Makers - Cory Doctorow

On our cross country drive, I finished what will most likely be my last book of 2012: "Makers", by Cory Doctorow. This is a piece of near-future speculative fiction based around the idea of the democratization of manufacturing brought on by 3D printing. Cheap access to printers by hacker types (in the tinkerer sense of hacker) upsets the way companies do business and brings about a flourishing of inventiveness and innovation. The story follows two guys who spark it all, their rise to fame, their coming to terms with how big companies do business and all of the messiness of hackers trying to make it in the Real World.

I thought this was an interesting book, especially since I am fascinated by 3D printing. I think Doctorow spends a lot of time talking to people who think like he does - this is similar in a lot of ways to another of his books, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" in that it centers around Disney and the "Disneyfication" of our culture. This is an interesting thought to explore, but I don't see our culture collapsing in quite the same way - there's a danger in the shallowness of our consumer culture and our desire to be continually entertained, but the heroes of the novel facilitate this kind of shallowness even as they try to fight it. Their entire business model is based on cool hunting and making crap to fill the niche until someone else figures out how to make it cheaper. I don't know if this irony was intentional, or if I am just cynical (maybe both?), but it overshadowed the novel for me. The story is well written and even gripping at times, but I couldn't get the philosophy to jive.

Worth a read, maybe, but the story didn't make up for the convoluted and self-contradictory philosophy.

In the Heart of the Sea

This last week on my business trip I read "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick. This is the story of the sinking of the whale ship Essex and the 90 day, 4500 mile trip the survivors made in open lifeboats in the Pacific. The sinking was the inspiration for "Moby Dick", and Melville may have even met the captain of the Essex.

The physical and mental anguish these men went through is staggering - they survived on about 500 calories a day of hardtack, eventually running down to 200 calories or so. They eventually resorted to cannibalism, which probably saved the lives of the men who made it.

What I found most interesting was the way that the various leaders on the crew dealt with things. When the ship sunk, they were only something like 800 miles from the Societies islands. The captain said they should sail for those islands, but the first and second mates were terrified of cannibals (somewhat ironic, right?) so they talked the captain into a scheme that would, in optimal circumstances, give them about one or two extra days of starvation rations. It was a terrible plan, but the captain was shell shocked and didn't assert his command. The real kicker? There weren't any cannibals on the islands.

I thought this was a fascinating book, and an amazing story of what people can survive. I could have done with a little less graphic description of cannibalism, but it certainly drove home the point.

Three Books

Over the last month, I have finished a couple of books. Rather than describe them all fully, I am just going to give brief thoughts so that I can discharge my karmic guilt and move on to my next book.

The Mark of Athena - Rick Riordan. This is the third book in a YA fiction series about teenagers who are Greek and Roman demigods. It is much better and significantly more entertaining than it has any right to be. Pure brain candy, but it is at least good brain candy.

Zero History - William Gibson. Interesting look at "cool hunters" and the interplay between fashion design and defense contracting. It is a little far fetched, but this is Gibson, so that is to be expected.

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell. I was really surprised by this one. The movie is directed by the Wachowski brothers, which would normally imply science fiction, and there are sci-fi elements to the story, but it's not really a sci-fi work. It is six or so interrelated stories... You know what? This is too hard to describe. You just gotta read it. I know Adam has read this too... I am interested to hear what others think of it.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

This book had been recommended by cousin Heather as she and I both like all things India.  I am glad I took her advice as this is a great book!  I think I have said before, I like author's first novels and this is Roberts first.  It is loosely based on his life experiences but it is fiction.  Like the main character Roberts was a fugitive from an Australian prison and fled to Bombay to "loose himself".  I have put off blogging about this book as I don't know to to capture it.  It is long, a bit complicated as the plot weaves in and out of so many characters lives.  As the novel begins, Lin (aka Shantaram) arrives in Bombay on a fake passport and is befriended by a tour guide who introduces him to his eventual circle of friends.  Being illegal and destitute, he resorts to the dark side and become involved with organized crime.  For a period of time, he lives in the slums and runs a make shift medical clinic where he learns to love Bombay and her people amid all the poverty and squalor.  Eventually with his connections to the mafia, he ends up helping his boss in a gun running war in Pakistan.  And weaving back and forth in the story is his lover, Karla.  How this all comes together and resolves itself is intriguing, captivating, irresistible, and makes you sad when the book ends - even after 933 pages.  Ah, you would be better off reading the Amazon review.  I am not doing it justice, but I would recommend it and I may even read it again - a rare, rare thing for me!

"A Rural Affair" by Catherine Alliott

Well, this was a dumb book.  It says it is a number one bestseller, but I wonder where?  I picked it up at a book exchange and thought it would be a mindless, light read and I guess I was right.  The main character, Poppy, is relieved when her husband dies - she had fantasized about it for some time.  But when he was hit on the head with a chunk of blue ice (frozen airplane waste) and dies as a result, she found that she mourned the loss of a father for her children, but not her husband.  As the story unravels, it turns out he had been having a long time affair and was as unhappy as Poppy was in their relationship.  However, he was finding love in the arms of the neighbor woman!  Of course Poppy is rescued by the dashing new man that moved to town to save the local and loved crumbling country estate.  And wouldn't you know, the dead husband hadn't got around to changing his will and Poppy inherited his vast fortune from the dot come boom.  Naturally this was contested by the "other woman" but all ends well.  I can't believe I read all 453 pages of this book!  I do not recommend it.  I am tempted not to return it to the book exchange to save anyone else from the wasting their time!

Killer Elite

On my business trip this week, I finished "Killer Elite" by Michael Smith. It's a history of a special ops unit in the US military that focuses on on-the-ground intelligence gathering and what is euphemistically referred to as "battle space preparation" - things like sabotage and prepping landing zones, etc. This book was written by a British reporter, so it has a slightly different perspective on the increased role of special operations units in the US military.

This book was mediocre at best. Started off pretty interesting, but as the story progressed, things got more and more vague. It sounds like he had a good source for the early days of the unit's history, but had to go on declassified and rumored stuff for the more current events. It also had a lot of 'we have an awesome plan, but Brass won't let us do it' stories. These were some cool plans, but it's not very interesting to know what was planned but never executed. It's also very one sided, as it's always the brave heroes of The Activity versus the stuffy and unimaginative upper echelons of military command. Never mind that some of what they planned probably could have been considered war crimes.

Anyway, there's a new edition of this book that was published in 2011 - maybe he developed better sources after the 2007 edition was published.

Children of Húrin

I recently finished "The Children of Húrin" by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a posthumous work completed / edited by Christopher Tolkien, and it is an extended version of one of the stories from The Silmarillion (Tolkien's prehistory of Middle Earth). The story is nce and tragic, but it is written to sound like a high epic so it sometimes reads like the genealogies in 2 Chronicles or something.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book. It took a while to plow through, but it explains some great back story from The Lord of the Rings and has great action scenes. It's probably not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. It probably won't make any sense unless you've read the Silmarillion... just a warning!