Reviews and Comments

Will Sargent

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Joined 1 year, 6 months ago

I like books.

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James P. Hogan: Minds Machines & Evolution (Paperback, Baen) 2 stars

Review of 'Minds Machines & Evolution' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

It's half short stories, and half essays and anecdotes.

There are some real problems with this book. The first is that it just hasn't aged well. It's from 1986, and most of the futuristic stories that he's tried to impart are not only known, but almost beaten into the ground.

This would be okay if there were something else holding the book together. Unfortunately, Hogan does not have any literary flair, and he doesn't do characterization very well. That leaves the story hanging by its science, and that only goes so far.

There's a version of Slider (the movie) in here, there's a story about transporter style which spells out the implications, and there's a even a story about how killing Hitler has unanticipated consequences. I felt almost embarrassed at some point -- it's like finding a story about two space travellers on a distant uninhabited planet "and they turn …

John Layman: Chew, Vol. 3 (Paperback, 2010, Image Comics, Diamond [distributor]) 5 stars

Things are looking up for Tony Chu, the cibopathic federal agent with the ability to …

Review of 'Chew, Vol. 3' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

It's both funny and disturbing. If this were a "completely realistic" book then it would be horrifying, but the comedy and the extremeness of the art goes to push it toward comedy.

If I had to point to a weakness, I'd say that the comedy doesn't mesh well with Tony's more quiet, personal troubles. But that's a minor point over all.

Jared Diamond, Ricardo García Pérez: Collapse (2006, Penguin Books) 4 stars

"In his Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why …

Review of 'Collapse' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Very good book that picks out what environment is, and how humans work to preserve or destroy it.

Makes an excellent companion to The Logic of Failure, which talks about much the same problem form a different angle.

Diomidis Spinellis: Beautiful architecture (2009, O'Reilly) 2 stars

Review of 'Beautiful architecture' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

Too vague. The architecture essays here are tantalizing, but there's very few code samples and meaty technical chunks. No UML diagrams, no careful dissection of parts.

What went wrong with the design? How did it get to the point it did? What doesn't the current design do well? Too many times, the essay only talks about the positives of the architecture, too often sounding like an infomercial or a pitch to a client.

I would have been happier with something like TCP/IP: The Implementation or TEX: The Program... this is a good book for what it is, but it just doesn't do the details to my satisfaction.

Brian Michael Bendis: Fortune and Glory (Paperback, Oni Press) 4 stars

Review of 'Fortune and Glory' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

A feel good, thrill a minute ride that will leave you breathless and wanting more!

Or an idea of what Hollywood is like, and how it tries to sort out good ideas from bad ones. It's funny.

The interesting thing is that Bendis is a damn good writer who has gone on to do some really amazing work since, and you could argue that Spiderman wouldn't have happened without Bendis's Ultimate Spiderman work. So in a way, he has made a big budget movie, and comic book movies are now "credible" in a way that they weren't at the time this was written.