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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 11:23:44 -0700
From: glen mccready
To: 0xdeadbeef@petting-zoo.net
Subject: Acts of the Apostles, recommended.
Resent-Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 11:23:52 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-From: 0xdeadbeef@petting-zoo.net
Forwarded-by: Nev Dull
From: Christopher Sandstrom Small
At USENIX last week, just inside the door at the vendor exhibition, there
was an apparent loony set up at a folding table with large, multi-colored,
hand-printed signs on poster board inviting people to buy a copy of a book
titled "Acts of the Apostles". The signs looked like standard (sic)
psychotic ramblings:
* Learn how Gulf War Syndrome was caused by collusion between Digital
MicroSystems and Scientists working in the Bowels of MIT!!!
* The Author of This Book is the recipient of the Society of Technical
Communication's Award of Distinguished Technical Communication and Brazil's
Rei do Lixo medal!
(If you know any Portuguese, you'll note that "Rei do Lixo" translates as
"King of Trash".)
The bearded, disheveled looking guy sitting behind the table (John Sundman,
the author) was saying to everyone who passed by "Buy my book! Buy my book!
Only $15 for an autographed copy!" (OK, for the USENIX crowd he was not at
all disheveled -- longish hair and beard, sure, but he was wearing a shirt
with a collar.)
So I figure he's probably not dangerous. I walk over, and see that the book
has been reviewed on Slashdot, geek.com, newstrolls, and salon.com (!). It's
compared positively with Neal Stephenson's work. I pick it up and start to
skim through it. It looks pretty good. What the hell, it's only $15. I fork
it over, he signs a copy for me, and hands it to me.
After all, how often do you get to read a book inspired both by Vannevar
Bush and Ted Kaczynsky?
Or one that both Borders and Barnes and Noble mis-file under "Christian
Theology"?
My wife zips through the book in a couple of days, then I start to read it,
and I discover that the damn thing is a good read. There _is_ a familial
resemblance between his style and Stephenson's. It read very much line
Interface, or Cryptonomicon, if Stephenson had written one of them as his
first book.
Sure, there are some problems. It definitely reads like a first book (see
Stephenson's "The Big U" -- also recommended). It could use a copy editing
pass, and some tightening up here and there. And some of the references to
people and entities I know or know of are none too well concealed -- Ken
Olson, Esther Dyson, Doug Engelbart, Xerox PARC, Digital Equipment Corp
("Digital Data"), Sun Microsystems ("Stanford Microsystems"). Mosaic
Technologies ("Mosaic Technologies") (may it rest in peace) (or pieces --
you'll understand if you've ever seen any of the hardware we shipped).
Even if I hadn't met the guy, and read about the torturous path he took from
professional geek to self published author (see
http://www.wetmachine.com/links/index.shtml), the book is well worth the $15
risk, especially if you liked Interface and Cryptonomicon. And after reading
his personal story, I'm very tempted to send him a check for a dozen copies
and give them out to all of my geek^WCryptonomicon-loving friends. (I'll at
least be buying a copy for my father-in-law, a retired physicist and big
Stephenson fan.)
You can read the first 13 chapters on-line, at
http://www.wetmachine.com/acts/index.shtml. You can read reviews at
http://www.wetmachine.com/reviews/index.shtml.
And if the above sounds good, you can order a copy from Amazon.com or the
author directly, at http://www.wetmachine.com/order/index.shtml. (My guess
is that he makes less money if you buy it from Amazon.com, but benefits from
having documented sales figures.)
- Chris
(N.b. I have no financial interest in sales of this book. I'm motivated by
enlightened altruism -- I'd like the guy to sell enough copies to write a
second book.)
--
Christopher Sandstrom Small | 781.442.8644
Network Storage Technology Office | Sun Microsystems
