2009 – Page 5 – Made by Mikal

Mr. Penumbra’s Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 15, 2009
Post category:Book

Boing Boing put me onto this online short story. Its really very good, and it distracted me from the book I am meant to be reading by not only being clever, but also by using jargon in a manner that not only furthered the story, but (and here's the rare bit) didn't make me immediately cringe. The story is also chock full of quotable quotes, of which I will supply you with one: I can't stop squirming. If fidgets were Wikipedia edits, I would have completely revamped the entry on guilt by now, and translated it into six new languages. An excellent short story of our modern times.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Maverick

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 13, 2009
Post category:Book

Bruce did an ok job with this book, although I think overall he was suffering from not having a lot to work with. The book is quite readable, which isn't true of some of the others, and has some nice details such as an attempt to sound technically feasible by the liberal sprinkling of unix jargon through the book. I'm not sure if the unix jargon is successful however. Its interesting that this is also the first of these books to not have an introduction from Asimov himself.

Dragondrums

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the third book in the Harper Hall trilogy (after Dragonsong and Dragonsinger). I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two. This book focuses on Piemur instead of Mellony, and the first half is about his pubescent turmoil, which is probably why I didn't enjoy this book as much. I had similar objections to The White Dragon, which is a very similar book to this one. However, the second half of the book is pretty good, and overall I thought it was a useful contribution to the overall story line of the series. [isbn: 0553258559]

Dragonsinger

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 8, 2009
Post category:Book

This book is interesting because its 200 or so pages only cover a seven day period. Its a coming of age story that continues directly on from Dragonsong, and overlaps somewhat with The White Dragon (if only peripherally). This book has parallels with Pawn of Prophecy in my mind, mostly because they're both about young children being taken under someone's wing and given the time they need to develop their talents. I liked this book, which gives me hope for the rest of the series. [isbn: 0553258540]

Books read in August 2009

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 1, 2009
Post category:Book

The White Dragon Bio of a Space Tyrant: Politician Bolos 6: Cold Steel Dragonsong

Dragonsong

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 1, 2009
Post category:Book

Dragonsong sits between Dragonquest and The White Dragon, although there is some overlap with The White Dragon and it doesn't matter what order you read those two in. Some friends and I were joking the other day that all McCaffrey books seem to involve a pained teenager coming to age. That's true with this book, although the story isn't as drawn out as The White Dragon, and I didn't find it quite as annoying to read. I think that's because McCaffrey didn't dwell on how terrible it was to be a teenager as much in this one. I really enjoyed this one, and thought it was better than The White Dragon, and on par with Dragonflight, although I do feel that The White Dragon opens up more interesting possibilities for the universe than this book did. [isbn: 0553258524]

Bolos 6: Cold Steel

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 29, 2009
Post category:Book

This bolo book is different from the previous ones, in that it heavily focuses on the humans side of the story, instead of the bolo's inner monologue. I've seen reviews online that say this makes it a bad bolo book, but I think that's unfair. The bolos are critical to the telling of this story, and you do hear from them. More than that, ultimately a point about the relationship between bolos and humans is being made that would be a lot harder to make if the story was told from the bolo side of the fence. This was a good book and I enjoyed it. [isbn: 0743435494]

Bio of a Space Tyrant: Politician

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 24, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the third book in the Bio of a Space Tyrant series (following Refugee and Mercenary). I picked this series up on a whim when it was cheap in a bookstore sale, and liked the first two books, although the first was quite grim and the second a little odd. This book isn't as strong as the other two, and it took longer to read than usual because of that... I guess the plot just seemed even harder to believe than the others in the series. [isbn: 0380896850]

Don’t use Jetbus Sydney if you want to catch your flight

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 18, 2009
Post category:Travel

I had to take a flight a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd do the financially (and environmentally) sensible thing and use an airport shuttle service. Especially because the airport train in Sydney is so expensive and slow. I found Jetbus online, and paid with PayPal. The first time I used them they were just fine, but the second time was extremely frustrating. So frustrating that I wont be using their service again, as I value actually getting on my plane. Interestingly, Jetbus' Sydney office is across the road from my pickup location, so how badly can it go? I had a 4pm booking. I arrived at the pickup location 15 minutes early. The bus drove past me at the speed limit approximately on time. It did not slow down or stop. I rang the dispatch number to inform them of the error. The bus drove past about 10 minutes later, again without slowing down or stopping. I rang again. The bus didn't reappear. In total, I rang dispatch 5 times in an attempt to be collected. After the bus was 45 minutes late, I took a taxi to the airport instead, which cost $47, and arrived with only…

The White Dragon

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This book took me ages to finish, and I'm not sure if that was because of distractions in real life (moving into a new house), or if it was because I just wasn't all that into it. The first half of the book is the growing pains of Jaxom, the rider of white dragon Ruth. It was interesting in parts, but other parts seemed to drag on with endless character development. On the other hand, the plot of the last third of the book was really good, and I enjoyed it greatly. I don't think this book was as good as the two previous Pern books however. [isbn: 0345341678]