Dusk Before the Dawn

By day, I masquerade as someone who knows a thing or two about digital security and identity.

So when my friend and collegue Charles mentioned wikiscanner to me, my split personality showed: one side cheered that the media manipulaters could no longer hide; the other side jeered because privacy and anonymity took another blow.

Wikiscanner, through the usage of computation and knowledge about who (which corporations or ISPs) own what blocks of IP addresses, takes away some of the anonymity that can be associated with changing a Wikipedia post. Kudos to wikiscanner creator Virgil Griffith for his creativity; because of his invention he can no longer remain anonymous, as media rags show how his creation reveals corps like Diebold editing Wiki articles on e-voting machines.

Identity and the concept of “authoritative” are interesting topics to discuss in terms of Wiki, and also in terms of other community sites such as Digg, eBay, Amazon, MySpace, dating sites and others. (more…)

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A first time novelist’s first time at the show

I went to BEA (and took my wife and son) for many reasons:

• My first book (Dusk Before the Dawn) was up for a 2006 Book of the Year Award from ForeWord Magazine;
• I love books;
• I wanted to meet a few of the friends I’d made in the book business;
• It was in New York City and we like to visit;
• Did I mention we like books?

I’ve visited and exhibitted at many software and technology conferences, but few had the excitement and sheer hectic nature of BEA. It was a three-day conference preceeded by meetings and seminars; we only attended the first day (Friday), and we were worn out, my son especially for playing sherpa and carrying the books!

Now, let me emphasize that we did not go to BEA with the intention of grabbing every book in sight. It just felt like that is what we did! We ended up with forty books, some ARC/AREs (Advanced Reading Copies/Editions), some unedited, some fully released. I have almost one hundred reviews on this site, with more coming, so hopefully the authors and publishing houses will feel some benefit from the publicity. My wife and son are going to contribute some reviews as well.

Some of the books we got (that we will be posting reviews for) were:

• The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks (the book after Traveler); my review
• The Orc King by R. A. Salvatore (the next Drizzt novel);
• The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson (the book after the Army at Dawn, about the liberation of Europe in WWII);
• The Almost Moon by Alice Seybold (author of The Lovely Bones); my review
• The Crocodile and the Crane by Authur Rosenfield (from YMAA books, publisher of some of the best martial arts books available);
• Exit Ghost by Philip Roth;
• The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax (story summary reminds me of The Shadow and the Wind);
• How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov
• The Human, The Orchid and The Octopus by Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein
• Dragons of the Highlord Skies by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (The Lost Chronicles Vol. 2)

I also got to meet in person several author friends, including: (more…)

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5 stars: That does it, I am officially envious of Scalzi’s talent

 John Scalzi won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Gee, I wonder why?

While not as fantastic as his debut, Old Man’s War, Scalzi still sets the bar high with his followup novel, set in the same universe where mankind has ventured out into a hostile universe populated with hundreds of alien species, and responds with engineering, perserverance, and small feats of bio engineering like the Ghost Brigades.

The Ghost Brigades were introduced briefly in Old Man’s War in the form of Jane Sagan, a nine year old with some of the DNA of the lead character’s dead wife. The soldiers in the Ghost Brigade are grown, given “BrainPal” computers in their head, and then linked to their squad mates.

Jane Sagan plays a back-up role here. The main plot follows Jared Dirac, a Ghost Brigade soldier who is built to put a presumed dead traitor’s consciousness inside his head. It doesn’t take at first, so he becomes a member of the Ghost Brigades. It does take later, but to detail more would mean spoiling the story.

Scalzi continues to expand upon the universe of aliens he has created, and to explain the science the humans are using to combat them in clear, logical terms. (Science and fiction, get it?) The humans seem to be beset on all sides by agressive aliens, but which side is really the aggressor?

John gets into some excellent philosophical discussions about choice and right to choose, which is right in line with the “created for a purpose” ghost brigades.

An excellent story, a quick read, a new fav author. On to the third in the series.
Buy the Book  Author’s Website

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5 stars: This novel shows why Scalzi won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Old Man’s War is simply amazing for a debut novel. As an author my hat is off to John Scalzi for this work. Featuring an imaginative plot with what will soon be classic science fiction settings, this is a “can’t put it down” adventure.

The premise in itself is imaginative: the Colonial Defence Force, which defends human colonies in the stars, fulfills it’s manpower requirements by signing up old men and women and “revamping” their bodies (to say more would give story points away). John Perry joins on his 75th birthday, and begins a journey which includes the revamping of his body, boot camp and battle. Along the way, different pieces of technology/culture are introduced. Some are not explained (taken for granted) but others (skip drive and beanstalk transports to name a few) are discussed as lunchtime talks between recruits, well in the flow of the story.

Scalzi’s humor is excellent, and well on display in his dialog. I actually laughed out loud at points (I usually only do that with Christopher Moore books).

There are few big philosophical ideas here (other than classic military “what are we fighting for?” concepts), and there could be quite a bit more discussed deeper. But that is a minor issue that does not diminish the enjoyment of reading this book.

Highly recommended. On to Ghost Brigades (the next story in the saga).

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