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Paperback Writer
Having got some positive noises from people I have made a paperback version of my first novella Exodus: Mike's Thread available using Createspace which is Amazon's print on demand book printer. It is available direct from Createspace or from Amazon variants. The createspace link is which is probably best if you are a US resident. If you are not in the US it will be faster and cheaper to get it from your local Amazon site. In the UK this is I have a very small number of review copies that I've bought myself to give away. If you would like one then please let me know and tell me why you want to review it and where you will publish that review. Note that if you have a kindle there will be another chance to get a free copy of…
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Little Brother by Cory Doctorow [Book Review]
;Little Brother by Cory Doctorow My rating: 4 of 5 stars I've been following Cory Doctorow for a while. Little Brother has been sitting on my shelves waiting to make it to the top of the list. I'm very happy that it finally made it to the top of the reading pile. It was a quick and easy read that I enjoyed. The premise is that the terrorists have won, because the security state that they have spawned has stolen away all our freedoms. (more…)
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Next Steps
I've had a busy couple of weeks. First I had an Open University exam for the end of MST121 (Using Mathematics). The day after that I was presenting (and facilitating a couple of sessions) at our Directorate away day. The following day I spent 4 hours with the Government Digital Service, which was very interesting. GDS is a very interesting environment, it has a buzz about it that is very different from your normal central government department. I think it is something to do with the very high geek quotient present. In the space of two desks one guy was in a tweed suit with a (proper) bow tie and another was in t-shirt and shorts. There was also a lot of lego about. I actually quite liked the use of lego minifigures on their Agile tracker board. Each dev…
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Free Future Thriller on Kindle
Yes, I'm doing another giveaway of my first novella, Exodus: Mike's Thread which is a thrilling tale of a military conspiracy to prevent a mad US President from launching a nuclear Here's the blurb "World War Z meets 24 in Book Form!" - reviewer An action packed military sci-fi novella centring around an army officer telling the story of a military coup occasioned by a religious US president who has maniacal plans for the country's nuclear weapons. Set in the mid 21st Century. People that vote are alienating themselves from science, and voting for the more religious right candidates. This has lead to some strange and unhelpful policies being adopted. As this trend continues some of the more rational and evidence based in government start to look for ways to reverse the trend. When the US President loses it and…
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New Model Army by Adam Roberts
It has a Fab Concept. However it doesn't quite work. Some of it is too heavy handed and not well enough researched to be credible. I bought this book because I liked the premise, a change in the nature of warfare brought about by better information available to the whole army through a wiki style network. It has promise for some very interesting stories, but the author instead wrote a political polemic based on very old fashioned stereotypes and without bothering to do his research. Accepting that our narrator is probably unreliable, given he is definitely going insane, and the twist that happens at the end (no spoilers) it is clear that we cannot rely on him. However there are bits of his prior experience with the British Army that just don't work for me (having been in the TA…