false 8 94 93 true 5705625 read 1 true 3772891 currently-reading 0 true 3772890 to-read 1 false 3775909 abandoned http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80017408 The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3) by Dan Brown
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78692454 to: Coders at Work (Paperback) by Peter Seibel
Dry, somewhat repetitive, not as enlightening as I hoped.

Concentrated too much on language-designer programmers, who are not your normal day-to-day ship-it in the real world guys.

Some nice legends in there though.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76427527 to: Cold Mountain (Paperback) by Charles Frazier
Slightly impenetrable to start but it quickly became a captivating read.

Nicely paced through two storylines with a particular dense type of writing that requires skipping back a few paragraphs to check for missed phrasing every now and then.

Somewhat expected ending in terms of style (and sheer expectation based on pace of story and number of pages left) but with a reasonable twist. Felt a little cinematic.

Strange use of conversational quoting:

―Hello there. Rudy said.

As opposed to:

"Hello there", Rudy said.

Must google it or something.

Update: Well what do you know: quotation dash - Unicode U+2015 (have changed example above, let's see how good your Unicode browser is ;)) ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75561383 to: This Is Not a Game: A Novel (Hardcover) by Walter Jon Williams
3 1/2 stars!

A nice contemporary delve into the world of ARGs. Reminded me a lot of a more adult Little Brother.

Hard to say much about this without spoilers, but the story blurs the lines between real events, alternative reality games and true gamer geekdom. Works quite well but may date quite quickly so I recommend you read it now rather than later.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75555506 to: Transition (Hardcover) by Iain M. Banks
Billed as a "return to form" (although apart from the more recent The Steep Approach to Garbadale I haven't really had any issues, especially the Iain M Banks sci-fi as opposed to the Iain Banks thrillers (which tend to be weaker). (Ok, goodreads and the US indexing system doesn't highlight this discrepency so go view it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks).

This is meant to be The Bridge-like and also to straddle his genres.

It starts well but then establishes itself as a fairly standard mega-parallel-verse-with-assassins story using Banks' multiple-first person characterizations. It soon flattens out and then degenerates into a confused, plot-lost, random sex scene, deus ex.., get-out-of-jail-free story with very little satisfactory conclusion. Even the exit 'gotcha' was less telling that the Sympathy for the Devil exit of Fallen (ok, an old average movie reference mixed with a book like this doesn't really make that much sense, but it's what leapt to mind).

I also think I spotted a couple of inconsistencies with the whole shifting thing, but would need to re-read it to be sure, and it may be that Banks was just trying to be really clever and I missed it. But its not going to be high on my re-read list, whereas several other Banks are: The Algebraist, Look to Windward and Feersum Endjinn.

Disappointing, but even so it still averages out well above a bad book and is a jolly little read with some interesting insight into the minds of assassins, torturers, drug dealers and random mostly unsavoury characters. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75556849 to: Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram (Hardcover) by Iain M. Banks
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75556844 to: Canal Dreams (Paperback) by Iain M. Banks
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75556840 to: Walking On Glass (Paperback) by Iain M. Banks
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75556828 to: The Steep Approach to Garbadale (Hardcover) by Iain M. Banks
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75556818 to: A Song of Stone: A Novel (Paperback) by Iain M. Banks
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