Complicity by Ian M Banks (1994)

I look through Iain Banks's non-Culture novels because I enjoy his prose. For me, this psychological thriller was somewhat of a disappointment because of its stark torture, rape, and murder scenes. Cameron Colley, hard-boiled, flawed journalist narrator, is extremely well-portrayed. Flashbacks and plot twists in the story probe societal rot: corruption festers in the UK media, politics, and greed of the 1980s. Second-person killer sequences blur guilt lines. Banks indicts the reader's complicity in systemic sins, forcing confrontation with vigilante justice ethics. Banks' prose is very good, but the violence is overwhelming. This one is not recommended. 2/5 stars.

Rewiring Democracy by Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders (2015)

I usually enjoy Bruce Schneier's books because they are clear, well-structured, and full of practical insight. Rewiring Democracy is no exception. The authors argue that artificial intelligence is not a radical break from existing technologies but rather a natural extension of them. They make the case that AI, if applied carefully, can improve democratic processes instead of threatening them.

The book explains how large language models, chatbots, and other machine learning tools could expand public participation, make legislation more transparent, and help citizens understand policy. I found the authors' steady optimism and lack of alarmism refreshing. They stay grounded in facts and resist the sensationalism that often surrounds discussions of AI and politics.

However, the book is dense. The detailed descriptions of the "dance of legislation" and the mechanics of bureaucracy can be tedious for readers uninterested in political procedure. Still, those sections show how the authors think AI could fit into real-world governance rather than just theory.

Even when the topic veers into areas I find dull, the book remains valuable for showing how broad the applications of AI have become. It highlights both the potential and the practical challenges of integrating intelligent systems into democratic life. 4/5 Stars.

Dark Mind by Ian Douglas (2017)

This seventh book in the series pulls the story line up from its prior slump. Space opera tropes, including vast fleets clashing through interstellar regions of our galaxy blazed with fresh fire. I savored the new, inscrutable aliens tugging strings from the shadows, exposing layers of star gods and elder manipulators that mirrored L Ron Hubbard and Scientology's wild cosmology with Thetans plotting, Xenu, and the ancient "incidents."

The main character steered the human fight, making monumental decisions with bad data.  I enjoyed the gritty characters as they sidestepped plot twists with razor wit. Fleet clashes thrummed; close combat boarding raids checked the space opera box.

Alien tech pulverized humanity's defenses; I did not like the repetitive eleventh-hour saves because they were over-used. But the author made it all work.  What if galaxy architects juggle us as pawns? The reader grapples with free will trapped in scripted destinies, a cosmic horror twist. Douglas revived the saga for me. 5/5 Stars

A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (2014)

I enjoy Ben Macintyre's books. His mix of rigorous research and narrative skill is on full display in this one. The story is about Kim Philby, the infamous British intelligence officer who spied for the Soviet Union for decades as he rose to senior ranks within MI6 while betraying his friends and country.

What sets this book apart is Macintyre's meticulous use of original sources and his skepticism toward the self-serving revisionist memoirs of those involved.  Rather than recycling familiar spy lore, he reconstructs a credible picture of how an entire generation of British and American intelligence leaders was incompetent.  They were deceived, not just by Philby, but by their own class loyalties and misplaced trust.

The most damning revelation is that Philby's final escape to Moscow was not a clever, daring flight but a deliberate act of protection by members of Britain's upper-class intelligence elite. The result is a portrait not only of treachery but of institutional rot: privilege shielding privilege while national security collapsed for political expediency.

Macintyre also highlights the profound cost of these failures. The intelligence compromises Philby enabled during the early Cold War were not abstract; they led to thousands of real deaths and strategic disasters. His betrayal reverberated across continents, exposing just how fragile Western intelligence networks truly were and how inept the Soviet Union was at economic prosperity for their people.

I have an interest in systems thinking and failure analysis so I found this book especially compelling for its anatomy of organizational blindness. Macintyre dissects how personal loyalty, arrogance, and class solidarity overrode logic and evidence. These conditions allow catastrophic breaches to persist.

The book is a gripping narrative of espionage, friendship, and institutional failure, told with clarity and restraint. 4/5 Stars.

Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson

Despite moments of political bias and some selective use of data, Abundance excels at what few books attempt: explaining the mechanics of modern economic growth within the tangled realities of politics, culture, and urban life. Klein and Thompson trace how societies build—or fail to build—the physical foundations of prosperity: housing, infrastructure, and industrial capacity.

They move easily from global trends to city-level bottlenecks, showing how ideology, regulation, and social attitudes shape what gets built and what stalls. The book's strength lies in its synthesis: it connects political theory with hard economic outcomes, revealing how values and governance directly determine material progress.

Where Vaclav Smil dissects production from a paleontological view -- purely technical or ecological perspective, Abundance focuses on agency: on the people and policies that choose between creation and constraint. Even when chronicling policy fiascos like California's high-speed rail, the authors maintain a credible optimism rooted in civic will and practical reform.

Addressed primarily to liberal readers, their message is blunt: scarcity is a political choice, not an inevitability. Choosing abundance means reclaiming ambition and capacity for collective improvement.

Clear, timely, and uncommonly coherent, Abundance deserves attention well beyond its partisan audience. 5/5 stars.

🤯 Wut? ChatGPT implemented in Minecraft?

This project reminds me of when developers booted Windows 95 inside a JavaScript VM in a browser, then launched the Netscape Navigator browser in the VM running in the browser. Hat tip: Michael Haupt.

Deep Time by Ian Douglas (1999)

This sixth book in the "Star Carrier" series is much better than the last one.  The fleet battles rage in fun space operatic fashion.  First-contact scenarios with inscrutable, cryptic aliens are intriguing and we are willing to suspend disbelief.  Even the time travel elements fail to detract from the plot and story arcs.  Heroic close-combat continues to pulse.  The awe-and-wonder space opera elements are all represented.  The big picture narrative of the invasion of our universe by beings fleeing their universe's heat death is wonderful.  Humanity deals with a civil war and forges pacts with space aliens amid existential battles. The story faces the "Singularity" question of whether the technology explosion will cause extinction or enable survival. Fun! 4/5 Stars.

Sunward by William Alexander (2025)

This book is terrible!  There is no science at all.  The plot is bizarre, random contrivances. I put it down after a few dozen pages. 0/5 Stars.

Lions and Scavengers by Ben Shapiro (2025)

Ben Shapiro's book crafts an allegory contrasting Enlightenment-driven wealth creation with socialist power grabs aiming for equal outcomes through wealth redistribution. The ecological model—hunters versus scavengers—starts strong, illustrating humanist rationality against emotional collectivism. Yet, the analogy falters. Shapiro introduces "weavers" and forces mismatched behaviors into the framework, muddying the narrative. Douglas Murray's On Democracies and Death Cults tackles similar themes with sharper clarity, avoiding speculative motives and strained metaphors. Shapiro's evidence and judgments on justice and policy hold weight, but selective scripture quotes and ascribed dark intentions to political actors weaken his case. The book gestures at insight but collapses under its own contrivances. I do not recommend this book. 3/5 stars.

What's With Baum by Woody Allen (2025)

Having grown up on the East Coast in a culture similar to the author's, I appreciated the book's sense of place. The descriptions of New York—its streets, sounds, and smells—are vivid and precise. The characters feel authentic, shaped by familiar neuroses, habits, and rhythms of speech.

The plot, however, is less engaging. Without a shared context, the inner turmoil of writers, artists, and critics carries little weight. The publishing-world drama that drives the story feels insular. I admired Allen's humor and self-awareness, but the novel's appeal depends heavily on cultural familiarity. Readers without deep ties to New York's intellectual circles may find it remote.  4/5 stars.