How does the world work?

...Is a question that can never be answered in single sentence, book, lifetime? Hopefully not the latter, but this book is a major piece to the puzzle that is rarely discussed.

Find out how the American government coordinates with multinational corporations to achieve mutual goals, while destroying other economies, cultures, etc.

Even if only 10% of this book is accurate, the information is essential to attain a full understanding of many American, Middle Eastern, Asian, South American, and global conditions.

Although, John Perkin’s style is a bit bland and overstreching at times of his talents as an author, the first person narrative he tells the story through keeps the reader very interested all the way through.

A+

The guys below me have pretty accurate reviews. Although, I am saying it’s “worth consuming” aren’t I? Well, it’s probably just because it’s the first Willaim Gibson book that I’ve fully read (I read the first 60 pgs of Neuromancer and got bored), and there is something interesting about his style. His writing is very poetic, but not in a way that inspires, as much as, it stimulates the mind in a way that is truly pure zeitgeist. Kind of a technological F. Scott Fitzgerald, if you will.

I’m trying to be neutral about describing this book, because I think it’s the type of thing some will enjoy, and some won’t. But it’s fairly straight forward, so everyone should at least “get it”.

I did enjoy this book in a way, but after writing this lackluster review, I’ve convinced myself to change to a “wishy washy”. As a side note, the technological elements to this book are one of the highlights, but don’t really go much further than the average Dan Brown novel. And the story does feel like a glorified prime time network TV episode, but with a clever 3 parallel stories narrative.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!! Don’t read ANY of the reviews below mine unless you WANT SPOILERS, b/c most of them have them. There should be a rule on this site to post SPOILER ALERT before writing them, b/c I just think it’s a shame for anyone to not enjoy the surprises and natural flow that comes from reading the book. You don’t have to read my review either if you haven’t read the book yet, but just so you know there aren’t any spoilers in it.

Hits every high note of the series multiple times. Great twists, that all fit perfectly with the story. I don’t think it could be any better. The last chapter was written by the amazing J.K. around the same time as the first book, and she says she locked in a drawer until she was ready to do Book 7. I think this played out very well.

Also, I love the philosophy/cosmology of the Harry Potter series, and that with that in mind, Deathly Hallows goes way beyond a simple “good conquers all” morality. In fact the complexity of the books meanings and tales are what make it feel so human, real, and timeless.

Finally, the title is really as cool of a book title as I’ve ever heard.

p.s. This is my fav Harry Potter band ever!

http://www.myspace.com/harryandthepotters

Isn’t that what all sci-fi is aimed at??? NO!

90% of Science Fiction is aimed at the general public, if it weren’t it wouldn’t be so well known. “Primer” is a Sci-Fi movie for “nerds”, Minority Report is for everyone, that is the difference here.

Flatland was written by a mathematician/theologian, in between writing textbooks and teaching/researching.

However, with all of that boring stuff out of the way, I want you to know that this book kicks ass! It pretty much proved the existence of God to me high school, as a philosophical allegory and simultaneously introduced some of the basics of Quantum Theory, before it even existed! On top of that, Flatland is just an interesting book.

At 96 pages it can hardly be called a book; it is more of a Novella, broken into 2 halves. The first describing the mythology of its world, and the second telling the story.

If you’re in High School this book is a MUST! If you’re a CS, Engineering, Math, Physics, or any other “nerdy” Major in or out of College, then this book is a MUST for YOU TOO! For everyone else, it’s a “maybe”.

Don’t read them all at once. If you’re in High School or older. It reads like a tv series, a really freaking awesome one, but doing a 3000 page marathon of a book series with minimal character development (and a pretty bland, straight forward writing style), does take the fun out of it.

Now that I’m reading Deathly Hallows, I can remember the joy and excitement of getting into some new Potter. As long as you can keep that thrill going, keep reading, but if it starts to wear thin with you (like it did with me), take a break and come back. That’s my advice, and the books….are excellent! Goblet of Fire is my favourite of the first 5, but they all do have their own special flavour.

Oh, and if you’ve seen all the movies, consider starting from Book 4. That’s where the books started getting too big for the movies to capture it all.

It’s a paradigm-shifting book. Not in a personal or spiritual sense, so much as, in expanding the limits of what a book can put across. It is famously the “auto-biographical” book of Philip K. Dick that documents his growing paranoia/insanity/spiritual revelations?, but these elements are really only the unfamiliar pillars at the base of a temple in a foreign land. And the temple itself I dare not try to put across, but rather I will say, “As an initiate unto the world of VALIS, I have seen both my greatest hopes and deepest fears realized in the mind of another, and the liberation I have found therein, has been as Juliet was the Sun to Romeo. And this is a Sun that will never set.”

It’s a paradigm-shifting book. Not in a personal or spiritual sense, so much as, in expanding the limits of what a book can put across. It is famously the “auto-biographical” book of Philip K. Dick that documents his growing paranoia/insanity/spiritual revelations?, but these elements are really only the unfamiliar pillars at the base of a temple in a foreign land. And the temple itself I dare not try to put across, but rather I will say, “As an initiate unto the world of VALIS, I have seen both my greatest hopes and deepest fears realized in the mind of another, and the liberation I have found therein, has been as Juliet was the Sun to Romeo. And this is a Sun that will never set.”

There is something incredible about this book. There’s a romanticism in it, rarely found anywhere in the modern world, but painstakingly documented here.

Totally the “In Utero” of the Waldo series.

I read this book right after Philip K. Dick’s “VALIS”. Perfectly complimented the inner insanity of Dick’s quasi-autobio journal.

Cosmic Trigger can best be described as an “attack” on the mind of the reader. Like a surprise intervention on a chronic Drug Addict, it’s a bucket of ice cold water. Self-Proclaimed to be LIES or “odd” truths, it’s an intellectual avalanche, the reader is destined to have occur, and then with minimal help and guidance from the author, to dig himself out of with a new appreciation for oxygen and the sun.

I’m not superstitious. But even before I read this book, I’ve loved the idea of “making things up” or looking at “belief systems” as mostly relative, and self proposed (group-influenced/enforced??) illusions, one can use to one’s benefit, optimally (“holy” wars and “ignorance is law” non-optimally). “Beliefs” can be fun and useful and “real” if you want them to be, and this is the wonderful message of this masterpiece of philosophy and self-exploration.

Wilson warns at the start, this book has the ability to drive men mad. I guess that’s possible, especially if someone who thinks “drugs are cool” and other superficial platitudes, considers they might get some “truth” out of this book. It is very plain to me that drugs deteriorate men and women at the root of their awareness, and trap them inside false “realities” or “belief systems” perhaps, ultimately to degrees they themselves are not aware of. Wilson does, mention his use of drugs in this book, and how they helped him to reach whatever mental plateau he’s resided on since. However, the transparency of the characters, the author included, reveal more of a search, than any flags on the moon. Keep this in mind. Meaning…

This is a document on the mind and spirit, written in an age of uncertainty that such things may even exist. Maybe as Timothy Leary writes, in this book, ultimate consciousness can be found by achieving full awareness of your body at the quantum level, maybe… Maybe some Tibetan dude who hasn’t moved from a 100 square yard radius in 90 years has achieved the most desirable state in human history? Maybe…. Definitely, there are a LOT of questions about the Mind of Man, and this book certainly boggled my mind with it’s beautifully intricate stories and proposals, but it is certainly not a book of answers, but at best, an intellectual algorithm that can be used to divine answers by its readers at a later date. If you want answers to the Mind, read Dianetics.

It is an excellent ride, with a gorgeous thread of hope and positive energy strung through it, that if followed through to the end, should put a smile on any reader’s face. Just remember to follow the author’s advice/instructions at the foreword, and you may even come back for seconds, to see if there really is a greater exhilaration to be experienced at the caboose of the roller-coaster, as so many tell their friends there is.