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Implied Spaces
By Walter Jon Williams
Billed by the author, as a follow on, in spirit to 'Voice Of The Whirlwind', I was hugely looking forward to this. It didn't live up to my expectations, but I think thats as much my expectations as the author's writing. I was expecting a martial arts book, and yes, it features one, but, in no way is this reflected in the plot or affects the actions of the protagonist.
Williams has loads of good ideas - wormhole worlds created as live action rpg's, as fuel sources, as places to put spare populations, massive benign AI's, one of which accompanies the protagonist in avatar form as a cat, a wormhole sword, biomimetic plagues, and so on, it all goes rather space opera towards the end, and blows what little suspension of belief I had..
The author is part of a writing circle, and while the work has no glaring complaints, its not standing out in anyway. Williams fails to being to life the main protagonist, who is damn near immortal, has some funky superpowers, and responsible in part, for the creation of the world as they know it. Frankly, Williams did elements of this better in his 'Aristoi', and Zelany did MUCH better in 'Lord Of Light'.

Posted at: 22:29:56 23 Aug 2008 [/books] permanent link

New Amsterdam
By Elizabeth Bear
The second of the lady's works I've read, not counting her short stories, and another worthy title. More polished than 'Dust', I was initiall distracted by the format, finding it a little disjointed, as its a series of stories. Its only when A read it and remarked how authentic it was to the style of the period - think the novellettes of Conan Doyle, that I realised how well it had been put together.
A lot more to be bought by Eizabeth Bear, I think.

Posted at: 22:04:31 23 Aug 2008 [/books] permanent link

Google Maps Hacks
By Rich Gibson & Schuyler Erle
I actually bought this by mistake, hurredly, before the start of our holiday, thinking it was 'Mapping Hacks', intending to get more to grips with the Garmin eTrex I'd been bought. It was an interesting set of read anyway, although my lack of knowledge of Javascript means I'll get less use our of it than I might otherwise.. I'll be revisiting bits, hopefully soon to integrate the photot's I took with the GPS track I was recording at the same time. You never know, I may have a location based travelogue up at some point!

Posted at: 21:59:54 23 Aug 2008 [/books] permanent link

The Last Days of Old Beijing
By Michael Meyer
I bought this because, for some reason, it came up n the new books list on the book depository, and I remembered his name from the TV tour of China that Paul Merton did..
The book is a documentation of the author's time spent living in the old neighborhoods of Beijing, before they were razed for the Olympics. Its part travel guide, part urban and rural planning, part cultural treatise, part history, part exposition on modern living.
Meyer definitely has an agenda, but you can't fault him - he's lived in the area for years, in the communities, speaking and living the culture. A very interesting read. I bought it as an 'intelligent' even worthy, book to read on holiday, but it never felt like I was slogging through, and it never seemed repetitive - there's always the danger that the description of the third hutong will be the same as the second, but Meyer does a good job avoiding this, and discussion how the communities provide social communities, and showing the benefits without shying away from the detractions. Thought provoking stuff.

Posted at: 21:56:09 23 Aug 2008 [/books] permanent link