Peter Hamilton

I noticed that I forgot to mention Peter Hamilton's books, which is shame because I really liked reading those.

The Commonwealth Saga: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.

In kinda the same universe are the first tweo books the Void Trilogy: The Dreaming Void and The Temporal Void.

The story unfolds in distant future where all people sync their mind and can be relifed and the old age can be reversed, which makes them immortal. The term for murder is bodyloss and is still investigated rigorously, which is what special investigator Paula Mayo does. Her investigation starts quite simple then grows and grows; it is quite interesting to read.

The Void trilogy is set even more in the future and show the tribulations of the Dreamers; people that can connect with the Void in the middle of the galaxy. They see the life of humans that managed to reach the Void long time ago and a whole new religion was spawned out of it.

The Kingkiller Chronicle

Finished read Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear; I liked it a lot. The story is disjoint, unpredictable and messy; same is life. It also creates a world that is original and believable; magic as science is great plot device.

The Trade of Queens

Finished The Trade of Queens couple of weeks ago. My only complaint is that there were too many repetitions, when different characters explain same thing to each other; hence I would rate it not on par of the previous ones (while still quite enjoyable).

It is the last book of Stross' Merchant Princes series. It is nice final of the series although there are plenty of unanswered questions, so it is sufficiently open ended and it could have sequels.

I really liked the series and its examination of what the real medieval life is; and why our society managed to develop to this stage of relative abundance. I also liked the juxtaposition of just moving goods and technology transfer for clan's revenue. I definitely subscribe for tech transfer, as the upside potential is limitless and we tend to forget how long it took to come up with those everyday simple inventions that surround us (for instance the ubiquious zipper too more then 20 years to perfect). Also you actually need machines to mass produce all those items and etc and etc, so if you go to some backward parallel world and you can be next Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Alexander Fleming and etc; you are going to amass enormous fortune when elevating all the boats. It something that can't be achieved by just trading goods.

Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch was huge disappointment to me. The "missions" were interesting, the tie in using mental institution/brothel thing was pointless and a joy killer. I would have been more satisfied with the movie of them just playing a game (as it is done in "Assault Girls" or "Serial Experiments Lain").

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of LIfe

Hewh! Finally finished The Snowball. I liked it, it is a actual biography of Warren Buffet life (not just business biography). It was interesting to read about his early life and track all relationships that shaped his personality.

Black Swan

Black Swan was really interesting. You get into the world of a young aspiring ballerina, the training and the stress involved in search of perfection. Straight from the opening you get a hint that things are not quite the way you see them, and as the movie progresses you witness her deepening schizophrenia. Until what is real and what not completely blurs and her world completely falls apart. As usual Natalie Portman was simply amazing.

The Adjustment Bureau

"The Adjustment Bureau" was quite interesting. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt had great on screen chemistry; it was fun watching them. The whole the dialog with the agents about "The Plan" reminds me any random conversation in any random big corporation about "The Policy". It is funny how people try to avoid to say "I don't know" (especially when doing it doesn't make any sense). Otherwise agent Thompson is pretty much Lucifer like character; he lies, extorts and uses all dirty tricks to try to accomplish his task; in the end he predictably fails.