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.