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Ev

evanh@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 1 year, 2 months ago

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Unauthorized Bread (2019, Head of Zeus) 4 stars

New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow's Unauthorized Bread -- a novella about immigration, the …

Review of 'Radicalized' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Great collection of short stories. I like the last one (Masque of the Red Death) best, it was the most pointed and vicious and felt like it was a bit of catharsis on Doctorow's part. The main character in the first (Unauthorized Bread) was a little too much of an author proxy to be believable but I appreciated the world building. It's a solid dystopian read with left wing leanings, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Makers (2009) 3 stars

Makers is a novel by Canadian-British science fiction author Cory Doctorow released in October 2009. …

Review of 'Makers' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A mostly feel good (if you're an EFF supporting technoutopian) very near future fantasy about maker culture and its intersection with big business. Tails off towards the end, and has a lot of ideas that aren't fully fleshed out. Not Doctorow's best, and not an essential read but enjoyable if you're in the target demographic.

Review of 'The Ethical Design handbook' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I wanted to like this book, I'm currently working on a software product with a strong ethical component so am really interested in the area, but this has been a bit of a let down.

My main complaint is that the structure of this book and writing style both need a lot of work, it feels like an early draft and I wonder whether this has gone through an editor. Some sections start on one area or topic and veer off wildly into semi-related ideas without really resolving the original point or coming to a satisfactory conclusion about what was presented.

Some of the ideas presented are interesting and warrant further research, but overall I found this is a pretty superficial introduction. Its not a particularly difficult read, but I dont think I can recommend it.