Review: V: The Second Generation
Please consider yourself warned. This review will contain spoilers. If you had any plans on reading this book, you may want to stop reading now. On the other hand, since this book reads like it was written by a high school creative writing wanna-be fan boy, you may not really care. Ok, you have been warned...
Review: World War Z
One of the books that came up at the SciFi BOF back at CFUNITED was World War Z. The book is written as if it were non-fiction. It is a collection of numerous interviews from folks who have survived a zombie war. It's ten years past the end of the major fighting (although a few pockets of zombies still exist) but in general the view point is of a world that has survived the worst of it.
Consider a normal zombie film. The hero wakes up, sees that something is seriously wrong, runs to some safe haven (like a mall), meets a few other survivors, one of which who will do something dumb and force them to flee, and that's it.
When I watch a film like this (or really, any 'end of the world' type film), I know the geek in me starts going crazy. If the film centers in on one city, I wonder what's going on in some other city. If the film takes place over a few days, I wonder what the world likes 5, 10, etc years from then. Obviously most films and books will focus on one sort of characters, but what makes WWZ so amazing is that you get an incredible range of view points.
The book is roughly separated into stories from various parts of the war. From when things begin to go crazy, to the panic, the fighting, and the aftermath. You get views from everyone, and I mean everyone. From Asia to Russia to England to America (and they even mention Lafayette, LA!).
The book begins by saying it is an emotional view of the history, but really, for a geek, it's has an amazing amount of resources about what was going on. Some of the cooler aspects include a detailed look into how the military dealt, and adapted, to the zombie threat as well as how the government helped rebuild the country with a dramatically reduced work force.
So while I'm focusing on the geek aspect of the book - the emotional part works well. There is one interview - it involves a girl who lost her parents - and I don't want to say much more as it will ruin it - but it is easily one of the most creepy things I've read in my life. What happens at sea is also pretty darn scary as well. I know there are plans to turn this into a movie - and if they do - I hope they focus on the people and not some giant CGI-fest. If they could pull off the horror of the stories with good actors it could be a heck of a lot more creepy than Dawn of the Dead. I should say though - as I've gotten older I've really begun to get turned off by gore. Frankly I appreciate a movie that can do more with less. I know Blair Witch Project was way over-hyped, but it scared the you know what out of me without ever showing the big bad monster.
Anyway, I enjoyed this book so much I put down my current novel and finished the whole thing in about 2 days. Because of the nature of the book, a collection of interviews, it reads very fast and makes a great bathroom book. I'd definitely recommend it!
New ColdFusion 8 Book
Thanks to John Farrar for alerting me of this, but a new ColdFusion 8 book has been announced:
ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial
It covers CF 8.0.1 and is expected sometime in August.
The last book you will ever read
So I've been thinking about this for quite some time now, and I figured today was as good as any other day to blog it. This may be a rather morbid blog post, but I'd be willing to bet I'm not the only one here who has thought about what I'm about to say.
Book Review: The Intellectual Devotional: American History
I was browsing Target of all places when this book caught my eye. The Intellectual Devotional is similar to those religious books which provide a daily scripture reading. This book focuses on American history (there is an earlier book which is more general and provides a daily reading in various areas. So one day may cover early American literature while another will cover military history. This is one of the coolest books I've ever picked up. Each reading takes less than five minutes but gives you a good understanding of the topic. I've especially liked the pages on early American writers, something I've wanted to learn more about for a while. If I were a bit indelicate I'd say it's the perfect bathroom book. (Ok, I'll say it.) Anyway, I'd definitely recommend picking it up!
Top 100 Sci-Fi Books
My buddy Scott sent me this link: Sci-Fi Lists - Top 100 Sci-Fi Books. It is a pretty good list of the best books of the genre, although I'm sure people could argue about the order (and what's included or not included). As much I liked Dune, I'm not sure I'd consider it #1. 1984, for example, is a much more important book, although it tends to get all the attention for dystopian literature. For an alternative to 1984, check out We.
My recommendations from this list, in no particular order, would be:
- Ender's Game (my #1 probably)
- Any of the Neal Stephenson books, especially Diamond Age. I know Snow Crash is cooler (and I'll never forget the scene with the rail gun), I just felt like Diamond Age was neater.
- Lord of Light - which I've never read, but heard is very good. I was a huge fan of Zelazny's Amber series, which I hear is crap compared to Lord of Light.
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- The Handmaid's Tale -feminism and sci-fi, interesting mix
- Flatland
- Neuromancer - I still like to think of security in terms of "ice"
- While not "high art", many of the Star Wars novels are pretty good, especially the Thrawn trilogy.
And while not a book - A Mind Forever Voyaging is the single best sci-fi game ever made.
The Circle is Now Complete - CFWACK B3 in the house...
The title says it all. I just got shipment of book 3 of CFWACK, as evidenced by the cool photo below (I have the photography skills of a drunk paparazzi):
Enjoy folks.
Review: The Sunrise Lands
As much as I tend to complain about S.M. Stirling and his fascination with nature - I do enjoy his stories and try not to let myself get bogged down by his writing. I was very surprised by how well his Island in the Sea of Time series was, so I knew he could write well. Last year I read his Dies the Fire series (reviewed here). The basic premise was that a 'Change' of some sort occurs that makes all technology from gunpowder on stop working. As most of the world dies off due to food shortages, a few bands of people group together to try to survive. The series was decent enough (again, ignoring his fascination with spending paragraphs on trees and grass) but not great.
The Island in the Sea of Time series is loosely linked up to the Dies the Fire series. In the Island in the Sea of Time, the island of Nantucket is sent back a few thousand years. The world they leave behind is the world of Dies the Fire.
Stirling has now started a new trilogy with The Sunrise Lands. This book takes place a generation after Dies the Fire, and focuses more on the children of the main characters from the earlier series. Even more interesting, it begins to tie together the world of the Change and Nantucket. Without giving away too much - we get a glimpse of Nantucket and a small idea of what may have really happened, but what I really liked about the book was how well it was written. The action was non-stop, and we finally get a look at what is going on in the rest of America post-Change. I was really reminded of the ISOT series in how well the book read. I can definitely recommend picking up the book - although you probably should read the original trilogy first.
CFWACK TOC
How is that for a incomprehensible entry title? Ben Forta has posted the table of contents for the CFWACK books. I guess I better finish my chapters, eh?
Amazon shows new WACKs
I love that title - for those who don't get it - WACK = Web Application Construction Kit. The blog Philosophy Me just released an entry talking about the new books, so I thought I'd link it up here as well. I think the cover design is pretty darn cool.