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09/04/2004
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eBook Reviews
 This section of PDA247 deals with a part of
the PDA world which is often overlooked. It contains reviews of eBooks that are
currently available to purchase and the words of wisdom printed here may just
point you the way of a great read.
There are many different eBook readers available for Palm
OS including Palm Reader, MobiPocket reader, iSilo, HandStory and the list goes
on and on. Whatever you use enjoy your reading and make sure you let us know
what's worth reading by emailing webmaster@pda247.com.
1-0
 10 Insider Secrets Career Transition Workshop
by Todd Bermont (review by Kevin
Agot)
I felt it was worthy of mentioning for those in a state of
occupational transition (like me, as you can see from my most recent
recommendations): 10 Insider Secrets to Job Hunting Success by Todd Bermont.
The blurb says it all, "Everything You Need to Get the Job You Want in 24
Hours or Less!" The author's day-job is job-hiring and job hunting. He
gives us a step-by-step guide to "get a job in any economy". From my
brief dip into the book, great stuff.
a
 Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (review by Gary
Mugford)
Chinatown. The movie. If you liked that movie and don't have a
distaste for science fiction, then you will like, more likely REALLY like,
Richard Morgan's debut novel Altered Carbon. So much of this book seems
stylistically a descendent of Chinatown that you're going to want to go out and
watch the video again after reading Altered Carbon.
You have a decidely distopian view of a West Coast city in either
case (LA for Chinatown, San Fransisco/Oakland in Altered Carbon) and a
hard-boiled private investigator. Jake Gittes is more everyman in Chinatown
than Takeshi Kovacs is in Altered Carbon. But the double-dealing with an
untouchable white collar prince and his daughter/wife rings the same for both
pieces of fiction. The search for what's REALLY at the core of the evil-doing
echoes through the timelines of each. There is an unsteady feeling to the
point-of-view character of both.
That's NOT to say that Altered Carbon is a re-write of Chinatown.
There is much, much originality in Morgan's work and he recently received the
Philip K. Dick Award for 2003 last month, which is what prompted me to read the
novel. The main SF conceit in the book is the ability for humans to house
themselves into little electronic doo-hickeys, which can then be moved from
body to body, or sleeves as they are called in the book. Kovacs, who dies in
the opening scenes, gets sleeved on Earth to do some not-so-private PI work to
find out why and how a murder was commited. His job isn't made easy by those ON
his side and against him. But struggle on to success he does, even when looking
like he was giving up until the very end.
The language is raw, the sex a little rawer still and the violence
very raw. It's not a G-Rated book. But neither was Chinatown G-Rated. This is
an adult book.
You can get the eBook at Fictionwise's
site. Pricing at last check was between US$10 and
US$13 dollars. It's a price well-spent and time well-filled.
 Angels Flight by
Michael Connelly (review by Gavin)
This book is simply amazing. I couldn't stop reading it. Its fast
moving and full of surprises. A great murder mystery
ebook.
 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (review by Gary
Mugford)
Given the moderate original success of Dan Brown's Angels &
Demons, I suspect I'm like a lot of people who read The DaVinci Code and
decided to check out series hero Robert Langdon's first fictional foray.
Angels & Demons has been a consistent member of the top ten
best-sellers at Palm Digital Media (http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/product/detail/546?refid=45168)
for some time now. One week not too far back it placed second to its sequel. It
costs less than six bucks US for readers of the Palm Newsletter or 66 cents
more if you don't. Seems a reasonable savings to get the almost daily
newsletter. If you like to read, it's a good barometer on what's going on
eliterarily.
So how was the book? A mixture of good and bad. A third of the way
through the book, the viewpoint character of Langdon had not done much more
that the reader, sitting on the sideline and watching a slow mystery unfold.
There is an early telegraph of the ending that could not be more blatant. It's
the only thing that cheers up a grisly murder and subsequent discussion of
anti-matter and how it might actually be proof of Genesis. Frankly, without
having read the sequel first, I'd have quit reading.
The last two-thirds of the book demonstrate a competent thriller
writer at work. The mole identity differs from The DaVinci Code in being fairly
obvious with considerable reading time still to go. The puzzles are impossible
for the layman to figure out, thus forcing Brown to do a LOT of explaining of
architecture, paintings and sculpture in Rome and the Vatican City. But the
action moves along quite nicely and I DID learn things. Given the cries of
fact-mangling in The DaVinci Code, I checked a couple of factoids, including
the fact that Catholic priest Georges LeMaitre proposed the Big Bang theory two
years before Hubbell. And that apparently is true. This book is very much less
a religious treatise and more of a mystery than its sequel.
Advertising for Brown cite Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy as stylistic
brothers. I can see the Clancy similarities, but I've read Cussler. And Mr.
Brown, you are no Clive Cussler. The thumb goes up for this book slowly. But if
you are willing to battle through the opening exposition, you'll have a decent
reading experience.
 The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (review by Kevin
Agot)
Here's an E-Book recommendation that I'd like to pass on: "The
Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach. The title and the the blurb grabbed
me from the start: "A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish
Rich". This is not "Get Rich Scheme" devised to cheat us out of
our hard-earned income. But, David Bach writes in a very lucid convincing and
exciting style that is insightful, practical and persuasive. It doesn't matter
where you're at financially, anyone can become a
millionaire.
b
c
 The Captain's Table by Various Authors (review by Gary
Mugford)
The review is so long it has it's own page here.
 Consensed Knowledge by mental_floss (review by Claire
Nurcombe)
This book, in a similar vein to ‘The Explainer’, offers
snippets of knowledge along with some humour. It’s definitely a book for
dipping into. The book is divided into sections such as Art History, Biology,
Chemistry, Geography and History. In fact, it sounds like a school timetable,
which to some extent it is. The authors promise to teach you the stuff you
never learnt (or learnt and forgot) and to that end they have sections such as
‘4 Regular Words with Epic Roots’ and ‘9 Laws of Physics that
don’t apply in Hollywood’. They are trying to cover a lot of ground
with this book and they do this by offering lists with a concise, but fully
adequate, explanation of each item with a dollop of humour thrown in to boot.
This is not a book for those who like detailed discussions on any topic, but
for trivia nuts and people who want to know about way more things than
they’ll ever have time to study. And if something does catch your
interest, there’s more than enough information given to give you a basis
from which you can carry out your own research. Available
here.
d
 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (review by Gary
Mugford)
Even when you work at home, you occasionally have to engage in the
Water Cooler Discussion topic du jour. Having a reputation as a reader and book
buyer, I was asked several times over the past year what my opinion of Dan
Brown's The Da Vinci Code was. Hadn't read it, I admitted with some shame.
Finally, given the rave reviews I collected from others, I decided to
dive in and grab the hottest book from last year. It can be bought from a
variety of sources, but I went to Palm Digital Media and plopped down the
$12.11 USD electronically to get it onto my memory stick. I downloaded it in
Palm Reader
format.
Could the book live up to its hype? No. No book could. But it was a
pretty good read and fit my need of a very episodic tale that worked well with
reading it in quick bites. The book is actually a series of puzzles to solve
and decode and a lot of what makes this book fascinating is its revelations
about cryptography over the centuries. The historical bits about Da Vinci have
apparently been 'sexed up' to use a phrase popular in today's society. And your
own interpretation of the biblical times will colour your perception of the
accuracy of the religious material. I'm more than willing to accept that there
was a fair bit of embellishment, not that it matters to central theme of the
book.
The main flaw in the book is the identity of the mole. I found the
eventual unveiling to be a letdown and not in strict keeping with earlier
clues.
That said, the biggest baddie telegraphed the ending a mile away.
I'll give this book a recommendation with the understanding that you are to
expect a good book, not a great book.
e
 The Explainer by The writers at Slate Magazine (review by Claire
Nurcombe)
This book aims to answer those strange questions that occur when
you're listening to the news. The book is divided into various sections,
grouping together such questions as 'How do you become a UN weapons inspector'
and 'What's the difference between the Spanish and the Basques' to 'Can you
cool down your swimming pool with ice cubes'. It's a fairly eclectic mix, but
it works surprisingly well. The articles are of varying length and varying
depth and complexity. However, they are all well written, highly entertaining
as well as slightly educational (but not too much!). Great for dipping into, I
would recommend this book if you like trivia or are just interested in widening
your general knowledge. Available
here.
f
g
h
 Heart of Darkness by Joseph
Conrad (review by Steven Aves)
His
writing is fabulous. I've never read someone that could put so much in one
paragraph. This is the book that the movie "Apocalypse Now" was based
on.
Book
also is listed as being one of the 100 books of the 20th Century to read.
"A masterpiece of twentieth-century writing, Heart of Darkness
(1902) exposes the tenuous fabric that holds "civilization" together
and the brutal horror at the center of European colonialism. Conrad's crowning
achievement recounts Marlow's physical and psychological journey deep into the
heart of the Belgian Congo in search of the mysterious trader Kurtz. "
i
j
k
 Kiln People by David Brin
(review by Stevn J. Aves)
"Kiln People" is set in a perilous future where disposable
human duplicates fulfill every legal and illicit whim of their decadent
masters. Albert Morris, a brash investigator with a knack for trouble, is on
the trail of a discovery so revolutionary that it may alter humanity forever,
so valuable it has incited open warfare on the streets. To stop the carnage,
Morris must enter a shadowy world where nothing--and no one--is what they seem,
and even memory itself is suspect. "
l
 The Lovely
Bones by Alice Sebold (review by Shaun McGill)
It's hard to describe The Lovely Bones
without getting over emotional but it is one of the most emotion drawing books
I have ever read and affected me more than any other book. It deals with a very
difficult subject, namely the rape and murder of a young girl but the way the
author describes how the family tries to cope and her depiction of an
alternative heaven are completely gripping. Thoroughly recommended! It's
available here.
m
 March
Upcountry by David Weber and John Ringo (review by Gary
Mugford)
Once again, I repair to
http://www.baen.com/library/ for some light, AND
FREE, reading from the Baen Free Library. Thanks to positive reviews on the
internet, I decide to try March Upcountry by David Weber and John Ringo. You
can get to the book by clicking on The Authors link on the left and then either
Weber's or Ringo's links will take you to a page where you can download the
eBook. It offers a variety of download formats in zipped files. HTML, Palm,
MS-Reader and Rich Text are all available.
A science fictional retelling of the 1,001
Spartans story, this book places the legion of valiant soldiers on an
unhospitable world, far, far away from succor at the only spaceport. The legion
also has to wage war while protecting an imperial Prince, a fop of a lad named
Prince Roger MacClintock. It should come to no one's surprise that Prince Roger
turns out to have more depth and character than the ranks know at the
beginning.
One flaw attributed to Space Opera has
always been its lack of character development. This book proves that good
old-fashioned space opera CAN have character development. You learn to like
Prince Roger at the same pace as the soldiers do. It's NOT a case of Prince
Roger taking off his glasses (or letting down his hair, in this case) and
turning into a superman immediately from the start. He grows into his
leadership role.
This book was one of three that got me
through the great August '03 blackout. It was a page-turner that had me read
the whole book in one long extended evening. I got to the end of the book,
having enjoyed the trip to the great sea and then found myself disappointed I
was smack dab in the middle of a trilogy. The flaw, one shared by Tolkien's
works, is that the book ends in mid-story. Yes, it's a complete chapter. No,
it's not satisfying to get to the end and it NOT be the end.
I couldn't find the second volumne of the
trilogy electronically, so I went out and bought a paperback of March to the
Sea the next day. That took another two days to read. And the third (and
putatively concluding) book in the trilogy came the day after that when I
bought March to the Stars at Baen's pay site:
www.webscriptions.net. That took me another day to
read.
In one extended long weekend of reading,
I'd downloaded two-thirds of the trilogy, paying only $5 for the third book.
I'd bought the middle book in paperback form for $10. I consider the $15 some
of the best reading money I've ever spent.
A word about Webscriptions. Of course the
Free Library is a gateway to the full output of Baen Books. Individual books
average about $5 and the best deal in eBooks might be the Monthly package where
you can get the complete line's output for a particular month for $15. If you
think you might be interested in as few as three of the books, the package
becomes financially attractive. I've ordered both individual titles and monthly
packages and have 10-20 books sitting in a folder on my memory stick at any
time. If you like Science Fiction, especially of the space opera, SF militiary
or fantasy heroic sub-genres, than hie thyself to the two sites mentioned in
this review.
Comment from Robotech Master- "Someone
should let Gary Mugford know that's no trilogy...according to Ringo &
Weber, the series is projected to weigh in at seven books.
Also, not only does Baen have a great free
library selection, they've also taken to binding CDROMs into first-printings of
certain hardcovers...with explicit blanket permission to copy and share
noncommercially. So you can pull 'em down via BitTorrent from
http://oberon.zlynx.org -- and feel free to link to
it. The more the merrier."
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (review by Steven
Aves)
A logical case for Christianity written by a
former agnostic who converted to the church of England. Considered to be one of
the best books on the subject, even though the English is very British at
times. Available
here.
n
 Nine Horses
by Billy Collins (review by
Kathleen)
I like reading poetry of all kinds, but I particularly like modern
poems because they are easier to identify with. I think its a form of writing
sometimes ignored because it seems out-dated and irrelevant to contemporary
life. If that's been your experience of poetry, you should maybe have a look at
this collection of poems by Billy Collins.
In this book he takes an imaginative look at the things of everyday
life but often from an unusual point of view. I enjoy this because it makes me
look around at all the things I take for granted and the odd things that people
say. There's a poem called "The Country" where a small remark about
leaving a box of matches for mice get them becomes a starting point for him to
build a fairly ludicrous picture for the reader:
Who could sleep that night?
Who could whisk away the thought
of the one unlikely mouse
padding along a cold water pipe
behind the floral wallpaper
gripping a single wooden match
between the needles of his teeth?
Who could not see him rounding a corner
the blue tip scratching against a rough-hewn beam,
the sudden flare, and the creature
for one bright, shining moment
suddenly thrust ahead of his time -
now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer
in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid
illuminating some ancient night.
He goes on to describe the mouse having lots of followers who
presumably go on to burn down the whole house.
I find I dip into reading this book whenever I have time on my hands
and I find the poetry rewarding and enjoyable. Billy Collins was appointed Poet
Laureate of the United States from 2001 until 2003 and is easily the most
accessible poetry I have read in a long time. If you are still unsure about
buying this book, check out some of his poems read by him at
www.contemporarypoetry.com/dialect/biographies/collins.html.
Available for $8.96 (or $8.06 with newsletter discount) at
www.palmdigitalmedia.com/product/detail/6925
 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (review by Claire
Nurcombe)
The
first in a series of really delightful detective stories set in Botswana. Mme.
Ramotswe has become the first lady detective in Botswana and she’s very
proud of it. The mysteries she solves are a mixture between the mundane and the
frankly extraordinary, but Mme. Ramotswe deals them all with curiosity and
cunning. I cannot praise this series enough, the books are beautifully written
and carry you away from your mundane life to the big open spaces of Africa and
the strange world of Mme. Ramotswe.
o
p
Pandora's Star
by Peter Hamilton (review by David
Spellman)
 Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star is a fairly
long book. Lots of exposition, and a lot of time spent with a whole LOT of
characters. Enough, in fact, that if you're reading the book in snatches, it's
difficult to remember who goes where, does what and with whom. The scope of the
book is wide. Literally, since it covers the entire Commonwealth of planets,
which are linked with wormholes. The wormholes make travel between these
planets virtually instantaneous, which means that space travel is done on foot
and by train, rather than by starship. Aside from some troublesome dissidents
and a few radical cults, it's peaceful and prosperous. You can get rejuvenated
if your body is getting old and worn out, and death isn't even a real problem;
you revert to your stored backup of memories and get re-lifed in a new clone of
your own body.
It's a great read, and all, but you wonder at which point in the book
he's going to get to the big action. Things move pretty slowly at first, as an
astronomer discovers that a Dyson Pair of stars way across the universe were
suddenly shielded, quite literally in the blink of an eye, over a thousand
years ago (light speed being what it is). The speed of the shielding, and the
immense power and technology it must have required to do so, require
investigation. Perhaps even more puzzling is the motivation for it, meaning
that all this power and technology was employed, most likely, either to keep
something really bad in, or something really bad out. In any case, the
awareness that there are at least two intelligent races of beings out there,
one who put up the barrier and the other who merited it, who were
technologically so advanced over a thousand years ago (and who knows how much
MORE advanced now?) warrants investigation, and requires a starship to get
there.
So they build a starship and go to check it out. Meanwhile, there's
sabotage going on around the project and a whole lot of other seemingly
unrelated crap going on as well.
Just when things start to really get interesting, and things are
starting to look bad for the Commonwealth (they find the bad guys, you see, and
the bad guys find them), you find a page that says:
TO BE CONTINUED.
There's a second book. Not even available. Not even, perhaps,
written. AAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!! No indication of this in the information about
the book. Not "it's part of a pair" or a trilogy or series or
whatever -- the book is sold as a standalone. Made me nuts.
The review part? Oh, it's a good read. You get sucked in, bigtime.
Slow at first, it picks up, and the universe it portrays is very well fleshed
out by the end of the book. Characters undergo changes, plot points don't
insult your intelligence, not much reliance on deus ex machina (though there
are several deus-like beings floating around) and the science is reasonable and
consistent with itself. And it's a smart read, in that the people and
situations are complicated and the writing is clever and insightful. Would I
recommend it? Sure. Would I buy its sequel? Oh hell yeah. If only there was one
available...
 The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead (review by
Terendel)
This review covers only the first three books in the series,
Taliesin, Merlin and Arthur, as I have not yet read the last two. All are
available at both Fictionwise and Palm Digital Media for about $6.50 to $7.50
each, depending on your various club memberships on each site.
The books themselves are an excellent retelling of the Arthur myth.
It is heavily focused toward a Christian view, with the pagan aspects of the
myth slowly edged out as Merlin and Arthur more fully embrace the Christian
faith. Merlin starts as a druid, but after the birth of Jesus he becomes fully
Christian and encourages Arthur to establish a Christian Kingdom of Summer.
Readers who preferred Marion Zimmer Bradleys heavily pagan retelling of the
Arthur myth might not go for Lawheads interpretation, but I enjoyed both
versions very much.
One of the things I particularly like about Lawheads version is the
elimination of the Lancelot/Guinevere infidelity thread. Without revealing any
details, his interpretation of both of those characters is interesting and
different from most versions of the tale.
Another intriguing addition is the appearance of Atlantis. The faerie
in this story are displaced Atlantis survivors, and while the mixing of two
myth arcs might seem a bit much in one story, Lawhead integrates the two very
well, tying in the legend of the Fisher King as well. Considering the number of
threads he weaves in these books, the whole comes together very well.
My main complaint with this e-book series has nothing to do with the
quality of the story or the writing. It has everything to do with the quality
of conversion to e-format. These were some of the worst e-books I have ever
purchased. There were numerous scanning errors (torc become tore
frequently), and Merlin had formatting errors for the last several hundred
pages.
Arthur is the best of the three, with fewer errors, but by the time I
had struggled through the problems with the first two, I almost skipped the
last book.
Fortunately, I also own them in paper, so I had read them first in
that format, and well-loved books can be read, even with scanning and
formatting problems.
In conclusion, The Pendragon Cycle is a wonderful retelling of the
Arthur myth, but I would have to recommend you read it in paper, not in
electronic format.
Available
here.
 The Pleasure of My Company by
Steve Martin (review by Clark
Fralick)
The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin is one of a few books I
have read two times...and lauged out loud each time. This is a quirky story
about love, fear and obsessive compulsion. Its a lot better than my review. I
think you'll enjoy it. Available
here.
q
r
s
t
 The Trouble with Tribbles by
David Gerrold (review by Gary Mugford)
Continuing my little flirtation with the Star Trek Universe, I
happend across a freely downloadable version of The Trouble With Tribbles, by
David Gerrold at http://benbellabooks.com/gerrold/ . It was, alas, an
Adobe Reader PDF file. Okay, it was time to install the Palm version of Reader
and take this non-fiction story about a fictional universe out for a spin.
I'd read the book during its original publication about 30 years ago.
So, for me, this was a very quick read. David Gerrold has always been an
inventive writer who understood the reader was in it for the entertainment, not
the education. Still, he was at the time a funny, angry man. Today, he still
is, from the interviews I've read that led me to the download site. The book
details Gerrold's dealing with Star Trek creator and potentate Gene Roddenberry
and his various minions. It includes just about everything about the legendary
Star Trek episode: The treatment, the script and the fight over changes.
This is NOT a story about how to become a writer, or how to work in
television or how to get along with people, who at times, strike you as a whole
lot dumber than you are. It's all THREE! Having dabbled a bit in TV writing
myself, I can tell you this book rings true and is a fine
read.
 The
Two-Space War by Leo Frankowski and LTC Dave Grossman
(review by John Bartley)
Published by Baen Books, 2004-02-01 http://www.webscriptions.net
Category: Science Fiction, Adventure, Military/Nautical/Fantasy Length
(Hardcover): 384 pages Formats: HTML, PDB/MobiBook (Palm, PocketPC, Psion,
Windows and WinCE), PDF, RocketBook/REB1100, RTF DRM: No Price: US$5
Experienced SF author Leo Frankowski teams up with first-time
novelist Dave Grossman for a naval science fiction novel of unique concept and
execution. It's not Grossman's first book, though; he was nominated for the
Pulitzer for non-fiction work. The former West Point Professor has Been There
and Done That with the Rangers, rising to Lt. Colonel before mustering out, and
has a few things to say. He did not accept the oft-violated dictum to use
Western Union to send messages, and instead worked with Frankowski to craft a
very attractive wrapper for his nuggets of truth, which bear
repeating.
The fantasy elements (Tolkienesque dwarves and elves, fighting
side-by-side with humans) don't overwhelm this naval story, which has the air
of a trilogy-to-be. Sympathetic characters are established, along with an
introduction to diverse post-Collapse multi-racial cultures which will bear
futher exploration.
Popular tropes of military and science fiction are also employed, but
the novel is no less enjoyable for their presence. After all, the reason people
read novels for pleasure is because they like reading things which please them,
and if authors don't establish a good reason to buy the book instead of beer,
authors themselves don't get beer.
It diverges sharply from Clancyesque wonders of high technology,
however, for the Two-Space described is a Flatland of sorts. There, high tech
fails rapidly, the spaceships are wood, the men (and women) are like iron, and
the highest tech to be found under the canvas sails of the ships of space are
swords and muskets. The authors have created a logically consistant low-tech
tech for their universe, which hangs well upon the bones of what little social
structure they reveal in this story.
I would be deeply, deeply shocked to learn the authors had never read
Lord of the Rings, but Frankowski and Col. Grossman have taken the basic
structure and played a jazz riff upon it. The result is very readable, if you
have ever appreciated for a moment Hornblower, Aubry-Maturin or other seaborne
epics. This is a book I plan to give to my nephews and nieces, and share the
delights of it with them.
But, don't just take my word for it; visit the web page for the book,
read the publisher's blurb, and then the first five chapters, posted for one
and all to read. This 'try before you buy' policy is unique to Baen, and lets
you see if the story will compete well with that hypothetical
six-pack.
The Two-Space War runs some 384 pages when hardbound, and is
available for download in your choice of five formats for US$5, without copy
encryption, as are the hundreds of other contemporary science fiction and
fantasy novels and collections from Baen Books
It's also available in Baen's
Webscriptions package, with all of Baen's other
press run for that month plus other electronic reprints of older titles. The
February 2004 collection it is in costs US$15 and includes six other
titles.
u
v
w
 The WizBiz by Rick
Cook (review by Gary Mugford)
Computers and magic. Seems mutually
exclusive these days. But, for the last dozen years, there has been a happy
marriage between the two going on between the covers of books by Rick Cook. Wiz
Biz, a compendium of the first two books in the Wiz Zumwalt series is available
at the Baen Free Library: http://www.baen.com/library/ (Click on RIck Cook's
link and then Wizard's Bane)
Wiz Biz is actually a omnibus of Wizard's
Bane and the followup, Wuzardry Compiled. Each book is a fish out of water
story that places geek programmer Wiz Zumwalt squarely into a fantastical
setting where magic rules the day. Harkening back to my days of Edgar Rice
Burroughs, the familiar story quickly finds Wiz placed quickly in peril and
almost as quickly in love with the beautiful Moira. The gimmick to the story is
that the magically-naive Wiz masters the arcane arts by using his computer
background to literally program spells. He invents a magical operating system
and language and becomes, in short order, the master mage of the good guys.
It's tempting to dismiss the story as a new
update on the familiar territory tread by Burroughsian heroes like John Carter
of Mars, Carson of Venus and David Innes of Pellucidar. The fantasy/magical
precedents are just as ancient. That said, I'm a computer programmer. I LOVED
the conceit required of the reader and found it enjoyable. Sure the good guys
are the White hats and the bad guys the Black League. Sure the story suffers
from the odd case of deus ex machina. But fun is fun. If you read books more
for enjoyment than enlightenment, try this book out. After all, it IS free!
A word about the Baen Free Library. Many of
the Baen books have evolved into series over the years. Many of the early
volumes in these series are available for free to get you interested in
continuing on with the series. You can discover new authors and exciting SF
series fiction at this site and all it costs is a download and sampling time.
I'd never heard of Rick Cook before trying this book out. I'm now up to speed
with his complete canon.
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