Monday, August 27, 2018

reamde

Yeah, you read that right. Neal Stephenson's new book is called Reamde, altho to be fair the title is written thus on both the hardcover (book jacket) and the softcover versions:

REAMDE

I guess it makes it a little easier to read, and gives a clue as to the subject matter. Not surprisingly, Stephenson is again writing about computer/internet use, as he has a number of times in the past. This one is more Crytonomicon, and less Snow Crash. Reamde is not my favorite Stephenson book, but it did move right along and the characters were interesting to follow, even if I did have a pretty good idea how it was all going to end after a few hundred pages.

What Stephenson does so well is explain virtual world events and online activities so well that even though its not my thing, I was able to follow what he was describing and didn't feel bogged down by the technology. I'm sure that must be difficult and its one of the reasons I like his writing. All of the research and the back story is there. Its clear he's done the work, but it stays in the background (for the most part) and doesn't take over the story.

If you're a Neal Stephenson fan, I think you'll enjoy this one, if you're new to Stephenson, this isn't where I'd start, you're better off with Snow Crash, Diamond Age, or Seveneves.


[Note: I've been reading while on vacation, so I have some books, and my thoughts on them, stacked up. There are a few more to come when I get to them]

Sunday, August 26, 2018

price of duty

This is the first book I've by Dale Brown. Brown is a former U.S. Air Force captain, where he was a bomber pilot, so in the tradition of writing what you know, Brown writes military fiction. Altho it may be more accurate to say that Price of Duty is military science fiction, as the tech the fighting forces are using is pretty advanced.

It took a few chapters for me to catch on to Brown's writing style, but that may be true for many writers, I guess I just don't keep track. Once I got into it, the story moved right along. Even though the military tech is extremely high-tech, the story seems inspired by today. The Russian president is a ex-KGB man with dictatorial control over his country and has begun a cyber-war against a group of European allies (read NATO) who have been left out to dry by the American President. This is particularly ironic given that I think Brown has based his character on Hillary Clinton* (as he has based his Russian dictator on Putin) and he has her leaving the European's to fend for themselves, even though she isn't a fan of the Russian president, who has a habit of denying involvement in actions that are clearly and demonstrably his responsibility. But who knows, the American president could be inspired by a combination of Clinton and Trump, or created wholly in the mind of Brown.

This book is a follow-up, or one of a series of books about this special force called Iron Wolf. This isn't the first in that series and I don't know where it falls, but I didn't find it listed on the author's website, so it could be that his site hasn't been updated in a while. The Iron Wolf secret weapon (and I don't think I'm giving too much away here) is a fighting robot, or exoskeleton, piloted by man who is on board rather than remote. This is not the first story with big fighting robots, and its not the first military story with big fighting robots, but this one does seem to view the exoskeleton idea in a more practical sense than some of the other visions out there.


* Its my impression that Brown was writing this during the run up to the election, and his choice for president was based on the polling at the time.