Category: Reviews

Having a blog means having an opinion. This category groups reviews of technology, concerts, books, food – essentially all things consumable.

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Book Review: Water for Elephants

( #WaterForElephants, #SaraGruen )

I finished reading “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen a few nights ago and decided to share my thoughts.

Who doesn’t love the circus? Animals, peanuts, drunk little people. Writer Sara Gruen picked this fertile backdrop to tell a love story and it was a good choice because I hate reading love stories. Getting right to the point, the most interesting aspect of this book is the actual circus history that Gruen cherry-picked for the story. The background characters, the economics of the circus, and the stories about the animals sell this book.

The dynamic of the “love triangle” and the main character’s circumstances are overly convenient and contrived. Within a few pages, the main character Jacob loses his family, his family’s business, drops out of school, and magically finds a circus to work at. I can forgive that because Gruen gets right to the meat. The “love triangle” setup was harder to swallow. Like any other book that has a likable lead that hooks up with a married woman, the husband has to be a complete sociopath. The husband beats the wife, the animals, and throws sick employees off the train. The hero Jacob sweeps in to save the beaten Marlena, ensure the crazy husband gets what he deserves, and of course saves the animals. All is wrapped up with a pretty little bow (forgetting the characters that paid the price for Jacob to have his affair).

Gripes aside (because honestly I would have issues with any romance novel), I liked the book because it was well researched and told interesting side stories. Now I am going to go rummage through my DVD collection and start watching Carnivale again.

Oh yeah they made a movie out of the book too (I have not seen it).

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Book Review: Robopocalypse

( #Robopocalypse, @danielwilsonpdx)

I recently finished reading the book Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson and here are my thoughts about it.

If you can’t figure it out by the title, Robopocalypse is a fictional story about machines and robots gaining a collective sentience and turning against humans. Slightly less horrific than the opening scenes in the Terminator movies, Wilson still manages to paint a gruesome picture. Society becomes dependant on robot assistance and is woefully unprepared for the slaughter even with several warning signs.

Wilson borrows the format from another apocalyptic novel: World War Z by Max Brooks. If you are going to rip off a horror book, might as well rip off one of the best. Like WWZ, the narrative in Robopocalypse is relayed by a “main character” but told in sections through a series of other characters. The main character is a soldier rather than a writer that comes across a device that collected the stories/horrors from whatever camera/robot that happened to be within the area of said tale.

The book is really entertaining, but due to the strong similarity to World War Z, it is hard not to compare the two books. In comparison, Robopocalypse is not as well thought out. One of the more appealing aspects of WWZ was how humanity rebuilds as a result of the disaster. Wilson gives tiny hints of society post Robopocalypse but nothing satisfying. While the “villain” in the book is defeated, you don’t learn about how the main characters reconnect and move on with their lives, which is a let down. As an example, Wilson introduces humans modified by the robots that managed to get free. They are horribly maimed and implanted with electronics. I really wanted to know more about these character’s outcomes (and felt they should have been more prevalent during the final showdown). That being said, Wilson left enough meat on the table for a sequel, so all sins might/could/probably will be forgiven.

Complaints aside, Robopocalypse was a well written, fun summer read and I recommend it (if you are the type of person that reads my blog, you are going to enjoy this book). On a side note, I read that Dan Wilson is an actual robotics engineer, which gives all of the techno-speak a waft of authenticity.

A fan created a clever trailer for the book, check it out:

Next on my reading list is “Too Big to Fail” about the origin of the economic meltdown of the last few years.

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Book Review: Ender’s Saga

( #EndersGame, #OrsonScottCard )

I know I have been doing quite a few book reviews lately, but that is how I have been spending my time… I think reading is better than watching TV. This post reviews four books by Orson Scott Card known as “Ender’s Saga”.

Ender’s Game

The first book in the series is easily the best and most well thought out of the four. Ender’s Game is about a boy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggins who is taken from his family by the military because of his intelligence and personality. Earth is at war with an insect-like alien race (the Buggers) that humans have no chance at beating. Because of Ender’s empathy he learns enough about his enemy to ultimately defeat them. The military’s use and abuse of Ender is the heart of the story, because the military sacrifices the child’s life/mental health to save the human race. The book ends with Andrew struggling with actions as a boy solider which causes him to leave Earth behind setting up the next book.

Speaker for the Dead

Speaker for the Dead is about Ender’s penance for killing an entire race of sentient creatures. He has an opportunity to restore a portion of the Buggers (one hive), but ends up getting involved with a remote Earth colony (based on Brazilian culture) that also has an alien problem. This is where Card’s story starts to go off the tracks. He introduces another sentient alien race known as the “Piggies”. They are curious creatures that are friendly, but also have killed two colonists. The public is outraged. Ender goes to the planet to learn about the men who have died and gets involved with their families and the Piggies.

Card’s introduction of the Brazilian planet Lusitania is awkward and unnecessary. To assume that humans start to colonize other planets (after Card establishes that the human race unite under one government) yet keep ridiculous cultural and religious practices in place does not blend well with what he set up in the previous book. Since he is not Brazilian, the introduction of their culture comes off as insincere and lame. The new characters are annoying and uninteresting; especially the Novinha character and her family.

Ender becomes more entrenched in the Piggies’ struggles due to a virus that kills the humans but is vital for the alien’s reproductive cycle. The concept of the virus is an interesting paradox that saves this story. The book ends with Ender restoring the Buggers on the planet and negotiating an uneasy truce between the Piggies and the human settlers. But in the process, the Earth government learns how deadly the reproductive virus is and wants to destroy the planet.

Xenocide

In the third book, all of the characters are struggling to avoid getting Lusitania blown up which will effectively wipe out the Bugger (again) and Piggie species. To further complicate matters Ender has a “companion computer” (for lack of a better term) that nobody knows about and is completely sentient. The computer calls herself Jane and is essentially a plot MacGuffin; she can do anything, so any time Card wants something impossible to happen, Jane can just do it.

Card must have read a book about China because he introduces a planet based on Chinese culture that are full of neurotic genetically enhanced people with built-in OCD to keep them under control. Card spends a good portion of the previous book and this book establishing Jane as essentially a god…then a little Chinese girl with OCD figures out a way to kill her in three seconds which makes the term “xenocide” applies to Jane as well since she is the only member of her species.

Ender takes a back seat to plot devices and other characters. He is the cause for things to happen, but other characters drive the plot. Since the characters from the previous book are not only uninteresting but annoying, reading about them is not a gratifying experience. The story ends with the secondary characters figuring out how to go outside of reality and make whatever they want happen. To be clear: Card establishes a plot device where you can just make up whatever the hell you want to solve your problems. They make a cure for the virus so it won’t kill humans but the Piggies can still reproduce. Ender comes out of the “make up whatever you want” world with younger copies of his long dead brother (Peter) and his sister (Val), each representing aspects of his personality that feed the plot for last book.

Children of the Mind

The situation with the planet blowing up still hasn’t been resolved and Ender has two aspects of his personality running around. It is immediately clear that Card plans on putting Jane’s “essence” in Ender’s fake sister’s body. The book drags until the last few chapters to make that obvious plot point happen.

Card essentially admits that he finds Ender boring. He actually says it in the book. Ender becomes so bored with himself and his life that he puts his energy into his sibling alter-egos, which is killing him. He sends his fake brother Peter on a mission to stop the fleet from blowing up the planet, that whole plot thread gets derailed due to Card putting his travel obsessions in the series. The characters go to a Japanese planet and then a Samoan planet. Nothing happens. They don’t stop the fleet with any of this running around and end up using another MacGuffin to stop the doomsday device.

Ender eventually takes control of Peter’s body and leaves his old one behind. In the process he looses his memories (but not his intuition). Card implies this frees Ender from the guilty of committing the original genocide, but that was the entire point of the second book, Ender becoming the speaker of the dead (basically a douche-free priest based on no religion) and reestablishing the Bugger hive. The characters and plot are sort of positioned back to the start of the 2nd book. You are lead to believe that the newly young characters will explore the cosmos.

I learned that the Ender series branches out to many other secondary characters getting their own books. I don’t have any desire to read them. I do not begrudge Card for making a living off of these characters, but I feel like he missed an opportunity for greatness because the first book was so good and the last two were so bad. I highly recommend reading Ender’s Game and maybe Speaker of the Dead, but I would stop there.

UPDATE: I ended up reading the other books. You can read my review of the 2nd series by clicking this link.

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Book Review: Keith Richards Life

( #KeithRichards )

I finished Keith Richard’s autobiography a few days ago. Called “Life“, Richards starts from his early childhood and makes his way through to modern day (last year). His childhood stories are a high point because he grew up in post WWII England. The sugar rations, old pillboxes, and devastated streets that were a part of “Keef’s” early life set background of his gypsy lifestyle that his grandparents encouraged.

Once Richards meets the other Rolling Stones and starts to get into music, the book slows down for a while. In this section Richards establishes his blue collar credo. As he becomes more wealthy, famous, and drugged, “Keef” cannot maintain his blue collar view point no matter how hard he tries. This is where the book falls apart for me. Be a rock star or be a normal dude. He can’t make up his mind. One chapter he talks about these old slum mansions with no electricity that he has his kid living in and then another he credits the “purest quality pharmaceuticals” to keeping him alive (versus normal street junk). He tries so hard to establish being just a normal working class musician by telling stories of his love of jamming with Jamaicans, you can almost forget it is happening at his fancy estate on the island.

I am being overly critical of the book. Richards weaves a perfectly entertaining narrative. His personal non-musical stories are actually much better than the Rolling Stones tales. I think the fundamental problem is that “Keef” doesn’t want to come off as Mick Jagger. Richards’ issues with Mick come from Jagger leaving behind his working man roots and becoming a control freak. If “Keef” demonstrated any enjoyment from fame and money, he would have to admit that some of Mick’s behavior was in their best interest, which is not going to happen.

What else can I say? Keith Richards has done the finest drugs, the finest women, traveled the world, and knows some very crazy people. He has set fire to more buildings than a pyromaniac and has lived to tell the tale. How can I not recommend the book?

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GooglePlus Review

( #GooglePlus, #SocialMedia )


Image Credit: Paul Vedar

Last night the good people over at Lifehacker offered invites to the new Google+ service. I jumped at the chance to get one because I have been looking at a way to do multiple people video chats for months. Skype offers it for a few bucks a month, which I was considering, but I don’t like that I have to install software to video chat when Google does it in the browser.

Google calls the feature “hangouts” and even in beta, it works pretty damn well. Actually checkout the Lifehacker crew’s video:

Google seems to have built this service around security and privacy. This sounds like an odd thing for Google, but it comes from the public scorn they got from rolling out Buzz (which automatically shared private info like email addresses) and also as a response to Facebook. Even though Facebook has privacy features, I feel that they always trying to get you to share more public data (and their updates always change settings to make that happen). In order to compete, Google is focusing security groups (called Circles) so you can share certain things with certain people much easier.

I am sure Big G isn’t completely saintly in this service, but since they have the Government breathing down their necks and face fierce competition with Facebook, I think the Google+ service is as legit as it can be. Since I am a google guy to start, I am hoping the service takes off because it will be much easier for me to manage my social circle with the plus service than with Facebook since I already have a hands off attitude towards it.

I was going to offer invites to readers, but it looks like Google shut down invitations already. But drop me a note, and if they turn it back on, I will try to get you in.

UPDATE: A blogger buddy (and current Keypulp founder) Joss Ross already found a security issue. Even if you choose a select group to see your post, someone could share it with everyone. Google has a fix, there is a drop down in the right corner that disables sharing. I think it should be defaulted that way, but for now, be aware and don’t share!

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DME: Fathers Day and Hendrick’s Gin

( @drinkingmadeeasy, #HendricksGin )

Drinking Made Easy posted an article I wrote about Hendricks Gin and making G&Ts for my dad. Give it a read!

Celebrate Father’s Day with Hendrick’s Gin

Update: It looks like DME’s website upgrade broke the links, so here is the whole article.

With Father’s Day approaching and the weather heating up, I have been thinking about gin. When I was a kid, my old man used to ask me to make him gin and tonics when he got home from work or after he mowed the lawn. I started adding little dashes of cranberry juice for color which earned me a compliment or two. This encouragement led to a long running tradition of playing bartender at parties, which stands to this day.

I don’t always drink mixed cocktails, but if I do, it is almost always a gin and tonic. Tonic water and gin do nothing for me independently, but by their powers combined, they form pure boozy magic. It is the perfect combination of bitter and sweet flavors. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a well versed friend (the same guy that recommended Zing Zang in my Bloody Mary article) about my love of G&Ts; he recommend Hendrick’s Gin. After telling me about it, he brought a bottle over and it blew my mind.

Hendrick’s gin was established in 1999. The whole origin of the company and its 150-year-old still can be found on their website. The story confirms what my mouth has already told me – this gin is really smooth. It was so good that I felt bad mixing it with tonic water. I loathe martinis, but a spritz of vermouth and slice of cucumber radically changed my position on the drink and gin (independent of tonic water) in general. When I finally did overcome my hesitation about mixing it, I was blown away by the difference in quality and flavor. Simply put, this puts my father’s nasty ass bottle of Beefeater to shame.

If you are looking for a nice gift for your father, you can’t go wrong with Hendricks gin. It’s delicious and the bottle is unique (it looks olde-timey and medicinal), hell, you can even get it with an attractive carrying case. I purchased a bottle for my father because I can’t mock his Beefeater without providing a superior replacement (plus I get bragging rights for finding something better). As we all celebrate our dads this Sunday, just focus on the fact that if they didn’t have a favorite drink, we might not be walking around today.