Books in Review 2014

For the first time in about four years, I started reading non-fiction in 2014. All five non-fiction books I read were science and technology related, signifying a return to the reality of my home base. In my day job, I work with technology and people who create technology. Day-in and day-out, I talk to scientists, programmers, graphics and interaction designers (who also work within the realm of creative technology), and teachers. In years past I've escaped into fantasy and fiction, but in 2014 I returned to deal realistically with topics of aerodynamics, viral biology, web caching, and space exploration.

It's a big adjustment, and this theme carries through into 2015 - with my enrolling in a creative non-fiction writing class and collecting information to support a science writing endeavour.

On the fiction side, I found the most innovative science fiction I've ever read in Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. It was a strange book set in an alien empire, filled with believable, but entirely foreign people. A quote from Shakespeare seems apt:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
- The Tempest (V, i)

I look forward to reading Ancillary Sword, the sequel to Ann's breakout book.