The Hundred Days - Patrick O'Brian

April 16, 2007, 12:00 am

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The Yellow Admiral - Patrick O'Brian

April 3, 2007, 12:00 am

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Voyage of the Surprise from HMS Surprise complete

April 3, 2007, 12:00 am

The ultimately unsatisified errand to the East Indies and Jack's first voyage as captain of the HMS Surprise is now mapped. This voyage was a difficult one with a great deal of agonizing over the course of the ship from Rio round the cape, the path around Madagascar and the position of Venus and it's signficance for Testudo Aubreii (amongst others). As always, if you have any suggestions on these or any other points, please contact me.

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I Robot - Isaac Asimov (Audio Book)

March 29, 2007, 12:00 am

No doubt a brilliant piece of science fiction in the 50s, this classic didn't really fullfill my expectations.

The stories describing the robotic troubleshooters, Donovan and Powell, I found pretty annoying. I didn't like the characters much, and I didn't like the way that the robots reacted to the inevitable conflicts of interest.

I did, however, like the last story. Benevolent and exponentially more intelligent super AIs running the planet to achieve their own abstract and inscrutable ideal for the human condition. I think mostly because it focused on the robot AIs as abstract concepts, rather than the characters interacting with them directly.

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The Commodore - Patrick O'Brian

March 22, 2007, 12:00 am

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