Reviews Written By: A2CSPEV9RQKWKDprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | Hyperion | |
 | "Brilliant Novel with a Nasty Cliffhanger and Awful "Sequel"" | 2009-08-25 |
| Hyperion is the tale of seven "pilgrims." The main story line involves these very different people meeting, travelling to an enigmatic world called Hyperion, and confronting a cruel and unstoppable monster that guards ancient "tombs" travelling backwards in time. Along the way, each pilgrim reveals a unique story that leads to this myserious place.
Each tale is engrossing, haunting, and illuminates pieces of the future and it's "history." The characters have real depth and each story is tragic, although each unique character has experienced very different things. I've rarely read a book so beautifully written in a world so richly envisioned. However, although this book is a masterpiece, I couldn't give it the 5 stars that it "almost" deserves. There are two severe problems, which each deserve incremental penalties. Firstly, the story is incomplete. I understand the idea of a "series" but this isn't that. The story just stops. It cuts you off just as you're expecting to get some resolution. You literally have 6 different stories that you are left flailing on. It's nothing short of a cliffhanger. Secondly, the sequel -- "The Fall of Hyperion" -- which finishes the story, is a grossly inferior book. While "Hyperion" represents some of the best writing I've ever read, "The Fall of Hyperion" is a novel that I would normally have abandoned part-way through. It should have been the last chapter or two of Hyperion, and there honestly wasn't enough story left for an entire book. While the sequel starts at a very readable quality, it gets worse and worse the further you go. I consider huge chunks of the sequel to be "drivel". | ||
 | The Mensa Genius Quiz-A-Day Book | |
| "Sundry Puzzles" | 2009-06-09 |
| This is a little book filled with puzzles. The majority of them are vocabulary-related puzzles that involve unscrambling letters. Some of them are math-related puzzles that involve pre-algebra. Some are logic puzzles. There is a puzzle for every day of the year, and answers in the back. The answers include a % of Mensa "testers" that were able to answer the questions. I keep it in the bathroom. Most of these puzzles are a little too easy. With a pencil and paper, most of them would be achievable for a bright sixth grader. An adult who is interested in puzzles will complete the majority of these puzzles in their head in a few seconds. This is probably because the book is quite old, and most of these puzzle ideas have been taught in school for a while, now, so... the "puzzle" part is stale. | ||
 | Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition | |
 | "Disappointed" | 2009-02-20 |
| I would bet that I haven't played the classic version of monopoly more than 3 times in the past 15 years. However, I must have played it many times as a kid... I remember most of the property names, most of their prices, and so on. This electronic banking edition is based on the "Here and Now" Monopoly edition. I found the "modernization" of the game to be unnecessary -- basically multiplying every single number by 10,000 and then labeling everything with "K" (for numbers in the thousands) or by decimal-point numbers with "M" (for numbers in the millions). The updated metal tokens are nice. For some reason, the "electronic banking" version doesn't include the stack-able skyscraper pieces (found in the non-electronic "Here and Now" edition) -- opting for the old house and hotel markers. These never quite fit; four houses being slightly wider than the space provided. Seems like the skyscraper markers are often cited as the one noticeably superior feature of the "Here and Now" edition, so it was disappointing not to get them in the electronic banking version. The electronic banking feature is itself a double-edged sword. It does have a "coolness factor." It makes setup and cleanup slightly easier. My wife figured that it would prevent lost money. It also avoids certain "making change" annoyances. However, it's SLOW and kinda clumsy. Even after playing this game several times, we sometimes reverse cards, making transactions go backwards (they all look very similar). This would never happen with paper money. This also sucks away some of the educational value. I was hoping that my kids would practice adding and subtracting (they're in 1st and 2nd grade). Having the electronic calculator eliminates the exercise. With numbers like 280,000 and 1,750,000 to work with -- labeled 280K and 1.75M -- the math is too hard for them, anyway (for no discernable reason). All in all, though, monopoly is an awesome game, and that still goes for this electronic banking version. We are enjoying it a lot, and in all likelihood you and your families will enjoy it, too. | ||
 | LightWave 3D 7.0 Character Animation (With CD-ROM) | |
 | "Perfect Tutorial" | 2009-02-20 |
| I find negative reviews of this book to be utterly confounding. Perhaps it's too rudimentary for an experienced professional in the character animation field. If so, my review may not reflect your needs. I am a hobbyist and was a relative beginner when I bought this book. This book takes you step-by-step through every single step necessary to animate a 3D character in Lightwave. Of the numerous tutorials that I've gone through, the rigging here is the best I'd seen. The principals are applicable to any character animation, as well. This book isn't very large. You can read the entire book, while following the tutorials, and have a rigged character ready for action in a few evenings. I wasn't completely new to Lightwave -- a hobbyist for years -- but I am not a professional, and certainly not a seasoned one. I found it easy to read, and think it would still be easy for a complete neophyte. The updated version -- for Lightwave 8 is also excellent, although it uses some new character animation tools that I find less intuitive. | ||
 | Jonn Serrie - Planetary Chronicles 1 | |
| "Pleasant Background Synth" | 2009-02-20 |
| My favorite CD of all time in the soundtrack for the movie Bladerunner. I've long searched for "the genre of music" that this soundtrack represents.
John Serrie appears to be one of the few artists interested in the genre, which appears to be called "space music." This music is atmospheric, beautiful, but does not demand your attention. This is perfect for my music needs -- something to listen to and enjoy while I'm programming, animating, or writing. I would normally recommend something that I enjoy as much as I enjoy this (and the other volume), but I know a lot of people who appear to despise music of this sort... You can't sing to it and you can't dance to it. In fact, you will probably never learn the names of individual tracks. Listen to the samples here on Amazon.com before you buy it. | ||
 | Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Resource Kit | |
| "Horribly Redundant Marketing Info" | 2008-04-22 |
| I hate Microsoft Press books. While I've always found them to be pretty mediocre, this is the book that drove me to hatred. This book was written by many different authors, and I would bet that they were given at least some of the exact same instructions. Then some lazy editor put all of each author's work into the book, without reading it. I actually read the first half of this book word-by-word, before I started skimming it. This is what is expected of you. Not reading, but skimming. Instead of giving you a 200-page book that would suite your needs via normal reading, Microsoft gives you a 1200 page book with 200 pages worth of information. Then they repeat the "marketing" parts 100 times, so that when you "skim it", you will receive the full marketing message that a person who carefully read a much smaller book would have received. That aside, this is a pretty detailed reference on IIS... although not in a reference format. Anyone familiar with IIS 5.0, and wanting to learn about IIS 6.0 can almost certainly find everything they need from a small, free, whitepaper on Microsoft's website. Very little has changed. 1. Application Pools 2. Web Service Extensions (Managing scripts /executables) 3. Metabase is now in XML instead of binary | ||
 | Don't Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition) | |
| "Easy To Read" | 2008-04-22 |
| I can't honestly say that I learned a lot from this book, but I considered it to be a very accessible book, and it explains the topic well, along with sharing some important ideas and some specific recommendations. I'm glad I read it, although it hasn't really altered the way I work very much. | ||
 | Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability | |
| "Easy To Read" | 2008-04-22 |
| I can't honestly say that I learned a lot from this book, but I considered it to be a very accessible book, and it explains the topic well, along with sharing some important ideas and some specific recommendations. I'm glad I read it, although it hasn't really altered the way I work very much. | ||
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