Journal Entry 1 by ResQgeek from Alexandria, Virginia USA on Wednesday, September 28, 2011

This Advanced Readers Edition was this month's selection from the Amazon.com Vine program, to read and review. 

Journal Entry 2 by ResQgeek at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Friday, October 07, 2011

What begins as a devastating accident when research scientist Charlie Neumann loses his leg after getting it trapped in an industrial clamp, quickly spirals out of control into a quest to build a better body. Neumann’s employer is a military contractor, a company that doesn’t mind operating outside the legal norms, and with the resources to allow for research into extreme prosthetics. The company sees a potential fortune in profits, but Neumann just wants to build a more efficient body for himself. But his company has other plans for him.

This story is both a page-turning thriller and a gruesome exploration of what happens when researchers and corporations lose their ethical grounding. Neumann is self-absorbed and severely socially stunted, and never stops to consider the questions about whether he should embark on his quest. He views it strictly as an engineering problem, and never really takes into consideration the impact his actions might have on those around him. Similarly, Better Future, his employer, is clearly only motivated by profit, without any real concern for the legal or ethical impacts of their actions. This is a volatile combination that leads to an inevitable and violent confrontation.

A cautionary tale about the dangers of technology when it becomes disconnected from ethical considerations, this story is surprisingly readable, given the gruesome nature of some of the things that are done by and to the characters. Told from Neumann’s point of view, he provides a remarkably sympathetic narrator for a character so fundamentally flawed in ways that should make him unlikeable. This book will probably not appeal to everyone, but for those that are fascinated by technology and its role in our lives, or for those that worry about the impact of runaway technology, this will be a good read.
 

Journal Entry 3 by ResQgeek at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Sunday, November 13, 2011

Released 6 mos ago (11/13/2011 UTC) at Alexandria, Virginia USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This will be available at the BC-in-DC meetup at La Madeleine in Old Town Alexandria. 

Journal Entry 4 by krin511 at Olney, Maryland USA on Monday, November 14, 2011

Picked it from a pile at the BC-in-DC meetup today in Alexandria!