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Hothouse

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Hothouse by Brian Aldiss
Dune is one of my favorite books of all time. So when I had a chance to read Hothouse, another classic ecological science fiction book, I was excited. At first, the book seemed interesting enough. The distant future, the sun is at its hottest, the radiation has made plant life abundant and animals have mostly died off. Humans still exist, but they are barely surviving primitives living short and brutal lives. The book centers around members of one particular family group's struggles. Plotlines start to split as the group breaks apart. Adventures are happening and it seems like a conflict between a sentient fungus and humanity is about to abrupt in world-changing significance.

This is where the book goes wrong, one group of survivors story is dropped never to be mentioned again. The second group only shows up in the final pages of the book and is of very small import to the story. One of the main characters dies and is she is forgotten by the next page. More…
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Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

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Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Robin Sloan

Well written, fun, fascinating and yet disappointing.

I read the book cover to cover in 8 days. I was expecting magical realism. The book implied a TARDIS-like bookstore. The mystery seemed huge and sinister. I loved the elements of history, the utter love Sloan has of books, and the acceptance of technology. I loved that Kat seemed like a real person she had her own life, her own ambitions, she was intelligent, skilled, but not perfect.

Every character was real. There seemed to be almost no stock characters. Even Deckle who seems so minor has a life and ambition all his own.

So why disappointing. At the end of the story, it all seemed so banal. I expected more. Repeatedly the book seems to be building to something sinister that never comes.

My biggest criticism of the book otherwise is the portrayal of Google. The company plays a major role in the second half of the novel. The portrayal is bizarre. It makes us sound more like elves in …
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You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)

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You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) Felicia Day Working at Google has perks. One of which is the Authors@Google program. The program gets authors to come and speak to Googlers. Felicia Day was the most recent author in the Kirkland office. I'm not the biggest Felicia Day fan, I loved Dr. Horrible and loved her stint on Eureka. But I never watched Buffy, haven't watched The Guild and stopped watching Supernatural by her stint on the show. I didn't know that much about her. Her talk was fantastic and pretty inspiring for those of who deal with social anxiety and depression. So I was really interested in reading her book (bonus I got a complimentary copy for being one of the first XX people to get to the talk).
Speaking to her after as she signed my book was probably one of the most stressful moments of my life and I'm sure I came off incredibly awkward. I'm actually disappointed I didn't read her book before because I think my exchange would have gon…
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