Category: Books

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The Engines of our Ingenuity by John Lienhard

An interesting book about a radio show I never heard about. It’s about science and engineering with an emphasis on inventors. It offers a good look at the world and what you can see when you look at it with new eyes.

The dominant theme of the book is about how technology shapes us. Several chapters discuss technology and how we adapt our lives to it– from the telephone, to computers and radio. It’s breezy– while he hints at some of the design considerations, he rarely descends into discussing specific numbers or steps in chemistry.

All in all, it’s a good book to hand people who are interested in invention and science. It’s probably best for non-mathematical adults; the writing’s a little dry and from an older perspective.

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Peddling Prosperity by Paul Krugman

After he won his nobel, I thought it’d be good to read some of his books. Fortunately, Tyler Cowen was discussing Krugman’s books and ranking them relative to each other. Peddling Prosperity was his favorite, so I checked it out of the library.

Krugman does a good job of laying out the examples clearly, illustrating what academic economists thought about the big proposals from each side (basically, that both Supply Side and Strategic Trade are exaggerations or misconceptions from non-economists that filled politician’s needs).

Along the way, he provides a lot of clear description of economic thought and application. The review the 70s and 80s data from several different perspectives and testing against several different frameworks did a great job of explaining where the errors crept in– and helped correct some residual misconceptions I still had.

The book is engaging written– I look forward to reading several more.

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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

I just completed this fantastical book set in the late 18th century. It’s well written, an interesting portrait of a character that’s hard to like, though sympathy for him is possible.

Basically, it’s a story of an unwanted kid who has an incredible sense of smell and a disturbing lack of odor. He exists, occasionally acting, frequently justifying long asides about other characters and locations– kind of a stream of consciousness world building interwoven in a sparse story.

The main character tries to get along (usually, until late in the book he starts planning and executing his murders), but fate intervenes, slapping him down. Usually with an illness. Then he moves on to a new phase of his life (apprenticeship, etc.) and the author kills off whoever his last caretaker or boss was, in a completely random way.

In the end it was interesting– a bit of a stretch from my normal reading. Like many period authors (or mystery writers), he spends time talking about a hobby/profession in detail– perfume making in this book. It’s interesting and well done– Grenouille learns about beside us and the info-dump on the process is well done.

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The Dark Crusade by William H. Hunt

A strong sequel, this book continues the previous series with most of the same main characters, but advanced twenty years. The war against the vuhls has been defensive but basically successful (particularly by the previous book’s standards), but a new group emerges claiming that victory is at hand.

Blazing Star is a splinter group founded by Owen Garret that uses a telepathic wave of aggression to kick the vuhl’s over. The first pages of the book set the situation up… then the Prophet is introduced. The prophet is the Destroyer that the vuhls feared in the last book– seemingly human, his leadership inspires Blazing Star to greatness. After he allies with the navy there’s a lot of vuhl stomping.

Of course, it isn’t that simple. There are a lot of groups interested in the distribution of power in the Solar Empire. Jackie has an interesting relationship with Ch’en’ya, who proves an important ally of Blazing Star– sometimes a strained mother/daughter exasperation, sometimes pure opposition. Meanwhile, other power groups in the Empire and among the Zor scheme for their own slice of power… and Stone comes back to tangle it all further.

Very enjoyable– the best book in the series since the first. (Also interestingly, I went to the author website to see when the next book is due… and it’s not. Evidently it didn’t sell that well, so no more books are forthcoming. It’s interesting how that lack changes the feel of the series.)

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The Dark Ascent by Walter H. Hunt

A clear sequel to The Dark Path, it picks up shortly after the previous book ended. This book is stronger, with Jackie making interesting choices. The world changes and unusual talents are revealed. We learn more about the vuhls, but not enough to steal their mystery.

Jackie finds out interesting truths about Zor myths, leading to more choices and a much more flexible feel. The books ends on a high note– and, though it appears to be just an interlude, the next book hops forward 20 years.

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The Dark Path by Walter H. Hunt

While this book is in the same world as The Dark Wing, it’s set 80 years later. The cultures have changed in the interval; Zor and Human are used to interacting, though resentment is still present.

This book centers around Jackie and Ch’k’te, who react to the discovery/invasion of strange aliens– the Ghuls. There’s a lot of confusion given the alien’s powers of deception. Along the way, Jackie looses control of her base and gets drug into complex Zor plans. She’s seen as the current incarnation of Qu’u and is dragged into events to replicate those of legend.

Despite a more personal viewpoint throughout and good characterization, it’s frustrating to be as lost as Jackie. The book doesn’t really end– unlike the Dark Wing, this is clearly a chunk of a larger book and doesn’t have a satisfying ending. I checked out the next book in the series and hope that it’s more rewarding in the end.

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The Dark Wing by Walter H. Hunt

The Dark Wing is a tale of war between the (human) Imperium and an alien race– the Zor, birdlike and different.

The story is well written and centers on Sergei Torrijos, though other characters (including, later on, Zor protagonists) get POV chapters. There are elements that suggest roleplaying potential– like the ability of gunners to “crack” a shield early, and a pilot’s ability to evade/present new faces to the enemy in a way that prolongs the ship’s life. That information, and several other bits of history and technological explanation are given in straightforward info-dumps.

The book is mostly about the war; the Zor attack in the first chapter, and the humans scramble to counter attack. Interestingly, a cultural gulf between civilians and military is laid out and developed; the military is generally tired of the premature peaces that are negotiated, always leaving the Zor ready to attack again soon.

Admiral Marais steps on scene and begins driving the Imperial Navy onto a new path. It’s interesting watching through Sergei’s eyes as he learns about the Admiral’s drives and goals. There’s a very interesting subplot about Intellegence and spies, and hints at a future enemy.

The book lasts a longer than you’d expect– the war comes to a close, but the after effects must be navigated. This takes about 25% more of the book and casts a different light on the accomplishments of the war.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. This was a reread.

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Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber

Off Armageddon Reef is an interesting book with two distinct parts. The first part is a brief tale of humanity’s end, as the Gbaba destroy Earth’s last war fleet. The Gbaba are implacable and not really detailed– it’s enough to know that they’re the creatures in the night.

The book transitions to the other half of part one for a while, telling briefly about the terraforming and colonization efforts to establish humanity’s last colony. There’s an interesting tale of hubris and terrible decisions, as the survivors are almost all mindwiped and led around by a false religion, where the unimpaired humans use technology to establish themselves as angels and make their decrees inviolable. While it’s done for (mostly) good reasons, it makes the reader queasy– and sparks a rebellion among the unimpaired. In the end, the religious decrees are established and the angels fade into the background.

All of the above is background for the bulk of the book. This chunk is a mostly first person tale by Nimue Allen, an android with memories from the end of Earth’s empire. Nimue decides to right wrongs and nudge the world’s development towards the best technology they can reestablish without the Gbaba sensing it.

Her struggle is interesting and mirrors a lot of Renaissance and Reformation history, altered for the new world and experiences. It’s compellingly written, with slightly progressive allies and a lot of worries about deception and the effect of their actions. The characters come across as clear and strong, making me look forward to its sequel By Schism Rent Asunder. It’s on request at the library now.

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The Armageddon Rag by George RR Martin

The Armagedon Rag was an interesting book, written in 1982. I picked it up because it was sympathetic to the boomers and I thought I’d look at the world from their point of view. It didn’t do much for my opinion of the boomers… though I enjoyed it somewhat as a book with solid characters.

The book has two halves; the first is a journalist’s investigation of a murder and a lot of cross country travel. Spots were good, but I was impatient through most of it. Near the middle the book twists and goes down an occult and music path. While the tension was more impressive in the second half, the plot was much less centered around the viewpoint character.

In the end, I had a collection of interesting characters [mostly boomers having problems adjusting to the end of their movement, selling out, etc.], an initial plot that was OK but slow, a trailing plot that was more removed, a brief moment of crazy, and a nice party with friends to end it. I don’t recommend it unless you’re presold on the power of music and nostaligia.

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The Consciousness Plague by Paul Levinson

An interesting blend of elements, and evidently the fourth book starring Phil D’Amato. [Another review calls it book 2; it sounds like this is the first full novel following a collection of short stories.] It feels like a detective story much of the time; Phil is trying to find a serial killer and his bosses are on him to produce the killer. The other half of the book, however, is an interesting complication (memory loss, possibly drug or disease induced), which twines into the serial killer plot in interesting ways.

Phil travels a lot for his job– to Scotland, Los Angeles, and Chicago, which surprised me given that he’s an NYC detective. Along the way he interacts with a number of interesting people– thrown at him from both sides of the case. The memory subplot is clearly the heart of the story, with interesting characters and conundrums, and a lot of information passed to the reader about the structure of the brain, bacteria communication, and more.

The end is satisfying and properly links up the plots; while victory is secured, it’s not a white hatted hero who makes it all come together. The shifting alliances and trust are interesting throughout. I liked his girlfriend, but her depth seems to depend on earlier stories– while I liked her, she didn’t pop the way other characters did.