Easily one of the best science fiction books I've read in a long time. I picked it up on a whim from the library, and I'm very glad I did.
Ean Lambert Easily one of the best science fiction books I've read in a long time. I picked it up on a whim from the library, and I'm very glad I did.
Ean Lambert is a misfit: a partially self-trained linesman, which are the people who manipulate the lines -- living energy -- into transporting ships through the void in speak to travel enormous distances. But there's more to the lines than even the linesmen know. When an alien ship and a strange confluence of lines show up in space, Ean is dragged into figuring out what's going on.
The world-building is terrific, and the characters well-drawn, if a bit one-dimensional. (Thankfully, each is a different dimension.). The plot moves along nicely. There's just enough politics and personality to make the characters' motivations realistic, without getting bogged down in too much detail....more
Pretty good motivational investing book. Comes across as a sales pitch for a business he's affiliated with, though.Pretty good motivational investing book. Comes across as a sales pitch for a business he's affiliated with, though....more
Serious editing issues and immature writing plagued the book. I couldn't finish it.Serious editing issues and immature writing plagued the book. I couldn't finish it....more
This is an amazing book, though the title might be more accurately, "Who Wrote the First Half of the Bible." In it, Richard Elliott Friedman lays out This is an amazing book, though the title might be more accurately, "Who Wrote the First Half of the Bible." In it, Richard Elliott Friedman lays out an evidentiary case for who wrote which parts of the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) and some of the following historical books (Joshua, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles), along with a few of the prophets (Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezra).
He lays out the case for four primary sources for the Pentateuch, and lays out when they might have been written or assembled, and by whom. His evidence is compelling. The book is well written and easily readable by a lay-person with no special training in Biblical history.
My only gripe with the book is that he touches very lightly on some of the confounding factors that make Biblical attribution difficult, especially where they may contradict his thesis. And it's too short -- doesn't cover some of the other major books like Isaiah. :)...more
Intriguing idea about a girl getting treatments to wipe out her memory. She can't remember why. Then someone tries to kill her, and things get complicIntriguing idea about a girl getting treatments to wipe out her memory. She can't remember why. Then someone tries to kill her, and things get complicated in a hurry....more
Marisa is a risk-taker, a hacker, and a member of the Cherry Dogs, a team in the MMORPG Overworld, in the not-so-distant future, where cybernetic braiMarisa is a risk-taker, a hacker, and a member of the Cherry Dogs, a team in the MMORPG Overworld, in the not-so-distant future, where cybernetic brain implants and limb replacements are common, and the world is ruled by corporations. Marisa's neighborhood, Mirador, is falling apart, with gang-driven protection rackets feeding off her parents' restaurant income. Between the restaurant's struggles, her brother belonging to the gang that controls much of the neighborhood, and her own risky behavior, Marisa's life is not simple.
And then one of her teammates gets a virus in her brain implant, Marisa tries to track down the source, and things start getting really complicated.
I'm torn on this book. In many ways, I really, really liked it. The characters are believable (if a bit thin). I loved that Marisa has an actual family -- a young adult book with a heroine with a mostly-intact family? how refreshing! -- and that the family plays intimately into the story. The pacing was terrific, the characters choices drove the consequences, and there were real consequences. The tech discussions were mostly dead-on, with clear evolutionary paths from where we are now: nothing too far-fetched.
On the other hand, there were a few false notes. Like many books dealing with programming, hacking, and cyber-anything, the teenaged hero(ine) strolls through in scant seconds problems that would take very experienced teams of coders weeks or months to figure out. I have done a lot of programming, I have 15 years of experience in cybersecurity, I occasionally hack things for a living (with permission!), I work with some brilliant programmers, and none of us could do the things that some of these characters do as a matter of course.
If you can get past that minor flaw, the book is great fun....more
This is a terrific survival story about Matt, a boy who goes with his father to build a cabin on his father's new claim in Maine in the last half of tThis is a terrific survival story about Matt, a boy who goes with his father to build a cabin on his father's new claim in Maine in the last half of the 1700s. After completing the cabin, his father leaves to fetch Matt's mother, sister, and the new baby they were expecting to come while the men were away.
Matt quickly learns that he will need more knowledge than he has to survive, and for his family to have anything to return to.
My wife and I read this to our three boys - 5, 7, and 10 - over several weeks at bedtime. All of them loved the story; for my ten year old, this was his second time through and he still loved it....more
Excellent. Not a light read. Sean Carroll tries to cover many of the hard questions of cosmology and philosophy and arrive at a life philosophy that iExcellent. Not a light read. Sean Carroll tries to cover many of the hard questions of cosmology and philosophy and arrive at a life philosophy that is consistent with the body of received, provable knowledge and practical for functional human beings.
I liked his explanation of some of the apparent conflicts between so-called hard and soft sciences as confusions between useful models at different scales. For example, one can describe the universe as a (very, very, very) large collection of basic particles, and one could in theory, given enough knowledge about the initial state, predict with great accuracy the eventual positions of every existing particle of a gas-filled chamber at some future state. However, it would take a tremendous amount of information about the initial state, and enormous computational power to accurately model even a relatively small chamber this way. So in place of this cumbersome but very accurate model, we use computational fluid dynamics, which described the interactions in a simpler, more elegant way that turns out to be quite accurate in its own sphere.
I also liked that Mr. Carroll suggests that atheists can be moral, ethical people, and in fact, can arrive at many of the same conclusions about ethical decisions and moral compass based on principle and proper models of human behavior. This is certainly something that I've observed in many of my atheist and agnostic friends.
It seemed like every chapter had interesting insights into the position of life as we know it and its perhaps-fragile place in the universe. Mr. Carroll's writing is clear, often even when trying to communicate difficult topics. A few things he only touches on were covered better in Stephen Hawking's books, but in general this is much better written and clearer than that....more
This book had me laughing all the way through it, though there are some grisly scenes. The writing is terrific, and the characters amazing. I loved thThis book had me laughing all the way through it, though there are some grisly scenes. The writing is terrific, and the characters amazing. I loved the book so much that I recommended it to my wife, who then started reading it to our (teenaged) daughters at bedtime. They also loved it and moved on to another book by the same author.
This book is a Mistborn postquel. Wax and Wayne are police from the Roughs -- the area outside Elendel. Wax is called back to Elendel upon his uncles This book is a Mistborn postquel. Wax and Wayne are police from the Roughs -- the area outside Elendel. Wax is called back to Elendel upon his uncles death when he inherits the estate. Meanwhile, trains start disappearing and people being kidnapped. That's not something a good lawman can allow in his town.
Once again, Brandon Sanderson has proven that he can create memorable and believable characters (if in this case a little too good). Wayne is a work of art. The book is remarkably short and much more tightly written than most of Sanderson's books. It's a bit of a relief after reading tomes like The Way of Kings. The book has terrific dialogue, great action, a satisfying climax, and just enough philosophy and humanity to add some meaning and things to think about....more
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