No good deed goes unpunished might be the motto of this sequel to Rats, Bats, and Vats.

In the previous book, a motley assortment of grunts destroyed a hive of the alien invaders. The military es­tab­lish­ment don’t really appreciate being shown up as in­com­pe­tent buffoons, and do their best to persecute and prosecute the human leading the grunts, as well as the military in­tel­li­gence major who spotted what they were up to and sent in help.

Our heroes are forced into a con­fronta­tion with the …continue.

Microsoft announced today that it was buying aQuantive for $6.1 billion. I work for Atlas Solutions, a division of aQuantive, so I will once again be an employee of Microsoft when the deal closes.

I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords.

More truthfully, I can’t honestly say that I’m overjoyed to be part of the Borg again. Anyone who’s ever read MiniMsft realizes that many MS employees find Microsoft to be deeply dys­func­tion­al.

Atlas has a pretty good corporate culture and a sane work-life balance. I’ve heard plenty today about our people are our greatest asset and that Microsoft will be mostly leaving things alone.

At this point, it’s impossible to say how …continue.

Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, died today. As an atheist, I don’t believe in hell, but if it existed, a thor­ough­go­ing shit like Falwell would surely be headed there. Falwell was a liar, a hate-monger, a parasite, and a crook.

“The abor­tion­ists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the Pagans, and the abor­tion­ists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an al­ter­na­tive lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have …continue.

A bunch of grunts, trapped behind enemy lines, wreak havoc on the hive of the Magh invaders. No ordinary grunts these, they include a dozen uplifted rats and bats, a vat-grown human sous-chef turned conscript, and the rescued daughter of a very rich Share­hold­er. The rats revel in Shake­speare­an names and ribaldry. The bats have stage-Oirish personas, socialist leanings, and expertise with explosives.

Due to forceshield technology, they’re fighting a World War I-style trench war on the planet Harmony and Reason, The generals, like the rest of the ruling …continue.

Henry Perowne undergoes a long, stressful day on Saturday, February 15th, 2003–the day of the giant anti-Iraq war march in London. Perowne is a middle-aged neu­ro­sur­geon, happily married to Rosalind, a lawyer, and father of Theo, a rising blues musician, and Daisy, a newly published poet living in Paris.

His day begins very early when he sees a flaming plane in the sky (not an attack but an engine fire); a morning drive turns nasty when his car is sideswiped by a thug known as Baxter; his normally friendly squash match becomes …continue.

Kivrin is a student historian sent back in time to December 1320 to observe a medieval Christmas in an Ox­ford­shire village. Back in the Oxford of the mid-twen­ty­first century, her tutor Dunworthy grows extremely worried, as the tech who sent her back collapsed into a coma, mumbling something about slippage.

The book alternates between Kivrin and Dunworthy. Kivrin falls sick just after she lands. She wakes in an isolated, snowbound country manor, being nursed by Lady Eliwys and her mother-in-law Lady Imeyne.

Dunworthy becomes ever more worried when Oxford and its environs are quar­an­tined. The …continue.

Via Digg, one heck of a Rube Goldberg con­trap­tion. The Digg page also led to The Bravery - Honest Mistake below.

A fast-paced comedy about an almost likable serial killer. Who’da thunk it?

There must be something about the coffee they serve in Florida newsrooms. Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, and Tim Dorsey. All Florida-based newsmen now known for their funny writing.

This is the first book that I’ve read by Dorsey. According to Wikipedia, all of his books feature Serge A. Storms, said serial killer, though he’s not always the prime character.

Serge spends much of the book racing around Florida, chasing hurricanes with his stoner sidekick, Coleman. He’s feeling put upon because there’s another serial …continue.

This is the latest in Tony Hillerman‘s long-running series of police pro­ce­du­rals featuring Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee of the Navajo tribal police.

Leaphorn has retired recently and misses the job. An old, old case of his comes to life when he is shown a recent picture of a priceless Navajo rug long thought to be destroyed in a fire that killed a man on the FBI’s most-wanted list. The in­ves­ti­ga­tion leads him into finding what really happened to the rug and the long-dead killer.

Hillerman, as ever, is par­tic­u­lar­ly …continue.

A gritty noir set in the western Irish city of Galway. Jack Taylor used to be in the guards (police) as a young man, but nowadays he’s usually found at the bottom of a bottle. He makes a little money by finding things. One day, a distraught mother asks him to prove that her teenaged daughter did not commit suicide. He is reluctant to take the case, fearing (rightly) that it will require too much of him. Jack struggles mightily with his alcoholism, and both the case and his drinking …continue.