[books] Reamde

Reamde by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Better than Anathem worse than Snow Crash. Fast read and a lot of fun. Much more like Snow Crash than any other recent Stephenson book - almost like his comeback novel. This is a fast paced adventure through a bunch of countries - mixing in computers, security, terrorisms, guns and what have you. I have always loved Stephenson's detail - his computer environments, his knowledge of how computer security actually works - all quite legitimate. This adds a sense of believability to his books that I really enjoy. If you like vintage Stephenson (ie not the Baroque Cycle stuff), you'll like this.

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[books] Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fast, fun, awesome read. If you like Neal Stephenson, you'll like Cline. Immaculately researched, really readable, great combination of real and virtual worlds. Somewhat predictable, language is rather straightforward (unlike, say, Feersum Endjinn), but overall a wholly enjoyable read. Recommended.

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Faster DNS Servers - namebench

Choosing the right DNS servers can make all the difference between a fast and snappy web browsing experience and a slow and untolerable one. I came across a utility called namebench, published by Google to test out DNS server speeds. It takes about 5 minutes and could result in a faster web experience - I would recommend giving it a shot. In my case, comcast is the fastest DNS server, so no changes needed to be made, but your environment may be different.

Full Disclosure: I work for Google. I do not work on Namebench. Please use it at your own risk.

[books] Surface Detail

Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ian M. Banks's latest Culture novel is, in my opinion, his best work to date. For the uninitiated, Culture novels usually revolve around the Culture, a perfect civilization of sorts, where people live as long as they want, benevolent (and sometimes malevolent) AIs control and provide for everything etc. Except there are tons of races in the galaxy (it is huge, after all) and the Culture deals with those both above and below it on the technological ladder. The most interesting sections of the Culture, Contact (the section dealing with other races) and Special Circumstances (the shady part of Contact) are usually at the center of most of I.M.B.'s Culture novels. No description of any of his works would be complete without mentioning the AIs or Minds as they are called. Generally AIs that control gigantic ships, AIs that are far, far outside the reach of any human, these have their own distinct personalities and play just as important a role in any Culture novel as any human character.

Surface Detail has it all - a new race, an interesting backward civilization, wierd connectons between virtual reality and the Real, crazy (literally insane) AIs with their own quirky personalities. The book is a fast read, I had a really hard time putting it down.

Couple of points of warning:
1. The book has foul language. Lots of it. It is not recommended for children; if it were a movie, it would be NC-17.
2. It is not as depressing as most of Banks's other books (Consider Phlebas for example).


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[books] Containment

Containment by Christian Cantrell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good pulp fiction - fast read, interesting idea, though not exactly the most original, and generally well written. There is a bit of a mystery element to it, so I won't go deep into the story, but suffice to say that the synopsis on the book misdirects: I was initially put off by it and left this book lie for a while on my kindle after I bought it. I would recommend ignoring it and just dive in. You'll know within the first quarter or so if this book is for you.


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[books] The Big Short

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Extremely well written story of the financial crisis, from the insider's point of view. There is a bit of selection bias since all the "insiders" that Lewis interviews actually saw the crash coming and shorted the market. But don't let that detract from the book - its really well done and hard to put down. Lewis explains the various products and terms (CDOs, CDSs, tranches) quite well - most of which are different names for common sensical products anyway - and then goes on to explain how the mess was created, why it was very hard to value and where there was fraud versus bad judgement. He explains the greed factor - and the process of duping the rating agencies (S&P and Moody's).

The book reads like a fiction novel. Its fast, characters (all real people) are the kind you can relate to (like or hate). I loved this book and would strongly recommend it to anyone, regardless of your interest in finance.


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[books] Luka and the Fire of Life

Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not my favourite Rushdie book, but a pretty good one nonetheless. Think Rushdie crossed with Neil Gaiman and rather bright and written for children. Lots of mythological elements but explores dreams and families and has more fun stuff than usual Rushdie psychedelic strange stuff.

I cannot recommend an appropriate age for this book - certainly not too young since it could get a bit scary at times. All the usual Rushdie staples and extremely well written.



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[books] The Player of Games

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the best Ian M. Banks Culture novels I have read to date. Perhaps only Matter was possibly better.


Player of Games starts in the perfect Culture universe of parties and general good life - everything is provided for, there is no concept of money because its unnecessary and sentient robots are everywhere. It focuses on the protagonist, the best Culture player at any game ever designed. He has been studying and playing games all his life and is a natural recruit for Special Circumstances (Culture CIA equivalent) to go deal with a new civilization that centers completely around playing one game. This game decides who gets what post in their social and political hierarchies; all the way to the top: the game's ultimate winner is crowned emperor.


Interesting, fast paced, has many of the usual Culture elements of advanced civilizations meeting backward ones (but not willing to take them by force). Humorous sentient drones, interesting personality studies and a good story line make this book a very compelling read. Recommended if you like hard sci-fi, have enjoyed the works of Ian M. Banks, Vernor Vinge or Alastair Reynolds.


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[books] Pushing Ice

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pushing Ice is my first Alastair Reynolds book. I bought it because it was recommended by the editors at Powell's in Portland (the best bookstore in the western united states, but thats a different story). I'm a big fan of other hard sci-fi authors like Vernor Vinge and Ian M. Banks and this book seemed to have all the right elements of a space opera.

It did not disappoint: it is fast moving, well written, excellent story and it has it all - politics, science, personal drama, aliens. Everytime I thought the book fell into a "usual" mold, the story twisted and accelerated to some other realm. For example: the book starts out with a ship that harvests comets for ice. Saturn's moon Janus, decides to leave orbit and take off on its own - an alien artifact that was masquerading as a moon and nobody realized this. The Rockhopper (aforementioned comet harvesting ship) is ordered to take off after the artifact and figure out what it is. Feels sort of like Rendezvous With Rama doesn't it? Except that it isn't. Its much, much more awesome. Conspiracy in the ship, on earth, who knows where, some bad luck, some bad decisions and the story just keeps accelerating. Starts to feel like Tau Zero. But its not; nor is it fair to give much away beyond this, part of the fun is discovering what happens next.

Its a very fast paced book, really hard to put down. It focuses on a few characters that are developed extremely well - most of the book has a background theme of an ongoing dispute between 2 former best friends. Few things that aren't amazing: while the book is well written, the language itself is not going to win the author awards. This is not to say that its incorrect, just very matter-of-fact. The ending is a bit anti-climactic - but not bad.

Overall: an outstanding work of hard sci-fi. Highly recommended if you like Vernor Vinge and/or Ian M. Banks.


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[books] Dragonflight

  Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book. I discovered this completely by accident while looking for fast reads in sci-fi off amazon. Since it was only 5 bucks, I took a chance and was very pleased at the result.

Dragonflight was first published in 1967. It is set on an earth-like planet that is part of a twin planet system. The basic idea is that when the second planet comes close to Pern, deadly Threads fall on Pern destroying any vegetation that they touch. Pern combats this using indigenous dragons that can teleport. Each dragon has a rider and the man-beast combination is used to destroy the Threads before they cause too much damage.

After reading the description, I will admit that I was not thrilled about the book. It seemed like a stretch; moreover, a story about a battle to save a planet from a recurring natural disaster? Sounds mildly depressing.

The book is anything but: it is very well written; McCaffrey's command over the language is commendable,  the story is extremely engaging, fast paced and mind bending. There is an interesting twist to the tale and I would recommend not reading up about the book on wikipedia a priori.

Strongly recommended if you're in the mood for some quick sci-fi.

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