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Apr 20 2013
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The Martian audiobook cover

The Martian by Andy Weir

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What do you think is better: the book or the movie? The movie offers great action and a condensed story with some hand-wavy science that you have to take as true. The book is longer (obviously) and goes into the minute details of how the protagonist “sciences the shit out of [everything].” I thought the book was better, but then that should be no surprise coming from a book junkie like me. Science-ing the shit out of things was awesome. But I thought Andy Weir’s Artemis was better—or at least more my style. 

Genre: Hard Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi
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Mar 23 2013
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Avogadro Corp audiobook cover

Avogadro Corp by William Hertling

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The premise of the book—and keep in mind it was published in 2012—is that someone within a company that very much resembles Google, creates an AI to predict what you want to say in an email. That AI becomes sentient and off we go. As such, I was quite amused when Gmail first introduced its predictive responses. If you’re looking for a short sci-fi book that might get you thinking about implications of “runaway AI” then Avogadro Corp and the subsequent books might be the way to go. I wasn’t blown away by them though. 

Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: Singularity |
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Mar 23 2013
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On Basilisk Station audiobook cover

On Basilisk Station by David Weber

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What’s funny about this book is that I can never remember if I’ve read it. I always have to go back to my Audible library and check to see if it has the “finished” tag. It does. That’s about all I can tell you. Well, that and, go read something else. 

Genre: Sci-Fi
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Feb 28 2013
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The Android's Dream audiobook cover

Android’s Dream, The by John Scalzi

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Books like this I wish I could rate 3.5 stars (my limitation is the plug-in I chose for doing these book reviews). John Scalzi comes up with amazing aliens in all of his books and this book is no exception. It’s not in the Old Man’s War universe, but the aliens are nonetheless unique and interesting. Regardless, it’s a fun story with action, cool tech, and the aforementioned aliens. It’s worth a read, especially if you like Scalzi’s style—which I do.

Genre: Sci-Fi
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Feb 22 2013
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Starswarm audiobook cover

Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle

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Starswarm is a unique stand-alone book with, what was at the time of its publication in 1998, a very far-fetched concept: an AI implant connected to the cloud. I enjoyed the book, and seem to recall that I read it twice, but didn’t get any more out of it from the second read. This is a quirk of mine: if I like a book, I’ll read it again a few months later to see if there is more there beneath the surface. Some of my favorite books I’ve read nearly a dozen times (Ender’s Game, House of Suns) or 3-4 times through for the longer series (Hyperion Cantos, Commonwealth Saga).

I digress. Good book, not much else. 

Genre: Sci-Fi
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