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Andromeda Strain Book Review
13 August 2025
My mom and I listened to The Andromeda Strain (1969) by Michael Crichton.
We really enjoyed listening to it and it was quite the page turner. It has an
exploration of a lot of interesting scientific topics including what exactly is
life, drugs and investigation techniques. Along with quite a few political
topics on how experts are treated by the government and the communication
methods. It’s told through a series of reports and third person descriptions
which is quite enjoyable, reminding me of similar novels told with fake
reports. With this high praise I have quite a few issues with the description
of a few things. I am by no means a biochemist or any other type of expert, but
I do have an interest in logistics and how big things get done. A lot of my
issues can be resolved by realizing that it is a product of its time.
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Ender’s Game, Revisited Thoughts and Issues
08 May 2024
I used to think that “Ender’s Game” was one of the deepest novels and series
I’ve ever read. I’ve since reconsidered my opinion on this significantly. I’ve
since decided its quite dumb and overplayed. The characterization of the
children is too much. There’s an obsession with hyper intelligent children that
isn’t realistic or believable in this day and age. I’ve revised this opinion
because I’ve been listening to the audio drama version of it with “Ender’s Game
Alive,” it a great audio production with an extremely high production values
with a full cast and excellent voice actors. It’s been really nice to revisit
this novel and revise my opinions on this novel. Also all spoilers are unmarked
and may include details in the other novels. This is not quite a book review,
its more a rant about organizations and how to build a stable system.
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Book Review - 'Randomize' By Andy Weir
27 January 2023
I recently finished reading “Randomize” by Andy Weir. He is probably one
of my favorite authors and comic creator (He used to have a web comic, and
its awesome). His writing generally blends the right amount of real world
science and entertaining characters for a technical audience. It’s a really
good short story about how quantum computing will affect the gambling industry.
It’s also part of an anthology called “Forward about various future
technologies.
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A Review of "Extraterrestrial" by Avi Loeb
01 September 2021
I’ve been listening to “Extraterrestrial” by Avi Loeb published in
January 2021. It is a decent book with some flaws in it’s presentation
and dialogue. It’s about what is believed to be the first extra solar
object found called “Oumuamua” and how it’s weird properties might
indicate that was made by intelligent extraterrestrial life. It also
covers a fair bit of the author’s academic career which seem to be very
successful based on how many committees he’s on, and some of the issues
he sees with the academic community and how funding is allocated.