As Mike Fogus described it: I think this book is more important than it’s good. And I’m somewhere in that same vein: I like the idea of this book more than I like the book itself. That is difficult to say without feeling as though I am coming across harsher than I mean to be. […]
You might have come across Janna Levin’s How the Universe Got Its Spots the same way that I did–by seeing it show up in io9’s “20 Science Books Every Scifi Fan (and Writer) Should Read”, or some such similar list of “must read” science books. Of Levin’s book, io9’s Annalee Newitz writes: Levin is a […]
I recall a conversation that I had with one of my college writing professors; this was during one of the periods when I was writing one of my ill-fated for-credit novels. 1 We were talking about characters, character development, and (more specifically) about how you as the author can attempt to engage the reader through […]
There’s a scene–about halfway through the novel–when Paul says to Maya: “I want you to prove to me that you’re not human yet still an artist.” Right there? That’s basically your thematic thesis. It has been my observation that a lot of folks get introduced to Bruce Sterling by way of the Mirrorshades anthology 1 […]
I think it’s very easy to have mixed (but very strong) feelings about Dune. Thus follows two reviews in one 1: Fawning: (“It’s a science fiction classic!”) ★★★★★ On the back of the edition in my library is a quote from Arthur C. Clarke: “Unique… I know of nothing comparable to it except The Lord […]
★★★★☆ on both the Goodreads and Amazon scales. If you’re a JavaScript developer, you would be wise to have JavaScript Patterns on your bookshelf–nestled nicely between JavaScript: The Good Parts 1 and High Performance JavaScript (Build Faster Web Application Interfaces) 2. The three make a nice little troika. And read them in that order: The […]
Not necessarily the front-end developer’s primer… Rated ★★☆☆☆ on the Goodreads scale, and ★★★☆☆ on the Amazon scale. Not to be too much of a self-apologist, but let me preface this review by indicating that my frustration (and hence my lower rating) comes largely from gaps in my own knowledge. But as a result of […]
It is difficult to say for certain if the five-star review will withstand a second reading–but we won’t know that until I subject myself to it that second time. Fortunately for me, it has gone back to its “last in line” position for at least a little while. First, the obvious stuff: this is the […]
Among other recommendations, A Fire Upon the Deep appeared on io9’s “Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life” post and after Newton’s Wake 1, I thought it would be a chance for that list to redeem itself a little. Though far from life-changing, this story is strong and plays with a number of […]
In the realm of technical, programming-related, computer science-type books, The Joy of Clojure is a bit of an oddity. And this is a very good thing. WHAT THE BOOK IS NOT: The Joy of Clojure is not a beginner’s introduction to the language. The Joy of Clojure is not a glorified appendix of methods and […]