Ian Stewart, Flatterland »‘If Time were a dimension,’ said the Bicirclist, ‘you ought to be able to travel along it, like you can with the dimensions of Space.’« Odlično (sodobno) nadaljevanje Flatlanda, v katerem nas avtor popelje skozi večdimenzionalne prostore, neevklidske geometrije, v enajstdimenzionalni kvantni svet in še na precej drugih zanimivih mest. Če ti diši branje o matematičnih abstrakcijah, priporočam. Dobro napisano in izredno zanimivo. | |
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere »There are four simple ways for the observant to tell Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar apart: first, Mr. Vandemar is two and a half heads taller than Mr. Croup; second, Mr. Croup has eyes of a faded china blue, while Mr. Vandemar’s eyes are brown; third, while Mr. Vandemar fashioned the rings he wears on his right hand out of the skulls of four ravens, Mr. Croup has no obvious jewelery; fourth, Mr. Croup likes words, while Mr. Vandemar is always hungry. Also, they look nothing at all alike.« Ah, Gaiman. Odličen kot vedno, pa čeprav je najprej nastal scenarij za serijo in šele potem knjigo. (Saj veste – knjige, napisane po filmih so običjano bolj bljak. No, ta ni.) Zdaj si moram pa še serijo pogledat …. | |
Peter Seibel, Coders at Work »Now you could do more research and try to develop some higher-level model of cognitive errors that programmers make and get better blame coordinates.« Petnajst intervjujev s petnajstimi vplivnimi programerji, od Kena Thompsona do Donalda Knutha. Za neprogramerje verjetno skrajno dolgočasno čtivo, zame pa zelo zanimivo. Se pa bere počasi in sem šele na polovici. Zgornji citat dajem samo v dokaz, da znajo tudi programerji bluzit, tako da ne veš več, kje je sever. | |
Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons »‘Tell me, what is happiness?’ ‘Happiness? Happiness... is to wake up, on a bright spring morning, after an exhausting first night spent with a beautiful... passionate... multi-murderess.’ ‘... Shit, is that all?’« Še eno raziskovanje obnašanja ljudi v vojnah, še ena knjiga iz serije »Culture«. Prvih 95% zgodbe zadovoljivih, a nič pretresljivega, potem pa sledi krasen zasuk, zagotovo eden najboljših, kar sem jih videl v ZF žanru. | |
Iain M. Banks, The Algrebaist »They'd stood there in the bright, flickering glow of a heavy aurora display, Nasqueron a vast inverted dome above, dark but sheened with its own rippling auroras and specked with a random craquelure of lightning bursts.« Še en Banks, ki pa ne spada v romane »Culture«. Bolj space-operast kakor običajno, z veliko letanja po vesolju in relativno šibko (a dobro povedano) zgodbo. | |
Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals »Truth is female, since truth is beauty rather than handsomeness; this, Ridcully reflected as the Council grumbled in, would certainly explain the saying that a lie could run around the world before Truth has got its, correction, her boots on, since she would have to choose which pair–the idea that any woman in a position to choose would have just one pair of boots being beyond rational belief.« Mogoče zadnji Pratchet, šmrc šmrc :(( Čarovniki igrajo nogomet. Ne najboljši (meni najbolj sede Pyramids, sledita pa Going Postal + Making Money), a vseeno prijetno in zabavno branje z dobrimi štosi. |
Kar dober mesec je bil …