You know, I liked this book. If you had asked me when I initially started reading you probably would have gotten a different answer. The one main issue I had through the book was the short sentence writing style. Everything is short sentences. That’s the one thing that drove me up the wall with The Mirrored Heavens. Don’t get me wrong, that style works really well in the action sequences in the book. Just not for an entire book. I stuck with it because the story was interesting and I wanted to see where it went.
I’m glad I did.
This is the first novel by one of Stacy’s fellow Clarion West 2007 class mates. Stacy had picked it up when it was first published and mentioned I’d probably like it.
If you’re looking for a good sci-fi book, lots of action, interesting plot lines and can get over the short sentences, I’d say give it a whirl.
Well, 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons has been released. I’ve been waiting for this for a while now and had the box set on order from Amazon since February.
There are a lot of changes in this edition. We’ll have to give a play to determine which are good and which are bad. Some will be missed out of nostalgia I think. I liked rolling my hit points even though I rolled a lot of 1s. It made the leveling that much more unique.
But then, some of the changes make sense. In fact, I specifically said fuck, that just makes sense at least once. Which greatly confused Stacy to which I had to explain that 3.x D&D has the knowledges as specific skills where D&D 4 bundles the knowledge with the other skills.
I’ve also got a copy of Keep on the Shadowfell which I’ve been reading through and am hoping to run once I can gather a few of our group together.
Thank bog. This book was excellent. Totally washed away the funk left by Spook Country. Go, read Little Brother. Go.
I’m talking to you, go.
Fine, you don’t want to pay for it, go read it for free (legally even). Just go read it.
This was one of those books that at 1am I’d say, fuck, just one more chapter. At 2am I’d crawl into bed as my eyes were drooping too much. This is by far one of the best books I’ve read so far this year (and one that stepped up my sleep deprivation a notch).
On recommendation, from the excellent bibliography in the back of the book, I’m thinking of heading down to the used book store to try to pick up a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
So, in conclusion, kudos Cory. Another excellent creation.
Didn’t I just tell you to go read it? Go, damn it.
I do a lot of programming in my spare time. I enjoy programming so that kind of makes sense. During University we had to take courses in algorithm design. At the time I wasn’t really into it but after spending a few years in the field, as it were, I’ve grown a fondness for designing fast, efficient and, in some cases, sexy algorithms.
To that end, I picked up a copy of The Algorithm Design Manual which I’d heard a few people mention as being a good book. I have to say, I agree with them.
This book works really well. The first half is a discussion of different types of algorithms and contains war stories which discuss actual instances where the author needed to call upon the previous topics. The last half the book is a reference manual of algorithms. These can come in quite handy when you’re looking for information on a specific topic.
I found it quite easy to sit down and read through the first half the book. Although, I admit, dynamic programming and backtracking still trips me up. The author has a writting style that works. As a bonus the book comes with a CD containing the information in the book. Much easier to search and carry around with you. A great addition by whoever thought it up.
All in all, if you do programming work this is a good book to read.
I’ve had Spook Country on my shelf for a while now. I’ve read a bunch of William Gibson books but my interest has been waining. I was pretty put off after reading Pattern Recognition but I thought, hey, this is the author of Neuromancer, how can I go wrong?
Well, wrong is where I went.
I had a lot of trouble getting into this one. I only really finished it because I had a flight to Seattle and back that needed filling (along with some time flying to Pasadena). I struggled through but even at the end I just thought, that’s the end? I didn’t get engaged with any of the characters and felt no desire to stay up until 2am at any point to read just one more chapter.
So, now the problem I’m trying to solve is, do I go back and re-read Neuromancer? Is it going to get crushed under the weight of how I remember it? I think it was grade 9 English (or was it 10?) that I first read Neuromancer. That’s a long time ago now.
So, instead I’m moving on to Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I’ve read a bunch of Doctorow books lately and have loved them all so I’m looking forward to this one.