A list of books I've read, starting December
2023. The dates in square brackets are the dates I
finished reading them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extra Life: Coming of Age in Cyberspace. 1998.
David S. Bennahum.
What it was like to grow up obsessed with
computers in the first age of personal
computing. And also attend an Ivy-League prep
school with a DEC PDP-11 in the computer
classroom. Well written, interesting if it's your
thing (as it is mine). I've posted a sort-of
review in my phlog. [2024-04-14]
Necessary reading for anyone managing the
development of a major mainframe operating
system. Kidding aside, quite impressive how
much of it is still relevant. While the technology
references are just a bit dated (though
historically interesting), the observations on
scaling up communication are timeless.
[2024-03-18]
I'm not a huge PKD fan, but every once in a while
- perhaps when the world starts seeming all too
real - I enjoy picking up one of his novels. This
one reads like an episode of the original Twilight
Zone, if it had a modern special effects
budget. Strong "A Stop at Willoughby" and "It's a
Good Life" vibes, with the metaphysics cranked up
to 11. Short, worth reading. [2024-02-18]
Now that Iain M. Banks is no longer with us,
Alastair Reynolds may be my favourite living sf
author. A few of the novels he wrote in the 2000s
- "House of Suns" and "Century Rain" in particular
- rank among the best sf novels ever written
IMO. I've not been as impressed by his work of the
past decade or so, but lately he seems to be
turning that around. Last year's "Eversion" really
hit the mark, and "Machine Vendetta" comes pretty
close. The third in a series of police procedurals
of the far future starring the increasingly
world-weary Prefect Dreyfus, this one sees the
Prefect going up against an old foe, a rogue
AI. Kept me turning the pages. [2024-02-05]
Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime
Lords of Cryptocurrency. 2022. Andy Greenberg.
Really enjoyed this one. Fascinating tale of how the
'anonymized' transactions on the blockchain turned
out to be anything but, and how Bitcoin proved to
be kind of a honeypot for organized
crime. [2024-01-??]
Concludes the Sprawl trilogy. To my mind the
weakest of the three novels although it does bring
the story to a satisfactory end and is certainly
worth reading. Unlike the previous two novels I
think I'd only ever read this one once before,
back when it first appeared in paperback, so I had
largely forgotten what it was about. [2024-01-??]
@ Large: The Strange Case of the World's Biggest
Internet Invasion. 1998. Charles C. Mann, David
H. Freedman.
A late entry in the "Computer hackers of the
pre-web era" non-fiction genre, overshadowed by
predecessors like Sterling's "The Hacker
Crackdown" and Stoll's "Cuckoo's Egg". Still
interesting mostly in how it shows how bad
computer security was back then, that a
none-too-bright script kiddie could with a bit of
help install a sniffer on an Internet backbone
router. Also has the distinction of being probably
the least glamorous portrait of a hacker ever
written. [2024-01-??]
I'd never heard of the author or the book before I
came across it in the SF section of a local
bookstore, looking for some light holiday reading.
An endorsement from Alastair Reynolds on the cover
persuaded me to check it out. It's not quite in
Reynolds' league, but it is an enjoyable
action-filled space opera, if you like that kind
of thing. There are some STNG vibes; the
protagonist reminded me of Tasha Yar and there's
another character who is a bit like Data. This
novel is only half the story, but I liked it well
enough that I plan to pick up the sequel whenever
it comes out in paperback. [2023-12-28]
I must have read this quite a few times back in
the 80s, as I remember the story pretty well. It's
much better written than Neuromancer; the
characters are a lot more real and have actual
human relationships that extend beyond the purely
transactional. This is where we get to see the
Sprawl up close for the first time. Possibly my
all-time favourite Gibson novel but we'll see, as
I plan to read more of his back catalogue in
2024. [2023-12-17]
Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer
Frontier. 1991. Katie Hafner and John Markoff.
Profiles Kevin Mitnick, Robert Tappan Morris, and
a group of hackers in West Berlin. The section on
the Berlin hackers was the most interesting,
covering many of the same events related in
Clifford Stoll's "Cuckoo's Egg" but from the other
side. Neuromancer's protagonist, Case, seems to
have been the role model for many but they mostly
come out looking like Bobby Newmark, the titular
character in Count Zero. Which is to say, out of
their depth. [2023-12-14]
Decided it was time to re-read the Sprawl
Trilogy. I enjoyed Neuromancer, obviously, it's a
classic, but even when I first read it back in my
early 20s I thought the characters were a bit
lacking in depth. His most iconic work, but not
his best. Still loads of fun though, and the way
he puts words together is sheer street
poetry. [2023-12-05]
