Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon: Book Review

New York, 9/11, Billionaire, Programmers, Hackers, CIA, Private Investigators, what do you get when you combine all these things together; a fast paced carefully articulated novel by one of the greatest writers of all time. Yes, I’m talking about Bleeding edge by Thomas Pynchon. The books revolves around Maxine Tarnow a mother and fraud investigator who takes on a job which will take her to a path of unprecedented risks and doubts. The company in question is Hashslingrz, a computer security firm run by Gabriel Ice. The story just unfolds from here introducing new characters in almost every second page. With the addition of new characters comes new mysteries to the story it either changes or alters everyones perception of what is going on.
On thing that stands out is the Pynchon’s care for his characters, he writes as if they are his friends and family members. Building great characters in a novel is one thing but taking care of your characters is one of things that make a good novel to a great one. The book is mostly of telling you of a story rather that showing you scenes with heavy description that is one the reasons why the book is not too long but also has incomparable plot.
Even though there are topics like 9/11 and murders Pynchon still manages to put in some humor and puns. When you read the book it will feel like Pynchon is reading in your mind because only few people has range in language like the author. This book is sharp, witty and symphonic.

Black Leopard Red Wolf By Marlon James

The hype around Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James was so much that you can not overlook it. Critics compared the book with the works of George R.R. Martin and J. R. R. Tolkien. Some people also said it is the African Game of Thrones which I don’t agree with because it is much more than that. All these talks were result of Marlon James’ previous book A Brief History of Seven Killings winning the Man Booker Prize. Describing this book is a little hard because there are so many things going on but let’s try to summarize in a few sentences.

Tracker is known for his nose for finding people whether they are dead, alive or living in the land walked only by the dead. He can find the person and return them to whoever has paid the coins. Tracker gets a job he can’t refuse partly because the amount of coins offered.  A shape shifting leopard convinces Tracker to team up to reunite the boy with the mother. Leopard and Tracker soon realizes this task is not going to be easy as there are great forces that wants to keep the boy hidden.  In this journey they travel to places that are bizarre, follow the path that are terrifying.

The story deals with the power of truth and lies and how they change the perspective of individuals as well as of community. African mythology also plays a huge role in the book. It has leopards, witches, anti-witches, people who can change the reality. On of things that makes the book great is the way Marlon James describes scenes, his language is so fluid but also complex. The characters are very appealing even if they are evil.  The book also contains physical and mental gruesome violence and sexual violence.
If you like artistic writing and are in for dense epic fantasy, this is a must read.

Top 10 Sci-fi Books

This is a list of top ten Sci-fi books that I’ve read and enjoyed. The list includes books based on what I’ve read and liked. You may find that there are very few classics books. I’ve excluded them as you may be tired of seeing the same books on all the lists.  This is not the most comprehensive list ever but you can never go wrong with any of the books mentioned.

10. The Sirens Of Titan By Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is known for his dark humor and wit. The books deals with topics like human history and free will. The richest man on future Earth Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to Mars, but he is unaware of the consequences of this journey. He’ll become part of a Martian invasion. 

9. Stories of Your Life and Others By Ted Chiang

If you’ve watched the movie Arrival, it’s based on this short story by Ted Chiang. The short story collection is probably the best collection you can find in Sci-fi genre. Ted Chiang is known for his imagination and telling a compelling story.  The books contains stories based on topics like intelligence, automation, humor and alien contact.

8. The Three Body Problem By Liu Cixin

A distant civilization is trying to pause the growth of human frontier science so they can invade Earth. This is a hard Sci-fi book by the award winning author Liu Cixin. The book is the first installment of Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy.  Liu Cixin knows how to handle topics like science and communism but still do not lack the action and characterization.

7. Dune By Frank Herbert

Dune is one of the three classics book in list. Set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides , whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. The story explores the multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion.

6. Foundation By Isaac Asimov

The mathematician Hari Seldon spends his life developing a theory of psychohistory, a new and effective mathematical sociology. Using statistical laws of mass action, it can predict the future of large populations. He foresees the imminent fall of the Empire Foundation series is regarded as the one of the best Sci-fi series ever written.

5. The City & The City By China Mieville

The book follows a wide-reaching murder investigation in two separate cities that occupy the same space simultaneously, combining weird fiction with the police procedural. The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights. 

4. Snow crash By Neal Stephenson

Much of the world’s territory has been carved up into sovereign enclaves, each run by its own big business franchise.  Mercenary armies compete for national defense contracts while private security guards preserve the peace in sovereign, gated housing developments. This is one of my favorite cyberpunk books of all time. Neal Stephenson tackles topics like philosophy, politics, cryptography and computer science in a way that is both entertaining and educational. 

3. Neuromancer By William Gibson 

The novel follows Henry Case, a washed-up computer hacker who is hired for one last job, which brings him up against a powerful artificial intelligence. The book won numerous award when it came out and is considered to be one of the best known works in cyberpunk genre. 

2. Anathem By Neal Stephenson

The novel address the theme of many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the philosophical debate between Platonic realism and nominalism. The book follows Fraa Erasmas a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside “saecular” world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals.

Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

1. Embassytown By China Mieville

In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak. Emabassytown is my favorite Sci-fi book of all time period. China Mieville’s imagination is engrossing in a way that will make come for more. He handles language and alien contact in a manner that is original. 

If you have any book recommendations please do suggest in the comments below. Don’t hesitate to recommend any work that is not widely known. I’ll update the list if I read something which deserves a place here, till then enjoy.

Looking at Breadth-First Search Through Algorithm

Breadth-first search is one of the simplest algorithms for searching a graph or traversing a tree. In BFS, you must traverse all the nodes in layer 1 before you move to the nodes in layer 2. That is,
   1. First move horizontally and visit all the nodes of the current layer
   2. Move to the next layer

BFS expands the frontier between the discovered and undiscovered vertices uniformly across the breadth of the frontier. To keep track of all the vertices which have been discovered BFS colors each vertex white, gray, or black. In the beginning all the vertices are white and as they get discovered turned into gray then into black. All vertices which are adjacent to black vertices have been discovered while the gray vertices might have some vertices which are undiscovered. BFS takes the input adjacency lists.

BFS algorithm constructs a breadth-first tree, initially containing only its root, which is the source vertex. Whenever a white vertex is discovered in the course of scanning the adjacency list of an already discovered vertex, the vertex and the edge are added to the tree.

Given a vertex G with vertex V and edge E with the source vertex s, the BFS systematically, explores the edges of G to discover every vertex that is reachable from the source vertex s.  BFS algorithm works on both directed and undirected graphs.

The total running time of BFS is O(V+E). Thus, breadth-first search runs in time linear in the size of the adjacency-list representation of graph G. The algorithm uses a first-in, first-out queue to manage the set of gray vertices.


BFS(G,s)
1. for each vertex u ∊ V[G] - {s}
2. do color[u] ⟵ White
3. d[u] ⟵ ∞
4. π[u] ⟵ NIL
5. color[s] ⟵ Gray
6. d[s] ⟵ 0
7. π[s] ⟵ NIL
8. Q ⟵ ∅
9. ENQUEUE(Q,s)
10.while Q ≠ ∅
11. do u ⟵ DEQUEUE(Q)
12. for each v ∊ Adj[u]
13. do if color[v] =  Gray
14. then color[v] ⟵ Gray
15.          d[v] ⟵ d[u] + 1
16.          π[v] ⟵ u
17.          ENQUEUE(Q,v)
18. color[u] ⟵ Black

Understanding Binary Search Trees With Algorithm

Binary Search Tree is as data structure which allow us to store the data in a binary tree. In a binary tree each node has a maximum of two children.  Binary search tree differs just a little bit from the binary tree.

1. Each node of the left subtree are less than the root node
2. Each node of the  right subtree are greater than the root  node
3. The subtree of each node also follow the above properties

The basic operations that can be performed on BST are Search, Insert, Delete, Minimum, Maximum, Predecessor, Successor.  The basic operations takes time O(logn) on average case and O(n) on worst case.

Searching

Searching in BST is fairly simple as we know that the left subtrees will contain only the elements that are less than root  element and the right subtree will contain the elements that are greater than root element. First we compare the given key with the root if the key matches we return the root, if the key is greater than root we recur to right subtree of the root node. otherwise recur for the left subtree

TREE-SEARCH(x,k)

1. if x = NIL or k = key[x]

2.    then return x

3. if k < key[x]

4.    then return TREE-SEARCH(left[x],k)

5.    else return TREE-SEARCH(right[x],k)

Insertion

To insert a new node in the tree, its key is first compared with that of the root. If its key is less than the root’s, it is then compared with the key of the root’s left child. If its key is greater, it is compared with the root’s right child. This process continues, until the new node is compared with a leaf node, and then it is added as this node’s right or left child, depending on its key: if the key is less than the leaf’s key, then it is inserted as the leaf’s left child, otherwise as the leaf’s right child.

TREE-INSERT(T,z)

1. y ⟵ NIL

2. x ⟵ root[T]

3. while x ≠ NIL

4. do y ⟵ x

5.    if key[z] < key[x]

6.       then x ⟵ left[x]

7.       else x ⟵ right[x]

8. p[z] ⟵ y

9. if y = NIL

10. then root[T] ⟵ z

11. else if key[z] < key[y]

12. then left[y] ⟵ z

13. else right[y] ⟵ z

Deletion

To delete a given node z from BST we need a pointer to z. The procedures follows like this: if z has no children we modify its parent to replace z with NIL as its child. If the node has one child, we splice out z by making a new link between its child and its parent. Finally, if the the node has two children, we splice out z’s successor y, which has no left child and replace z’s key and data with y’s key and data. 

TREE-DELETE(T,z)

1. if left[z] = NIL or right[z] = NIL

2. then y ⟵ z

3. else y ⟵ TREE-SUCCESSOR(z)

4. if left[y] ≠ NIL

5. then x ⟵ left[y]

6. else x ⟵ right[y]

7. if x ≠ NIL

8. then p[x] ⟵ p[y]

9. if p[y] = NIL

10. then root[T] ⟵ x

11. else if y = left[p[y]]

12.      then left[p[y]] ⟵ x

13.      else right[p[y]] ⟵ x

14. if y ≠ z

15. then key[z] ⟵ key[y]

16. return y

Successor

If all the keys are distinct, the successor of a node x is the node with the smallest key greater than key[x]. 

TREE-SUCCESSOR(x)

1. if right[x] ≠ NIL

2. then return TREE-MINIMUM(right[x])

3. y ⟵ p[x]

4. while y ≠ NIL and x = right[y]

5. do x ⟵ y

6.         y ⟵ p[y]

7. return y

Minimum

In BST the minimum can be found by following the left child from the root node until the NIL is encountered.

TREE-MINIMUM(x)

1. while left[x] ≠ NIL

2. x ⟵ left[x]

3. return x

Maximum

In BST the maximum can be found by following the right child from the root node until the NIL is encountered.

TREE-MAXIMUM(x)

1. while right[x] ≠ NIL

2. x ⟵ right[x]

3. return x

The Witcher Series: Blood of Elves

Blood of elves is the first novelization of the Witcher series. The two previous books are short story collections namely The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. Blood of elves starts with a dream or a memory if you like. The Empire of Nilfgaard attacks the Kingdom of Cintra and the queen is dead. The princess named Cirilla also known as Ciri somehow escape the massacre and found by the Witcher named Geralt of Rivia, also know as the white wolf. Geralt becomes the guardian of Ciri and takes her to a place where the other member of the Witcher family stays. Ciri learn to fight in the manner of the Witchers. 

Nilfgaardian are planning something which makes the King and the monarchs very upset. Elves and dwarves have formed a group called Scoia'tael (Squirrels) and are conducting acts of terror against humans.

The rulers want to end this blood bath once and for all, so they decides to start a war to regain Cintra and prevent the economy from going to ruins. In mist of all this falls Ciri whose life is in danger as she is the rightful heir to the Cintra. 

I thinks that’s enough to get you excited about the book. When it comes to writing and the execution it’s not like Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin or Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, but it is also not dull. One thing to keep in mind that the character build up is not very detailed because of the two books before that had almost covered that part. But you can still get the idea about the characters even if you haven’t read the two short story collections.

All things apart if you’re looking to get into fantasy fiction or waiting for the The Witcher Netflix series this is a great book to keep you entertained. 

The Expert System’s Brother by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Book Review

A world where people live in harmony with the nature and technology that are beyond them. Handry the main character lives with his sister in a place called Aro. They both live according to the rules of the community. Everyone in the society has to work to remain a part of the community. 

During a ritual Hendry accidentally does something which leads to him being cast out of the community. Being cast out like this brings many challenges for him like being hungry most of the time because nothing is digesting properly.

All this wandering leads to being friends with people who are dangerous but they are also the ones who have been cast out of the community and now have adopted to the new life. One of the friend from this group asks Hendry to go with him to a place which is a place only consists of people like them. Arriving in the place Handry got introduce to some ancient but advanced technology which he doesn’t understand. 

During all the hospitality he discovers something which involves his sister and Handry has to do something about this to save his sister. 

The expert system’s brother is a sci-fi book with some hint of fantasy fiction. The world building is not that grand might be because its a novella and you don’t have that much time for details. The characterization of the book is acceptable. Some of things are predictable but can be tolerated. Overall the book is a quick read and highly entertaining. 

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami: Book Review

“The little People will be watching.”

Just like all the Haruki Murakami’s books 1Q84 has also the characteristics of being surreal but in the same time dealing with realism. Haruki Murakami has the ability to imagine and portrait those imagination with words that justify the objective.

1Q84 follows the life from the perspective of two people Aomame and Tengo. Aomame is a fitness instructor and also works as an assassin with a friend of hers named Dowager. She has the ability to pin-point a location in the back of a person’s neck that can be used to kill a person that can seem like a heart attack. Dowager is a old women who has taken the responsibility upon herself to punish men who are abusing women whether through violence of sexual abuse.

Tengo is a Cram school mathematics teacher and also an aspiring fiction writer. Tengo and Aomame both are unknowingly doing something which may lead to risk of their life. Tengo is approached by his friend who is a big deal in publishing industry to rewrite a novel, which has been written by a seventeen year old girl named Fuka Eri. His friend wants the book to be recognized as well as win a new writer’s award. In doing so they tap into something they should not be a part of, something that is dangerous. 

The book is about the experience of the girl who has witnessed something very bizarre from the normal world. 

1Q84 is a very dense book with more than 1300 pages. The book is divided into three parts, making it a trilogy. But the writing is so good you won’t even notice how quickly you are going. Murakami has a way to telling even a simple thing in a manner which don’t feel boring. I would suggest the book to anyone who wants to read something surreal and imaginative. 

This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

In an interview Emily Suvada described her book This Mortal Coil in three words as Twisting, Technical and Explosive. I could not agree more. Boy! This book is fast and technical. YA with Sci-fi can be a bit overwhelming for the author’s to write because they have to keep in mind the technical aspects as well as make sure the voice of the narrator resonates as a young personality. Emily Suvada has done a phenomenal job explaining the technologies used and also maintained a voice that can be believable as a young protagonist. 

The book is set in the future America Where gene-hacking is possible and everyone has some form of biotech panel implanted at them at birth and it grows throughout their body as they grow. The advantage of this panel is that you can download an app or code to do almost everything whether its curing disease or changing your physical appearance with enhanced abilities.

The protagonist is a girl named Catarina Aggatta, who’s a daughter of world’s most brilliant gene-hacker. She is suffering from a disease called hypergenesis, which is a kind of like an allergy which prevents her from hacking her own panel and yes she’s also a gene-hacker.

So, this all has to be done because a horrific pandemic is overtaking the world, a virus that no one has a cure for. The virus attacks the host’s DNA until every cell in the person’s body explodes in a plume of red mist.

There’s also a corporation named Cartaxus which sells and distributes apps, but only to those people who have agreed to live inside a bunker made by them.

Catarina and her father like many people refused to live inside a corporate bunker so, they are living on the surface facing the virus. There’s a temporary cure for the virus which I’ll not tell you because I want you to experience the moment when you finds out.

The story unfolds from here to a very awakening, romantic and action packed journey. 

This second book This Cruel Design is already out and there’s a third book to be released soon. So, if you like Sci-fi and YA you can not go wrong with this book.

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson: Book Review

So the moon blows up. Only a few people have the audacity to put that big of an event in the first sentence of a book, one of those people is Neal Stephenson. He has a way to telling the story that grips you from the very few pages. 

Seveneves is a landmark achievement in sci-fi genre. And this is not the first time for Neal Stephenson. 

When the moon blows up the humanity is on the brink of an extinction, and they must do anything to save the human race. One idea is to create a space station and bring as many diverse set-of people as they can. 

In all of this there are politics of who should go to the station and what is the criteria for choosing the people. But humanity shows the strength and unity that was required to tackle this moral dilemma. 

Seveneves is a space opera with both the premises of dystopia as well as utopia. Anyone who likes space opera will love this work of art. 

The technologies as always have been explained in very detail for which Neal Stephenson is famous for. There is also one plot twist at the end which I’ll not discuss here. You’ll have to read the book for it. 

Renegades By Marissa Mayer

Plot: The Renegades are a group of syndicate with supernatural abilities. The main protagonists Nova hates renegades and she wants vengeance and she has a reason to do so. Her father is an important character as he’s the one responsible for most of the circumstances created. There are people who wants to kill him and there are people who wants to save him. In between of all this Nova meets a renegades Adrian who doesn’t believe in vengeance but trust that justice can be served to guilty party. Nova also has some allegiance with a very powerful person who has the ability to make an end to all this.

Renegades by Marissa Mayer deals with the issues of justice vs vengeance in a set of YA dystopian SFF. If supernatural and dystopian is your type this book has plenty to offer specially with its intriguing world. The supernatural part of the book has been well thought out its consistent throughout the book. Marissa Mayer knows when to pull back and when to release the full scope in the dystopian setting. The characters are well thought out, you can relate to their good and bad. The diversity in terms of characters has also been taken very elegantly. Some YA SFF lack the diversity in their characters but not Renegades. Being an YA book you got to have romance. The book has some hit and miss romance but don’t expect too much as this is the first book in the series and the character are still being build.

Overall Renegades is a good read specially if you like SFF plus the second book is out too. So go grab a copy and enjoy the journey.

Kraken By China Mieville

War, Religion, Apocalypse 
These are the main themes of the masterpiece by the highly imaginative China Mieville. This is a short review of the book Kraken by China Mieville. Billy Harrow is an employee in a museum, one day during the tour he finds something unsettling. Something is missing from the museum that was not supposed to. The city is changing in ways Billy can’t explain how. There are cults that worship the missing specimen from the museum. There is a prophecy that the world is going to end. Billy find himself in the middle of all this. He has no idea what is at stake and what’s going on. He acquire some friends and enemies with their help Billy is going to find out what’s wrong with the city. 

If I say more about the book it will soon turn into spoilers. So, if you like highly imaginative stories about a world which is going to end and marriage of magic, detective is your cup of tea this book will knock all those things out of the park. China Mieville’s imagination is without a doubt unseen before. The way he combines the bits and pieces of a story and bring them to life is remarkable.