Monday, December 14th, 2009
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
An interesting bit of historical fantasy that reads like a cross between Horatio Hornblower and Jane Austen, with dragons. Yup, dragons, and the best dragons, of course, come from China. This is the first in series about a British Navy Officer who captures a dragon’s egg in a sea battle and ends up bonding with the beast when it hatches. Of course, it speaks English, and French. An interesting read. While I’m a mostly a hard core SciFi reader, I do enjoy good alternate history stories.
Monday Book Pick Archives.
Tags: Alternate History, book, Dragons, Hornblower, Jane Austen, Monday Book Pick, SciFi
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Tom Paine Maru by L. Neil Smith
This is the “author’s edition” release, recovered from an old hard drive, in an obsolete word processor format. This is what was originally submitted to a publisher who then edited it with a weed wacker. A delightful bit of space opera in the classic L. Neil Smith Hard Core Libertarian style.
Monday Book Pick archive.
Tags: book, Libertarian, Monday Book Pick, Politics, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses by Timothy P. Carne
This book explains in detail why any Obama voter who thought that product of the corrupt Chicago democrat machine was going to clean up corruption in D.C. falls into the category of “useful idiot.”
The Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Barack Obama, book, corruption, culture of corruption, democrat, Monday Book Pick, Obamanomics, Politics, Worst President Ever
Posted in economy, Our Dear Leader, Politics | No Comments »
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Badass: A Relentless Onslaught of the Toughest Warlords, Vikings, Samurai, Pirates, Gunfighters, and Military Commanders to Ever Live by Ben Thompson
As billed, a collection of Badasses through out history. The list includes Alexander the Great, General George S. Patton, Bruce Lee, Chandragupta Maurya, Tomoe Gozen, Carlos Hathcock, and many more.
I have my own six degrees of connection to world class badass, back when I was a little kid, we lived in a D.C. suburb in Virginia while my dad was doing his scenic tour of Southeast Asia courtesy of the US Army. The school teacher who lived down the street used to babysit for my brother and I. She was one of the daughters of the USMC’s Lewis “Chesty” Puller. From what I remember, she was nice, but we didn’t get away with anything.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, History, Monday Book Pick, USMC
Posted in History, Monday Book Pick | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Going Rogue by Gov. Sarah Palin
It’s coming out tomorrow and has been a best seller for weeks. The Associated Press has managed to get an advanced copy, or so they claim, and has eleven so-called “reporters” doing opposition research on it already.
That is more vetting by the, ahem, media than Barack Obama got during the entire 2008 campaign season! It makes you wonder why the folks who were so infatuated with BHO are so afraid of this Alaskan Hockey Mom with actual government executive experience.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Politics, Republican, Sarah Palin
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Politics | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Kildar by John Ringo
The second book in the Ghost series. The story of how a wayward, Tango killing, ex-SEAL, buys a valley in Georgia (the country, not the state) and stumbles on a lost tribe of dedicated warriors who farm between battles.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Baen, book, John Ringo, military fiction, Monday Book Pick
Posted in Baen Books, Monday Book Pick | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
She Murdered Me with Science by David Boop
A delightful mix of hard boiled dective story and good old fashioned pulp science story, with a dash of Jazz thrown in for flavor.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Ya, ya. I know it’s Tuesday. I’ve been busy.
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, murder mystery, Pulp, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Pulp, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Monday, October 26th, 2009
March to the Sea by John Ringo and David Weber
Second in the Empire of Man series. Prince Roger continues his education as he and the Bronze Barbarians continue their trek across a harsh alien wilderness filled with hordes of aliens, hostile and otherwise, but mostly hostile.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, David Weber, John Ringo, Military Science Fiction, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Barnes and Noble has announced the Nook, their e-book reader.
This is in direct competition to Amazon’s Kindle. It’s a very similar bit of technology, the major difference being that the B&N Nook will allow users to “share” e-books with other Nook users. It works this way. You purchase an ebook from B&N on your Nook. You like it. You think your buddy, who also has a Nook, would like it. So you can “loan” that book to said buddy. It will be available to be read on his Nook for two weeks. My bet is that this will generate a lot a ebook sales.
Now, some may argue that Amazon already owns the mind share for e-book readers, having crushed the Sony E-Reader in the market. The Kindle took off because Amazon was already seen as a major e-retailer of books and they had the ability to buy books immediately on the Kindle using mobile Internet technology. Sony wasn’t known as a book seller and they had no such “instant buy” option. The Nook has a similar broadband connection to the Kindle and B&N is seen as a major retailer of books by the public. The fact that B&N has a much larger ebook library than Amazon doesn’t hurt either.
There are two major flaws I can see with the Nook. First, the whole DRM thing. Second is that it only supports three formats, EPUB, eReader and PDF. A few more, including unencrypted Mobipocket, would be nice.
Amazon has responded, quietly, with the announcement that they will release free “Kindle software” for the PC platform, so people can read Amazon’s DRM crippled ebooks on their desktop or notebook computers. MAC and LINUX users are not supported in this release. Amazon is also selling refurbish (i.e. used) first gen Kindles for $150.
Originally published at Urbin Technology.
Tags: Amazon, book, ebook, ebook reader, gadget, Kindle, Nook
Posted in Technology | No Comments »
Monday, October 19th, 2009
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming by Christopher C. Horner.
Since the BBC finally figured out that the planet stopped getting warmer a decade ago, today’s pick is by someone who pointed out some of the problems with broken model of the anthropogenic global warming Luddites a few years ago.
The Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Climate change, Cult of Algore, Environment, junk science, Military Science Fiction, Monday Book Pick, Politics
Posted in Environment, Politics | No Comments »