Sandro
Like the book before, the story becomes more interesting in the second half/last chapters of the book.
There is some forced escalation of trust issues between certain characters (Thomas and Teresa) that never felt too serious. It was easy to predict how things would go in the end.
One thing that annoyed me was the repetition. There are too many sentences conveying feelings that were already expressed numerous times (I lost count of the times that Thomas said he felt guilty for Teresa about being with Brenda).
It is an alright book, probably better than the first, with more visual and visceral scenes that better depict the world, I think, the writer is trying to expose.
The former had the labyrinth enigma/puzzle as its main focus, while this one focuses more on the relationship between the characters and trust feelings.
Let's see how the third one goes and wraps it up.
I didn't know this book beforehand. I went for it because it was selected as the read of the Month for January by the Sword&Laser Bookclub. Finished a bit too late but voila, better late than never.
Science-Fiction, religious questioning, aliens, likable characters (Anne and Sophia), good use of past/present chapters.
I would like to see more focus on the time that has passed on earth in the almost 50 years between travels (time-relativity). However, the author did an intelligent workaround when John asked Sandoz if he didn't care at all about all the things that had changed when he was away, and he answered that after what he had seen and passed, nothing could surprise him anymore.
The religious theme dominates the book, but I don't find it really intrusive or that it is trying to convert the reader to a religion. Nonetheless, if potential readers have very strong feelings about their religious beliefs, this book may not be suitable for them.
Now I will just have to pick up the second and final book to know, in the end, where Sandoz will stand about his doubts about God.
Here's a link related to what starts it all in the book: http://www.space.com/26000-alien-life-prediction-congress-hearing.html”
Just a heads up: The book differs significantly from the TV show. So, do yourself a favor; don't start reading this book expecting it to mirror the TV show, and then come here and give it a bad rating because it deviated from your expectations.
Sometimes the book gets a little too technical. However, I see this as a quality since it provides two things:
- Pushes the book more into the Hard Sci-Fi genre;
- I got to learn some pretty interesting things about physics (explained in an accessible way) while reading a literary book;
Bearing this in mind, my biggest problem with this book was its third part Two scenes dragged a little bit too much: The description of Simcoe's vision for the second FlashForward and Theo's pursuit inside CERN. Also, I kind of wished that it would be impossible to have a second FlashForward. Nonetheless, I've appreciated that the writer didn't use the same formula as before. Making some humans immortal and taking them almost to the end of time was another way to add even more philosophical questions to the book, focusing once more on how relative time is for the human race. Recalling two characters from the past that didn't seem all that important at the time was also a nice gesture.
All in all, I do recommend this book. Certainly, it is not for everyone, and people with no interest in science whatsoever may not see the its appeal.
Having seen the movie, I can say that this book is a good and faithful companion to the story. Is sweet, short and thoughtful story, that incites people to follow their dreams however strange or difficult they may be.
The way the speaking/thought bubbles we're distributed made the storytelling confusing in some pages. None the less, the character and environment art we're very good.
This is one of that rare cases where I recommend to see the movie. Before or after reading the book it doesn't matter. It will improve the way you feel about this story.
I felt that the beginning of the book was a little childish with too many ‘slang' references. Apart from that, the story keeps growing in quality, and the last 5 chapters of the book really increased my curiosity for what's to come in the other books.
The 3-star rating probably is a sign that maybe I'm no longer really fit to read many Young-Adult books. I kept thinking that if some things were thought and written with a more mature audience in mind, this book would be better. (This is also the reason for my praise to be more focused on the end of the book, where the plot is better crafted, and violence escalates.)
Easy to read, imaginative, with potential: Recommended.
It's evident for the reader that Cline grew up surrounded by media and art that left a positive mark on him. Ready Player One is an homage to some of the great games, music, movies, and series made in the 70s/80s and a dream about a game that would allow us to be wherever we want and free us from the limited reality in which we live.
Cline raises some subtly interesting points in his dystopian world about the way we're currently ‘paving' our future and depicts the passionate ‘obsession' that us geeks have when we love and care about something.
I must say this book may not be for everyone. Some may feel the geeky references that drive the story forward a little bit too much.
However, if there's somewhere inside you a person that fondly remembers their child/adolescent years listening to music in their room, knowing all the secret ‘cheats' for a specific game, watching a favorite movie/series over and over again, Ready Player One may be a good book for you, and certainly, the time you take to read it will be time well spent.
So go ahead and read it. Even if it's just to pique your curiosity to listen to some band, see some movie/series, or play some retro game that, for some reason, you've never gotten into before.
It's rare for me to give a full rating to anything, but I really loved this book. The whole metaphor is amazing. What is also amazing is that a book with 69 years still feels so current, so contemporary.
All the way through the book, with every action of the animals, I was left thinking about their counterpart in actual society and was often left with a sad smile when it was evident that our society behaves the same way.
I thoroughly recommend this book.
I liked this book. Liked how it started, liked some of its characters, liked its premise. The writing style is fluid and easy to read. The division of the chapters based on timeframe is equally well done.
The problem with this book (aside from some plot holes) is that I can't help but feel that all that happens is too convenient. It's the same feeling I have when I watch the new Sherlock Holmes series.
It doesn't matter how questionable the actions of Sherlock are, or if he dies, gets shot, disappears, acts like an a-hole... In the end, it doesn't matter because we know that all of it had a real purpose and that he won't really die because, let's get real, he's the main character. Because of this, I'm not surprised anymore. ‘Oh... He's been shot? I'm sure he will come back, an he did it on purpose to know a little more about the case.'
I feel the same way about Victor Vale. His actions are very questionable, and his plan? Come on... it had one in a million chances to work out... but guess what? It did in a very convenient way. Everything happened the way he hoped for. And even though I was on Victor's side, all this convenience made me along the way root for something to go wrong with his plan... for it to at least face some bump in the road.
I enjoyed this book, but in the end, it's easy to see that the author picked Victor's side and that he didn't have the anti-hero personality that Eli had. So it made it quite easy to root for Victor, with him being the ‘good guy.'
Aside from some plot holes and being somewhat predictable in some situations, I recommend this book.
I saw the movie some years ago and liked its story and its ending. So, it was natural that I felt some anticipation before reading this book.
It was the first Neil Gaiman book that I've read, and I can say that I will try to read other books from him (American Gods/Neverwhere/Sandman I'm looking at you!). However, right now, I'm not sure if I appreciate his writing pace. It's too quick. Only in a paragraph, months can pass, and I'm left wondering about the details of what happened during that time.
For the story itself, sometimes it felt short or rushed, but the moral of it, and some of its characters are charismatic.
I recommend it. Maybe it can be a good point of entry for people thinking about starting to read Neil Gaiman's bibliography like myself.
I want to begin this review by saying that I really lost count of the times the author used the word ‘jerked' in this book.
Now that I've put that out of my mind, the book felt monotonous. I do have the notion that the repetitive pattern of descriptions of what the character did could be a way of emphasizing and transmitting to the reader the feeling that the man is living a pretty boring life.
However, there were too many drinking glasses broken... or too many descriptions of the drinks he had. Some things were left out, like how the sickness of his daughter progressed (and there are only some descriptions here and there about his wife...).
The book also had little action, besides one or another walk out of the house that the character had.
One point I would like to address is the dog. At least in this part of the story, the main character felt very human and its situation very real. I really pitied and rooted for him.
In the end, the book forced me to think about how stubborn the main character is. Come on... Get out of there already! Oh.. Now you're having regrets... (Yes, I know that this made him very human and this is a positive point of the book. I can see myself having many of the attitudes the man had if I were in his situation).
All in all, I recommend this book. Probably, it is best to read it in one go.
This book features a designer as the principal character, technology, a love for books, typography, secret societies, and some good cryptography principles.
Yes, it sounds like my kind of book, alright. I highly recommend it.
The only real reason for me not to give it 5 stars was the ending. The book always seemed to maintain a good pace, but the ending, even if sufficiently explanatory, felt a little rushed compared to the pace of the rest of the book.
Don't let it keep you from reading, though.
From now on, I will be aware of Mr. Robin Sloan's new books.
‘There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care. All the secrets in the world worth knowing are hiding in plain sight.'
A very nice book. The way it is written makes it easy to read and understand. The frequent relations between romantic seduction and interface/design seduction are often quite ingenious.
I particularly enjoyed the last chapter of the book, which gives a larger focus to questions surrounding the area of gamification. It is a really direct book most of the time, where the author shows that he knows what is really important and what questions he is trying to somewhat answer with his book.
Along with all the information present, I was also able to annotate some interesting future readings. Some of them are directly suggested as recommended reading, while others show up as means to justify the writer's arguments.
I recommend reading this book to people interested in the questions that make people ‘tick' through design choices.
Be aware that this isn't a book dedicated to design patterns or usability matters. They are omnipresent throughout the reading but aren't the main focus.
This is a very well-written book, filled with explicative design patterns related to social interfaces and numerous known examples in the form of website images.
For experienced interface designers or even for some of the most observant web users, the patterns presented in this book may come across as obvious.
However, that's why they are called patterns—they are the most well-known common practices in the field compiled in one book.
I highly recommend this book. Even if people don't read it from start to finish, it still serves as a great reference book to have on your shelves, ready for you to consult a particular design pattern at any time.
“I'm a little disappointed with this book because I've read another book by the same author, titled ‘100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People' (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10778139-100-things-every-designer-needs-to-know-about-people). The latter was written in 2011, while this one was in 2009.
I started this one because the author refers to it several times in the other book, so I thought this one was better and more expansive in information. I was wrong.
This may seem unfair, but now that I've read both, it seems that the one from 2011 is just a better version of this one since there is a lot of repeated text. It's like a second edition but with another name.
- So, if you've already read ‘100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People,' don't waste time reading this one.
- If you are in doubt about which one to buy, don't buy this one.
- If you've read this one but haven't read ‘100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People,' go ahead and read it because it's better, but be prepared to skip pages of repeated text. Only buy it if you find it at a discounted price.”
Good book with lots of interesting facts. I especially like the ‘Takeaways' box at the end of each one of the 100 Things. In these boxes, the author gives advice on how to use what she said on that topic but relates it to the web design area (which is great, so you don't have that feeling: ‘yeah... this is great and all, but how does it relate to me doing websites and making people like them?').
All in all, I recommend reading it, even if you only end up using the knowledge you gathered from it to impress at dinner conversations with random interesting facts.
A good book, but if you've already read some other material about general usability, this book won't offer much more. The most important takeaway from this book is that you should always aim for a simple and efficient interface, reducing clutter and elements that may overload the short-term memory of the user.
Even if the author claims that the tips and tricks he shares in the book are really neat and that most people don't know them, I wouldn't really go that far. I was already familiar with 95% of the things he mentions in this book. Most, if not all of them, could be easily found on Apple-dedicated websites or in magazines. Nonetheless, it's nice to have some of them compiled in one place.
What I liked:
- The simple language used to explain normally complex matters.
- The good humor, examples, and metaphors the writer employs to explain things; they really work.
Now the drawbacks:
- I find the information in the book to be a little too simplistic and common sense. Even for people with only an interest in the area of web usability, they may find that they already know, or at least have thought in a very similar way when they browse daily.
- I understand that this isn't a scientific book, and the author does refer to Nielsen a couple of times, but all in all, the knowledge in this book comes directly from the writer's mind, with very few scientific sources to confirm what is being said.
- Even though the second edition is from 2005, almost eight years have passed, and most of the webpage elements he focuses on in the book aren't really that commonly used anymore. Still, this isn't the author's fault. Books age, and so does the content they contain.