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Dec. 8th, 2007
_The Golden Compass_, _The Subtle Knife_, _The Amber Spyglass_ -- collectively known as His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.
_Killswitch_, by Joel Shepherd.
_Can't Buy Me Love : the Beatles, Britain, and America_, by Jonathan Gould.
_Managing Humans : biting and humorous tales of a software engineering manager_, by Michael Lopp.
_Saturn Returns_, by Sean Williams.
_Service Included_, by Phoebe Damrosch
_Better to Beg Forgiveness_, by Michael Z. Williamson
_Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction_, by Mike Mignola
_Ultimate X-Men_ volumes 4, 6, 7 by Mark Millar
A diverse lot from the last week: a fantasy trilogy just released as a movie, two very different milSF novels, a space operatic milSF, and two nonfiction books. Finally, some collected comics.
Now, where did I put the pithy and trenchant commentary?
Eh, never mind. Here's what I've got instead.
Pullman's trilogy is largely about religious authoritarianism (he's against it), the process of maturation in juvenile H. sapiens, and the difference between between doing good and being good. To these ends, the first book is very good, the second book is quite good, and the ending trails off in a way which suits the points he is making, maturely and thoughtfully, but not, alas, very entertainingly.
-
Cassandra Kresnov, genius supersoldier android, appears for her third novel courtesy of Aussie Joel Shepherd. Still not irritating, even though her boyfriend is a genius white-hat hacker and she lives with a hot bi babe who is a slightly-less super soldier (but not an android). There is little gratuitous sexposition, and some cool action scenes set in urbania, suburbania, and space stations. All of this is on and around the planet Tanusha, where the culture appears to be Sydney with more Indians and Chinese in a liberal Western stew.
-
You know who The Beatles were, and this book is about that, with parallel tracks of political history and musical criticism. Probably a good sourcebook for people wishing to create althistory in which The Beatles stay together longer; you'll need to get Brian Epstein a steady boyfriend around 1967 and keep Lennon away from heroin and Yoko.
-
Michael Lopp is Rands; _Managing Humans_ is a collection of Rands in Repose columns. Blog entries. Whatever. It's fairly sensible.
-
Space Opera! by Sean Williams, in an STL but high-powered physics regime with group intelligences, routine cloning and cyborging, life extension, hibernation, and computational consciousness. Part one of N, and feels it. The protagonist is unconvincingly At The Center Of It All. Tropes are borrowed from Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, and Vinge. To sum it all up: readable.
-
Ms. Damrosch tells about her two years as a waiter at Per Se, a NYC restaurant owned by Thomas "French Laundry" Keller. She's a foodie. This is largely foodie writing. If you like that, you will probably like this.
-
Michael Z. Williamson writes Baen milSF with Ringoid smugness, except that I get the feeling he believes in it, too. Not subtle. For example, a grossly corrupt drug-addled politician-villain is named with a homophone for Kennedy. Features small-unit tactics reminiscent of the better episodes of the A-Team.
-
Mike Mignola is no Warren Ellis, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman. Still, there's something interesting about Hellboy. Does he get better as a writer? We'll see.
-
Mark Millar seems competent at writing X-Men. If you aren't familiar with the Ultimates universe, this isn't going to make much sense to you, though.
_Killswitch_, by Joel Shepherd.
_Can't Buy Me Love : the Beatles, Britain, and America_, by Jonathan Gould.
_Managing Humans : biting and humorous tales of a software engineering manager_, by Michael Lopp.
_Saturn Returns_, by Sean Williams.
_Service Included_, by Phoebe Damrosch
_Better to Beg Forgiveness_, by Michael Z. Williamson
_Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction_, by Mike Mignola
_Ultimate X-Men_ volumes 4, 6, 7 by Mark Millar
A diverse lot from the last week: a fantasy trilogy just released as a movie, two very different milSF novels, a space operatic milSF, and two nonfiction books. Finally, some collected comics.
Now, where did I put the pithy and trenchant commentary?
Eh, never mind. Here's what I've got instead.
Pullman's trilogy is largely about religious authoritarianism (he's against it), the process of maturation in juvenile H. sapiens, and the difference between between doing good and being good. To these ends, the first book is very good, the second book is quite good, and the ending trails off in a way which suits the points he is making, maturely and thoughtfully, but not, alas, very entertainingly.
-
Cassandra Kresnov, genius supersoldier android, appears for her third novel courtesy of Aussie Joel Shepherd. Still not irritating, even though her boyfriend is a genius white-hat hacker and she lives with a hot bi babe who is a slightly-less super soldier (but not an android). There is little gratuitous sexposition, and some cool action scenes set in urbania, suburbania, and space stations. All of this is on and around the planet Tanusha, where the culture appears to be Sydney with more Indians and Chinese in a liberal Western stew.
-
You know who The Beatles were, and this book is about that, with parallel tracks of political history and musical criticism. Probably a good sourcebook for people wishing to create althistory in which The Beatles stay together longer; you'll need to get Brian Epstein a steady boyfriend around 1967 and keep Lennon away from heroin and Yoko.
-
Michael Lopp is Rands; _Managing Humans_ is a collection of Rands in Repose columns. Blog entries. Whatever. It's fairly sensible.
-
Space Opera! by Sean Williams, in an STL but high-powered physics regime with group intelligences, routine cloning and cyborging, life extension, hibernation, and computational consciousness. Part one of N, and feels it. The protagonist is unconvincingly At The Center Of It All. Tropes are borrowed from Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, and Vinge. To sum it all up: readable.
-
Ms. Damrosch tells about her two years as a waiter at Per Se, a NYC restaurant owned by Thomas "French Laundry" Keller. She's a foodie. This is largely foodie writing. If you like that, you will probably like this.
-
Michael Z. Williamson writes Baen milSF with Ringoid smugness, except that I get the feeling he believes in it, too. Not subtle. For example, a grossly corrupt drug-addled politician-villain is named with a homophone for Kennedy. Features small-unit tactics reminiscent of the better episodes of the A-Team.
-
Mike Mignola is no Warren Ellis, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman. Still, there's something interesting about Hellboy. Does he get better as a writer? We'll see.
-
Mark Millar seems competent at writing X-Men. If you aren't familiar with the Ultimates universe, this isn't going to make much sense to you, though.
_The Golden Compass_, _The Subtle Knife_, _The Amber Spyglass_ -- collectively known as His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.
_Killswitch_, by Joel Shepherd.
_Can't Buy Me Love : the Beatles, Britain, and America_, by Jonathan Gould.
_Managing Humans : biting and humorous tales of a software engineering manager_, by Michael Lopp.
_Saturn Returns_, by Sean Williams.
_Service Included_, by Phoebe Damrosch
_Better to Beg Forgiveness_, by Michael Z. Williamson
_Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction_, by Mike Mignola
_Ultimate X-Men_ volumes 4, 6, 7 by Mark Millar
A diverse lot from the last week: a fantasy trilogy just released as a movie, two very different milSF novels, a space operatic milSF, and two nonfiction books. Finally, some collected comics.
Now, where did I put the pithy and trenchant commentary?
Eh, never mind. Here's what I've got instead.
Pullman's trilogy is largely about religious authoritarianism (he's against it), the process of maturation in juvenile H. sapiens, and the difference between between doing good and being good. To these ends, the first book is very good, the second book is quite good, and the ending trails off in a way which suits the points he is making, maturely and thoughtfully, but not, alas, very entertainingly.
-
Cassandra Kresnov, genius supersoldier android, appears for her third novel courtesy of Aussie Joel Shepherd. Still not irritating, even though her boyfriend is a genius white-hat hacker and she lives with a hot bi babe who is a slightly-less super soldier (but not an android). There is little gratuitous sexposition, and some cool action scenes set in urbania, suburbania, and space stations. All of this is on and around the planet Tanusha, where the culture appears to be Sydney with more Indians and Chinese in a liberal Western stew.
-
You know who The Beatles were, and this book is about that, with parallel tracks of political history and musical criticism. Probably a good sourcebook for people wishing to create althistory in which The Beatles stay together longer; you'll need to get Brian Epstein a steady boyfriend around 1967 and keep Lennon away from heroin and Yoko.
-
Michael Lopp is Rands; _Managing Humans_ is a collection of Rands in Repose columns. Blog entries. Whatever. It's fairly sensible.
-
Space Opera! by Sean Williams, in an STL but high-powered physics regime with group intelligences, routine cloning and cyborging, life extension, hibernation, and computational consciousness. Part one of N, and feels it. The protagonist is unconvincingly At The Center Of It All. Tropes are borrowed from Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, and Vinge. To sum it all up: readable.
-
Ms. Damrosch tells about her two years as a waiter at Per Se, a NYC restaurant owned by Thomas "French Laundry" Keller. She's a foodie. This is largely foodie writing. If you like that, you will probably like this.
-
Michael Z. Williamson writes Baen milSF with Ringoid smugness, except that I get the feeling he believes in it, too. Not subtle. For example, a grossly corrupt drug-addled politician-villain is named with a homophone for Kennedy. Features small-unit tactics reminiscent of the better episodes of the A-Team.
-
Mike Mignola is no Warren Ellis, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman. Still, there's something interesting about Hellboy. Does he get better as a writer? We'll see.
-
Mark Millar seems competent at writing X-Men. If you aren't familiar with the Ultimates universe, this isn't going to make much sense to you, though.
_Killswitch_, by Joel Shepherd.
_Can't Buy Me Love : the Beatles, Britain, and America_, by Jonathan Gould.
_Managing Humans : biting and humorous tales of a software engineering manager_, by Michael Lopp.
_Saturn Returns_, by Sean Williams.
_Service Included_, by Phoebe Damrosch
_Better to Beg Forgiveness_, by Michael Z. Williamson
_Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction_, by Mike Mignola
_Ultimate X-Men_ volumes 4, 6, 7 by Mark Millar
A diverse lot from the last week: a fantasy trilogy just released as a movie, two very different milSF novels, a space operatic milSF, and two nonfiction books. Finally, some collected comics.
Now, where did I put the pithy and trenchant commentary?
Eh, never mind. Here's what I've got instead.
Pullman's trilogy is largely about religious authoritarianism (he's against it), the process of maturation in juvenile H. sapiens, and the difference between between doing good and being good. To these ends, the first book is very good, the second book is quite good, and the ending trails off in a way which suits the points he is making, maturely and thoughtfully, but not, alas, very entertainingly.
-
Cassandra Kresnov, genius supersoldier android, appears for her third novel courtesy of Aussie Joel Shepherd. Still not irritating, even though her boyfriend is a genius white-hat hacker and she lives with a hot bi babe who is a slightly-less super soldier (but not an android). There is little gratuitous sexposition, and some cool action scenes set in urbania, suburbania, and space stations. All of this is on and around the planet Tanusha, where the culture appears to be Sydney with more Indians and Chinese in a liberal Western stew.
-
You know who The Beatles were, and this book is about that, with parallel tracks of political history and musical criticism. Probably a good sourcebook for people wishing to create althistory in which The Beatles stay together longer; you'll need to get Brian Epstein a steady boyfriend around 1967 and keep Lennon away from heroin and Yoko.
-
Michael Lopp is Rands; _Managing Humans_ is a collection of Rands in Repose columns. Blog entries. Whatever. It's fairly sensible.
-
Space Opera! by Sean Williams, in an STL but high-powered physics regime with group intelligences, routine cloning and cyborging, life extension, hibernation, and computational consciousness. Part one of N, and feels it. The protagonist is unconvincingly At The Center Of It All. Tropes are borrowed from Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, and Vinge. To sum it all up: readable.
-
Ms. Damrosch tells about her two years as a waiter at Per Se, a NYC restaurant owned by Thomas "French Laundry" Keller. She's a foodie. This is largely foodie writing. If you like that, you will probably like this.
-
Michael Z. Williamson writes Baen milSF with Ringoid smugness, except that I get the feeling he believes in it, too. Not subtle. For example, a grossly corrupt drug-addled politician-villain is named with a homophone for Kennedy. Features small-unit tactics reminiscent of the better episodes of the A-Team.
-
Mike Mignola is no Warren Ellis, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman. Still, there's something interesting about Hellboy. Does he get better as a writer? We'll see.
-
Mark Millar seems competent at writing X-Men. If you aren't familiar with the Ultimates universe, this isn't going to make much sense to you, though.
_Born Standing Up_, Steve Martin
It took 18 years of perseverance before Steve Martin learned to be funny. Along the way, things happened. Then he realized that he had hit his peak and there was nowhere to go but down, so he quit doing standup.
(Now you don't have to read this book, unless you want all the interesting bits.)
It took 18 years of perseverance before Steve Martin learned to be funny. Along the way, things happened. Then he realized that he had hit his peak and there was nowhere to go but down, so he quit doing standup.
(Now you don't have to read this book, unless you want all the interesting bits.)
_Born Standing Up_, Steve Martin
It took 18 years of perseverance before Steve Martin learned to be funny. Along the way, things happened. Then he realized that he had hit his peak and there was nowhere to go but down, so he quit doing standup.
(Now you don't have to read this book, unless you want all the interesting bits.)
It took 18 years of perseverance before Steve Martin learned to be funny. Along the way, things happened. Then he realized that he had hit his peak and there was nowhere to go but down, so he quit doing standup.
(Now you don't have to read this book, unless you want all the interesting bits.)