Books - Review

Pizza Deliverator, swordsman and computer hacker Hiro, together with his young friend Y.T. on her 'plank', have to save the (futuristic techno but grungy) world from some evil bloke who has a big raft.

Present from Ben-e-Boy. Pretty good actually, although there was more history of religion and language development than I really wanted. But this was interspersed with enough action stuff to keep it all moving very nicely thank you. Nice one Benny!

Complex plot jumping back and forth between WWII and present day following Bletchley Park code-breakers, Pacific beach-storming marines, Japanese engineers and modern US hi-tech business people. All linked by code-breaking/cryptography type things and gold.

Excellent, really enjoyed it, although need to read it closely due to tangled and interweaving plot lines. Just about managed though, in spite of more of less taking a break of one week during golf week with JEJ when was mostly too tired to concentrate or too busy playing backgammon, cards, monopoly. Has a whole Appendix on how one particular code works but no need to read that. Phew!

Set in a nearish-future a billionaire Texan has built a giant gun to fire shells of sulphur into the atmosphere - the resulting particles intended to create a shield against the sunlight and reduce global warming. However there are also global pressure groups who are very anti-geoengineering. Has a great scene at the beginning where the Dutch queen (who is a kind of climate ambassador) lands her own private jet on a herd of vicious wild pigs and crashes the plane.

Good story, very entertaining.