The Rapture of the Nerds should be a good (if not great) book based off it’s credentials. It’s a book by two authors (that I mostly like) about the Singularity. However, something went wrong in the actual writing of the book. This book seems like they two writers were having fun throwing out ideas and situations, but not working on forming it into a coherent story. Let’s check out what went wrong.
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Category Archives: science fiction
The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson
When The Difference Engine, by cyberpunk authors William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, came out in the early 1990s, it was radically different than anything else on the market at the time. Set in the not too distant past (1800s), but envisioned a world where the Victorian Era had steam driven computers. This environment is well-trod nowadays with the explosion of Steam Punk stories in the market, but in the early 1990s, this was different. With a nod to the era’s literary geniuses (such as Lord Byron) and computing pioneers (mainly Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace), the book is an interesting look at an alternate history which hadn’t been envisioned previously. It doesn’t seem as revolutionary now due to the explosion in Steam Punk titles currently on the market. But it was a nod to the past that many, many authors have picked up and moved forward with. Let’s see what the book is about.
Black Mirror Season One TV show review
The UK’s method of handling television shows is frustrating at times. You can get as little as 3 episodes of a show and then not get any more episodes for a couple of years. There is frustration while you are waiting for more episodes, but it does encourage a lot of interesting ideas to make it to production (since the risk of failure is significantly less). One of these interesting ideas is the Twilight Zone-ish series (or set of movies) Black Mirror. It’s a set of three, unrelated one hour shows/movies.They all have a twisted commentary on technology. The show is interesting, but I found an undercurrent of misogyny that left me unsettled about the show. Let’s see what happened.
Starship: Flagship by Mike Resnick
And we’re done. The Mike Resnick Starship space-opera series is finished with the reading of Starship: Flagship. I’m not thrilled with the alliterative title and some of the discussions that Resnick has in the book on the nature and usefulness of torture is sophomoric at best. But, overall it was a decent ending for a decent series. I’m not sure I’d pick up additional Resnick books after reading this series. Let’s see what happens.
Starship: Rebel by Mike Resnick
And we’re onto book four in the series, Starship: Rebel. The scope of the ship’s mission keeps increasing. I expect them to be fighting for galactic domination if there was a book six. As always with this series, the writing is good, the plot is decent and the characters are flat. But, we march onward. Let’s see what happens.
Starship: Mercenary by Mike Resnick
Continuing our run through Mike Resnick’s Starship space opera series with Book 3, Starship: Mercenary. This book picks up soon after the finale of Book 2 and we have the further adventures of our heroic Captain and his crew. I’m still lukewarm on the series, but I’ve read this far, why not continue. Let’s see what happens.
Starship: Pirate by Mike Resnick
After finishing the first book in Mike Resnick’s Starship series, Starship: Mutiny (my review), I decided to move on and finish the rest of the series. While I wasn’t thrilled with the first book, it was written well enough (and moved at a fast enough pace) that it could be mostly forgiven. So, I moved onto book two, Starship: Pirate. This book picks up almost immediately after the events of the first book and leads our merry crew on a journey through the Inner Frontier, a mostly lawless area of space where anything goes. Let’s read on.
Starship Mutiny by Mike Resnick
I haven’t previously read any Mike Resnick book, but I was in the mood to read some space opera and came across the first book in Resnick’s Starship series, Starship: Mutiny. The book is a fun, fast paced military space opera full of ships fighting, military adventures and our rogue hero who the people love (and the bureaucracy hates). So, let’s see what’s happened.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins by Randolph Lalonde
Every now and then, I like taking a look at some self-published science fiction books (especially if they’re recommended to me) and see what’s out there. This time I happened upon Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins. The book is basic space opera with ship battles and fairly straightforward good guy and bad guys. But, I don’t mean that in a bad way. The book is a fun, action packed read with some decent characterization. So, let’s check it out.
The Human Division – Chapter 1 by John Scalzi
John Scalzi is known mainly for his blog Whatever and his Old Man’s War book series. I truly enjoyed the first book(my review), but the sequels had diminishing returns. The sequels were decent to mediocre and I mostly lost interest in that series. But Scalzi and his publisher have decided to do something different for this newest sequel, The Human Division. They are going to release chapters weekly (starting January 15th, 2013) and then, after they are all released, they will release the full book. The big question is: How is the story? Well, having read the first chapter (The Human Division #1: The B-Team), it’s not bad. Not great, but not bad. Continue to see more.