Blog Roundup 2018: Books Reviewed

A regular feature of this blog is the Sunday Book Reviews, short reviews of books I read this year.  Most of the books were new or recently published.

This year I reviews 58 fiction and 18 non-fiction books. (This doesn’t count the many articles and reports I comment on throughout the year.)

This years reading included lots of favorites including Thomas Perry, Charles Stross, Joe Ide, Donna Leon, A. Lee Martinez.

There are also some new favorites I discovered this year, including Nnedi Okorafor, Edgar Cantero, Theodora Goss, Vivan Shaw.

Some highly recommended* books:

(*This is a highly unsystematic selection—these are all definitely worth your time, though there may be others in my list below that are even better.)

Non fiction

Stamped From The Beginning  (2016)  by Ibram X. Kendi
The Fighters by C. J. Chivers
Ada’s Algorithm (2014) by James Essinger
Crash Test Girl by Kari Byron

Fiction

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (2017) by Theodora Goss
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw
Circe by Madeline Miller

The Whole List

A list of all the book reviews (in no particular order…)

Fiction

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman
Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk
Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
Armistice by Lara Elena Donnelly
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
Bonfire by Krysten Ritter
Celestial Mechanics by William Least Heat-Moon
Circe by Madeline Miller
Constance Verity Saves The World by A. Lee Martinez
Dark State by Charles Stross
Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
French Exit by Patrick DeWitt
Good Guys by Steven Brust
Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer
How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? By N. K Jemisin
I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing by A. D. Jameson
I Only Killed Him Once by Adam Christopher
Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
Kismet by Luke Tredget
Koko Uncaged by Kieran Shea
Kudos by Rachel Cusk
Make a Nerdy Living by Alex Langley
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
Noir by Christopher Moore
Only To Sleep by Lawrence Osborne
Open Me by Lisa Locascio
Quillifer by Walter Jon Williams
Red Waters Rising by Laura Ann Gilman
Robots Vs Fairies edited by Dominick Parisien Navah Wolfe
Sophia of Silicon Valley by Anna Yen
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
Street Freaks by Terry Brooks
Tell The Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
The Bomb Maker by Thomas Perry
The Book of Phoenix (2015) by Nnedi Okorafor
The Cackle of Cthulhu edited by Alex Shvartsman
The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp
The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton
The Final Frontier edited by Neil Clarke
The Judge Hunter by Christopher Buckley
The Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross
The Man From The Diogenes Club by Kim Newman
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
The Pope of Palm Beach by Tim Dorsey
The Song of Achilles (2102) by Madeline Miller
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell
The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon
There, There by Tommy Orange
This Body’s Not Big Enough For Both Of Us by Edgar Cantero
Versailles by Yannick Hill
Who Fears Death (2011) by Nnedi Okorafor
Wrecked by Joe Ide

Non Fiction

Ada’s Algorithm (2014) by James Essinger
Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
City of Demons by Paul French
Crash Test Girl by Kari Byron
Darwin Comes To Town by Menno Schilthuizen
Failure is an Option by H. Jon Benjamin
How To Plan A Crusade by Christopher Tyerman
Nothing edited by Jeremy Webb
Ours To Hack And To Own edited by Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider
Stamped From The Beginning (2016) by Ibram X. Kendi
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
The Earth is Weeping (2016) by Peter Cozzens
The Fighters by C. J. Chivers
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
The Tangled Tree by David Quammen
The Wordy Shipmates (2018) by Sarah Vowell
Totally Random by Tanya Bub and Jeffrey Bub
When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney

Sunday Book Reviews

Housekeeping: Q2 Roundup and Books Reviewed

The Book Is Launched!!!

Based on several years of blogging, the long-awaited book “What is Coworking?” was (finally) released this quarter!  Info here.

Get it!  Read it!

There was an official “book launch” on June 1.

There will be more events in coming months.

Antarctica, Dinosaurs, and Bees; Oh my!

Besides Coworking and The New Way of Work, various topics recur including Dinosaurs, the Anthropocene, and Pollinators.

And, of course, most weeks, Robot Wednesday and Cryptocurrency Thursday.

Books Reviewed This Quarter

 

Fiction

Adjustment Day  by Chuck Palahniuk
Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
Armistice by Lara Elena Donnelly
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
Circe by Madeline Miller
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Koko Uncaged by Kieran Shea
Noir by Christopher Moore
Robots Vs Fairies  edited by Dominick Parisien Navah Wolfe
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
The Judge Hunter by Christopher Buckley
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon
Versailles by Yannick Hill

Non-Fiction

Crash Test Girl by Kari Byron
Darwin Comes To Town by Menno Schilthuizen
Failure is an Option by H. Jon Benjamin
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

Great Names For Bands

The Fungi Under The Woods
“Force Jacket” (or maybe FORCE JACKET)
Frog Fungus Catastrophe

Book Review: “Koko Uncaged “by Kieran Shea

Koko Uncaged by Kieran Shea

The long anticipated continuation of Koko Martstellar takes up where Koko The Mighty (2015) ended.

These stories are kind of video gamish, filled with imagery and violence, and not much in the way of deep characters or complex plotting.

Some of the blubs on the cover describe this as “Cyberpunk”, but that’s really inaccurate, IMO. The technology isn’t especially advanced (except for the weapons), there Is no clever hacking, and it isn’t noir-ish at all.  This is video game grade shoot-em-up, not Cyberpunk techno-subversion.  (Grumble, grumble, kids today know nothing about real Cyberpunk.)

Anyway. I digress.

Frankly, the plot of Uncaged is idiotically silly.  But it’s action packed, which is the goal, I’m sure.

Koko survives a disastrous landing on Earth, and wakes up in the hands of a super-rich industrialist who has “saved” her, but also makes her an offer she can’t refuse.  Koko takes up the role of bodyguard, and is sucked into what must be the stupidest corporate “shoot out” I have ever heard of.  Sigh.

Meanwhile, Koko’s past is closing in, and her ex (who Koko thinks is dead) is captive and being tortured by the bounty hunter, Wire.  (Did we need so many gory details?)

The climax is a high-tech scooter race with an unbelievably obnoxious Latin dictator.  And his unbelievably dumb bodyguard. On a 26^th century Devils Island. Etc.

The Koko stories are kind of fun (though I could do without so much violence and gore).  One thing they are not is memorable literature.

As I started to read this sequel, I found that I couldn’t remember anything about the previous installment Koko The Mighty (2015).  It’s a good thing there were reminders of what happened earlier, because I surely couldn’t tell you.

There is one thing I did remember, though: Koko.  She is a remarkable and interesting character.

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1. Kieran Shea, Koko Uncaged, London, Titan Books, 2018.

 

Sunday Book Reviews

2017 Roundup and list of Books Reviewed

This year I continued daily posts, which I have done for just under four years now.  Overall, traffic to the blog was up about 18% over 2016.

As always, the coverage is mainly review and commentary on topics of interest to me, including “the new way of work”, robots, dinosaurs, cryptocurrency/blockchain, quantum cryptography, internet of too Many things, computer software in general, and so on.

This year I continued weekly posts noting and commenting on books I have read.  Most of the books were recently published, with a few older ones.   (Listed below.)

Throughout the year, I offered a number of “great names for a band”, in tribute to Dave Barry who pioneered the genre.  Most of these are “sciency”, inspired by technical articles I read and commented on.

Countershading
Banded tail
Dinosaur bandit mask
Paleocoloration
Beryllium hydride
Biomimetic Robotic Zebrafish
Chicxulub    [Note:  pronounced ( /ˈtʃiːkʃʊluːb/; Mayan: [tʃʼikʃuluɓ])]
The Chicxulub Event
We Are Children of Chicxulub
Thanks to Chicxulub
Brought to You By Chicxulub
Service Office Industry
Comfortable edgy fit outs
As Greenland Darkens
Recent Mass Loss
Larsen C
My Raptor Posse
A Rip of Raptors
Personal Raptor
The Robot Raptor Revue
Final Five Orbits
Kuiper Belt & Braces
A Belt of Kuiper
The Grand Finale Toolkit
Fog World Congress
Penguin Guano
Adelie Census
Fog Orchestra
Shape Changing Fog Screen
The Fog and the Eye
First Ringplane Crossing
Grand Finale Dive #2
The Grand Finale Toolkit
Last View of Earth
Final – and Fateful – Titan Flyby
Robots On Europa
Gay Robots on Europa

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Books Reviewed in 2017

Overall I posted 79 book reviews, 58 fiction and 21 non-fiction.

In fiction, these include old favorites (Donna Leon, Charles Stross, Thomas Perry, Tim Dorsey, Ian McDonald, Gregory Maguire, Tom Holt).

Some new favorites include Richard Kadrey,  Viet Thanh Nguyen, Emma Straub.

I really liked Robin Sloan’s Sourdough, and Touch by Courtney Maum, but my best reads for the year have to be

Joe Ide,  IQ and Righteious.  <<links>> Righteous by Joe Ide

In non-fiction, I liked Weird Dinosaurs by John Pickrell and Eugenia Chengs Beyond Infinity.  How America Lost Its Secrets by Edward Jay Epstein is both good and important.

<<links>>

But at the top, I’d probably pick

The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone

List of Books Reviewed

Q4

Fiction

First Person Singularities by Robert Silverberg
The Adventurist by J. Bradford Hipps
Artemis by Andy Weir
Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire
Willful Behavior by Donna Leon
A Selfie As Big As The Ritz by Lara Williams
Righteous by Joe Ide
Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson
The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson
Border Child by Michel Stone
Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
The Muse by Jessie Burton
Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Non-fiction

Napoleon in Egypt by Paul Strathern
After Piketty edited by Heather Boushey, J. Bradford DeLong, and Marshall Steinbaum

Books Reviewed In Q3 2017

Fiction

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
The Answers by Catherine Lacey
Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki
The Management Style of Supreme Beings by Tom Holt
The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross
Shiver Hitch by Linda Greenlaw
Dichronauts by Greg Egan
Killing is My Business by Adam Christopher
The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess
Standard Hollywood Depravity by Adam Christopher
Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher
Will Save Galaxy For Food by Yahtzee Croshaw
Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
Arlington Park by Rachael Cusk
Transition by Rachael Cusk
Death at La Fenece by Donna Leon
A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon

Non Fiction

Giant of the Senate by Al Franken
Weird Dinosaurs by John Pickrell
Made With Creative Commons by Paul Stacey and Sarah Hinchli Pearson
How Not To Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg
Beyond Infinity by Eugenia Cheng

Books Reviewed Second Quarter

Fiction

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente
Touch by Courtney Maum
Mother Land by Paul Theroux
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
Startup by Doree Shafrir
Off Rock by Kieran Shea
The Wrong Dead Guy by Richard Kadrey
Earthly Remains by Donna Leon
The Underwriting by Michelle Miller
Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald
Huck Out West by Robert Coover

Non-Fiction

Half-Earth by Edward O. Wilson
The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams
Solve For Happy by Mo Gawdat
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone
Lenin on the Train by Catherine Merridale
The Spider Network by David Enright
Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Giles Milton

Books Reviewed Q1 2017

Fiction

Revenger by Alistair Reynolds
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Girls by Emma Cline
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
The People’s Police by Norman Spinrad
IQ by Joe Ide
Clownfish Blues by Tim Dorsey
The Vacationers by Emma Straub
Empire Games by Charles Stross
The Cold Eye by Laura Anne Gilman
Modern Lovers by Emma Straub
The Golden Gate by Robert Buettner
The Old Man by Thomas Perry
Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson

Non Fiction

The Caliphate by Hugh Kennedy
The New Better Off or Reinventing the American Dream by Courtney E. Martin
How America Lost Its Secrets by Edward Jay Epstein
Valley of the Gods by Alexandra Wolfe
Wonderland by Steven Johnson
Measure for Measure by Thomas Levenson

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That’s all for 2017!  Happy New Year!

 

Housekeeping: Second Quarter Roundup, Books Reviewed

A bit of housekeeping at the end of Q2.

The usual

This quarter has seen daily posts, a steady stream of comments on research papers* and general articles on favorite topics including blockchains, the new economy, solar power, environmental sensing, computer security, and “brilliantly executed BS”.

I’ve begun to pay attention to Quantum Computing, which is surely a coming thing.

And Robots! And Dinosaurs!

*Note: discussion of scientific and technical research always refers to the primary sources.

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Books Reviewed This Quarter

A summary of the books reviewed in the second quarter.

Fiction

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente
Touch by Courtney Maum
Mother Land by Paul Theroux
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
Startup by Doree Shafrir
Off Rock by Kieran Shea
The Wrong Dead Guy by Richard Kadrey
Earthly Remains by Donna Leon
The Underwriting by Michelle Miller
Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald
Huck Out West by Robert Coover

Non-Fiction

Half-Earth by Edward O. Wilson
The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams
Solve For Happy by Mo Gawdat
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone
Lenin on the Train by Catherine Merridale
The Spider Network by David Enright
Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Giles Milton

---

Some ideas for band names

 Following the lead of Sensei Dave Barry, I occasionally suggest names for bands.

This quarter’s harvest include:

Penguin Guano
Adelie Census
Fog Orchestra
Shape Changing Fog Screen
The Fog and the Eye
First Ringplane Crossing
Grand Finale Dive #2
The Grand Finale Toolkit
Last View of Earth
Final – and Fateful – Titan Flyby
Robots On Europa
Gay Robots on Europa

 

 

 

Book Review: “Off Rock” by Kieran Shea

Off Rock by Kieran Shea

Shea’s third novel isn’t quite as punch-em-up as his earlier stories, but he’s still out there on the ‘gratuitous violence’ spectrum (heralded by one blurb as ‘king of badass’). Don’t expect deep and meaningful.

This story involves the not-especially-plausible escapades on an asteroid mine (or comet or moon—some small rock). During clean up, aging miner Jimmy discovers a valuable load apparently missed by mining operations. He decides to try to sneak it “off rock”, as a retirement stake.

Are you out of your mind, Jimmy??

This cunning plan becomes tangled with several other individuals, including a hit woman and his ex. Stuff happens. Fights. Explosions. Lucky escapes. Etc.

The plot moves along pretty well., The shallow characters and “action packed” story were OK. After all, what do you expect?

I had some serious problems with the future technology, though. This is supposed to be hundreds of years from now. Yet the tech was less advanced than the original Star Trek. The IT is basically the same as in any office today. That’s pretty silly for SF.

There are other massive implausibilities. This mining operation is not only not 100% robotic, but has a crew of dozens if not hundreds. That’s just insane, both technically and economically.

The plot hinges on the supposed value of the seam of gold that Jimmy finds. I’m finding it hard to believe that an economy that is harvesting asteroids for centuries will still care about gold or any other specific metal. Frankly, I took the chunk of gold to be a symbolic “big, valuable thing”.

I guess I’m telling you that this isn’t deep stuff.

On the other hand, we kind of like Jimmy are kind of rooting for him, even if nothing makes much sense.

---

1. Kieran Shea, Off Rock, London, Titan Books, 2017.

 

Sunday Book Reviews

Books Reviewed 2015

Here is  housekeeping post, collecting all the books reviewed here in 2015.

Looking back at this list, I see that this year saw Terry Pratchette’s last book (a wrenching experience), and new novels by old favorites Stross, Perry, Macguire, Holt, Gaiman, among others. I also read older but still good histories by Goodwin and Graeber. I read several books about banking, Papal and otherwise, and overlapping works about Italy, fictional and (supposedly) real.

Over the year, I reviewed a sampling of important books about contemporary digital life, including cryptocurrency, the “sharing economy”, social media, and “mind change”.   These works covered a spectrum from enthusiasm to dark worry, giving us much to think about. There are many more I did not have time or energy for. (I will say more on this topic in another post)

Throughout 2015 I continued my ongoing investigation of the question, “what is coworking?”, including reviews of two recent (self published) books about coworking by practitioners. (More on coworking in another post.)

Shall I name some “Best Books” out of my list? Why not?

Fiction:

There were so many to pick from. I mean, with Neil Gaiman in the list, how can I choose? But let me mention two that are especially memorable

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
Very imaginative and well written, and, for once, not so horribly dark. This book lodged in my memory more than others that are probably equally good.

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
Published a few years ago, but I didn’t read it until this year. A wonderful, intricate story. The flight of the parrot is still in my memory.

Nonfiction:

There were many important works about digital life, and I shall try to comment on them in another post. But three books that really hit me are:

Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
From several years ago, but I didn’t read it until this year. Highly influential on the ‘occupy’ and other left-ish thinking. This is an astonishingly good book, and long form anthropology, to boot. Wow!

Reimagination Station: Creating a Game-Changing In-Home Coworking Space by Lori Kane
An exlectic little self-published book about “home coworking”, which I didn’t know was a thing. Kane walked the walk, and made me think in new ways about community and coworking.

Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs
Unexpected amounts of fun reading this short book. It does an old, graying nerd no end of good to see that at least some of the kids are OK. Really, really, OK.

List of books reviewed in 2015

Fiction

A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias
After Alice by Gregory Maguire
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas Dodson
Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen
Chasing the Phoenix by Michael Swanwick
Candy Apple Red by Nancy Bush
Chicks and Balances edited by Esther Friesner and John Helfers
Corsair by James L. Cambias
Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright
Diaspora by Greg Egan
Distress by Greg Egan
Electric Blue by Nancy Bush
Forty Thieves by Thomas Perry
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong
Get In Trouble by Kelly Link
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
Koko the Mighty by Kieran Shea
Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald
Mort(e) by Robert Repino
Numero Zero by Umberto Eco
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu
Redeployment by Phil Klay
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Shark Skin Suite by Tim Dorsey
String of Beads by Thomas Perry
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Volume Nine ed. by Jonathan Strahan
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
The Fortress in Orion by Mike Resnick
The Future Falls by Tanya Huff
The Good, the Bad, and The Smug by Tom Holt
The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray
The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
Ultraviolet by Nancy Bush
We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler
Witches Be Crazy by Logan J. Hunder
Zer0es by Chuck Wendig

Non Fiction

Arrival of the Fittest by Andreas Wagner
Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper
Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs
God’s Bankers by Gerald Posner
LaFayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
Let’s Be Less Stupid by Patricia Marx
Live Right and Find Happiness by Dave Barry
Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi
Mind Change by Susan Greenfield
Mindsharing by Lior Zoref
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
No More Sink Full of Mugs by Tony Bacigalupo
Not Impossible by Mick Ebeling
Pax Technica by Phillip N. Howard
Peers, Inc by Robin Chase
Reimagination Station: Creating a Game-Changing In-Home Coworking Space by Lori Kane
Speculative Everything by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Age of Cryptocurrency by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey
The Art of Forgery by Noah Charney
The Next Species by Michael Tennesen
The Reputation Economy by Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson
The Social Labs Revolution by Zaid Hassan
The Ugly Renaissance by Alexander Lee
Twentyfirst Century Robot by Brian David Johnson
Women of Will:  Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays by Tina Packer

 

Book Reviews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books Reviewed Third Quarter

Books Reviewed Third Quarter

A bit of housekeeping:  here is a list of all the book reviews that appeared in this blog in Q3 2015.  Mostly new or recent releases, with a few old but good thrown in.

Fiction

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen
Chasing the Phoenix by Michael Swanwick
Chicks and Balances edited by Esther Friesner and John Helfers
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 
Koko the Mighty by Kieran Shea
Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore  
The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Volume Nine ed. by Jonathan Strahan
The Good, the Bad, and The Smug by Tom Holt
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley 
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu 
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis 

Non fiction

Reimagination Station: Creating a Game-Changing In-Home Coworking Space by Lori Kane
Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper
Let’s Be Less Stupid by Patricia Marx
Mind Change by Susan Greenfield 
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Peers, Inc by Robin Chase
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin 
The Art of Forgery by Noah Charney
The Next Species by Michael Tennesen 

 

Book Review: “Koko the Mighty” by Kieran Shea

Koko the Mighty by Kieran Shea

 This book is a sequel to Koko Takes A Holiday, continuing the story of retired mercenary Koko Marstellar in a future time with high sea levels, vast swaths of polluted badlands, lot’s of technology, and little central government. The solar system is run by corporate empires and private soldiers, such as Koko.

Actually Koko’s retirement isn’t going too well, as trouble keeps seeking her out. In this case, a seriously dangerous bounty hunter is on her trail, pursuing an old reward. Koko must ditch her cushy retirement to escape and flee and fight.

These stories are kind of cartoonish, sort of graphic novels without the graphics. Oh, wait. That would be “a novel”.

Anyway, there is plenty of fighting, some cool tech (mostly, but not all, military) and sketches of this future society (with emphasis on the pleasure industries). The characters are not deeply drawn, nor are they introspective. Relationships are simple, as is the dialog . This is not difficult reading, nor is intended to be.

There is a lot of violence but it isn’t overly graphic or detailed. Ditto with sex and every other human interaction. There is a lot of weaponry, both simple and high tech. But the weapons are neither the stars of the show, nor fetishized.

(There is a priceless description of how a “no fly zone” works in this corporate world. It’s not what you are thinking, and it’s hilarious.  Worth reading the book just for that.)

This was a pleasant, light read. There is sure to be a sequel.

---

 

1. Kieran Shea, Koko the Mighty, London, Titan, 2015.

 

Sunday Book Reviews

Year End Round Up #1: Book Reviews In 2014

Starting the year end round up, here is a list of book reviews that appeared here. The most popular was a review of “Social Physics” by Alex Pentland.  I also experienced a “Colbert Bump” for a 2013 review of “Who Owns The Future” by Jaron Lanier.  The far-away all time favorite was “Book Reviews: Recent Popular Books about Big Data and Analytics”, with a classic long tail from 2013.

In total, I reviewed about 100 books, as well as comments on articles and reports.

For convenience, here is an index.

4th Quarter 2014

Nonfiction

@War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex by Shane Harris
City of Lies by Ramita Navai
Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter
Hack Attack by Nick Davies
Kingpin by Kevin Poulsen
The Freelancer’s Bible by Sara Horowitz
The Human Age by Diane Ackerman
The Talking Point by Thomas R. Flanagan and Alexander N. Christakis
Wayfaring Strangers by Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr

Fiction

Abracadaver by Laura Resnick
Beautiful You by Chuck Palhniuk
Hieroglyph edited by Ed Flinn and Kathryn Cramer
Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Guran
Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde
The Peripheral by William Gibson

All Books Reviewed in 2014

Fiction

A Highly Unlikely Scenario by Rachael Cantor
A Million Ways to Die in the West by Seth MacFarlane
Abracadaver by Laura Resnick
Adultery by Paulo Coelho
Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel by Jacqueline Koyanagi
Beautiful You by Chuck Palhniuk
California by Edan Lepucki
Crash by Guy Haley
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Hieroglyph ed. by Ed Flinn and Kathryn Cramer
Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard
Koko Takes A Holiday by Kieran Shea
Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn
Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Guran
Metatropolis edited by John Scalzi
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee
On The Razor’s Edge by Michael Flynn
Palimpsest by Catherynn M. Valente
Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
Reach for Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan
Ripper by Isabel Allende
Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
Sleeping Late On Judgment Day by Tad Williams
Space Opera edited by Rich Horton
Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark
The Alchemist by Paul Coleho
The Bend of the World by Jacob Bacharach
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs by Mike Resnick
The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde
The Folklore of Discworld: Legends, Myths, and Customs from the Discworld with Helpful Hints from Planet Earth by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson
The Fun Parts by Sam Lipsyte
The Intern’s Handbook by Shane Kuhn
The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Misfortune Cookie by Laura Resnick
The Outsourcerer’s Apprentice by Tom Holt
The Peripheral by William Gibson
The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross
The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
The Spider Woman’s Daughter by Anne Hillerman
The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon
Tiger Shrimp Tango by Tim Dorsey
Traveling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker
When It’s A Jar by Tom Holt
Wikiworld by Paul Di Filippo
Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland

Nonfiction

@War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex by Shane Harris
A Novel in a Year: A Novelist’s Guide to Being a Novelist by Louise Doughty
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Body of Work: Finding the Thread that Ties Your Story Together by Pamela Slim
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
City of Lies by Ramita Navai
Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter
Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution by Fred Vogelstein
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
Hack Attack by Nick Davies
Hacking H(app)iness: Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking It Can Change the World by John C. Havens
Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love by Richard Sheridan
Kingpin by Kevin Poulsen
Knossos And The Prophets Of Modernism by Cathy Gere
Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth by Joseph Alexander MacGillvray
Mysteries Of The Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, And The Forging Of History by  Kenneth D. S. Lapatin
Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Operation Shakespeare: The True Story of an Elite International Sting by John Shiffman
Privacy in the Age of Big Data: Recognizing Threats, Defending Your Rights, and Protecting Your Family by Theresa M. Payton and Theodore Claypoole
Schliemann of Troy: treasure and deceit by David A. Traill
Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread – The Lessons From A New Science by Alex Pentland
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times by Adrienne Mayor
The Freelancer’s Bible by Sara Horowitz
The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals by Thomas Suddendorf
The Human Age by Diane Ackerman
The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch by Lewis Dartnell
The Lost Tomb by Kent Weeks
The Myth of Mirror Neurons by Gregory Hickok
The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margaret Fox
The Science of Shakespeare: A New Look at the Playwright’s Universe by Dan Falk
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Talking Point by Thomas R. Flanagan and Alexander N. Christakis
Tone deaf and all thumbs?: an invitation to music-making by Frank R. Wilson
Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture by Erez Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Wayfaring Strangers by Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr
Writing On the Wall: Social Media-The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage
You Can Date Boys When You’re Forty by Dave Barry