Masters of Doom by David Kushner
I still remember the first time I got a copy of Wolfenstein 3D on floppy disk. From that day on for the next few years and whilst Doom was rearing its head around the shareware world it was constantly being played, well that and SimCity. Hours were spent building custom levels and then further hours spent playing death match with friends. Whilst Doom may be in the title of this book, for me Wolfenstein 3D had a far greater and longer lasting impact and this book does a great job of explaining it’s history and what happened in the post Doom days.
4 stars
Surveillance State by Josh Chin and Liza Lin
If you truly want an explanation of how the world ends, well the internet at least, this is it. Don't bother with The Age of Surveillance Capitalism or even Click Here to Kill Everybody if you truly want to see the potential (and ever creeping) direction of Western Internet and what we deem free then this is it.
5 stars
The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett
Inspired by the absolutely reasonable made for TV movie adoption I thought I'd actually read the original, somewhat the other way round than normal for me but definitely worth it. Definitely better than the movie but that not much to boast about however if ever James Bond went to SPECTRE, Alex Wolff would be a pretty good approximation for who he’d become.
4 stars
Das Reich by Max Hastings
More “der resistance” rather than “Das Reich” as most people comment on but that doesn’t take away from the history covered in this book. At times often difficult reading but seemingly thoroughly researched…
Not so much a definite history of Das Reich but more a quick overview in some parts and then very in-depth in others. You could say this is mentioned on the back of the book but it’s certainly not on the cover. However what Max covers with their escapades in France doesn’t pull any punches.
4 stars
The Loop by Jacob Ward
Scratching the surface of an infinite number of issues we will be approaching ever quicker over the coming years. Boundaries are being pushed every day yet lawmakers and humans are always seemingly two steps behind. As and when we’ll catch-up I have no idea. Given the launches at its simplest of mid journey, stable diffusion and chatGPT this year this book is already two steps behind. Let alone what’s been technically released in the last few years since it was published.
4 stars
Build by Tony Fadell
You might say, yet another “how to build / scale” book because they seem to be very hot these days but this one actually hits the mark unlike a lot of others. Probably the best of its kind since I read The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky.
4.5 stars