Author: Goodreads

For The Win by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honestly, this book is like "The Jungle" for our times, just it takes place in PC farms in Malaysia, India, and China. Interspaced a few times throughout the story of the characters are a few chapters about the economic principles of an increasingly multi-national world, written in a easy to understand fashion. The chapters that take place in China seem authentic with the current economic conditions there (low-educated workers streaming in from the countryside to be taken advantage of in the city-based factories).

The chapters in China with "Jie" (the pirate-broadcasting girl) — her introduction at all, really — seem a bit contrived, but hey: it’s a story. I’ll forgive it, and it helps move the book along.

I particularly liked the chapters dealing with the MMORPG "headquarters" — I can almost imagine a room like controlling World of Warcraft, subtly changing game mechanics and coefficients to keep players hooked.

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The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seriously — and I hate to say this — it was almost better than the last few books written by Jordan himself. :X

The amount of characters are kept to a minimum — the action is easy to follow, and you don’t feel yourself being overwhelmed by characters being introduced that you may have not read about in years. My only criticism — and it’s small — may be that perhaps some of the character interactions aren’t fleshed out enough… but no, I’m not going to go there. I’m happy with the way it’s written.

Rand, in particular, develops into an incredibly interesting character in this book — I personally thought his development had stagnated just a bit, and The Gathering Storm has certainly made up for that!

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Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit, the series got much better as it went along! I didn’t completely like the direction it took in this book (what happened to the Second Foundation? Would’ve liked to have seen a bit more of them), and the ending, though still good, was maybe a bit too "oh no! tune in next week!" for my tastes. But other than, a great ending to a great series!

Now to the final, last, prequel book.

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Wolf Tower by Tanith Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hey, not bad for supposedly "YA" fiction — wonderful SF-fantasy themes in an apparently rich world. What more can you want?

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Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not bad, not bad — better than the first three (learned that this book was written almost 25 years after the others!).

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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful, wonderful book. Seems to almost be more about the human element involved in maintaining a society that’s on the verge of collapse than it is about zombies — the zombies are almost just the backdrop for the story, only referred to as Z’s or "Zack."

This book will make you want to go outside and meet your neighbors for the first time — to make you wonder just how much "stuff" you really need to be happy.

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