Another fun and frantic slice of near-future sci-fi from Anne Currie. This is the sequel to Utopia Five. A post-global-climate-catastrophe Britain, where augmented humans stalk the land and immersive technology allows for an effective panopticon. Is it a snooper's paradise, or a sensible way to maintain order? There's a surprising amount of philosophy in here - although it does occasionally lapse into a Wikipedia-highlights of a famous philosopher. But, at 99p, who am I to complain? It would…
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There are some books which make you feel smarter just by having them on your shelf. This is one of them! I would consider it essential for anyone working with code - whether a wide-eyed newbie or grizzled veteran. How do human brains understand code? What neurological quirks do we all have? Which common mistakes can be easily avoided? Only by understanding our puny hardware ("Isn’t it a miracle that humans can do anything with no more than 1 byte of memory") can we understand how we should r…
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Obviously, I've never downloaded "warez" in my life. And, for the avoidance of doubt, I was never a member of the so-called "Scene". But such shenanigans were almost unavoidable on the early web and - wow! - is it weird seeing snippets of your history presented in an academic study! Why do people "pirate" software and other intellectual property? The answer isn't as simple as you may think. This isn't a book about noble thieves, or cheapskate freeloaders - rather it is an examination of the…
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SUPERCHIMPS! IN! SPAAAAAAACE! The previous book was about neo-Dolphins, this one is about chimps. And it is very good. Ultimately, it is a book about slavery and ecology. What do we owe to our planet? Can we take "lesser" races and bring them sentience and sapience? Should they be allowed to develop their own culture? What can we do to prevent "alien" cultures from influencing us? Despite its slightly preposterous setting - it presents a plausible view of how humans might attempt to colonise …
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I found this book while following a citation trail for my MSc. Published before the 21st Century (fuck, I'm old) it's a run-down of this new-fangled thing called Information Warfare. It covers electronic attacks, espionage, computer security and more. In the last 20 years, depressingly little has changed. If you removed the mentions of ActiveX and floppy disks, it'd still be 90% relevant. It sets out in clear detail why information warfare is the new frontier - and some practical takes on how…
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Pure pulp sci-fi - and I loved every page of it. The best sci-fi, in my opinion, doesn't dwell too long on how the magic box works - but spends time exploring the consequences of opening it. The premise is great - cloning is real and you can back up your brain. When you die, your brain is downloaded to a clone. It's a brilliant exploration of human rights. Are clones humans? Are they property? Can they inherit? Are they the same person as their original? What will protesters spit at them? …
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Ira Aldridge -- a black New Yorker -- was one of nineteenth-century Europe's greatest actors. By the time he began touring in Europe he was principally a Shakespearean actor, playing such classic characters as Shylock, Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear. Although his frequent public appearances made him the most visible black man in the world by mid-nineteenth century, today Aldridge tends to be a forgotten figure, seldom mentioned in histories of British and European theater. This…
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Oh! But this is ridiculously fantastic fun. An unemployed sci-fi geek escapes the pandemic by going all David Attenborough with Godzilla. Yes, it is an exercise in nerdy wish fulfilment. But who among us wouldn't have rather spent the last two years being chased by giant scary monsters rather than cowering away from a microscopic virus? It a joyful piece of bubble-gum sci-fi. It plays well with tropes and, much like Redshirts, gives the reader exactly what they need. It isn't very subtle. …
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Dolphins in spaaaaaaaace! This is the sequel to David Brin's "Sundiver" - and the 2nd part of the Uplift series. And - BAM! - it goes straight into the action. Very little needless exposition - just spaceships running away from an Extra-Terrestrial menace, crash-landing, and having to escape. All good sci-fi fun. Especially with a crew of cyborg dolphins, a few telepathic humans, and one super-intelligent ape. It's a thoroughly enjoyable adventure - and almost certainly impossible to film.…
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Spoiler Alert! We're all going to die. I'm the sort of person who buys a fancy jar of something delicious - and then I save it for a special occasion. Yet, somehow, those special occasions never seem special enough. And so the jar sits at the back of the cupboard waiting for a train that's never going to come. How many of you do the same? This book attempts to change that. Why do you spend your time earning and saving money that you're never going to spend? The central thesis of the book is…
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Drawing on unseen and iconic material from the BBC archive and private collectors, The Vault is an unforgettable journey through 50 years of Doctor Who, via carefully selected photographs, props, costumes designs, production memos, letters, scripts and more. This is the full and official story of Doctor Who, from the first pre-production memos in 1963 to the most recent props created for the 2013 series, including interviews with key contributors and scores of prop photos, design sketches…
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I know shamefully little about the British Empire and its colonisation of India. I remember going on a school trip to the memorial at Ypres - but I don't remember hearing about the thousands of Indian troops who served and died. I learned endlessly about Churchill - but not about his racist attitudes towards the Bengal famine. I was vaguely aware of partition - but not the casual ignorance which caused it. "Inglorious Empire" strikes me as a very even-handed book - even in the face of…
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