Recommended by Raphael Hibou
'It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.'
This is how Philip Reeve commences Mortal Engines, a steampunk, post-apocalyptic series about motorised, ‘traction’ cities preying on smaller ones in a chaotic future. Following a ravaging sixty-minute war, the world was geologically upheaved and people had to adapt in what was known as ‘the great downsizing’. Then, tractionism was invented and the scarcely-resourced world rapidly became an enormous hunting ground where cities vied for power in a predator-prey relationship known as Municipal Darwinism, chasing smaller cities and closing their huge hydraulic ‘jaws’ on them: melting them for fuel or salvaging them for parts in this chilling food chain. Humans are either resettled in the predator city or, in other towns, enslaved! Tom Natsworthy, an apprentice for the guild of historians on the City of London, finds himself pushed out of it into the desolate, barren out-country with only the company of mysterious scarred-faced girl, Hester Shaw, who he had only just met and who is furious at him for having ruined her plans. They find themselves hunted by a psychopathic cyborg, or stalker, while trying to get back on to the city only to discover the terrifying secret that it plans to unleash on the world. A piece of old-tech with enormously destructive capabilities. Tom is suddenly torn between the love for his city and its leading figures and the injustice that has deeply affected Hester and may soon affect the entire world.
In a giant tour around Reeve’s ingeniously created universe, Tom learns more about the world he was isolated from and the very opposite of what he has grown up to believe in: the Anti-Traction League. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy science fiction and adventure books and love discovering new worlds as I do. This is the first book in the Mortal Engines quartet, to which the Fever Crumb trilogy is a prequel.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
'It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.'
This is how Philip Reeve commences Mortal Engines, a steampunk, post-apocalyptic series about motorised, ‘traction’ cities preying on smaller ones in a chaotic future. Following a ravaging sixty-minute war, the world was geologically upheaved and people had to adapt in what was known as ‘the great downsizing’. Then, tractionism was invented and the scarcely-resourced world rapidly became an enormous hunting ground where cities vied for power in a predator-prey relationship known as Municipal Darwinism, chasing smaller cities and closing their huge hydraulic ‘jaws’ on them: melting them for fuel or salvaging them for parts in this chilling food chain. Humans are either resettled in the predator city or, in other towns, enslaved! Tom Natsworthy, an apprentice for the guild of historians on the City of London, finds himself pushed out of it into the desolate, barren out-country with only the company of mysterious scarred-faced girl, Hester Shaw, who he had only just met and who is furious at him for having ruined her plans. They find themselves hunted by a psychopathic cyborg, or stalker, while trying to get back on to the city only to discover the terrifying secret that it plans to unleash on the world. A piece of old-tech with enormously destructive capabilities. Tom is suddenly torn between the love for his city and its leading figures and the injustice that has deeply affected Hester and may soon affect the entire world.
In a giant tour around Reeve’s ingeniously created universe, Tom learns more about the world he was isolated from and the very opposite of what he has grown up to believe in: the Anti-Traction League. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy science fiction and adventure books and love discovering new worlds as I do. This is the first book in the Mortal Engines quartet, to which the Fever Crumb trilogy is a prequel.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Recommended by Lachlan Murray
From acid-dropping college quitter to billionaire CEO of one of the world’s largest companies, Steve Jobs did not live an ordinary life.
From acid-dropping college quitter to billionaire CEO of one of the world’s largest companies, Steve Jobs did not live an ordinary life.
This elegantly constructed biography follows his wild story; one of overcoming extraordinary obstacles and achieving extraordinary success. From a young age, Jobs was fascinated by technology. Throughout school he met several people with similar interests, whom he brought on his journey. Although he wasn't particularly talented at making electrical products, he was phenomenal at selling them. With close friend and skilled electrical engineer, Steve Wozniak, he began a small company in his garage. A company that would one day shape the world. A company called Apple. In addition, he also founded NeXT (a highly quality computer business), and co-founded Pixar. Steve Jobs revolutionised the industries of personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablets and digital publishing. He was a true visionary.
Isaacson achieves the near impossible task of capturing Jobs’ flawed brilliance. Jobs himself would be impressed! Isaacson was the chairman of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine. Perhaps his own comprehension of the business world is the reason the book is so insightful. Regardless, the writing is only made more insightful by the hundreds of interviews from loved-ones and other tech-titans like Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and Jony Ive. Despite asking Isaacson to write his biography, Jobs took no control over it. Therefore it is written with a pure honesty that's worryingly scarce in other biographies.
Anyone who can read, should read this book. Steve Jobs has affected all of us. Even if you don't have an iPhone in your pocket or a Toy Story DVD on the shelf, Jobs has changed technology and business around the globe. Additionally, not only is it a fascinating read, but also an enjoyable one. It is riveting. You do not have to like gadgets and gizmos to like this book, because that's not what it's about. It’s about a conflicted, intuitive, imaginative man, an entrepreneur, a revolutionary. It's about ‘the greatest business executive of our era’. It’s about a genius.
Anyone who can read, should read this book. Steve Jobs has affected all of us. Even if you don't have an iPhone in your pocket or a Toy Story DVD on the shelf, Jobs has changed technology and business around the globe. Additionally, not only is it a fascinating read, but also an enjoyable one. It is riveting. You do not have to like gadgets and gizmos to like this book, because that's not what it's about. It’s about a conflicted, intuitive, imaginative man, an entrepreneur, a revolutionary. It's about ‘the greatest business executive of our era’. It’s about a genius.
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