Trojan Horse

Finally finished the last Russinovich thriller.  It was pretty good and holds up, despite the rapidly-changing cyber-warfare changes in real life.  4/5 stars, probably the best of his three books.

13 hours

Interesting narrative of the September 11 2012 fire fight in Benghazi, Libya in which American diplomats and their armed defenders were killed and the American diplomatic compound was destroyed.
3/5 stars

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Black box thinking

Life changing book with fantastic life lessons and wisdom. 5/5 stars
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Surface Detail

Book 9 of Ian Banks' "Culture" space operas is more of the same, fun, interesting, thrilling, and filled with philosophical themes.  The space battles were more bizarre with less high-tech magic than previously.  The limits of the tech, with more-closely matched opponents made the plot a little less predictable.  4/5 stars.

What would Google Do?

This one is better than I expected.  I normally don't like Jeff Jarvis' blog entries or writing and I disagree with some of his ideas but they are all thought-provoking and interesting.  It's a short book and I plan to re-read it because I was dead tired in the plane and did not absorb enough.  4/5 stars.

Planetfall

This one is very painful to read because it describes mental illness so vividly and accurately from the sufferer's point of view.  The author herself apparently lived through parallel events to those in the space opera story.  It is very powerful.  I did not like the ending -- it is depressing and surreal.  3/5 stars.

Dreadnaught

Jack Campbell's "Lost Fleet" series, book 7 continues the adventures of John "Black Jack" Geary.  Now he leads his fleet against enigmatic space aliens instead of other people.  It's still a fun space opera.  Keep them coming.  4/5 stars.

The Algebraist

A "prequel" in the Culture universe by Ian Banks, The Algebraist is a fun thriller with compelling characters, space aliens that are similar to the "mind" ultra-AIs in the Culture stories, and good a good mystery. Very enjoyable.  4/5 stars.

Victorious

Book 6 of the "Lost Fleet" space opera by John Henry (aka Jack Campbell) had some fun twists and enigmatic space alien behavior that made the story even more fun.  I also enjoyed the end of this one. 5/5 stars.

Stephen Moss: Fear Saga 1: Fear the Sky

Disappointing.  The author does not use the awe-and-wonder mystery of advanced technology and uses magical pseudo-science in explicit detail.  The characters and plot are cool.  But the science is crap.  2/5 stars.  Yuck.

On the Razor's Edge

And they keep getting better!

Love this book Michael Flynn book as well.  Non-stop action!  I could not put it down.  5/5 stars.

In The Lion's Mouth

Continuing the stories of the characters in January Dancer, Michael Flynn tells a fun story with complex treachery and shifting alliances among powerful characters in a far flung future.  This one is almost but not quite as good as the first book and much better than all the others in the series so far. 4/5 stars.

DC-1a aka Falcon-9/Dragon Sticks the Landing

After 11 years of hard work, functional, single stage to orbit rockets have finally arrived.   I was crying when I watched this video.  Elon Musk calls his Space-X company's rocket the "Falcon-9."   It is the first incarnation of our dream, the delta clipper (DC-1) conceived in the 1960s and  first funded by the US government in 1991. My grand children can be free from this repressive gravity well and will be able to reap the resources and benefits of space.

Congratulations to everyone involved.  Ad astra!

beyond the mask

Terrible!  1/5 stars.  Avoid with extreme prejudice.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

I remember the star trek and science fiction conventions I attended with Lois McMaster (now Lois McMaster Bujold) in 1973-1975.  She was (and is) a fantastic writer and detail-oriented science and engineering enthusiast.  Her fan fiction at that time was awesome. It was wonderful reading her first few professional works ("Falling Free," serialized in Analog magazine) and the Miles Vorkosigan books.  I remember discussing them with my oldest children as they read them at the appropriate age (under 16).  And it was more fun reading her new books as they came out because "I knew Louis when..." Now we're all grown up and so are her characters and the themes in her books.

This one has too little "awe and wonder" mysterious background C story science fiction for my personal (space opera) taste.  It is a grown up book handling grown up topics that (I think) were better handled  by the oblique hints in the earlier works as Miles, his mother, and other characters from Beta Colony discussed them.  It does fill in a bunch of sordid story elements from the earlier books and I loved the mystery of the (very-brief mention!) of the power of the Cetagandans.

But it's still LMB writing and romping in her universe so it's still fantastic and a must-read for any fan.

4/5 Stars.

Concussion

A little long and slow but the film is quite good and worth watching.  The depth of Roger Goodell's evil is well-presented, along with the collusion of government.  3/5 Stars. 

Relentless

Great 4/5 Stars.

Valiant

Loved it. 4/5 Stars.

Courageous

I am enjoying this series but was disappointed that this one ended at a cliff hanger.  4/5 Stars.