Merry Christmas

I finally head for the mountains and a relaxing Christmas. 12 days snowboarding, reading and having fun with friends sounds not too bad!

Merry Christmas everyone! ....and behave New Years Eve ;-)

Very good and FREE ebook: Sci-Fi/Action-Thriller!!!

I've got to share this Christmas gift :-) One of my favourite authors, Michael R. Hicks, will give away his "Season of the Harvest" for free! If you haven't read anything by this author earlier, this is the time to get one of his very best novels! The genre is a mix of Sci-Fi/Fantasy & Thriller/Action.

Click HERE to read my review of the novel. I gave it 5 of 5 stars!

The offer is only valid December 21.st through 23.rd, so you have to decide quickly :-) You'll find the e-book on Amazon!

Happy read!

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Review - "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

This was actually something as rare as a cool book! I'm not a "gamer", but this novel was really for me after all! Who could imagine.. I just loved it, and read it in just 2 days.

A bit about the book

"Ready Player One" takes place in the nearest future. The world has changed to a far worse place to stay, but luckily there is the enormous virtual game called Oasis. Here humans can log in to play, go to school, earn money and even meet other peoples avatar. Oasis substitutes real life, and it is in this virtual world people socialize and live their preferred lives.

For Wade Watts, the novel's main character, Oasis is a far better place to spend time than in his aunt's trailer in a trailer park stack several stories high. His family is dead, and it's only because Wade can supply his aunt with some money earned in Oasis that she lets him stay - in a little cupboard on a mattress..

Together with millions of other people on earth, Wade dreams about finding the three keys hidden somewhere in the enormous Oasis universe. The founder of the virtual game, James Halliday, is now dead. He has left his whole fortune to the fortunate one who can solve the puzzle, find the keys and open the final Oasis gate. The challenge is to find these keys, and stay alive! Because even though your identity in Oasis is thoroughly hidden, dangerous things happen around Wade and his fellow contestants.

My evaluation

Here are no spoilers! The novel was SO well written, that it would be a shame to reveal the storyline. It is not as expected - that is all I have to say :-) Again, this is really a cool story! It is packed with action, puzzles, nerd romance and nostalgia from The Eighties. And it is this heavy 80s nostalgia that really captures me. I worked for IBM from 85-92, and have known the PC since its very first beginning. I remember games played on huge floppy discs with 128k RAM. And the novel picks it all up.

This super energetic cyber quest will give any data nerd the feeling of being the authors twin soul. I feel so at home with the puzzles about 80s music, movies and actors. To read this book was a great joy! A must-read for data nerds and lovers of the 80s !!!

Rating

of 5

I have been really lucky with picking great books lately !!! :-)

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Crown; First Edition edition (August 16, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030788743X
ISBN-13: 978-0307887436

Pic of the day: Lovely sunset from the beach just accross the road from our house

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GREAT Amazon customer service !!!

I am extremely impressed by Amazon! After my Kindle died Sunday (the screen just froze on me) I called their customer service for help. "No worries - we'll send you a new one today, expected delivery date December 16 at the latest!" Right... I didn't quite believe what I heard... I'm not the only one getting packages delivered in December...

But - yesterday, 5 days after my telephone call - December 16 - I got my new Kindle Keyboard!! And bear in mind, I do NOT live in Norway's capital with the main post office next door. I live deep in a fjord in western Norway..!

This is great service !!!

Christmas can come :-) The only job I have to do is a simple copy/paste between my PC and my new Kindle, and I'm good to go!

You hear a lot of bad customer service everywhere, so I thought it was just right to praise Amazon. This has been a very pleasant experience for sure!

Rating?

of 5, and a BIG smile :-)

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Review - "The Reality Dysfunction" by Peter F. Hamilton

Genre: Sci-Fi

A one word review: WOW! Just had to :-)

A bit about the book

This is the first book in Hamilton's "The Night's Dawn" trilogy. In AD 2600 the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems. And throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace. A true golden age is within our grasp.

But now something has gone catastrophically wrong. On the primitive colony planet Lalonde a renegade criminal's chance encounter with an utterly alien entity unleashes the most primal of all human  fears. An extinct race which inhabited the galaxy aeons ago called the phenomenon "The Reality Dysfunction." It is the nightmare which has prowled beside man since the beginning of history.

My evaluation

This is a brick! Close to 1300 pages in total, and it sure is sci-fi! But a modern classic sci-fi in a way that captivates you. This is an extraordinary feat of storytelling on a truly epic scale. You either love it, or you hate it. What is for certain, I will start the next book in the series this evening! 

The first 200 pages is, I must admit, difficult to absorb. Hamilton builds a broad specter of characters, planets and subplots simultaneously. These pages you need to read in one go. It is easy to loose control over who is where and why. But as the story develops, everything fits perfectly together and all the different pieces have their own purpose of doing that. 

I cannot say that Hamilton is a wordsmith. Sometimes he spends a lot of words describing details that seems on the side of the main storyline and it can be a bit heavy here and there, but the book is like an exquisite dish full of different spices and ingredients. Everything is necessary to give you the full fantastic flavour of it. The story has a tremendous depth to it - neural implants linking whole societies, living space ships, the dead souls possessing the living and waging inter galactic war.......where did he think all of that up? And with truly likeable and interesting main characters?

It is just a great start of a trilogy, and I cannot wait continuing this space opera :-)

My rating

of 5

Paperback: 1256 pages
Publisher: Orbit; Reprint edition (October 8, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316021806
ISBN-13: 978-0316021807
 

 Pic of the day: One truly lazy kangaroo I met outside Perth :-)

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A sad day - my Kindle died..

Panic attack this morning. The screen on my Kindle 3 (Keyboard) started dying - or, more correct - freezing up. Now 3/4 of the screen is not usable for reading... in other words, my Kindle isn't usable at all. With Christmas just around the corner (favourite reading holiday) and the fact that I live not very centrally in Norway, to put it mildly, I was on the phone with Amazon customer service at once! H - E - L - P !!!

What a fantastic service !!!

In 15 minutes I got confirmation to get another Kindle 3 for free, I got a pre-paid shipping label for the return of the non-functional one, the new Kindle was sent as we spoke on the phone and I got a confirmation on 5 - FIVE - days delivery time. In December! To "outback" Norway! If this really works, I will ble thoroughly impressed! Even my panic faded (somewhat.. :-) 

And no - I wasn't tempted to swap my Kindle Keyboard with any of the new gadgets! That said, it's only the Kindle 4 Mini which is available for us Europeans. My boyfriend has an American Amazon account, but touch screens are not for me even if I can get one. A new Kindle Keyboard is what I want! And that is what I get! Next week. Hopefully....

My Kindle isn't a matter of life or death - it's much more important than that !!!

My non-working Kindle Keyboard - Rest In Peace...

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Hobby sharing

In September I decided to once a month share one of my other hobbies with you - photography. For December I have chosen B&W - a wading Black Winged Stilt.

Enjoy :-)

 The pictures are taken in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, on one of our photo safaris to southern Africa.

Still alive !!!

Rumors of my death is somewhat exaggerated, but I do have been "gone" for over a month... Life suddenly turned out more busy than both expected and wanted, putting me at work for 3 weeks in Asia and 1 week in USA. No time for fun reading, just business. With December coming up I see my reading hours will still be few, but at least now I can concentrate on my Kindle content again :-)

I have read two books since my last blog post, but the reviews from these are missing. I have chosen not to write them. I may have been a bit too busy in my head to appreciate "Shades of Luz" and "Instrument of Evil", but they didn't engage me at all. One of them I couldn't finish, and the other I waited and waited for action - but nothing happened. Of 5 possible stars, they get 1 and 2. Again, it may very well be my own lack of concentration... and for that I am sorry. But I also have to be honest, otherwise reviewing is futile.

I am, however, ready to start a new book - "Missing Daughter, Shattered Family" by Liz Strange. Just have to finish Peter F. Hamilton's "The Neutronium Alchemist" first.

Happy December everyone, and remember - a Kindle is a great Christmas present :-))

Busy, but I did see a Koala in Perth :-)

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