norb

This is a really fun book. I guess this is like a whole genre? I had no idea.

Ok so this feels like it’s going to be a lot deeper than it appears on the surface (I am sorry for the heavy handed pun - maybe I’m channeling this book a bit in my review!). In other words I’m quite intrigued where the world building is going to go.

I appreciate a story that gives you bits and pieces of knowledge for paying close attention to some of the details. Learning about the world is almost more interesting than learning about Carl.

I’m excited to see where the next one goes!

Mild spoilers ahead, I guess.

An entertaining story but I did find it dragging a bit by the end. The overall plot isn't that deep, the main character isn't either - most of the "one shot" characters seem to have more personality than the one we're with most of the story. I guess this book also shows it's age in a lot of ways. A bit of casual misogyny here and there. Sex stuff that feels like it's just there to be there. There was an eventual "explanation" for where the bad rats came from, and end had one twist that turned into a cliff-hanger kind of.

Not a terrible book, but not an amazing one. I have more Herbert in my library to check out (including the next two in this series) that I will get to eventually, so not so bad as to put me off trying more of his books.

Another great entry in the Murderbot series. I always get through these stories quickly then immediately want more.

A solid ending to an above average series. I think the authors really landed this the best they could.

I particularly enjoyed Holden’s arc. Him coming full circle to make the moral sacrifice felt right. Having Amos be the representative of Sol system at the end felt like a bit of fan service to me. Overall Amos was kind of a blank slate. The bits of his background that we got over the course of the series were interesting but he still wasn’t that deep of a character.

That said I really enjoyed this series. As far as “epics” go I don’t think you can ask for much more.

These stories are great. A bit of sci-fi kind of, a bit of literary fiction kind of. I’d not read any Waldrop before but will see what else of his I can find.

This one went faster and was a better read than the last one. I’m very interested to see where the story goes from here. I feel like they have all the pieces in place now to carry the story to the end. Looking forward to the next one!

I've never read anything else by O'Neil, other than maybe an article he wrote at one time but didn't realize it was him. I found this book visceral, insightful, sad, and also humorous (sometimes all in the same story). Most of these stories are just a few pages long, but there's almost always something interesting in them; a good insight, a good joke, a good turn of phrase. I'm not sure if it's that the author and I would appear to be similar ages, but a lot of the thoughts he put down really resonated with me. This might be one of those books that hits different at different ages.

I thought this one dragged a bit. The plot was just OK. A bit of plot armor here and there. The villain was overly villainous and pretty one dimensional. Still an enjoyable read, but not as good as the first three.

Wow! I really, really liked this book. It was not at all what I expected. The entire premise is just absurd. I expected the story to also be just as absurd, but it ... wasn't.

Scalzi has approached this book, like his last two, from a point of realism. The premise is, of course, absolutely insane. The moon becomes “cheese” (an organic matrix I think is the way book NASA states it). That is impossible! But the book characters also know it is impossible!

The entire structure of this isn't much of a story. It's more a rumination on what might the moon turning to cheese really be like? How might people react? What might some real consequences be? Each chapter is a day of the lunar cycle, and they focus on different people. There are some repeat characters and some mentions of characters across chapters, but really the Cheese Moon (Of course Scalzi gives us a “real” name for it - Caseus) is the main character.

About 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through, there is a real bit of danger that comes kind of out of nowhere. And from then on the book becomes a series of explorations of death, of relationships, and of consequences.

And then there's the end. I marked this for spoilers, so here's the spoiler. The moon just turns back to normal at the end of the lunar cycle. No explanation given - just like none was given for why it changed in the first place. It was really a huge Steven King moment for me (an ending that is just kind of like ... well I don't know where to go next so yeah it was insert easy way out). And for a minute I was like “Oh no Scalzi... not you too!”

But then, the last two chapters. One 10 years out and one I think 100 years out, I didn't do the math... those two, very short chapters are what sold me. Those two chapters made the ending have a point. They showed us one of our major flaws, which is that hindsight is never 20/20. History is never what we think it is. And, given enough time and enough misinformation and enough humanity - we will forget the truth. We will make it something else. And that was a powerful ending to the dumbest premise ever turned into a full novel.

Overall I found these books to be a relatively quick reads. The premise is good. Keanu Reeves, I mean B/Unute, is a demigod (maybe? or he's an alien? Or something else?) who can't die. Well he can die but he comes back from an egg. Either way, he's been alive for tens of thousands of years. He's seen and done it all. He has a perfect memory. He's now working for the governement as a special forces type soldier, out doing special forces things except instead of fighting bad guys, he's out collecting weird artifacts for the government to use in experiments on him.

Overall, the story is rather shallow. Where the novel really outshines the comics is the additional world building and background on Unute. The comics I think actually did a better job at exploring a bit more of Unute's past, but he's pretty one dimensional here.

I preferred the overall plot of the novel to these volumes. I feel like the comics took the “easy way out” at the end, even though they left something else to follow. The end of the novel felt more satisfying to me.

All in all though, I enjoyed these and will explore the other entries at some point.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I did not know about the comic it is based off of before I picked it up. I wasn't sure what role Keanu Reeves had vs. China Miéville. This book has some of the dense prose that I would expect from a Miéville book, but also is a bit toned down in that regard as it compares to some of his other work I've read. In other words, there were less bits where I was just going WTF? and trying to get through it to figure out what the hell was going on.

So you have a guy who can't die? What does that really look like? I thought the explanations for how that has effected B (or Unute, our protagonist) very well thought out. There are sections of the book where he just seems like Bill Murray in Groundhog day, just doing whatever the fuck he wants and not caring about what comes from it. There are sections where he's found a “regular” human to spend some time with. You can tell that he still feels for the people around him, even if he knows they are temporary and he'll encounter countless others in the future.

I liked that the philosophical aspects are not quite front and center. I liked that the story was a mystery within other mysteries. The ending was good, but kind of unsatisfying? It left room for more stories, which I would happily read if they write them.

All in all, this was a good read and I'll check out the comics too. The intro implies that this story isn't like those, which intrigues me.

This book is very well researched and documents the path the Sandworm hackers traversed over a number of years. I found the insight into Russian use of hacking in their overall worldview to be really interesting. Greenberg does a great job connecting all the dots and laying out a very solid explanation of GRU's hacking operations (beyond just the headline grabbing ICS attacks).

I am beginning to understand why people that work in ICS security are also some of the most off-the-grid-prepper types out there. I think the US is undermining all of us to keep a “competitive advantage.” In the end, like the leaked NSA tools, it will be used against us. I for one won't be able to see I didn't see it coming.

Finished this rather quickly. There was a lot of motivational speech, and a bit of Willink's life philosophy, but not much to explain WHY his method provides “freedom.”

The other reviewer who mentioned it reads “like a series of small blog posts” hit the nail on the head.

I did enjoy this, but didn't get exactly what I was hoping out of it.

A good finish to the series. A few of the things wrapped up a little too neatly, but also some surprises at the end.

I enjoyed that we get to see Juliette united with Charlotte and move toward the start of their next adventure with the survivors from Silos 17/18.

I am wondering what else the author has planned with these characters. The bit about the people from 17 being “wrong” (i.e. “infected” by Anna with the nanobots that keep the people in Silo 1 alive/healthy for so long) seems too good to pass up!

I enjoyed how Howey weaved in the reasons behind what happened mostly in the background, but did make it pretty explicit what happened by the end, so if you missed some of the hints you weren't left completely clueless. I think that bit above about the Silo 17 survivors having healing nanobots being one of the last things left (mostly) unsaid.

Great series!

The prose is short, but also enough. I'm not sure how he cut down seven years into these relatively few pages, but it works.

I found the honesty here refreshing. There are some themes that I think are woven throughout, but not shoved in your face.

Overall a great read.

Great follow up to Wool. Didn't go where I thought it would - but glad Howey did what he did.

The edition I have had a nice afterword from the author and I appreciated the insight to his thought process for the plot.

I liked going back to see how it all ended up (or started?) where it did in Wool. Getting Solo's story was fantastic. Finding out why the silos were made (fanatics!! Who'da think? Yes I'm being sarcastic there) was a good choice as well.

Looking forward to the rest of Juliette's story. Interested to see if/when she meets Donald.

I greatly enjoyed this book. I had heard about it awhile ago, but never checked it out. A friend lent me their copy and I've had it sitting on my desk for a few months. Finally got around to reading it on vacation and couldn't put it down.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tone of this book. While the premise is dark, and some of the lore that is slowly doled out even darker, the general tone is strangely positive.

I did fear for the main character as Howey almost reaches GRRM levels of murdering off characters. I do like that approach as it makes the stakes better for me as a reader. It's better if there some danger in there somewhere, for me anyways.

Looking forward to the other books in the series.

And I will have to go back and check out the show now, to see how it stands up (not as good as the book, I am sure - but are they ever??).

What a strange book. Many questions posed, few answered. Conversations that you have to follow on your own. Punctuation optional. If you don't like how thick McCarthy's writing can get, you definitely do not want to read this one. I found that I could only handle a chapter (or less) at a time because I had to think so hard and pay attention to what was going on. I re-read many lines to try to understand them. Re-read entire passages to figure out who was actually speaking.

I've read a number of other McCarthy books, so I knew what I was getting into, vocabulary wise. I think as you get used to his style it gets easier to read, though.

A lot of philosophical ideas presented in the conversations between the main character and his cast of “friends.” Western's role in the story felt more like a sponge for pain than an actual part of the plot. He seems to move along without much driving him, outside of avoiding something or someone or somewhere. There isn't much there there, when it comes to him. The real interesting characters are those around him. If you want a hero, he is not that. If you want a vessel for yourself, then you're on to something.

There were times that I felt like McCarthy was speaking directly to the reader. Times where he seems to apologize that the story isn't what we expect. Maybe even times where he talks down to us. Does Cormac McCarthy secretly hold a doctorate in mathematics or physics? He clearly has an idea who shot Kennedy.

Would I say this was as good as The Road? No. Suttree? Maybe. Better than Child of God, IMHO. A book I could see myself coming back to in 10 years and finding new things to learn. I enjoyed the challenge, which I always do with McCarthy's books.

I've had this book recommended to me personally as well on several lists of “cybersecurity books everyone should read” so I finally got around to reading it.

The story, while slightly repetitive, unfolds in a first person, linear style. I found the book easy to read, and while the cybersecurity ideas presented seems commonplace today, I think they were probably groundbreaking when the book came out.

I found it fascinating that Cliff's use of a logbook, external monitoring systems, a pager, a very early form of a “canary token,” and a few other technical ideas are still in use today. (OK, maybe not the pager exactly but lots of IT people get text alerts on their phones!)

His inability to get any help from the 3 Letter Federal Agencies was not surprising. It took 9/11 to fix some of those communication problems (but not all from what I understand).

Anyways, this is a fascinating look at how one person laid the path for the future of cybersecurity incident response. While the technical details probably aren't relevant in this day and age (1200 baud modems, anyone?) this book should be required reading for anyone that has a personal or professional interest in cybersecurity.

I've never read any Nabokov before. Had never been really interested in Lolita, just due to the noise around it. Decided to read this book on a whim because it was available at my local library and I needed something for a trip.

I am glad I picked this one! I found this book confusing in a good way. What is the point? I think it's meant to be a bit of a lark on Russian emigres, and university culture in general (something I have first hand knowledge of). It was much funnier than I expected (a bit more on that later).

Pnin is a very interesting character. His description really reminded me of Gru from Despicable Me, down to the funny accent and way of speaking. (Maybe they cribbed him for the movie? I have no idea.)

The little vignettes give a view into this man's strange world. His past is interwoven with his present, kind of. The narrator/writer clearly has a fondness for the main character, and you kind of find out why by the end.

There isn't much conflict to the story. There aren't many big, dramatic moments. There are some very funny bits - to whit “The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense.” I had to read it 3 or 4 times to get it, but when I did HA! Other little one liners and “throw away” jokes abound. There are bits of other languages (especially Russian), mostly phonetically written in English, and I think probably a few jokes in those snippets that I didn't get.

Overall, it was a pretty lighthearted read about a character that is both believable and unbelievable at the same time. By the end, you are kind of left to question if the stories are actually true or not since they are being recounted second- and possibly third-hand, but it probably doesn't really matter, which is maybe the point.

I will definitely check out more Nabokov. The Luzhin Defense seems interesting for sure!

Once again, Martha Wells spins out a fun Muderbot tale.

I've enjoyed the journey that Wells has taken us on in regards to Murderbot's progress to more “humanity.”

In many ways, Murderbot is often the most humane of characters in these stories as it is always putting itself in danger before the “real” humans.

I enjoyed that as these books have progressed, SecUnit has had to become more human for survival, but also apparently for it's own self improvement. As it ran out of more and more drones in this story, it even commented on how being a human must be terrible.

I'm always impressed with Wells' ability to put the reader into the shoes of something that is inherently not human, but yet still shows us a better side of humanity.

Cybersecurity is my job, so I came into this book with some amount of knowledge of the subject, but I still found it a fascinating read.

At first, I was slightly annoyed that Shapiro was making up new words (downcode, upcode, metacode) to describe things we already have word for in the industry, but as I read the book I started to see why he's using these words.

Shapiro does a great job of using the ideas of downcode (what you might consider regular computer code), upcode (generally the ethics or rules that the computer user has), and metacode (the rules that exist “above” the user, such as laws). By defining these three ideas, Shapiro makes the case that cybersecurity is not a technology problem at all, but rather a human problem.

This idea is something that I've tried to instill in others at my day job, but it is something that is hard for people to understand, even those that work in the IT/cybersecurity industry. Many technical people think you can solve all problems via technical means. This is what Shaprio calls “solutionism” near the end of this book (if I remember correctly, the word “solutionism” is actually coined by someone else).

I found myself comparing this book to another one I read recently, A City on Mars by Zach and Kelly Weinersmith. Both of these books take what is ostensibly a “technical problem” and then start to apply the human element to it, with the end result being about the same. Technology cannot and will not solve all of our problems. We really have to do it in the messy human world.

I really enjoyed the breadth (and depth) of the analysis the Weinersmith's make in this book. The science-y bits were great, but the law related pieces were the most interesting in my opinion.

I think their point about how space exploration geeks just completely skip over law was really insightful. The fact that we already have international law that most likely applies to the moon, and the different reasons why powerful countries agree to international law or not, was interesting.

After reading this book, I came away significantly less enthusiastic about a settlement on Mars (or the Moon) however I still, like the authors, think it is a good use of time and money if done the right way.

I enjoyed this book. The pacing and overall tone reminded me of John Scalzi or Joe Abercrombie. The plot is predictable in places, but that doesn't really hurt the story. There are a number of moments where just the right thing happens at just the right time, and the story does get a little into the “nothing real bad will happen and if it does it will be ok later” territory, but for the most part that didn't bother me.

If you are looking for a deep thinking, obtuse plot where nothing is spelled out for you, this book is not that. If you're looking for a fun read with interesting takes on fantasy tropes, with more or less likable characters, this might be more your speed.

All in all it was an enjoyable read and I will check out the sequel at some point.

I've not read anything else by Ted Chiang, and after getting this I noticed he also wrote the story that Arrival was based on (which I have seen and enjoyed) so I was looking forward to this.

The stories collected here all share a common humanity, while they are still kind of sci-fi based (and one isn't even written from the point of view of a human).

These stories definately made me think, but especially The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (I am a sucker for time travel stories, and this one works better than a lot of them because of the way the premise is set up), The Lifecycle of Software Objects (the story notes at the end really shed some light on the author's intent with this one), The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling (a wonderful exploration of memory and how it effects us), and Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom (a bit of a con-man story with some sci-fi trappings - really interesting premise).

I will definitely need to check out his other collection and go from there!