DWD's Reviews

Published by CreateSpace in 2012. The action continues in Book 3 of the Day Eight Series. In The Spiritual Singularity the tech company Day Eight is moving forward with their plans to use computerized simulated humans ("simulants") to affect events in the real world in a very dramatic way. Political assassinations, dramatic leap forwards in technology and a physical link between the computer simulant Ezra and the President of the United States make computer programmer Trevor Leighton very worried for the future of humanity itself. Leighton is working as best he can to save himself and possibly even the whole world even though he is running out of money, running out of time and running out of options. The Spiritual Singularity is full of rich, meaty themes that have been discussed in science fiction and fantasy for decades. In the Lord of the Rings series,Tolkien looks into the idea of what unlimited power does to a human being. In the original Star Trek series, Capt

Published in 2012 by CreateSpace Yesterday, I posted a review of Book 1 of this series ( The Reborn ) and I wrote a lengthy rave review. I am not going to go into all of that here. Suffice it to say, I really liked Book 1. Of Mice and Hitmen is where the series really hits its stride. In Book 1, programmer Trevor Leighton discovers that his employer, a tech firm called Day Eight, has created simulated human life in a computer. Not just Artificial Intelligence, but simulated life write down to the cellular level.  These computerized people are called simulants. Trevor has already met one fairly simple version of the simulant program, a simulant 1.0 if you will. In Book 2 he meets Ezra, the most updated version of the simulant program. She lives in an accelerated world, programmed to go faster so that she can complete projects in the real world quicker. Her name is Ezra, which is an odd name for a female, but it means "helper" in Hebrew and she is being used to work o

Published in 2012 by CreateSpace So, I have on the table next to me three books by Ray Mazza . These books make up The Day Eight Series. They are self-published and most experienced readers know that a great number of the self-published are fair to middling and I am usually tempted to grade them on a curve, the thought process being, " Well, it's pretty good considering it's a do-it-yourself job and she did it all herself." This is much the same thought process I have when I do handyman work around the house and I proudly show it off to my wife - it's pretty good but certainly not professional. I let these three books sit on my to-be-read pile for about a month. Why? I was not in the mood for, "Well, it's pretty good, considering..." So, I pick up book one and about 15 pages in I am thinking, "Where is he going with this?" I read the back cover a couple of times and decided to give it a few more pages. Where are the human simul

Published by AudioGo in 2012  Read by Joe Barrett  Duration: 6 hours, 6 minutes. This is the first book I have read (or for that matter even seen) in the Sam McCain series. Normally, I would not recommend jumping in on the ninth book in a series, but it is a testament to the skill of the author, Ed Gorman, that I was able listen to Bad Moon Rising and join right in and not feel lost at all. The titles in the series all come from music from the general time that the book is set in.  It is late August 1968. It is hot in Black River Falls, Iowa. The book starts with Sam McCain at a party watching the violence of the Democratic National Convention. Hippies are on TV and hippies are in Black River Falls. They are a source of controversy as their free love lifestyle, long hair and drug usage rankle a lot of people in small town Iowa. They live on an old farm with a history of tragedy and that history continues as the daughter of the local millionaire is found dead in a barn on the

Published by Regnery in 2012 When I told two of my Catholic friends (who do not know each other) that I was reading a book about economics written by a Catholic priest, both reacted with a hearty laugh. Then, both commented about the political leanings of the priest, assuming that the priest would be quite liberal. Sadly, they were very surprised when I described some of the Rev. Sirico's thoughts. Why sadly? It is sad that many people (not just Catholic priests) do not grasp the simple relationship between one's standing before God and one's rights - God has made you an individual and you are endowed with certain rights - as an individual. People are creative (as is the Creator), are intended for some sort of work and should have the freedom to find the work that pleases them and reap the benefit from what they have sown. Reverend Robert Sirico Sirico begins by telling his personal story - how he went from being a well-connected ultra-liberal to being a conser

  A Clever Twist on the Typical Western. Published by Mind Wings Audio. Read by Emily Durante. Duration: 1 hour, 3 minutes This short story is a clever twist on the typical western story. Many westerns have the theme of the banker, or other powerful businessman exploiting the townspeople for his own nefarious purposes only to have the local drifter come in and confront him and eventually save the day. A Salvationist from the 1880s Nancy Cole Silverman has a similar situation with the most powerful man in Bisbee, Arizona, a mining boom town, exploiting the local miners and young women by gobbling up their claims (in the case of the miners) or coercing them into becoming prostitutes in his brothel (in the case of the young women). The hero is not a cowboy or a gunfighter.  Instead, she is a bumbling, well-intentioned and brave rookie evangelist (Salvationist) named Fannie Johnston who has come to town with the Salvation Army as part of a team sent to evangelize to this rowdy

Delivers what it promises Published by Creative Content Ltd in 2011. Narrated by Lorelei King Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes Creative Content has a whole series of short audiobooks and kindle books in its "The Lowdown" series. The main feature of the series is that they are short (a little more than an hour or about 35 "pages" on the Kindle) and give the reader a quick look at a topic. In this case, the topic is the origin of the Vietnam War. Note, this is not a history of the entire war, but if you ever wondered just how the United States got involved in the Vietnam War, this nifty little history will do the job just fine. President Lyndon Johnson signs the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in August of 1964 Anderson roots his history in the aftermath of World War II. There are two major factors at play. The first is the desire of the French to re-establish their pre-war colonial empire and re-assert themselves as a major player on the world scene despite their