Technology | Raging Biblio-holism

Injection, Vols. 1 & 2

March 14, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: What exactly did they do, those five brilliant minds given reign to imagine the future and how they could make it arrive more swiftly? What, exactly, is causing things like ghosts and transhuman zombies and leafy spirits of Olde England to appear in our world? And can any of it be stopped? The Review: I’m a wide-ranging fan of Warren Ellis’s particular take on the specifically-very-English blend of technology, history, and magic (however you define it). Even […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Sci-Fi • Tags: AI, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Comic Books, Declan Shalvey, Fantasy, Image Comics, Injection, Jordie Bellaire, Magic, review, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction, Technology, Warren Ellis

Iterating Grace

December 4, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: In summer 2015, privately printed copies of Iterating Grace appeared in the mailboxes of several prominent tech reporters, tech workers, and other assorted tech-related folks. Now, FSG has brought it to the masses – this strange, small tome of tweets-as-art and satirical poking at the Silicon Valley way of life. The Review: I love a good mystery, so this whole “who is Koons Crooks?” thing is exciting to me. Noah Krulwin, over at re/code, thinks that it’s all […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Anonymous, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, FSG, FSG Originals, Horror, Humor, Internet, Iterating Grace, Koons Crooks, Literature, Llamas, Mystery, Reviews, Satire, Silicon Valley, Tech, Technology, Twitter, vicuñas

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

April 20, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Lelia Majnoun, a non-profit worker in Myanmar stumbles across… something weird. Suddenly she’s on the run from shadowy corporate interests. Meanwhile, former friends Mark Deveraux & Leo Crane (Mark now a self-help huckster and Leo a drug-addled trust-funder coming unhinged) are on an unseen collision course with each other, orchestrated by said shadowy corporate interests. The fate of the world and our freedom of information may be at stake. The Review: I remember the first time I read Fahrenheit […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Adventure, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Conspiracy, David Shafer, Fiction, Humor, Reviews, Science Fiction, So Many Damn Books, Speculative Fiction, Techno-thriller, Technology, The Biblioracle, Thriller, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Story Time: A Reflection on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy

February 9, 2015 by Dani

Trilogies are odd. They’re not always big enough to span the sort of time and adventure that longer series do, but they’re split into parts for a reason, right? So sometimes in reading trilogies I find myself wanting the whole scoop all at once. I want to have the bird’s-eye-view so I know what I’m dealing with. I suppose you could say I’m a greedy reader. THUS: Drew and I finished the MaddAddam Trilogy at the same time, so while his excellent […]

Categories: Features • Tags: Dani Lencioni, Faith, Features, Fiction, Future, History, Hope, MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, Religion, Storytelling, Technology, The Year of the Flood

The Bone Clocks

August 14, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: In 1984, teenager Holly Sykes has a massive fight with her mother and decides to run away. But in the course of her exodus, her younger brother disappears – and she finds herself on the edges of a strange war that has gone on for centuries, between two sets of nearly immortal psychics. Spun off from that weekend, the next sixty years bring all sorts of changes for the world and for those who come into Holly’s life – […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Advance Review, BEA14, Book Reviews, Books, David Mitchell, Fiction, Literature, Reviews, Technology, The Bone Clocks, The Tournament of Books 2015

The Circle

November 8, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Mae has just landed her dream job, working for The Circle – a sort of Google/Facebook hybrid in California, situated on a lush campus full of awesome things and amazing people. At first, she struggles to acclimate herself with the culture of openness but soon she rises through the ranks of Circlers to become, just maybe, the one who’ll lead the Circle to Completion. But at what cost? The Review: So, okay. This is a horror novel, right? […]

Categories: Fiction, Horror, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Dave Eggers, Dystopia, Facebook, Fiction, Horror, LibraryThing, Literature, McSweeney's, Sci-Fi, Technology, The Circle, Twitter

Present Shock

May 17, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Human beings have stopped looking to the future and are, instead, attempting to capture the now. We’re checking emails and Twitter to make sure we’re constantly up-to-date, rushing to complete seventeen things at once, and becoming continually distracted: we’re suffering from present shock. Rushkoff examines the burgeoning phenomenon and presents a few ideas as to how we can take back some control of how we experience time. The Review: I feel like Mr. Rushkoff’s book is, in many ways, […]

Categories: Non-Fiction • Tags: 6, Douglas Rushkoff, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Present Shock, Public Forum, Technology

Justine (The Alexandria Quartet, Book One)

June 25, 2011 by Drew

The Short Version: A story of conflicted loves, beautiful language, and the city of Alexandria. An unnamed narrator details, in vivid flashes of story and moment, his life in Alexandria and the complicated sexual struggles in which he played a central part. Justine, Melissa, Nessim, Balthazar, Clea, Pombal, Pursewarden, and a host of others orbit around the fascinating and mystifying central figure of the city: Alexandria. The Review: There are times when a book is delivered into your hands at a […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Fiction, Justine, Lawrence Durrell, Literature, Technology, The Alexandria Quartet

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Technology