He does go on doesn't he?

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is really good. Particularly it’s post-apocalyptic without being overly trite. The books conclusion felt right, as though the author had changed his mind over the course of the book as the book had developed. Certainly the transition from rebuilding to survival is handled with some aplomb. Like movies from the 30′s you’re not going to get stacks of gore or the visceral horror. Where death is dealt with it’s dealt with in a sensitive manner. The tough times are portrayed through the discussion they generate and the thoughts of the lead character. This gives the book an interesting feel because the thought in the book is unvarnished. The lead character does hold opinions that he’s unable to express and some of those opinions are not flattering to the other characters. Also the lead character is both human and not an action-oriented individual. Which is great for a geek like me to relate to.

There are a couple of things I didn’t like. The treatment of mental illness and women leaves a lot to be desired by modern standards. Frankly almost all of the female characters serve as little more than reproduction machines, including the lead character’s wife. By the end I was pleased the book stopped talking about women as it was really making me uncomfortable. But perhaps that says more about me than the book. Also I was sad the inter-group dynamics weren’t better explored.

I’d recommend the book, it’s not average fare for the genre and characterisation aside it’s a thought-provoking read.

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The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s taken me a day or so to get round to writing the review for this book. Not so much because I’ve struggled with the review more that I’ve found the lessons of the book running over me in waves. Which is one of the reasons that I gave the book five stars (not that my rating should matter, a Pulitzer prize tells you a lot about a book).

There are other reasons why I gave this book five stars, not least among which is the vivd characterisations within the book. The author clearly spent a large period of time living with these people and making a concerted effort to understand them. He doesn’t slap them into boxes or shy away from the fact sometimes he can’t unravel them completely. this leads to vivid and real people who are sensitively portrayed. Even better the author clearly cares for the people he documents, they’re doing something tough and he gives them due credit for such. His examination particularly of the management styles employed by the senior characters is fascinating and he rightly criticises where some of the characters have a blind spot. As the project moves on the author brings the different elements of the environment together in a seamless way so you feel you understand why things are happening as they do. That’s not simple for a complex project such as the one undertaken in the book.

if I’m critical it’s really only that some of the technology terminology is explained in laymen’s terms when as a technologist I didin’t need the hand-holding. that lead to some skimming of sections within the book. I’d have preferred a glossary of terms but really, I’m picking out a tiny issue for a small number of readers.

Particularly because I work in technology and because I’m old enough to remember Data General machines (even having used one fleetingly) this book has a lot of meaning for me. Filling in the blanks on a heap of stuff I was barely cognisant of at the time. I wonder if this review would be as applicable to someone younger or not into technology. However, if you are late thirties plus and a geek buy this book. Marvel at the heroic efforts of the protagonists and maybe spend a moment asking yourself if we’ve really moved on that much. You should thoroughly enjoy yourself along the journey.

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Pro Puppet by James Turnbull
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I was really looking forward to this book and sadly I can’t say I enjoyed it much. As a book it was a bland affair with a distinct worthiness to it through the prose style used which contained no discernable wit or humour to liven proceedings. The book equivalent of of overcooked vegetables.

So what was wrong? Three things stand out, at a base level there was something wrong in the presentation of long terminal dumps. Particularly frustrating was the repeated output of apt and yum. Surely anyone who works in operations or development for that matter can install software without this kind of handholding. It demeans the reader and just makes the book feel 100 pages too long. I also think that created the second issue at hand which was a lack of diagrams to explain the structure of the tool and its operation. It’s not that there are no diagrams, more that the diagrams tail off quickly and so more complex puppet configuration and the interactions between the components are left as an exercise for the reader. What exacerbates that issue is the long strings of terminal output that demonstrate the success or otherwise of the tool. Why did it do that? Show me visually how this was missing rather than stumbling through the text trying to locate the point in the run the authors refer to. Finally and I think most crushingly I have no idea why this book is called Pro Puppet. If I see the word Pro I’m expecting an in depth discussion of the tool’s philosophical underpinnings and it’s sweet and rough spots. There was none of that. The tutorial in the book was welcome but again why in a Pro book was there this tutorial? the latter chapters do have some discussion of tools like MCollective but without sufficient detail to really be useful.

The book has already dated but as I wouldn’t recommend buying it anyway it seems churlish to point that out. Stay away.

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Lies Of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Normally I don’t read books like this as my suspicion of fantasy as a genre is pretty deep. However the description and weirdly the foreword drew me in. Having read some reasonably downbeat books beforehand this book was exactly the antidote I was looking for. The tale had some swashbuckle, the ending was appropriate and the story moved well enough to be described as a page turner.

There’s a lot of other things to like in this book too. The storyline feels a lot like something from Hustle/Ocean’s 11 etc. so if you like a crime caper you’ll enjoy this. The characters are well fleshed out in the main with some minor exceptions. The other thing to say here is that the world the characters inhabit is well fleshed out too. The prose style is easy and while there’s an element of different language at play it’s not stifling.

In terms of criticism I’d say that some of the characters are quite clearly props for the other characters to use/dispose of as necessary. Certainly the Sanza twins fell into this category, which was a pity because it telegraphed their role in the story. Also some of the motivations felt slightly facile at times, again that made the plot less twisty than it might have been.

Having said that I’m looking forward to more from this author and can happily recommend this book.

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The Visible Ops Handbook: Starting ITIL in 4 Practical Steps by Kevin Behr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When i got this book I was pretty nonplussed. However now I’ve finished it I can tell you it’s worth a dozen larger books of the same ilk. It’s four step process is simply laid out, clear and well thought. It’s the very off-putting size of this book that also makes it great, the authors haven’t belaboured each step and their quotes section is pretty fascinating.

If I’m going to criticise there are two things to point out. The first is that some of the practices haven’t lasted so well. So there’s a distinct feel in here that developers shouldn’t be part of the operations process. But that clearly wouldn’t serve an established devops shop well. The second is that wierdly for a book that’s about 100 pages long sections of content are repeated in the appendices so you get the feeling much of the early chapters is re-tread.

Overall, buy it, appreciate it, adapt it to your environment. You’ll be better off if you can apply the lessons of this book.

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