Category: Bookshelf

Okay, in my defense, I don’t read a lot of books. I read a lot of magazines and I read a lot of stuff on the web, but for the most part the only books I read are programming books and the like.

Even so, I do feel kind of stupid doing the first update to this page in ages and discovering that the last thing I read was a Net Force novel. But hey, I kind of like them and I can finish them in a week or less which gives me more time for other geeky shit… like updating my website with self defacing remarks!

Anyhow, CyberNation is a pretty tame episode in the Net Force series. It ranks higher than Night Moves, but lower than Point of Impact which I’m tempted to read again at some point. The whole storyline this time around seems pretty formulaic, and I’m pretty sure that Steve Whatsisname, the ghostwriter, is running out of ideas now. I mean, every ten pages it’s some ludicrous VR scenario which although a nice idea five books ago, is starting to wear pretty thin on the ground now.

I dunno, maybe in producing Point of Impact he set the bar higher than he expected. I can recomend this book to folk who’ve read the previous ones, though – it brings some characters back to the fore, like General Howard, for instance. On the whole it’s a run of the mill example of the great concept that makes the foundations for the series.

Proof, if it was needed, that you cant please all of the people all of the time and that there’s not much point in trying to, either.

Veen’s book falls between two stools – those just starting out may find his passion for standards a little disconcerting. While veterans like myself will find that he barely scratches the surface of the processes involved in producing a standards compliant design.

I wouldn’t have minded a chapter on dealing with clients and the logistics of playing the chess-like games that ensue when a client thinks they know better than the professional designer they’re employing. Just like the manufactured pop stars of today who are trained to deal with the media, a fresh young developer needs to know how to handle themselves in a client facing situation. Failing to cover this important subject is a bit of a missed opportunity and although dry, it’s a just as important in delivering a design as CSS.

I’ll probably pass this book on to someone who is just starting out, as it does carry a shed load of common sense that many of todays bright-eyed wannabe designers seem to lack. Like why you shouldn’t copy the fame-whore design sites and stick a 200K image laboriously crafted with Photoshop filters on the front end of your site.

When it comes to site design, Veen seems to deal more with the logical workings than the aesthetics, something I found disappointing as I’d been expecting the “Art” of the title to compliment the “Science”.

It doesn’t take someone who’s grossly pedantic to spot that there are a few typos and missing words in the book, but I wouldn’t say it detracts from what is a very readable tome.

To buy this book from Amazon UK – click here.

I’m not entirely sure how they do it, but the Tom Clancy endorsed Net Force books seem to be getting better and better. This, to my mind, is the cream of the crop – gone are the tedious explanations about the “mysterious man who lives in isolation with the mountain goat who painstakingly builds one weapon every six months before meditating for a similar duration” every time someone pulls out a gun!

They’ve finally decided that for us to keep reading for a 5th book, we’re obviously interested in the great characters and fantastic plots the Net Force series has to offer rather than an encyclopaedic knowledge of weapons and covert tactics. The ghost writer seems to have decided we’re an intelligent bunch too, as the plot of Point of Impact is fantastic and genuinely keeps you enthralled throughout.

I read the entire book on a flight from London to LA – even when my girlfriend convinced me that I should really get some sleep, I could only tear myself away for half an hour before jumping right back in. It was made all the more fascinating by the fact that the bulk of the story is set in LA – reaching the final pages of the book as we swept over the city to LAX was a total treat!

There aren’t many books that can pick you up at the start of an eleven hour flight and carry you on a fantastic journey all the way to the end, but this one managed it with some degree of ease.

And the plot? It’s so good I recommend you to buy it and find out for yourself!

To buy this book from Amazon UK – click here.