Book reviews for the month of April 2011

Doing a bit of house cleaning and I thought I'd take a first pass at catching up on some book reviews. Not comprehensive since I don't seem to be able to remember half the stuff I read. But in any event, welcome to my memory palace. It's a bit threadbare and unkempt but the bookcase has a fine collection of ideas both old and new.

Let's start with fiction...

"Cryoburn" by Lois McMaster Bujold is like going home. I wish she'd write more Miles adventures, they remind me of my mom (who was an avid reader of Ms. Bujold's) and the family of readers she fostered who all clamor to this day to read the next one. If you haven't read any of her work just go buy any of them. This one is classic and caps the series to some extent. I won't review it any more than just say, buy it.

"The Passage" by Justin Cronin was a post-apocalyptic exploration of government research and vampires gone wrong and the thousand years it took to restore humanity. Worth reading if you're into that sort of thing.

"The Kingdom of Ohio" by Mathew Flaming is an alternate history of New York's and the country's gilded age. it's a fun novel about time jumping maidens and battling inventors and of course love.

"The Oracle of Stambul" by Michael David Lukas explored the town of Sophia and the city of Istanbul and what it would be like to be an oracle in the time of emperors. A nice alternate history lesson that fits well with the Kingdom of Ohio in some ways.

"Solo" by Rana Dasgupta was also partially set in Sophia and follows an old man's recollections of his life and memories and dreams. Poetic and sad and meditative and experimental. Rumination on different forms of government and what they meant to someone caught up in the moment and forced to live through it all. I will buy the next book by this author, I think he will be one to watch.

"Deep State" by Walter Jon Williams is spooky. I reviewed his previous book, "This is Not a Game" and this one takes up where that one left off. It would be curious to find out when he actually wrote this book because it basically outlines one way that the revolutions in the Middle East may have started in vivid detail. Not deep but prescient.

"Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks was not even cotton candy. Predictable and a bit of a chore. Read something from the "Atrocity Archives" instead if you need a Bond fix.

Like, "The Fuller Memorandum" by Charles Stross. Although always a favorite writer and if you haven't read any of his books this is as good as any to start, he seems to have worked out all his "IT guy who helps stave off cross-dimensional nazi-demons while looking for a good wi-fi signal" demons and hopefully is moving on to another universe.

While I'm on the subject of things that go bump in the night I might as well review "Kraken" by China Mieville. A classic tale of the secret underlying structure of London and the Universe at large as seen through the eyes of a giant squid god. He's got a new book coming soon so catch up!

"Surface Details" by Ian M. Banks is another walk down memory lane. I've been a longtime fan of Mr. Banks and his "Culture" universe. It follows the resurrected life of a sex slave killed before her time as she seeks revenge and the question of whether virtual hells should exist or not. If you need to get up to speed on the culture, read "Consider Phlebas."

Non-Fiction?

"Reality is Broken" but luckily Jane McGonigal has some ideas about how to fix it. I encourage you to read this book. It feels important to me though you'll have to work through a bit of repetitiveness in places. It resonates well with my belief that gaming is an emergent and pervasive property of the trillion node network (aka the age of ubiquitous computing).

Insights from the book?

At their most basic ALL games have a few key characteristics:
1. Goals (because we like to reach them)
2. Rules (think of these as Unnecessary Obstacles). Golf wouldn’t be so fun if the goal of getting a little white ball into a little hole was as simple as walking over and dropping it in the hole.
4. Feedback Loops, so you know if you’re reaching your goals (which is the obvious connection to a world where everything is connected, at least if it’s connected in the right way)
5. Voluntary Participation (because otherwise it feels like work… or survival)

"The Information" by James Gleick kills me. It is a fun, sometimes brain-bending if you're not mathematically inclined, but always engaging tour through the history and idea of information itself.

"Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer is a nice counterpoint to "The Information" in that it explores in a light-weight-hearted and playful way the history of memory and how humans handle information. My favorite line is where he notes that inventory and invention have the same root. His point is that it would be hard to invent if you didn't have raw materials in your inventory to recombine in new ways. Other great stat? He recounts a study where participants were asked to view 2500 images (pile of five dollar bills, red boxcar, etc.) and then had them later choose between those images and ones that were almost the same (pile of one dollar bills versus five dollar bills, blue boxcar versus red boxcar, etc.) and the participants were able to successfully pick out the ones they had seen before 90% of the time. Funes lives.

Books and Such... May 2010

Ok, I've actually forgotten a bunch of the books that I've read since last we met. So I'll try to recreate at least my thoughts on the few I can remember (I need to write things down sooner).

"Under Heaven" by Guy Gavriel Kay is a rich, deep, quiet meditation on family, war, civilization, and political intrigue. All set in the times of the Tang dynasty in China. It begins with a man who is spending his year of mourning (for his father who was a great general) burying the bones of the dead along the silent shores of a high mountain lake, fighting off the ghosts of the warriors who died in battle. You don't quite know where the story is going until suddenly you are in the middle of epic changes. Guy knows how to tell a story and uses historic details to deepen the tale. Read everything he writes and you won't be disappointed. This is his newest edition and it is spellbinding.

"The Last Light of the Sun" by Guy Gavriel Kay is similar in that it deals in family and myth, but this time it is in the time of Vikings and the early northern European lands. A story of magic and empire building.

"The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi is set in a plausible future land of world-wide floods, genetic crop manipulations, Japanese bio-engineered "windup girls" and an economy where calories are king. I don't think it is quite as good as it thinks it is, repeating words and thoughts a bit too much for my taste, but it signals a writer to watch. If you like near-future fiction, crazed Bangkok streets, and mammoths as engines, you'll enjoy it.

"Black Hills" by Dan Simmons, is a history chasing, heart-breaking, must read. He takes the moment of General Custer's death as a starting point and doesn't end until the world is transformed by a President named Franklin D. Roosevelt. Seen by a Native American child who grows old with the ghost of Custer (among others) looking out of his eyes.

"Horns" by Joe Hill. It’s a playful story about a guy who loses his girlfriend (maybe kills her) and wakes up to discover that he’s got horns coming out of his head and seems to be a bit more devilish than usual. People also can’t seem to notice or remember he has them and everyone tells him their worst thoughts. A journey of discovery ensues. A diversion.

"One Amazing Thing" by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni is set in the basement office of a building that has just suffered an earthquake. The players were all there to sort out their travel paperwork and come from many different walks of life. As the water rises and hope fails, they each tell a story of one amazing thing that happened in their life. This was a short, simple book. Nicely done.

"The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet" by David Mitchell. I've read other books by David Mitchell and enjoyed them so I thought I'd give this a try. I think it may be his best work. It is set on an island off of Japan during the period where the Dutch were the only foreigners allowed even close to the country. Jacob is a young book keeper charged with documenting corruption at the trading post. But that is just an entry into the closed world and strange kingdom of Japan. The book covers lifetime of intrigues, possible child sacrifices, immortal samurais, and loves lost.

"The Girl Who..." For a long time I resisted this series because it seemed to be everywhere and a bit over-hyped. A friend passed her copy of the first book (Dragon Tattoo) on to me recently and I just finished it. It’s worth the read. The hype is mostly right. This is just plain murder mystery family dynasty journalistic detective work fun.

I just finished the other two in the series and they are equally good (though you get the impression that women have a particularly bad time of things in Sweden than I would have imagined). The ending is bang up good fun. Read all three. Now, of course, I'm in trouble (because the books were all published posthumously and aside from outlines for more they’re all he wrote). So uh, now what?

"The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" by Stephen Hunt is just plain good Victorian-punk alternate world, evil empire, partly underwater, partly far up in the sky, fun. This is the second book in the series (the first being "The Court of the Air.") A nice diversion.