Michael W Lucas

To be perfectly honest, I was concerned when I was recommended this book to read. I am a Linux end user, and I'm familiar with BSD, and I even once was a BSD GUI-facing end user. I just don't have the depth of programming ability to get to a command line and start fixing things at terminal level without an inordinate amount of hand-holding.

So it started, for me, as an amusing 3 then 4 out of 5 that turned "unputdownable" about a quarter of the way in. M. W. Lucas beautifully portrayed the show more intense social anxiety of the main character, Dale Whitehead, on the ADD medication and then the mind-jarring experience being off the medication. The main character's journey through this novel was a beautifully intimate understanding of that inner world and the concerns of a sufferer just trying to get along in an overwhelming world.

The murder mystery was entertaining, the characters were wonderfully flawed, and the processes of investigation using the digital landscape were clear enough for me as a person who's always looked at that world from the outside in. For a person on the inside of the programming culture, I think it would be an entrancing murder mystery. While I did get tripped up by a few issues missed in the final proofreading pass, this story is an immersive read.

This is a Do Not Miss! read for classic murder mystery fans who love free and open-source systems, and a recommended read for everyone else. Also, I consider it has a good reread factor, so it's definitely a book to add to a personal library. show less

(I did not read the Kindle edition; I read another ebook edition, but Goodreads will not let me accurately identify it.)

This (novella?) story is, first off, deeply weird. Secondly, it will be wholly nonsensical to people who are not somewhat familiar with both software developer and sysadmin jargon. Third, it could be deeply offensive to some people. Fourth, the protagonist is a dirty hippie GPL-lover (at least at the beginning), which might be off-putting to some.

It is hilarious, show more imaginative, and a bit frightening. It's described as "erotic" and sometimes listed under "romance" (though it's not the least bit romantic), but really it's a masterful piece of particularly icky satirical erotic horror with a "happy" ending that is not, really, the least bit happy. The protagonist makes the tough choice at the end, choosing good over evil, which left me with a smile on my face.

It is, overall, indescribable. Oh, sure, I could offer a lot of colorful description for this piece of weird literature, but I'd probably have to expend at least 50% of the story's wordcount to approach a description that truly captures the essence of it (at which point I would have just rewritten it badly).

I don't know whether I can, in good conscience, recommend it. I do know, however, that it warrants five stars on Goodreads. show less

April fools joke or not, this book is seriously useful. Even though I will likely never use ed(1) directly on purpose, I'm now comfortable enough to get by. More importantly, I discovered a lot of the underlying logic behind vim's Ex mode, g/re/p, and sed that weren't as intuitive before. Michael's tone and humor kept what could have been a very boring topic wildly engaging. I was sharing snippets with people all throughout my read and even went back to give the regex section a second show more pass.

If this book has come across your path, do yourself a favor and pick it up. It's worth every penny. show less

Eek! I love this series. The infinite universes make fabulous settings for the action to play out, and of course every bad thing that can happen will happen. That's expected from the premise and would be fun enough on its own. What's makes this so good, though, is the depth of humanity in the main character. Her motivations and feelings are crystal clear, as are her struggles with the trauma from the earlier stories. When she smiles with joy so too so I. When she feels the despair counting show more down her remaining breaths, I'm holding my own.

These are fabulous stories and masterfully written. I recommend them to everyone whose eyes open wide at the thought of traveling to another universe. show less