A year of books

It’s been over a year since I’ve written a book report! Here are the books I’ve read in the past year, and my thoughts on them…

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

This was a silly-fun romp through a future America where capitalism and high tech have been taken to the extreme. This was my first Neal Stephenson book, recommended to me by Brett (in fact I still have his copy of the book!) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ender Quartet by Orson Scott Card
(Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind)

This was a series of four books, and they covered the full range from excellent to crappy. Ender’s Game was a fantastic book about a futuristic soldier training camp for young boys. I read it on my flight to Tokyo and I couldn’t stop reading it until I finished it. Speaker for the Dead was a decent sequel but it leaves off with a cliffhanger that doesn’t end until the end of the series. Xenocide was forgettable and Children of the Mind was such a terrible book that I had a hard time even finishing it. Read Ender’s Game, it’s great, just don’t continue on with the others.

State of Fear by Michael Crichton

Standard Michael Crichton fare, science vs. man thriller this time about global warming. The story was alright, but it didn’t seem very well planned out or something. And, there was quite a bit of “preaching” about how the threat of global warming is overblown. Not a terrible book, but I wouldn’t really recommend it.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

My second Neal Stephenson book and one of the best books I’ve ever read. The book is about cryptography during World War II, and follows a code breaker, a secret counter-espionage group, and the present day descendant of the code breaker. The book is chock-full of science, math, and adventure! The book would be perfect if it weren’t for those pesky Neal Stephenson endings…

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

This was a really weird book. I’m not going to even try to describe this one; see Defective Yeti for a nice summary. However, I’m not as enthusiastic about the book as he was… I was very intrigued at first, but the odd presentation of the book eventually got tiresome and I was glad when it came to an end. Not to suggest that I was satisfied with the ending, because I most certainly was not. If you are looking for an unusual reading experience, I’d say check it out. But if you are looking for a satisfying story, then skip it.

Camouflage by Joe Haldeman

This was a well crafted story about aliens among us. The story tracks two aliens disguised as humans throughout recent human history, as well as the discovery and investigation of a UFO-ish object in 2012. The storytelling was solid and tight and the author knocked out a nice story in less than 300 pages. I was impressed and very entertained. This was my 4th book by Joe Haldeman and it reminded me that I need to check out more of his writing.