https://bonesmoses.org/categories/book/ Recent content in Book on BonesMoses.org Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sat, 06 Jun 2015 17:09:30 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-learning-heroku-postgres/ Sat, 06 Jun 2015 17:09:30 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-learning-heroku-postgres/ I recently got the opportunity to take a look at Learning Heroku Postgres, a new book by Patrick Espake that seems intended to help new PostgreSQL database administrators get their data into the cloud. The chapters are short, concise, and the questionnaires at the end are a nice touch. But does it hit the mark? Almost. Before I get too far into this review, I should point out that Heroku is a proprietary service that presents a modular deployment system for various programming languages, applications, administration, monitoring, and other related services. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-postgresql-server-programing/ Thu, 12 Dec 2013 16:08:32 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-postgresql-server-programing/ There comes a time in every DBA’s life, that he needs to add functionality to his database software. To most DBAs, and indeed for most databases, this amounts to writing a few stored procedures or triggers. In extremely advanced cases, the database may provide an API for direct C-language calls. PostgreSQL however, has gone above and beyond this for several years, and have continuously made the process easier with each iteration. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-instant-postgresql-starter/ Mon, 27 May 2013 19:00:37 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-instant-postgresql-starter/ As a newly minted Packt author, it makes sense that I might get a request to review one of their books from time to time. On this particular occasion, I have the opportunity to give a look at Instant PostgreSQL Starter by fellow PostgreSQL user and author Daniel K. Lyons. I’ll be straight-forward with a giant caveat that I’m not the target audience for this booklet. I tried to read with the perspective of a new user since we’ve all been there once, but please bear with me if I break character. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-end-of-days/ Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:01:13 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-end-of-days/ As far as post-apocalyptic dystopian novels are concerned, Robert Gleason’s End of Days is unique mostly because it’s mid-apocalyptic. Some of the blurbs on the jacket proclaim Gleason as the “Dante of our age,” so it must have been worth reading. I’m not sure what kind of hyperbole inspired a comment like that, but I really hope it’s sarcasm. That isn’t to say End of Days is bad! Far from it. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-house-of-suns/ Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:27:07 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-house-of-suns/ Alastair Reynolds has been both one of my favorite, and most hated authors. I tend to enjoy his one-shots more than his series, maybe because he doesn’t have time to write himself into a corner. So too with House of Suns, a book I neglected reading for over a year because I was so put off by Absolution Gap’s meandering nonsense. Gladly, House of Suns returns to what I love about Reynolds’ writing. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-consider-phlebas/ Thu, 19 May 2011 19:19:58 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-consider-phlebas/ I don’t believe I’ve read anything by Iain M. Banks before, and after Consider Phlebas, I’m not sure I want to. Now, this isn’t a matter of a terrible novel that made my eyes bleed, or some horrible techniques that drove me insane. I’m not even sure Mr. Banks writes books like this as a matter of course, or simply in a study on methods to cripplingly depress his readers. The worst part of this is that it’s very well written and highly engaging. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-freedom-tm/ Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:42:44 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-freedom-tm/ I just finished reading Daniel Suarez’s Freedom (TM) in about three days. This is much more a statement of the novel’s quality than my own somewhat glacial reading pace. There’s a lot in here I really love. Mr. Suarez has clearly done his research, even listing many of his sources, along with the universities and labs inventing the technology he brought to life. Back again are the AutoM8’s, the Razorbacks, and the rest of Loki’s arsenal. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-in-fury-born/ Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:34:55 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-in-fury-born/ Having recently finished the excellent Honor Harrington series, I decided it was high time to peruse David Weber’s backlog of other titles. The war-related books didn’t really interest me, but In Fury Born snared my attention. Alicia DeVries a girl who excels at many things, and being the granddaughter of an infamous marine, one of those things is combat. Her sense of Honor and duty are, unsurprisingly for a Weber character, pristine and incorruptible. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-the-final-empire/ Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:14:05 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-the-final-empire/ Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series is an interesting beast, but The Final Empire is a great introduction. I normally stay away from fantasy sans notable exceptions, yet a friend of mine recommended it and I trust his judgment, even if he’s a fan of Robert Jordan. But what do we really have, here? We have a magic system where a person can “burn” ingested metals to achieve certain effects. Everything is paired, and specific alloys can produce opposite reactions as their base metal. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-accelerando/ Sun, 26 Dec 2010 20:29:04 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-accelerando/ Charles Stross wrote Accelerando while high on meth, I think. Not only is it densely packed with author-coined terminology loosely based on the underlying technological innovations, but it’s a meandering plotless testament to its own existence. It follows the trials and tribulations of Manfred Macx and his descendants before, during, and after what we can call a technological singularity, when the pace of progress reaches such a pronounced crescendo, it becomes self-sustaining. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-daemon/ Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:01:37 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-daemon/ I’ve never really been a fan of crime thrillers. Sometimes the mystery is enticing, but by and large, it always boils down to the motivation. Why did the killer do it? Most authors answer this as an afterthought. Whether it be an insane, megalomaniacal contrivance, or just plain avarice or one of the other seven deadly sins, they hardly explain or justify the events in the book. There are notable exceptions to this, such as John Connolly’s notable Black Angel. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-the-windup-girl/ Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:58:12 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-the-windup-girl/ I’ve finally gotten The Windup Girl off my to-read list, and having finished it, I’ll have to watch Paolo Bacigalupi for future novels. The Windup Girl is something different than I’ve ever encountered. It’s part wild cataclysm, part dystopia, part social commentary, and all action. I’m not kidding on the last, either. Whether it’s Hock Seng shrewdly planning the rebirth of his financial empire, Anderson Lake pursuing an elusive new fruit on the behalf of shady agricultural megacorporations, Jaidee’s crusade against the corrupt Trade cartel that aims to hijack Thailand’s sovereignty for financial gain, or Emiko’s constant struggle against her lot as a Windup, something is always moving. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-the-temporal-void/ Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:51:21 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-the-temporal-void/ It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Peter F. Hamilton, even after the gigantic deus ex machina he used to conclude his Night’s Dawn trilogy. His writing is so compelling—to me, at least—that I can forgive that kind of transgression because the story itself is so interesting. And now with the second entry in his Void trilogy, The Temporal Void, I find another great novel that feels too short, despite its ponderous length. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-war-of-honor/ Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:43:52 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-war-of-honor/ (I actually finished this book a few weeks ago, but have been too lazy to review it.) War of Honor isn’t David Weber’s latest by any means, but it is to me, who just started the series earlier this year. This, the tenth book in the ongoing thread, isn’t quite the perfect storm we got in Ashes of Victory, but is nevertheless chock full of everything short of Haven’s total subjugation, and a much stronger novel. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-ashes-of-victory/ Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:56:26 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-ashes-of-victory/ I think I’ve just given up and decided to attempt and catch up with David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. All the way up. That means I’m currently working on Ashes of Victory, and it’s impossible not to notice the books are getting longer as the series rolls on. And in this case, it’s not just longer in page-length, but in exposition, political maneuvering, and copious droning. Compared to [Echoes of Honor(http://www. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-echoes-of-honor/ Sun, 23 May 2010 22:26:14 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-echoes-of-honor/ And David Weber’s Honor Harrington universe marches on with Echoes of Honor, like an army of undead, unstoppable and thirsting for brains. This time, we get to follow several distinct story segments as Honor and her team struggle to take over Hades and ultimately escape. The action this time around is almost unrelenting, and probably more importantly, relevant to the current story and future engagements. Weber has a thing for political intrigue, and of course it’s no stranger here. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-absolution-gap/ Wed, 12 May 2010 19:43:09 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-absolution-gap/ When I’m reading multiple books simultaneously, it’s usually because I’ve relegated one to my “before bed” pile. Absolution Gap, the conclusion of Alastair Reynolds’s Revelation Space series, was one of those. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the longer books I’ve attacked in a couple months, and half an hour per night hardly pays quick dividends. Even worse, Reynolds’ writing style is copious and unrelenting; I felt every single one of those pages. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-when-the-devil-dances/ Fri, 07 May 2010 16:49:30 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-when-the-devil-dances/ I took a break from the Honorverse for a while and dove into John Ringo again with the third book in his Posleen War series, When the Devil Dances. All in all, it was much different from the previous entry, and an enjoyable one, at that. Part of the issue I had with Gust Front came primarily from the author’s propensity for excessively detailed military maneuvers. Given a map of the United States and an Axes and Allies game centered on US territory, one could easily plot out each action and counteraction for hours. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-old-mans-war/ Sun, 02 May 2010 22:18:54 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-old-mans-war/ I read a lot, but even good authors get caught in the deluge of published novels, and nobody can really keep up, so I depend on recommendations. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi was one of those books I’ve never heard of, yet nonetheless maintained critical acclaim in the SciFi community. Much like The Forever War, which concentrates almost primarily on how war would be shaped by relativistic effects, we’re given an intriguing and rarely explored theme to ponder. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-in-enemy-hands/ Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:42:28 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-in-enemy-hands/ Am I done with David Weber’s Honor Harrington series yet? Sadly, no. After finishing In Enemy Hands, I still have many more to go, but it’s not a struggle I dread. Fittingly, this particular installment is more about Haven than Honor or Manticore. The first half of the book is almost purely setup, and considering the title, it’s not exactly a surprise that our heroine is eventually captured. But that’s fine in this context, because Haven has historically received the short end of the stick. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-honor-among-enemies/ Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:45:25 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-honor-among-enemies/ I promised myself that Honor Among Enemies would be my last David Weber for a while, but I’ve already started In Enemy Hands. Ah well. This particular entry is pretty tame so far as the Honor Harrington Mythos is concerned. In order to get back into the good graces of the Manticoran military and political complex, Honor is given the task of ridding the Silesian Confederacy area of the pirates menacing their merchant and freight liners. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-flag-in-exile/ Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:12:09 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-flag-in-exile/ At this rate, I may actually finish the Honor Harrington series before the heat death of the universe. Having just finished Flag in Exile by David Weber only fifteen years late, I think I’m getting the hang of this series. Though a friend at work recommended the series, and due to the length, I was suspicious it would be throw-away pulp; I’m willing to admit now that that my fears were mostly unwarranted. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-field-of-dishonor/ Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:47:11 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-field-of-dishonor/ Once again, I’ve spent another few days with David Weber reading Field of Dishonor and regardless of how the series continues, I think he’s finally come up with something truly great. I fully understand the series is supposed to be a space opera–the painstaking descriptions of galactic fleets, impeller drives, and relativistic weapons reinforces that point admirably–but there was precious little of that here. This time, it’s all an exclusive font of character building, and the Harrington universe is much stronger than if Honor had simply defeated another immanent naval threat. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-redemption-ark/ Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:18:36 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-redemption-ark/ Once again, Alastair Reynolds cranks out a weighty tome in Redemption Ark (Part of the Revelation Space universe) that proves, at least to me, hard SciFi can be surprisingly entertaining. Part of the problem with sticking directly to physics, as Alastair with his Ph.D. in Astronomy is likely to do, is that space travel is necessarily limited to current breakthroughs in physics, even when targeted hundreds or thousands of years in the future. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/the-short-victorious-war/ Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:42:06 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/the-short-victorious-war/ I just finished The Short Victorious War by David Weber and I’m starting to notice a pattern here: Honor Harrington thrust into difficult situation complicated by politics. Honor thwarts an invasion while overcoming said politics. Profit. Now, I understand these have to be somewhat formulaic, and this book was in fact, enjoyable, so I can’t complain excessively here. The real weakness of this book is that it’s so short, and Honor plays such a minimal part in the action. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-gust-front/ Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:10:12 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/review-gust-front/ I just finished Gust Front by John Ringo, and Ringo is a hard man to understand. He clearly loves the SciFi genre, and with the continuation of the Posleen War, proves he can delve into the stickier details many gloss over. The problem is he goes way too far on occasion, detailing for pages on very intricate and specific troop movements and justification. I felt like I was reading a historical account of each battle. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/the-thunderdome-of-reading/ Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:35:59 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/the-thunderdome-of-reading/ It would seem that I read a lot more than I thought. My book pile was dwindling and I wondered how that was possible, since I had at least six or seven in the pile before the holidays. Well, as it would turn out, between the train rides and reading before bed, I consume more than my fair share of books. So, what did I read during January? In order: https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/watchmens-anathem/ Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:17:23 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/watchmens-anathem/ “Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs,” I said. “We have a protractor.” – Erasmas, Anathem So, I’ve done a little light reading lately, and finished up Neal Stephenson’s Anathem–in my opinion, his best book thus far. It’s not nearly as slow as the [Baroque Cycle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle_(novel)), nor as “conventional” as Cryptonomicon, yet remains as cripplingly cerebral. It’s just so engrossing, I couldn’t help but voraciously consume the adventures of Erasmas and the very concept of a “Math” in general. https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/pilgrims-progress/ Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:19:57 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/pilgrims-progress/ So, I’ve started reading a highly amusing pseudo-manga titled Scott Pilgrim, and damn… how could I not like this? Seriously, this comic is some of the most innocent fun I’ve experienced excepting Excel Saga. But where Excel Saga was crack-induced insanity, the Scott Pilgrim series apparently derives its entertainment value from light-hearted hijinks gone awry–what Megatokyo started before it was fully engulfed by over-ambitious zeal. Read it, you won’t be disappointed! https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/wicked-the-spoofical/ Tue, 13 May 2008 10:13:21 +0000 https://bonesmoses.org/review/book/wicked-the-spoofical/ I’m about 1/3 through Wicked, and having seen the musical adaptation, I’m somewhat confused. I know movies and musicals based on novels commonly encounter issues compressing the material into two hours of nonstop entertainment, but this example is such a ridiculous extreme, I wonder if they didn’t purposefully throw out 95% of the book to avoid confusion. I should note that I loved the musical, and I’m guiltily enjoying the novel, but suggesting they describe the same events would likely disrupt the space-time continuum and destroy us all.