The TechCrunch Web Tablet Project
This is what I’ve been talking about, TechCrunch have decided to get the ball rolling on a tablet with touch screen as I’ve previously suggested. Now, a savvy manufacturer would get on and build one of these to meet the obvious demand.
UK iTunes shelves music price cut
Excellent, so by accident Apple managed to get us to pay the same as the rest of Europe, but we’re still paying 62% more than Americans for our music.
Airman by Eoin Colfer
I’m not sure what it is that appeals to me about earlier flight, when people flew things made of wood and paper and filled with explosive gas. I’ve previously reviewed Airborn and Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel, both of which I loved, and which are about adventures in airships. I’m also a fan of stories set in in the Victorian and Edwardian eras (through to the Second World War really), especially alternatives as in Northern Lights (The Golden Compass to any Americans). Perhaps that goes some way to describing my excitement at reading Airman.
I have read many of the Artemis Fowl books so I was well aware who Colfer was and I liked his work although it didn’t necessarily resonate as much as some of the other authors I have read, perhaps partly because of his comical approach. That comic element is all but left behind for Airman and is replaced by a gripping adventure.
Conor Broekhart seems to have a great life ahead, son of the Captain of the wall guard in the fictional kingdom of the Saltees (islands off the coast of Ireland), his best friend is the princess, he’s friends with the king and he has a passion for flying, and so does his new teacher, so he spends his days learning to sword fight and figure out how to build a heavier-than-air flying machine. That is, until he ends up in the diamond mines/prison on Little Saltee.
There’s something of the Count of Monte Cristo about many aspects of the story, and yes, you can probably guess how it’ll end, but that doesn’t detract from a great story, with plenty of action, excitement and twists to keep you turning the pages (I read this in two evenings).
This is a more serious turn for Colfer and a great one I think, I’m just hoping Airman proves enough of a success to encourage him to write a sequel, or two.
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Another great book from Pratchett, not quite as good as Going Postal, the first book featuring Moist von Lipwig, but with more than enough laughs, action, manipulations and outmanoeuvring to keep Pratchett fans happy.
Moist is getting bored now he has turned the Post Office into an efficient machine, his stamps have started a whole new industry and he’s having to find other ways to thrill himself while his girlfriend is away saving golems. Lord Vetinari needs the banking sector turned around to help him raise the money for his grand plans for Ankh-Morpork and he knows just the man for the job, someone who is ingenious, can talk his way out of anything and isn’t easy to kill, it’s just that Moist doesn’t know it yet.
Ingenious, inviting and as exciting as you expect from Pratchett, another one worth a look.
The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
Hamilton is another author I have read regularly and generally been pleased with his epic storylines and interesting views on how he sees humanity in the future. The Void trilogy, of which this is the first book, takes place more than a thousand years after the events of Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained, although some of the characters from the previous two books return (age has long been conquered for most people in a number of ways), and they are generally welcome.
The unusual thing is that there are two universes featured in these books, the human Commonwealth and the world inside the Void, a mysterious black-hole-like structure at the centre of the galaxy and, some believe, sits another universe. The world inside the void is almost medieval but the characters have telepathic and telekinetic powers which are often similar to the traits provided by the high-tech modifications in the ‘real’ universe.
Patience is generally a trait you need to get through Hamilton’s grand operas, and that is the case here, with exciting developments interspersed with mundane story development (which you often wonder if it’s necessary). I actually much enjoyed the story set within the void, but some of the political positioning and play outside is interesting too.
I think the Nighsdawn trilogy was a hard act to follow and the Commonwealth series isn’t quite up there with it yet, though I like the direction it has taken. One of my criticism’s of both of the previous books was the amount of exposition, and the same goes here, although it can probably be extended to include characters and backstory which is unnecessary.
Again, I couldn’t help but get into it though and will certainly be looking at the next books in the trilogy.
Next by Michael Crichton
I’ve read a number of Crichton’s books, generally I like his mixture of fact and fiction and especially the research he does into complex topics. I also enjoy his bent on scientific/technological topics. I picked up Next some time ago when I saw it on offer somewhere but have only recently got around to reading it.
Overall I enjoyed the book and it raises some interesting issues about genetic research and what genetics means for us in the future, a future that holds nearly unlimited potential and almost the same possibility for exploitation. We’re still a way from the problems that feature in Next, but the way the law has fallen behind in the changes technology has introduced give us stern warning that if we don’t keep it could be people’s lives on the line.
That said, the story does really consist of a number of sub-plots and while they can instil outrage you don’t engage with them enough to care in some instances. Some even feel like they are introduced to shock and awe us (an ape-boy, a cognizant parrot and a cure for addiction) with outrageous concepts rather than because they add to the story. There are also a lot of characters and I lost track of who was whom at points and just had to plough on regardless.
Overall I enjoyed the book though, there’s a satisfaction to right winning out in the end, which is a nice way to finish, though some of the narratives simply stop, which is a bit perplexing. Not a classic but a nice easy read if you like a combination of science and thriller.
Mystery on Fifth Avenue
The architectural designer of the Klinsky’s apartment left them a series of clues and puzzles in hidden compartments and panels to reveal a mystery. Check out the picture gallery too.
What a great story.
Operation Cat Drop
Genius, they tried to wipe out malaria with DDT, which worked it’s way up the food chain and killed all the cats, so rats flourished. The solution: parachute 14,000 live cats in.