additionally there are a few several year gaps in the stories which would be much more jarring if there wasn't something from the other story line in between. Overall, I think I prefer to read these two books in this con-fused manner, instead of separately. [isbn: 0060733357]

Bonanza

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 3, 2010
Post category:Book

This is a story about Jack Shaftoe travelling the world after making his poor business decision at the end of the previous book. I think it best serves as a foil to The Juncto, as the story line takes a few irrelevant turns and has some big gaps in it which are jarring. [isbn: 0060733357]

Illegal download sites for the MythTV book

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 15, 2007
Post category:Mythtv

In the last week, I have discovered three download sites offering illegal downloads of the MythTV book e-book. If I can find three without really trying, I assume there are a lot more of them out there. This raises a question for which I don't have a good answer. Do illegal downloads of books increase, or decrease sales? I can see arguments either way, but I'm tending towards the belief that they don't increase sales. Does anyone out there have any data which isn't merely anecdotal? Want to share it?