Book Review - Next

Hi Y'all. Here's a quick review of Next by Michael Crichton. I finished reading it last weekend but haven't had time to post a review. Overall it was a quick and fun read and even though it was fiction, it adds fuel to my distrust for people using DNA and the legal system. For those who don't know I have this deep seeded and irrational fear that I'm going to be cloned and my clones will be used for evil government doings. Like I said, irrational. Anyway, Next takes on some of today's headlines with different companies trademarking/copyrighting parts of the human genome as well has people's rights to their own DNA. It is a pretty good read mixed with actual and made up news articles about genetic research so it is a bit educational as well as entertaining. A few things that bother me about the book are a) a few chapters with a couple of story threads that never fully develop or conclude and b) typical to a Crichton book, is that it reads like a screenplay. I think Michael Crichton writes everything today with the big screen in mind. Unfortunate since he can tell a good story and shouldn't have to sacrifice the structure of a book to fit to a different medium. That's why Hollywood has screenwriters who adapt novels to the big screen. Anyway, it was a good read and if you are into current events/ "science" fiction, you will enjoy it. Thanks to KT for loaning me the book!

Catching a mouse with a Camera?

Just a quickie here. I just read something on the Strobist site about catching mice with cameras. I want to try to do this with some other things, like birds at my bird feeder, deer in the flower beds and maybe that mouse in my shed. More stuff on the todo list when the weather gets warmer.

-Ffej out!

Book Review - World War Z

Hi folks. Just finished up World War Z by Max Brooks. Overall I was very surprised at how good this book is. I was expecting a book written for teenage boys with lots of gore and shock value that all 16-year-olds love. What I got was a very intelligent book whose premise is how will the world react and change during and after a world-wide zombie epidemic. The style of the book is intriguing too. It is written like an NPR interview. The "author", the main character, travels the world and interviews folks who had played a small or large part of the zombie war from the very beginning to the end. World War Z takes the reader to places like China, Russia, Cuba, Hawaii, South Africa, just to name a few places to meet these characters. All of these people happen to have been in places where the major events of the World War took place and give there perspective on those events. Brooks takes care to give all of these interviewees a sense of character, purpose and tries, altough he comes up short in places, to make these people representative of their countries and cultures. My favorite part was the whole what-if nature of the book. What would happen if the dead came to life? What would people do? What would governments do? Brooks answers all of these questions himself although I kept asking myself what would happen? What would I do? Would I survive or would I freak out? This book must have been a blast to write because it was a blast to read. I highly recommend this book if you like zombies, survival horror, apocolyptic-the-end-is-nigh stuff.

Now, what to read next? Neal Stephenson's Anathem, Upgrade Your Life, John Scalzi's Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, or Michael Crichton's Next.