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Dave Barry’s first fictional novel is a wacky-south-Florida crime story in the tradition of Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard. It’s a very entertaining story, perhaps a bit complicated and not quite as funny as you might expect from Barry, but well worth reading nonetheless, especially for fans of the genre.
The story is being made into a movie with huge names — tim allen, dennis farina, janeane garofalo, jason lee, rene russo, stanley tucci…
Patronize these links, man:
A NYT bestseller, Incident at Twenty-Mile is one of the few Westerns I’ve ever read. I’m not a fan of the genre, but I found this book highly recommended, and I agree with the praise. It’s really more of an adventure story set within the American West, and in fact I’d wager that fans of the Western genre might like this book less than people who generally do not read Westerns.
See the Amazon link below for a nice plot summary and a debate (by reader/reviewiers) about the book’s appeal.
Patronize these links, man:
The fourth installment in Rucker’s “Ware Tetralogy,” Realware works as a standalone novel — fortunate for me because I haven’t read the other three.
It was somewhat annoying to read words not explained in the text (uvvy, sporehead, wowo, gimmie), but this isn’t unusual in the cyberpunk tradition. It all makes sense after a while.
The story is huge in plot, in words, in characters, and in ideas. It is a fulfilling, immersive journey, likely to be enjoyed by fans of cyberpunk and science fiction.
Patronize these links, man:
Vanished is a sort of supernatural thriller. It opens with a compelling science-fiction-esque scene — a woman vanishes in front of her husband’s eyes — and then widens into a larger tale by threading together a number of disparate stories.
The tale involves dolphin intelligence, interspecies communication, teleportation, the Philadelphia experiment (!), and ties them all up with believable science. It’s a great, compelling read.
In my opinion the story disintegrates toward the end. I don’t fault MacGregor for this — the ending is viable, but not very satisfying. I still recommend the book for anyone with an interest in wildlife (especially dolphins) or the paranormal.
Patronize these links, man:
A friend pointed out this fascinating article (second link, below) on Claude Shannon, whose research in the 1930s and 1940s on “information theory” set out a blueprint for digital media and communications: encoding, compression, transmission, etc. He sketched the first digital circuits in 1937.
Here’s his “groundbreaking” 1948 paper, A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Warning: it’s not called the “most important master’s thesis of the 20th century” because it’s easy to read!
If you’re interested in media, communications, or cryptography, check out this article: Claude Shannon: Reluctant Father of the Digital Age
My favorite part of the article is the description of a device Shannon built called the “Ultimate Machine”:
…a box with a large switch on the side. Turn the switch on, and the lid would slowly rise, revealing a mechanical hand that would reach down, turn the switch off, and withdraw — leaving the box just as it was.
Ha!
