Books

David Brin's Uplift saga

Nidhogg — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 19:25:00 GMT

I've just finished David Brin's Uplift scifi saga. The basic theme is that Earth has found alien races in the galaxy and soon find that humanity's story is a bit atypical. In Brin's universe there is a galactic tradition of Uplift, that is the process of an alien sentient race bringing other non-spient races to sapiency usually using gene-meddling techniques. Each race has a patron race that uplifted them and they themselves have patrons all the way to the original sapient race. Earth doesn't fit in this scheme and found its way to sapiency in the purest Darwinist form, through evolution. In this context, a particular race gains power by uplifting other races and through the standing of their own patrons. There a lot more to it but this is the central concept.

The series relates stories in this universe involving humans, uplifted dolphins and chimpazees going against some other alien races and helped by a few others.

It has a kind of an old-school scifi ring to it, a bit like the anticipation novels of old. It features lots of classic sci fi themes like FTL (Faster Than Light) travel, anti-gravity fields, strange alien races and so on. One other good point I found was that there is no real "bad guys" to beat although there a friends, allies, and of course ennemies. But the plot is not about kicking the ass of some ugly monsters.

I liked every bit of it and read the whole of it as fast as I could. The only gripe I have with this series is that there's a lot of loose ends. I would have liked a follow-up on this but it's been a great read anyway. The second book in the series got a Nebula, Hugo and Locus award, the third one got the Hugo and Locas, which usually means these are VERY good books.

I'm now reading David Brin's Kiln People, another popular novel by this author that explores an interesting concept. But I'll talk about that later.

Ilium

Nidhogg — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 06:57:00 GMT

I finished reading Dan Simmons' Ilium. Definitely a great read. It feels a little confusing in the begining due to multiple plot lines and extensive references to greek mythology, Shakespeare and Proust. But it did not last long and I was soon totally absorbed in the story ... until I realized this was never going end in the few remaining pages...

Dammit ! It's another of those great books that are part of a series that is not yet complete ! And now I'll have to wait ... yet again.

Page 23

Nidhogg — Mon, 03 May 2004 06:37:00 GMT

Looks like the last thing in town is to open the nearest book on page 23 and copy the fifth sentence in your weblog so here is mine :

"There was no other way."

From "The Call Of Earth", Volume 2 in the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card.

I've been reading Orson Scott Card's books one by one in the last 2 months, poring over Songmaster, the Ender series and now the Homecoming series. I'll finish by the Alvin Maker series and then I'll have to start over my quest for good sci-fi or fantasy material.

Professional Software Development

Nidhogg — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:27:00 GMT

Professional Software Development: Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, More Successful Projects, Enhanced Careers

By Steve McConnell

Publisher : Addison Wesley
Pub Date : June 30, 2003
ISBN : 0-321-19367-9
Pages : 272

This book is an absolute must read. Every single person involved in the software business should read it. Many of you may already know a lot about what Steve McConnell says in this but it is said clearly, illustrated with many examples and numbers.

If you ever thought that a bit of software engineering would do some good to your projects, this book will provide you with a wealth of strong arguments with which you can start the battle for better practices.

[Listening to : Bonobo - Dial 'M' for Monkey - 01 - Noctuary]