High Tech Books - Page 4

Star Trek: The Academy--Collision Course (Star Trek)

William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

If you think you know how it all began, think again...

Young Jim Kirk wants nothing to do with Starfleet, andnever wants to leave Earth. In the summer of 2249, he's a headstrong seventeen-year-old barely scraping by in San Francisco, haunted by horrific memories from his past.

In the same city, a nineteen-year-old alien named Spock is determined to rise above the emotional turmoil of his mixed-species heritage. He's determined to show his parents he has what it takes to be Vulcan -- even if it means exposing a mysterious conspiracy at the heart of the Vulcan Embassy, stretching to the farthest reaches of the Federation's borders. There, a chilling new threat hasarisen to test the Federation's deepest held belief that war is a thing of the past and that a secure future can be forged through peaceful means alone. But it is in San Francisco, home to Starfleet Academy, where that threat will be met by two troubled teenage boys driven to solve the mystery that links them both.

In time, the universe will come to know these young rebels as Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock...two of the Federation's greatest heroes. Yet before they were heroes, they were simply conflicted teenagers, filled with raw ambition and talent, not yet seasoned by wisdom and experience, searching for their own unique directions in life -- a destiny they'll discover on one fateful night in San Francisco, when two lives collide, and two legends are born.

Star Trek: Academy -- Collision Course sets the stage for an exciting new era of Star Trek adventure, and for the first time reveals Kirk and Spock as they were, and how they began their journey to become the Kirk and Spock we know today.

Accelerando (Singularity)

Charles Stross

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 85 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Accelerando certainly didn't accelerate... 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I've never read Stross but I had high hopes going in to this one. I couldn't have been more let down.

His writing is so complexly written that it is barely readable. And I don't mean he needed to dumb it down. I mean his sentence structures were convoluted enough to make Accelerando seem worse than it was. A few examples:

"A standard network of independent companies, instantiated as cellular automata within the Ring Imperium switched legal service environment." (Pg. 206)

"Economics 2.0 apparently replaces the single-direction layer of conventional money, and the multiple-inderection mappings of options trades, with some kind of insanely baroque object-relational framework based on paramatized desires and subjective experiential values of the players, and as far as the cat is concerned, this makes all the transactions intrinsically untrustworthy. (Pg. 341)"

"...and in this reincarnation-intermediated traditionalist polity for the hopelessly orthohuman, you can score credit for formality. (Pg. 382)"

Add to that a dizzying amount of "ideas" for virtually everything, such as suitcases and handbags that have emotions, lobsters that talk, ghosts of yourself everywhere collecting information, spaceships the size of a coke can, or duplicating yourself and having different lives and consciousness. It is all too much and drowns out any possible storyline that is hiding behind all the superfluous ideas.

A quote on the back of the book says "Stross sizzles with ideas...", unfortunately that is all there is to this book. I might try another book of his but it may be a long time coming because of how boring and slow this one was, and if I do it will be with trepidation, knowing that I will probably find the same style of writing. Not a recommend.

2.5 stars.

Editorial Review:

Expanding on his award-winning short story cycle from the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction, Charles Stross delivers the story fans and peers have been expecting with Accelerando, a novel destined to change the face of the genre.

Glasshouse

Charles Stross

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"In the Village" 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Charles Stross's extremely clever, if extremely loopy, "Glasshouse" imagines a far future of travel by teleportation (through assembler gates--wait for it), body alterations, physical backups, and a worm that reprograms people's memories.

The hero is (a male) named Robin who's just gone through memory erasure (perhaps voluntarily). In order to avoid what he believes are assassins pursuing him, he volunteers for an experiment in which people live as they did during the "dark ages." Although the dark ages in question are the 20th and 21st centuries.

Stross has a clever idea: the records from the earlier part of the period, when paper and ink was still the primary method of data storage, will have proved more durable than electronic storage, in which data has been lost due to the constant procession of different, competing storage devices. Anyhow, the world Robin (now a female named Reeve) finds (her)self in has late-20th/early 21st-century tech (mobile phones, microwaves), but a social structure from the period of 50 years before, with men going to work and women staying home.

Robin/Reeve, however, quickly discovers that the danger to (her)self lies precisely within the parameters of the experiment, and not with assassins without. Of course, she tries to do something about this, and the thrills start.

The book's a kick, with wild speculations, hat-tips to Franz Kafka, Alice Sheldon, Paul A. Linebarger, the old "The Prisoner" tv miniseries, and the computer worm that's featured so prominently in the book is named Curious Yellow. But maybe Mr. Stross isn't quite as clever as he thinks he is; sometimes the breathless first-person present-tense narration by Robin/Reeve devolves into cute or technobabble. And the ending feels rushed. But it will sustain your interest over the course of its 333 cramped pages packed with too-small print. (You'll need to visit your opthalmologist when you finally put the book aside.) Some publishers have been improving the look and feel of their small-size paperbacks. This publisher has not joined the party.

Editorial Review:

In the twenty-seventh century, accelerated technology dictates the memories and personalities of people. With most of his own memories deleted, Robin enters The Glasshouse-an experimental polity where he finds himself at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche.

Designated Targets

John Birmingham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

It’s World War II and the A-bomb is here to stay.
The only question: Who’s going to drop it first?

The Battle of Midway takes on a whole new dimension with the sudden appearance of a U.S.-led naval task force from the twenty-first century, the result of a botched military experiment. State-of-the-art warships are scattered across the Pacific, armed to the teeth with the latest instruments of mass destruction.

Nuclear warheads, rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s, computer-guided missiles–all bets are off as the major powers of 1942 scramble to be the first to wield the weapons of tomorrow against their enemies. The whole world now knows of the Allied victory in 1945, and the collapse of communism decades later. But that was the first time around.

With the benefit of their newly acquired knowledge, Stalin and Hitler rapidly change strategies. A Russian-German ceasefire leaves the Führer free to bring the full weight of his vaunted Nazi war machine down on England, while in the Pacific, Japan launches an invasion of Australia, and Admiral Yamamoto schemes to seize an even greater prize . . . Hawaii.

Even in the United States the newcomers from the future are greeted with a combination of enthusiasm and fear. Suspicion leads to hatred and erupts into violence.

Suddenly it’s a whole new war, with high-tech, high-stakes international manipulations from Tokyo to D.C. to the Kremlin. As the world trembles on the brink of annihilation, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Tojo confront extreme choices and a future rife with possibilities–all of them apocalyptic.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Empire (Tor Science Fiction)

Orson Scott Card

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 186 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Average Card book (which is very good) 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Almost harkens back to Heinlen, in both good and bad ways. If you liked Card's "Folk of the Fringe" books, you'll like this one; it has a similar feel. This book has even more of an an action-novel appeal than the 'shadow' series; nice, but my favorite part of Card's writing is where he deals with more interpersonal/societal issues.

Editorial Review:

The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point. The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone.

The battle rages between the high-technology weapons on one side, and militia foot-soldiers on the other, devastating the cities, and overrunning the countryside. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop, and the nation to return to more peaceful days, have technology, weapons and strategic geniuses of their own.

When the American dream shatters into violence, who can hold the people and the government together? And which side will you be on?

Orson Scott Card is a master storyteller, who has earned millions of fans and reams of praise for his previous science fiction and fantasy novels. Now he steps a little closer to the present day with this chilling look at a near future scenario of a new American Civil War.

Redemption Ark (Revelation Space)

Alastair Reynolds

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

awe-inducing origami-like plot and tech 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a fabulous follow-up to the Revelation Space series... after only have read the Revelation Space book. The relavence and depth of plot concerning Relevation Space continued through Redemption Ark. The deep plot had more folds than origami, which left me in submissive pleasure in the shadow of the awe-inducing greatness of it all.

High points for characters, plot (of course) and especially tech talk. There seemed to be more tech talk here than in Revelation Space. The plausible-factor of the series soared to a new high. Humans discovering technology beyond them and using that alien technology drew me in again and again.

However, I wouldn't describe Redemption Ark as "gothic" but perhaps a bit gritty... or a non-lateral mental approach to a perfect future. This future is far from utopic, but it's defininetly not "gothic."

Editorial Review:

This stunning sequel to Revelation Space begins late in the twenty-sixth century. The human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger alien machines designed to detect intelligent life--and destroy it.

The Scar

China Mieville

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 102 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the third book in an astounding, genre-breaking run, China Miéville expands the horizon beyond the boundaries of New Crobuzon, setting sail on the high seas of his ever-growing world of Bas Lag.

The Scar begins with Miéville's frantic heroine, Bellis Coldwine, fleeing her beloved New Crobuzon in the peripheral wake of events relayed in Perdidio Street Station. But her voyage to the colony of Nova Esperium is cut short when she is shanghaied and stranded on Armada, a legendary floating pirate city. Bellis becomes the reader's unbelieving eyes as she reluctantly learns to live on the gargantuan flotilla of stolen ships populated by a rabble of pirates, mercenaries, and press-ganged refugees. Meanwhile, Armada and Bellis's future is skippered by the "Lovers," an enigmatic couple whose mirror-image scarring belies the twisted depth of their passion. To give up any more of Miéville’s masterful plot here would only ruin the voyage through dangerous straits, political uprisings, watery nightmares, mutinous revenge, monstrous power plays, and grand aspirations.

Miéville's skill in articulating brilliantly macabre and involving descriptions is paralleled only by his ability to set up world-moving plot twists that continually blow away the reader's expectations. Man-made mutations, amphibious aliens, transdimensional beings, human mosquitoes, and even vampires are merely neighbors, coworkers, friends, and enemies coexisting in the dizzying tapestry of diversity that is Armada. The Scar proves Miéville has the muscle and talent to become a defining force as he effortlessly transcends the usual clichés of the genre. --Jeremy Pugh

Plague Year

Jeff Carlson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Stay-up-until-4AM-to-finish-reading-it exciting! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I picked up a copy of "Plague Year" as I was in Barnes and Noble in a rush to the hospital- my fiancee was hospitalized at 27 weeks pregnant because she was leaking amniotic fluid, and we were told she would be there for as long as it took for the baby to come. Yikes! So I grabbed a handful of books for her and I to keep ourselves occupied. I saw "Plague Year" as I scanned the shelf and the premise was deeply intriguing; I snapped it up.

Settling into the hospital room, I promised myself I would ration by reading so that it would last me as long as possible. On a whim, I read your book first. I think it was about an hour and a half later when the space shuttle was landing in Leadville I decided "Pfft. Screw that." I have a voracious appetite for reading, and I could not put your book down until I was done.

Well written and executed, a very compelling story! I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel. I find myself occasionally day dreaming about the premise of the plot and what I could have done differently put in the shoes of various characters, trying to "wargame" my way through the scenarios and plot points you created. Just like what review "emzbox" said; this book gets into your head, man! Enough so I emailed Mr. Carlson to ask him about a few of the details (and he was nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule to discuss them with me).

All in all, a great story. Buy it!

Editorial Review:

The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the Machine Plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.

The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape the plague struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out-there is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station-and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line...

Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 5)

James Luceno

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 58 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Book Jumps To Much 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This was an ok book. I did not care for how it skipped around all the time from character to character point of view. It could be better if it was more uniform and flowed together more.

Editorial Review:

A string of smashing victories by the forces of the sinister aliens known as the Yuuzhan Vong has left New Republic resources and morale stretched to the breaking point. Leia Organa Solo, estranged from her husband, Han, oversees the evacuation of refugees on planets in the path of the merciless invaders. Luke Skywalker struggles to hold the fractious Jedi Knights together, even while one of them undertakes a bold but reckless undercover mission.

Manipulating their alliance with the amoral Hutts, the Yuuzhan Vong leave a cunning trail of vital information where New Republic agents are sure to find it--information the desperate defenders cannot afford to ignore: the location of the aliens' next target.

Then Han Solo stumbles into the dark heart of raging battle, thus beginning a furious race against time that will require every skill and trick in his arsenal to win...

The Reality Dysfunction (The Night's Dawn)

Peter F. Hamilton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 214 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Fascinating, Exciting, Absurd, and Frustrating 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Reality Dysfunction (parts 1 and 2) could be retitled "The Author's Dysfunction." The books start with some interesting sci-fi scenarios such as living and intelligent spaceships and habitats and human genetic modifications to achieve telepathy. There also are some interesting plots such as the Confederation's struggle to eliminate antimatter weapons and the investigation of an advanced alien society that committed mass suicide thousands of years past. These alone would have made a great, long novel, especially since Peter Hamilton writes well. Unfortunately, Mr. Hamilton could not leave well enough alone. He adds character after character (scores of them by the end of these two books), plot after subplot, location after location. Even more unfortunately, the overriding plot becomes a ghost story. The spirits of the vilest human dead, who have lived as miserable disembodied energy-beings for centuries, suddenly gain access to living persons whom they possess. The first thoughts of these vile re-embodied spirits are to help other vile spirits possess their own living hosts. (I found this unlikely, since the spirits hated each other in their afterlife existences.) But, the ghostly plot gets worse. The spirits, who instantly traveled hundreds of light-years (How did they get that ability?) to possess their human hosts, now have incredible super powers. They can screw-up all electronic devices, throw firebolts, instantly repair or reshape their bodies, work together to bring down buildings, and change planetary climate. And, in yet another subplot, one of the returned spirits is Al Capone, who will probably organize them like his old Chicago mob.

This ghost story now is absurd beyond any believing, because most science fiction does not include violations of the first law of thermodynamics (you cannot get energy from nothing) and of the second law of thermodynamics (high energy systems tend to fall apart unless more energy is added). Even fantasy books with magic usually require some source of magical power.

I should have read more critical reviews before buying (thankfully, in used paperback format) the entire six-book series. You should not read this series unless you can put your logic, reason, and science knowledge on hold.

Editorial Review:

This is space opera on an epic scale, with dozens of characters, hundreds of planets, universe-spanning plots, and settings that range from wooden huts and muddy villages to sentient starships and newborn suns. It's also the first part of a two-volume book that is itself the first book of a series. There's no question that there's a lot going on here (too much to even begin to detail the plot), but Hamilton handles it all with an ease reminiscent of E. E. "Doc" Smith. The best way to describe it: it's big, it's good, and luckily there's plenty more on the way.