Review: Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey

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Caliban's War (Expanse, #2)Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Caliban’s War” is the part 3 of the Expanse trilogy and an enjoyable sequel to last year’s “Leviathan Rises”. The story introduces three new POV characters and focuses a lot more on the politics of the inner planets in Corey’s universe than the first instalment. James Holden returns as a key POV character and I am sad to say remains little more than a device to keep the plot moving. This, by itself, is not a bad thing because I am not sure where exactly the author(s) can do with such an open and transparent character.

The book also introduces Chrisjen Avarasala, Bobbie Draper and Praxdike Meng as the three other characters. Of all the three, the “foul mouthed granny” / uber politician Avasarala is the most enjoyable and injects some wry humour and political sophistication to the plot of the expanse series. Bobbie Draper is a martian marine, and we get told over and over again what a fine albeit *huge* specimen of humanity she is. Not a single chapter feature Bobbie Draper goes by without the author’s mentioning her size, or how she towered over and intimidated everyone in the room. Praxdike Meng is a botanist who is based in Ganymede when the book kicks off. His search for his kidnapped daughter presents the drive of the main narrative of Caliban’s war. I found his character difficult to care about, and again his POV chapters were not as enjoyable as those of Bobbie and Avasarala.

The existence of the proto-molecule is now known all over the solar system and Caliban’s War explores the reaction of the various players to its existence. We follow the action as it moves from the UN on Earth and on to the finale of the book which is based around the outer planets. There are a couple of standout action sequences, both involving Bobbie, but the action is a bit more subdued than that in Leviathan Wakes. The final few chapters of the book also seem a little anti-climatic after all the build up. But the plot progresses and a sagging conclusion can be forgiven given that this is not the final book in the series.

Caliban’s War is an enjoyable and fast paced read. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has read the first instalment in the “Expanse” series. I wish the authors would have rounded out some of the new characters and had a more satisfactory conclusion. I give it 3 stars out of 5 and look forward to the next instalment in the Expanse series due out next year.

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Review: Leviathan Wakes by James Corey

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Leviathan Wakes (Expanse, #1)Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up Leviathan Wakes on the recommendation and reviews on Good Reads. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to the sequel Caliban’s War.

James Corey ( a pseudonym for writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank) presents a gritty, action packed thriller set in the near future. All the action is centered around the solar system. In Corey’s vision, we find humanity has Mars as well as the moons and asteroids around Saturn. The inner planets, Mars and Earth, are the cultural and economic powers, while the “Belters” make do on the moons and asteroids near Saturn. Corey presents a world that is very believable, and while not quite a dystopia – certainly is a gritty vision of the future.

The story is told through two point of view characters – Miller, a cynical, hard drinking detective working for security on Ceres and James Holden, the executive office abroad an ice hauler working the route between Saturn’s moons. Miller is the archetype hard boiled detective while Holden is the square jawed idealist. Their stories converge as they are brought together trying to investigate the disappearance of a ship and it’s crew.

The story finds the protagonists face to face with an ancient power that has the power to transform human life. They have to battle evil corporations, corrupt cops, and .. space zombies!

The story is light on science and heavy on action. Some of the action sequences are extremely well written and exciting. The chapters based on Eros are especially well written. However, I couldn’t help but think of this book as a screen play for a very good action video game. The characterization veer into caricature territory (though Miller is a most enjoyable caricature – I am a sucker for Noir!) and the romantic side plot is just not believable.

The author(s) present a future with intriguing possibilities, but they do not really spend much time in building this future. It would have been great to get to know more about the politics between the inner planets and the Belters. The story touches on racism, xenophobia and politics but only does so in the most cursory manner. I am hoping some of these themes are explored in more detail in the sequels ( Leviathan is book one of three in the “Expanse” series).

If you enjoy space opera, good action and a fun read, I would strongly recommend Leviathan Wakes. If you prefer more science in your science fiction, and enjoy world building I would recommend Paul McAuley’s excellent Quiet War series The Quiet War.

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Review: Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds

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Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon's Children, #1)Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Blue Remembered Earth” is the first of a new series, Poseidon’s Children, by Alastair Reynolds. Unlike his previous work in the Revelation Space series, this book is set in the Solar System. The main events of the book happen in the mid 22nd century as imagined by Mr. Reynolds. The book is also a departure in style from his previous work. It is lighter and more optimistic than any of the books in the Revelation Space series. The work is more character driven and has fewer information dense “hard science” passages.

Surprisingly, it also does not revolve around a “chase sequence” that a lot of Mr. Reynold’s work seem to have as a central plot point ( See The House of Suns, or the short story Galactic North). I think the book is better for it.

Blue Remembered Earth is more character driven and has a lot less action than previous books by Mr. Reynolds, but remains an engrossing and rewarding read. The books centres around Geoffrey and Sunday Akinya, siblings and members of the powerful Akinya clan. It starts with the funeral of Eunice Akinya, the reclusive scion of the clan and picks up space as Geoffrey and Sunday are involved in the attempt to disentangle some of the mysteries of their late grandmother. The book takes us to the Moon, to Mars and beyond.

The plot moves along at fair pace, but it is clear that the author is just setting the things for bigger things to come in subsequent books. The future as described here is believable and the science is very plausible. I particularly enjoyed the chapters following Sunday Akinya’s adventures on Mars.

If you came to this book expecting some of the Gothic feel and the dystopian futures seen in Absolution Gap or Chasm City, you may be disappointed. I enjoyed this lighter style and look forward to future installments in this series.

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Review: Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell

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Complexity: A Guided TourComplexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How does an ant colony organize itself? How does the immune system work? What is the similarity between the world wide web and your brain?

If you have pondered any of these questions, “Complexity: A Guided Tour” is just the book for you.1

Any computer scientist who graduated in the last ten or so years would have covered some of the topics in Melanie Mitchell’s “Complexity: A Guided Tour”, and would have probably wished that they had Ms. Mitchell as a lecturer!

Ms. Mitchell is clearly passionate about her subject. Her book covers a number of topics in the emerging field of Complexity such as emergent behaviour, computer science, genetic algorithms, network theory, etc. Ms. Mitchell does not get too technical, but still manages to convey the key ideas with clarity. Her explanation of Turing’s universal computer and the “Halting Problem” are great examples of explaining a complex topic in an approachable manner. I enjoyed the chapters on genetic algorithms, computability and cellular automata. I wish she had gone into a bit more detail on Network theory.

This is an enjoyable book for anyone who is interested in computer science or is mathematically inclined. Those without a background in computer science may find it a bit of a slog. Ms. Mitchell also provides generous notes and references for further study. I enjoyed this book very much.

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Review: A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

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A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“A Deepness in the Sky” is a Big Book. The plot unfolds via the point of view of multiple characters, both human and the “Spider” aliens. The story centers around the planet Arachna which attracts the interest of two competing human fleets due to the strange nature of the star in the system – the “On/Off” star which comes to life every 200 odd years and stays bright for a few decade before dimming again.

There are two main strands to the story. One based at the Lagrange point above the planet, and one on the planet itself as a new “On” cycle starts. The story is based over a number of years as the Arachnid civilization moves up the technological ladder. The story telling, especially in the human segments conveys a sense of claustrophobia and foreboding that contrasts nicely with the more open story arcs that play out planet side.

Mr. Vinge explores the concepts of freedom, religion and progress in this book. The science is plausible (no FTL) and the universe is believable. While the story can get bogged down in places as it explores the motivations and background of its multiple characters, it still remains extremely enjoyable read for any fan of science fiction.

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Review: The Fear Index by Robert Harris

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The Fear Index is a breezy, fun read. Clearly the author has done his research on the financial markets and the world of hedge funds. Even the basic idea behind the protagonist’s hedge fund is feasible.  Sentiment analysis is a hot topic in machine learning, and I think there are already commercial products available that will analyse the sentiment for a given stream of data.

The story focuses on a day in the life of Alex Hoffman – Super Quant.  It starts with a break-in in the dead of the night and, like all good thrillers ends with a big bang.  Hoffman’s business partner, his wife and the befuddled policeman Leclerc are little more than the scaffolding to the rest of the plot. While the story moves along at a fair clip, and it is hard to put down, I did not find the characters that interesting. I suppose it is difficult to empathize with socially awkward billionaires having a bad hair day.

Where the book disappointed me was the plot. The HAL 9000 \ AI elements of the story are weak and similar stories have been covered a lot better, for example, by Charles Stross in Rule 54 or Accelerando. If you are looking for a fun thriller, I heartily recommend The Fear Index. If you are a fan of science fiction, you might want to steer clear.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fear-Index-Robert-Harris/dp/0307957934/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334452323&sr=8-1

Code of conduct for Professional Programmers

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Robert Martin’s book Clean Code (Amazon Link here ) is one of the most important books I have read on the craft of software development. It is a language / platform agnostic book on how to write good, maintainable, and readable (i.e. the “Clean”) code.  But, when deadlines start slipping and things start falling apart, it is all too easy to cut a few corners and accrue some technical debt which will come due later.  It looks like Robert Martin has written a follow-up to Clean Code. The title is The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers (Amazon Link here ).  It is on my “to-read” list, but Christoffer has written an excellent summary here.  He lists 9 points that he took away from the book. For me the most important point was this:

A Professional Programmer Takes Responsibility

It is very easy to blame the BA (Business Analyst) for not writing a clear specification or a clear test plan. It is easy to blame the user for not doing a thorough UAT, and it is easy to blame the QA team for not doing integration testing properly. If there is a bug in the code, it is the programmer’s responsibility. Once a system reaches a certain complexity, there will always be bugs or edge cases that somehow slipped through into production. Once a bug has been identified, it is the programmers responsibility to explain it, to fix it and to ensure that similar mistakes don’t happen again.

I have been (and routinely am) in positions where a bug in code I have written has lead to a significant outage or a measurable, significant, monetary loss. The first instinct is to always look for problems somewhere else. Maybe something went wrong in the operating system, maybe the deployment team did not release the packages correctly.. It may be the case, but as a Professional my first responsibility is to check my own code. What did I change? What could have gone wrong? How can I reproduce this error in the test environment? How do I fix it? And finally.. how do I make sure this does not happen again?

In my experience, a policy of complete transparency is the best policy for a Professional Programmer. If the management team knows they can trust you, they will generally be more understanding when things fall apart in production!

Aftershocks

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The worse thing about the last two weeks has been the aftershocks.  Day after day, the floor sometimes shakes or maybe vibrates a little.  The odd creaks, and there we are, looking nervously at each other wondering if this is just an aftershock, a small earthquake or “the big one”.  At times, I am not longer sure if the earth is moving or if I am just sitting here imagining things.

We are told to expect aftershocks for the next few months.  Since the earthquake on the 11th of March, there have been hundreds of aftershocks.  Most people have alarms on their phone that are linked to the earthquake alert system.  At times, the trading floor is full of phones beeping, chirping, vibrating and trilling phones.  Everybody cranes their neck, and looks at the big TVs suspended over our desks.  All programming is interrupted with a big map of Japan and the location of the epicenter of the incoming quake.

In most cases, it would be too far or too weak to be a cause for concern.  But sometimes, the epicenter would be Chiba, or Saitama or another neighboring prefecture.  Then we wait.  After a few minutes, everybody gets back to work.  Maybe with a sigh of relief, or a little defiant giggle.  Truth be told, my nerves are shot.

Propaganda in the age of Wikileaks

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Gloria Origgi, in Edge 335 states that we are leaving the information age behind and are entering a reputation age. She posits that one of the reasons for the influence Wikileaks wields in current political and social discourse is due to powerful, and reputed media organisations like the New York Times and The Guardian acting as conduits for it’s revelations.  We trust the contents of the Wikileaks secrets because of our implicit trust of these formidable media organisations.  We believe the revelations because we believe in the integrity of the Guardian or the Times.

When a reputed newspaper breaks a story, we assume that the sources have been vetted, and that the editors have double checked the allegations / revelations before publishing them.  Wikileaks, however, presents an interesting dilemma.  The contents of the leaks were uploaded by someone (presumably PFC Bradley Manning) within the US military establishment.   The behaviour of the US government (and other governments) subsequently offer some reassurance that these diplomatic cables did come from within their organisations.  Not surprisingly, “Cablegate” has become perhaps the media event of the year (or even the decade).  Hordes of commentators have descended on the Guardian website venting their spleen about the evils of the US government, and the hypocrisy of US foreign policy.

I can’t help but be a little cynical about this hoopla.  Yes, clearly some of the contents of leaks may jeopardise national (or indeed international) security.  However, I wonder how easy it would be for a government, or any other organisation to manipulate public opinion via a channel like Wikileaks.  Could Wikileaks itself be used as tool for government (or indeed corporate propaganda)?  Would it be easier for the US government to sell overt support of a South Korean invasion of North Korea given the cables published on the topic?  Would it be easier for the state department to withdraw a diplomat / intelligence agent from a tricky situation abroad now that he has been “outed” and him disappearing would look very bad for the host nation?

Yes, this is tinfoil hat territory.  I just want to convey that we should think twice before taking the contents of the Cablegate memos at face value.  Even if the leak was unintended (as it appears), it could be quite easy for a motivated organisation (government etc.) to move quickly and use it as another avenue for propaganda.