false 4 245 163 true 5672153 read 6 true 5058399 currently-reading 76 true 5058398 to-read 136 false 5063210 own 71 false 5063141 wishlist 28 false 5061118 comics-manga 24 false 5063242 borrowed 10 false 5061131 games-gamedesign 7 false 5063201 curious 5 false 5063243 online 4 false 5063252 art 3 false 7128843 academic 1 false 5230454 signed 1 false 6795570 favourites 1 false 5381336 gifts http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78385131 Excession (Paperback) by Iain M. Banks
bookshelves: currently-reading, own
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70722819 to: The Algebraist (Paperback) by Iain M. Banks
bookshelves: own
Banks doesn't disappoint with this parallel title to his Culture series. Though written in a familiar style, this book deals with a unique universe in which pockets of human-origin species have spread about a galaxy rather tenuously linked by fragile wormholes. In the centuries-long isolated ward of Ulubis system, a researcher and ambassador of sorts finds himself embroiled in interstellar war, amusing xenopolitics and dealings with ghosts from his past. There's a lot of plot on offer but, as ever, Banks arranges it marvellously.

I originally picked this up thinking it an offshoot Culture novel, given its quite similar cover art, but it is not despite some familiar transhuman themes. So The Algebraist might appear at first to lack the depth wielded by these other books. I think, however, that for once we have a book which focuses much more intently on inter-personal relationships and a more free-fall sort of adventure than the Culture series, in which the universe itself is a prominent and pleasant focus. It does ramp up the swearing and violence though, so is a less friendly read to those who like their sci-fi '15-rated'.

Fassin Taak, our protagonist, comes into contact with all manner of scary, charming and eccentric individuals on his whirlwind travels. We also come to understand a villain with a most deliciously macabre manner. This change in focus serves as a welcome break from the usual, political enemies of The Culture's Contact division. Certainly the opening chapter, in which the Archimandrite Luciferous toys with his past enemies, is one of the most wonderfully unsettling things I may ever have read.

The three stars I grant this book are not a mark-down, but a statement of my utter satisfaction. At the end of the day this pleased me but didn't wow me like Banks' other works did, but that can hold merit in itself. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56560453 to: Ghost In The Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface (Ghost in the Shell) by Masamune Shirow
bookshelves: comics-manga, own
I've read (or tried to read) this four times now.. and every time I still don't get it. The book is an oddity, as its storyline is intended to lay outside that which Motoko Kusanagi began in Ghost in the Shell. But that's fine - we know The Major disseminated and spread across the 'net at the end of that book, and so the idea that we have a Motoko Aramaki, eleventh isotope of that fusion, is easy to accept.

What really doesn't work is the sheer amount of information, philosophy and jargon Shirow sought to cram in to his sequel. Practically 90% of the book features Motoko in virtual environments, battling 'e-thugs' and viruses. When the original manga did this, the environments were rendered as clear overlays on the 'real' world, and the conversations were kept short and made some sense. When the TV show did it, we were allowed to see these worlds in motion and there they made a lot of sense too. Not so in a comics frame. With the exception of a few illustrations, featuring Motoko's avatar diving into a representation of someone's face, or hiding behind a brain-dived individual as some sort of puppeteer, most scenes are presented as wild, abstract voids awash with text and Shirow's symbolism for files and data pathways. It feels inconsistent, confusing and mightily distracting.

Man-Machine Interface is also half finished. The artist went back over some of the work to update it with Bryce-enabled 3D, in following with his Intron Depot works. But these wonderful, coloured illustrations stop about half way through and weave in and out, leaving us again with a disorientating read. I still keep looking for some change in the plot to match up with a switch to black and white (as it can be a useful device), but there is none. It's just where renovations stopped.

Like Neuromancer before it, this work of cyberpunk fiction is a ride though jargon and pretty imagery whose plot only becomes clear when it is summed up entirely within one panel. It is almost laughable when Section 9's Chief Aramaki does so in the epilogue, making all those frames in which Motoko converses with her AI helpers feel like quite a waste. To this day I have no idea what part Monnabia, the original Motoko, or any of the other fake or not-fake characters have to play in this ultimate plot, nor indeed where it pairs up to the shinto-esque mythologies Shirow lumps upon us in the final chapter. And yet I do like it because underneath this all is the Ghost in the Shell world we Shirow fans love.

It's worth noting that in the third feature film, Solid State Society, The Major actually employs the AIs developed in this story - Max, Musashi, Lex, Conan et al - re-embodied as Tachikomas. Many of the films and TV episodes also refer back to Shirow's artworks here as representations of a brain dive, with Innocence delivering a particularly energetic take on hacking. So, the book is not without merit. It's just that ashamedly, we have to look at the rest of the series in order to see its worth reflected. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77584694 Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot (Hardcover) by Julian Dibbell
bookshelves: to-read, wishlist
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73859411 Cyberspace Romance: The Psychology of Online Relationships (Paperback) by Monica T. Whitty
bookshelves: academic, borrowed
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76840711 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2 (Paperback) by Alan Moore
bookshelves: comics-manga, currently-reading, own
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75472599 to: Green Cobra (Modesty Blaise Graphic Novel Titan #14) by Peter O'Donnell
bookshelves: borrowed, comics-manga
The collection earns two stars only because the first story, "Green Cobra", was drawn quite well and had a nice spot of intrigue to it. Really the book was pretty weak, though.

I abandoned ship at the second story, "Eve and Adam", simply awash as it was with weak plotting, poor dialogue and some quite horrific artwork. Modesty is drawn topless to an alarming degree all of a sudden, and the mysterious change of artists from the stylish Jon Burns to the more 2-dimensional etchings of Pat Wright really did the strip no favours.

Worse though is the story - completely out of tone with usual fare, and it really only picks back up again when the fictional country to which we are introduced finally reveals that they have a problem. We read Modesty Blaise in order to follow a sexy, thrilling adventure - not to see two very streetwise characters play along with a lunatic and wind up abandoned in the middle of a 'garden of Eden', charged with repopulating the human race. It was unsettling to say the least. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56560470 The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology (Hardcover) by Eric Zimmerman
bookshelves: currently-reading, games-gamedesign
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56560394 A Theory of Fun for Game Design (Paperback) by Raph Koster
bookshelves: academic, currently-reading, games-gamedesign
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75472567 The Inca Trail (Modesty Blaise Graphic Novel Titan #11) by Peter O'Donnell
bookshelves: borrowed, comics-manga, to-read
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