Jason Cox

While this isn't the official ending of the Ender saga, I think it serves as a pretty reasonable practical ending.

A couple of years ago, I re-read Ender's Game followed by Speaker for the Dead and then right on to Xenocide, all of which were pretty fantastic. I originally started CotM at that time, but just couldn't get into it, making it about 20% of the way in before setting it aside. This time I got the audiobook (first Ender book I've listened in audio format) and I think that really helped. TBH, I also “cheated” and read the summary on wikipedia. In the previous novels, Peter was always a very hated character for me, so him being featured prominently (though not really!) is what I think kept me from getting into it previously. That's where the summary helped me conceptually, because I was better oriented to what was going on.

That said, this is a pretty good story that resolves the main story line that occurs starting in SftD and continues in Xenocide, ending that book in something of a cliff-hanger

-At the end of Xenocide, the Starways Congress has decided the Descolada virus is such a threat to all of humanity that even quarantine isn't sufficient to mitigate the risk, so they order the star fleet to destroy the planet with the Mini-Doctor device. Simultaneously, they have discovered the existence of Jane and see her not as another sentient species, but as a malicious virus/threat infecting their systems, so they secretly enact a plan to shut down the ansible network upon which she exists as her neural network.This book covers:a. How the xenobiologists on Lusitania create an antidote to the descolada virus, which involves extreme manipulation of space/timeb. That has a side effect of allowing instantaneous interstellar travelc. It has another side effect that ends up in Ender being split into 3 bodies and a few other side effects as well.d. There are several missions relating to 2 major objectives: getting Starways Congress to rescind their order; finding habitable planets to evacuate the species and residents of Lusitaniae. Finally, there's a little side-shoot discussing how Jane might be saved.Personally, I felt it was a satisfying conclusion to this series. I don't feel a great desire to get into the 5th book and reviews on that one aren't stellar (pun-intended). However, I enjoy the series well enough to look into Bean's "Shadow" series, so that will likely be tackled before too long. I understand the 2 series "come together" in the 5th book, so maybe I'll tackle it then.

The main purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the fact that so many times we give people credit for success, we are doing so in error and they have just been the beneficiary of random luck. It's important to note that we all do this ourselves as well and if we don't recognize the truth, we leave ourselves open to risk that we don't even see because we assume better of ourselves than we really should be.

That was all quite excellent.

I was a bit surprised by Taleb's repeated praising of George Soros throughout the book. It didn't really seem tied in to the main theme very well and really seemed to come out of (far) left field. As I read through the remainder of Incerto, maybe the connection will become clearer to me.

This is a fantastic history of what we currently think of as the tech industry. Walter Isaacson's history is extremely well written and eminently entertaining. As a nerdy kid who grew up loving computers in the late 70's and throughout the 80's, I had heard some of these stories before in part, but in each substory covered, Isaacson dives much deeper.

Starting with the stories of Charles Babbage (inventor of the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine) and Lady Ada (the first programmer, Mr. Isaacson follows the progression of the development of the computer. Alan Turing's entertaining yet tragic story is covered in detail as are his counterparts across the pond in America who are working on similar breakthroughs. The creation of Eniac and it's role in the Cold War. The early history of the personal computer is covered in detail. The foundations of Intel and the 8008 processor. Xerox Parc being 15 years ahead of their time (probably more). Hewlett and Packard starting up their company in a garage. The home-brew computer club. Pre-Apple computers. Apple computer's garage start up with Woz and Jobs. The foundation of Microsoft with Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer. There's even a bit of coverage of the evolution of the internet from early ARPAnet to BBSes and Compuserve to AOL and then the web in general. This is pretty much a skim discussion as you could do whole books on most of these things. Still, it helps bring it all together and makes for a pretty satisfying end.

This is a fascinating book on WWI that covers more of the political aspects of the events leading up to and during the war. It reads fairly neutrally and doesn't feel like it “takes sides.” There is general discussion of the military side of the war with various battles and their significance covered, but not likely in the same degree of detail as the political machinations going on are covered.

I will admit that my education on the Great War was woeful. Perhaps this is because I moved cities in 8th grade and somehow missed it. Or maybe it's just that I'm a public school kid and that's what we got. Anyway, I thought this was very well done and I'd love suggestions that cover WWII in the same way.

For those of you who feel like taking the time (the unabridged audiobook was 32 hours) to learn about a war from a century ago, you might be surprised. I was certainly surprised how much similarity there is now to that era. Especially where it comes to some of the reporting from newspapers and propaganda that went on prior to and throughout the war.

A Warning: The propaganda of the time drove the citizens into a frenzy. For the Germans, that made them believe they were justified in their actions. It made them willing to make tremendous sacrifices towards a war effort that maybe shouldn't have been supported so long if their citizens and legislators were more level-headed. For the Entente (Allies), the same thing was true, but it also drove them to a point that they were unreasonable in their expectations for war reparations from Germany/Austria/Hungary. It appears obvious in hind-sight, but this likely lead to the conditions that brought Hitler to power and ultimately directly lead to WWII. Our current political climate is equally divisive. People on both sides of the political street actually believe that the other side is literally “evil.” That if you expose yourself to thoughts from the other side that you are somehow doing yourself harm. In reality, we are all in our own propaganda “bubbles” of information which is self-selected and then algorithmically reinforced through social media which feeds you more ideas that are similar to your own. The best thing we can do is to reverse this trend and burst our own info bubbles. Look openly at the other side. Maybe this way we can prevent WWIII, or a second civil war.

This looks to be another series with a lead character in the vein of Jack Reacher or Mitch Rapp. I tend to enjoy those types of thrillers, if done well, and this one definitely fits the bill.

Scot Harvath is a good lead character with grit, determination, and skills. The scenarios the author throws at him are fairly believable, suspenseful and pretty original.

Definitely worth the read. Will be adding more to my shelf for sure.