Thursday, January 26, 2017

Dataclysm

I was hoping for more but the book is pretty good, 4/5 stars.  Very short, lots of pictures.  It is better than other blog articles to book compendia.


Saturday, January 21, 2017

Rebel Fleet

Meh. 2/5 stars.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Data and Goliath


​Fantastic book, dense with information, positive, upbeat, and optimistic despite the audacious, brazen, evil, pernicious mass surveillance he explains in detail.  Bruce's privacy concerns are tempered by his respectful and open debate with David Brin.  It is extremely enlightening.  5/5 stars.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Babylon's Ashes

The awesome saga continues.  I could barely put it down. 5/5 stars.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Packing for Mars

Most of the humor fell flat (for me); the science itself was good, though a little too elementary for my taste.  It is more of a kids-only book and I am sorry my youngest daughter did not like it.  2/5 stars.  

Friday, January 6, 2017

Shores of Tripoli

I have read all of the C.S. Forester books and all of the Patrick O'Brian books, along with some sundry other Napoleonic Sea war stories and am therefore a little disappointed by the un-sea-man-like manner in which these adventures are portrayed.  None-the-less the history itself is eye-opening and enlightening.  The timeless and unchanging institutions of the Barbary region are very-well presented.  And the characters are appealing despite the poor writing style.  3/5 stars.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Despite my hate for all things Rowling writes, I actually found this play to be actually pretty good. It is very consistent with the original Pothead universe and the new characters are well-drawn.  The old characters are as terrible as the original books (e.g. Ron) and the time travel BS is well done.  3/5 stars.