The Book Review Thread.
03-05-2012, 03:21 PM
#25
Boost Pope
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This.
I'm glad I'm not the only one with a taste for cheap fiction. The paperback section of my bookshelves is stuffed with Cussler, Grisham, Crichton, and Preston & Child.
If you've never read Preston & Child, their stuff is very much along the same vein as Dirk Pitt, however there tends to be a continuity of both villains and ancillary characters across novels, which makes is necessary to read certain of the novels in a particular order (eg: you wouldn't read Reliquary before Relic, or any of the Diogenes Trilogy out of order.)
Lincoln Child also has a couple of good solo works, such as Utopia, which might be criticized as being a mashup of Westworld and Jurassic Park, but was still good in-flight reading.
On Cussler, I really liked his solo works (Dirk Pitt), but after he started co-authoring, I felt the work really went to crap. The Paul Kemprecos / Kurt Austin stuff was tolerable, but all the rest of it was just felgercarb.
Same thing happened with Tom Clancy. The original Jack Ryan saga, while occasionally a bit dense, was good reading. Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games, Clear & Preset Danger, etc. But when he started putting his name on all of the Op-Center / NetForce / etc stuff, I kind of wished that he'd died while he was still on top. (Though I must admit, the whole Guided Tour nonfiction series, much of which was written after he otherwise started to suck, was excellent.)
If you've never read Preston & Child, their stuff is very much along the same vein as Dirk Pitt, however there tends to be a continuity of both villains and ancillary characters across novels, which makes is necessary to read certain of the novels in a particular order (eg: you wouldn't read Reliquary before Relic, or any of the Diogenes Trilogy out of order.)
Lincoln Child also has a couple of good solo works, such as Utopia, which might be criticized as being a mashup of Westworld and Jurassic Park, but was still good in-flight reading.
On Cussler, I really liked his solo works (Dirk Pitt), but after he started co-authoring, I felt the work really went to crap. The Paul Kemprecos / Kurt Austin stuff was tolerable, but all the rest of it was just felgercarb.
Same thing happened with Tom Clancy. The original Jack Ryan saga, while occasionally a bit dense, was good reading. Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games, Clear & Preset Danger, etc. But when he started putting his name on all of the Op-Center / NetForce / etc stuff, I kind of wished that he'd died while he was still on top. (Though I must admit, the whole Guided Tour nonfiction series, much of which was written after he otherwise started to suck, was excellent.)
Last edited by Joe Perez; 03-05-2012 at 05:02 PM. Reason: schpelling
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03-05-2012, 03:25 PM
#27
Boost Czar
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Joe I think you'd like the Issac Bell series. He's a pimp and drives fast cars and fast ladies.
I love all Dan Brown's books too. Digital Fortress is nerdy without being overdone.
I love all Dan Brown's books too. Digital Fortress is nerdy without being overdone.
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03-05-2012, 04:07 PM
#28
Boost Pope
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I did read Connelly's "Black Ice" many years ago, and I recall not much caring for it, though I couldn't really recall the specifics as to why.
Honestly, most of what I read for pleasure is nonfiction relating to the early-modern history of computing, with special emphasis on the microprocessor era and early networking, as well as the hacker / phreaker culture of the 1980s.
A few titles at random, every single one of which I recommend.
Hackers (the seminal history of modern computing, if ever there was one.)
Fire in the Valley (better than Hackers.)
Dealers of Lightning (the Xerox PARC story)
Accidental Empires (Birth of the Personal Computer era)
The Cuckoo's Egg (best hacker story of all time.)
Where Wizards Stay Up Late (genesis of the ARPANET / Internet)
Commodore: A Company on the Edge (obvious, and an excellent read if you ever cared at all about C=)
Racing the Beam (the Atari 2600 story)
iCon (a fairly honest look at Jobs' "second act")
Revolution in The Valley (the story of the Mac)
iWoz (A really good bio of the "other" Steve)
Masters of Deception (the whole MOD / LOD hacker war- best hacker/phreaker book ever written)
The Watchman (the exploits of Kevin Poulsen aka Dark Dante)
Takedown (the tracking and capture of Kevin Mitnick)
Hard Drive (a slightly self-serving but still very interesting bio of Gates and the early Microsoft era)
Masters of Doom (John Carmack and John Romero)
Insanely Great (the early Mac era)
The Future Was Here (The Amiga story)
ENIAC (The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer)
A Few Good Men From Univac (more early computing history)
A few other random titles:
Blind Man's Bluff (true stores of the cold-war submarine service. Mine is autographed by Whitey Mack.)
Computing Across America (hard to find, but a good adventure story by Steven K. Roberts, the guy who rode across the country on the ultimate geek bicycle.)
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03-05-2012, 04:23 PM
#29
Black Ice was Connelly's second book after Black Echo...those first two books are pretty uneven and I think his writing improved greatly by the 3rd and 4th books (Concrete Blonde and Last Coyote, respectively).
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03-05-2012, 05:13 PM
#30
Boost Pope
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This time, you'll appreciate them.
Joseph Wambaugh's "The New Centurions" is a good read. It's a sort of biographical fiction about life on the beat of the LAPD in the 1960s, written by someone who was, in fact, an LAPD cop in the 1960s. Despite being fiction, this was actually assigned reading in one of the law courses I took as an undergrad, and yet it was such a good book that I've actually hung onto it all these years later. Come to think of it, he's written many novels since, and I've never read any of them. Add to list.
Oh, and I can't believe I forgot Steven Coonts. Start with "Flight of the Intruder" and just work your way forward until you get to "Liberty." Then stop, because if you go any further you'll encounter the character of Tommy Carmellini, who is the Kurt Austin of military fiction. You can skip over that whole series and read "Saucer" and "Saucer: The Conquest" if you want. They're a tad silly in places, but tolerable for long layovers at ATL or DFW.
At any rate, if you consider yourself at all a geek, I can't stress the following enough:
I have purchased a couple of these books 2-3 times each, as over the years I've given away / forgotten in airplanes / etc several copies. I can't not have a copy of each of these on the shelf at all times.
Joseph Wambaugh's "The New Centurions" is a good read. It's a sort of biographical fiction about life on the beat of the LAPD in the 1960s, written by someone who was, in fact, an LAPD cop in the 1960s. Despite being fiction, this was actually assigned reading in one of the law courses I took as an undergrad, and yet it was such a good book that I've actually hung onto it all these years later. Come to think of it, he's written many novels since, and I've never read any of them. Add to list.
Oh, and I can't believe I forgot Steven Coonts. Start with "Flight of the Intruder" and just work your way forward until you get to "Liberty." Then stop, because if you go any further you'll encounter the character of Tommy Carmellini, who is the Kurt Austin of military fiction. You can skip over that whole series and read "Saucer" and "Saucer: The Conquest" if you want. They're a tad silly in places, but tolerable for long layovers at ATL or DFW.
At any rate, if you consider yourself at all a geek, I can't stress the following enough:
I have purchased a couple of these books 2-3 times each, as over the years I've given away / forgotten in airplanes / etc several copies. I can't not have a copy of each of these on the shelf at all times.
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03-06-2012, 12:16 AM
#32
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I've read a bunch of Michael Connelly books - especially of the Harry Bosch series - and I always get a kick out of 'em. Good, solid, page-turning entertainment, especially on vacation.
Also a fan of Christopher Moore and his bat-s crazy books. Funny stuff, great characters, fun reading, etc etc etc. I recommend starting with . I read it in one sitting...
I read a while back, and it was a helluva book. Lots of incestuous global networking in the auto industry that I didn't know about.
I also just finished , and it got me all excited for baseball this year. Then I realized that Michael Lewis also wrote The Blind Side, so I picked it up as well. It's not at all the Sandy Bullock chick flick story I figured it to be. Next on my Michael Lewis list is - I hear that's a good one...
I've read twice. It's rambling and thinky and a little bit crazy, but it was very good, IMO.
was the first Tim Cahill book I read, and I've been back to the well many times since. He used to be a regular writer/editor for Outside magazine, which led me to...
Jon Krakauer. I started with Into Thin Air and Into The Wild. Both were excellent, well-written reads of the adventure-writing sort of genre. Then I got into his in-depth investigative journalism stuff - Under The Banner Of Heaven and . All of them are excellent, well-written books.
I could keep rambling... early Hunter S. Thompson stuff is awesome (Fear and Loathing Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72). PJ O'Rourke is always entertaining. Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, and Penthouse Letters all deserve an honorable mention. Happy reading...
Also a fan of Christopher Moore and his bat-s crazy books. Funny stuff, great characters, fun reading, etc etc etc. I recommend starting with . I read it in one sitting...
I read a while back, and it was a helluva book. Lots of incestuous global networking in the auto industry that I didn't know about.
I also just finished , and it got me all excited for baseball this year. Then I realized that Michael Lewis also wrote The Blind Side, so I picked it up as well. It's not at all the Sandy Bullock chick flick story I figured it to be. Next on my Michael Lewis list is - I hear that's a good one...
I've read twice. It's rambling and thinky and a little bit crazy, but it was very good, IMO.
was the first Tim Cahill book I read, and I've been back to the well many times since. He used to be a regular writer/editor for Outside magazine, which led me to...
Jon Krakauer. I started with Into Thin Air and Into The Wild. Both were excellent, well-written reads of the adventure-writing sort of genre. Then I got into his in-depth investigative journalism stuff - Under The Banner Of Heaven and . All of them are excellent, well-written books.
I could keep rambling... early Hunter S. Thompson stuff is awesome (Fear and Loathing Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72). PJ O'Rourke is always entertaining. Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, and Penthouse Letters all deserve an honorable mention. Happy reading...
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03-08-2012, 01:43 PM
#36
I'd recommend this book to anyone here, really, but especially anyone who grew up with late 70's through 80's pop culture and the tech revolution. And especially Joe Perez.
by Ernest Cline
Publisher marketing:
My summary: equal parts 1980's pop culture nostalgia and future-tech adventure story. Two thumbs up.
by Ernest Cline
Publisher marketing:
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
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03-09-2012, 02:45 PM
#38
On that topic, I had a customer this morning that came in to purchase a particular book. He was already reading it on his Kindle, but wanted a hard copy ...because he was traveling today, and he wanted the freedom to continue reading during the interval of time when the stewardess (whoops, flight attendant) tells you to please turn off all electronic equipment.
That was a first for me.
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03-09-2012, 03:35 PM
#39
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wow this is like the nerdiest reading list ever!
let me add my two cents. Note when I say "sci fi" I don't mean LAZERS in SPACE SHIPS. I mean novels that are fictitious with pretty hefty science themes. I could suggest some spaceyfiction but with a few exceptions most of what I've read was mysoginistic 1960s Heinlein-esque stuff where dudes drink and smoke and bang chicks all the time. I'll spare you all.
These aren't reviews, but they are excellent reads and authors.
Neal Stephenson (for the brainy nerds):
Snow Crash
Cryptonomicon
Diamond Age
Anathem (a little less computer and a little more physics)
Haruki Murakami: (mindbending, brainy fiction with some romance subplots)
The Wind Up Bird Chronichle
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (blow your mind fiction)
Anything Vonnegut wrote up until the last year or two before he died.
Christopher Moore (known for baudy irreverent comedy, sometimes slapstick)
Fool (silly jestery period stuff)
Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Coyote Blue
Fluke (hilarious sciencey fiction)
Margaret Atwood (you'll never know you're reading a woman sci fi author)
Oryx and Crake (genetic modification sciencey fiction)
The Year of the Flood (companion to above)
The Blind Assassin (not yet read but have on hand)
The Handmaids Tale (not yet read but have on hand)
Jose Saramago
Blindness (you'll sh@t your pants type thriller)
Meh maybe more later.
let me add my two cents. Note when I say "sci fi" I don't mean LAZERS in SPACE SHIPS. I mean novels that are fictitious with pretty hefty science themes. I could suggest some spaceyfiction but with a few exceptions most of what I've read was mysoginistic 1960s Heinlein-esque stuff where dudes drink and smoke and bang chicks all the time. I'll spare you all.
These aren't reviews, but they are excellent reads and authors.
Neal Stephenson (for the brainy nerds):
Snow Crash
Cryptonomicon
Diamond Age
Anathem (a little less computer and a little more physics)
Haruki Murakami: (mindbending, brainy fiction with some romance subplots)
The Wind Up Bird Chronichle
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (blow your mind fiction)
Anything Vonnegut wrote up until the last year or two before he died.
Christopher Moore (known for baudy irreverent comedy, sometimes slapstick)
Fool (silly jestery period stuff)
Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Coyote Blue
Fluke (hilarious sciencey fiction)
Margaret Atwood (you'll never know you're reading a woman sci fi author)
Oryx and Crake (genetic modification sciencey fiction)
The Year of the Flood (companion to above)
The Blind Assassin (not yet read but have on hand)
The Handmaids Tale (not yet read but have on hand)
Jose Saramago
Blindness (you'll sh@t your pants type thriller)
Meh maybe more later.
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03-09-2012, 03:45 PM
#40
Boost Pope
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What's worse is that all this recent Kindle discussion has opened my eyes to a whole new world of intellectual property theft. My resistance is breaking down rapidly.
Haha, that's remarkable!
It also opens some questions.
Technically, a Kindle can't really be "turned off", can it? What I mean is that unlike a tablet or even a Fire, the e-ink technology doesn't require any power to maintain its display. Much like core memory of the 1960s, it just sits there happily retaining its last contents until it is refreshed.
On my last flight, which was a Delta 737 from JFK -> SAN, I spent some time digging through the in-flight magazine looking at the list of approved electronic devices. A few things really caught my eye.
For one, they've specifically banned e-cigs. I'm kind of surprised that they even knew to do this in the first place, and I am going to continue to flagrantly violate this rule.
They also specifically allow you to use electric shavers "at any time". Really? I mean, for one, who shaves on an airplane? For two, who shaves on an airplane while sitting in their seat with their seatbelt fastened, which would be the only reason for electric shavers to be in the "any time" list, as opposed to the "above 10,000 feet" list. And for three, wouldn't a battery-powered electric shaver (with a brushed DC motor) put off a whole hell of a lot more RFI than damn near anything else imaginable?
But there's no mention at all of e-readers. They covered pacemakers, digital watches, electronic nerve stimulators, digital cassette tape player/recorders (!?), and electric shavers. But no e-readers.
Does that mean they're totally banned? Totally unrestricted? Believed to fall into some other category?
On that topic, I had a customer this morning that came in to purchase a particular book. He was already reading it on his Kindle, but wanted a hard copy ...because he was traveling today, and he wanted the freedom to continue reading during the interval of time when the stewardess (whoops, flight attendant) tells you to please turn off all electronic equipment.
It also opens some questions.
Technically, a Kindle can't really be "turned off", can it? What I mean is that unlike a tablet or even a Fire, the e-ink technology doesn't require any power to maintain its display. Much like core memory of the 1960s, it just sits there happily retaining its last contents until it is refreshed.
On my last flight, which was a Delta 737 from JFK -> SAN, I spent some time digging through the in-flight magazine looking at the list of approved electronic devices. A few things really caught my eye.
For one, they've specifically banned e-cigs. I'm kind of surprised that they even knew to do this in the first place, and I am going to continue to flagrantly violate this rule.
They also specifically allow you to use electric shavers "at any time". Really? I mean, for one, who shaves on an airplane? For two, who shaves on an airplane while sitting in their seat with their seatbelt fastened, which would be the only reason for electric shavers to be in the "any time" list, as opposed to the "above 10,000 feet" list. And for three, wouldn't a battery-powered electric shaver (with a brushed DC motor) put off a whole hell of a lot more RFI than damn near anything else imaginable?
But there's no mention at all of e-readers. They covered pacemakers, digital watches, electronic nerve stimulators, digital cassette tape player/recorders (!?), and electric shavers. But no e-readers.
Does that mean they're totally banned? Totally unrestricted? Believed to fall into some other category?
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