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Incredible! This took me half a year to read because it's dense and huge. The scope is enormous and the footnotes and citations are all worthy of pursuit. I simply couldn't absorb more than a couple pages at a sitting. It was exactly the thing I needed to get a survey of the techniques and tools used in distributed, fault-tolerant systems that need to run at scale.

I was extremely impressed that Kleppmann didn't merely explain why you would need to solve a particular problem and what each tool did, but also how (at a high level, of course, or it would have been 100 times longer). I've heard of most of the systems mentioned (e.g. Apache Kafka), but never had a clear understanding of why/what/how they would be used. Now I do. Again, the scope is astounding.

It also really helped me put into words the challenges of trying to make "online" transaction systems do the work of "batch" analytic systems. Those are two very antiquated computing terms, but that only highlights that the problems of the 1960s are the exact same problems of today - only the expectations have shifted. We expect to be able to do more now...even when it flies in the face of hard physical realities.

The exact tools mentioned herein will come and go, but I don't see the basic principles changing that much in the coming decades. These are problems we've been struggling with for the entire lifetime of computing. This book is a treasure. Highly recommended for any developer who would like to learn about large-scale systems.

Very good! The whole first half was superb children's mystery fiction. DWJ has such a unique way of revealing information in ways that are sort of twists and sort of in front of you the whole time. The setting and humor were completely enchanting (while always containing an element of danger and unease).

I think another huge strength in her fiction is the way her characters are all motivated by totally different things. It's realistic in a way that can be jarring and sometimes even upsetting. It makes the stories compelling because often you have NO IDEA what a character will do. But when they do, it makes sense.

It turns out that the premise of the book is pretty wild and the ending...would take some re-readings to properly decide if I like it or not. (Honestly, I shouldn't be putting ratings on anything I haven't read at least twice. But there's so many books to read, so I just plow on to the next one.) Anyway, I'm not ready to stamp this with five stars, but only because I think I liked the first half better than the second half, even when less was happening.

Unfortunately, these Heinlein "juveniles" have been pretty uneven. I think we lucked into the better ones near the beginning. Citizen of the Galaxy is considered one of his better books, but I couldn't disagree more. The pacing was great in the beginning and I thought he handled some interesting and challenging subjects very well (slavery and all sorts of classism). But as a story, it just increasingly sucks. The ending on this perhaps even more of a let-down than Time for the Stars. And like that book, it's got not one, but two instances of "gosh, my cousin sure is hot" (one instance being more literal than another). Does anybody know what the deal with that is?

At any rate, these last two juveniles have reminded me less of fun SF adventures with thought-provoking elements and more of his 1960s work that I pretty much despise (and mind you, I started on a bad foot with him by reading the unbelievable garbage, The Number of the Beast!). My kiddo was also very disappointed by the abrupt and unsatisfying ending. And for that reason, I'm gonna give this a low rating.

It's sad, really, because there are some very good elements in this.

Update: Third reading. We wanted something that FELT GOOD to read. Again, forgot how funny it was.

Update: Second reading. Kiddo enjoys it! Despite the angelic main character, it's a good little story. Above all, I forgot how funny this is. Very dry humor.

First reading's review:

I read this to my daughter. She's only 16 months old, so no more than a word or two could have sunk in, but we're getting the pattern of reading at night instilled.

This is a sweet and innocent book. A bit too sweet, perhaps. But the antiquated wording and speech help to bring interest. I enjoyed the cantankerous grandfather. I read him in a slow, low, and mostly bemused voice and imagined him quite vividly from his descriptions.

It's altogether a charming book that got some real chuckles out of me. Perfect for kiddos or perhaps some adults who need some life lessons in an easy-to-swallow form.

I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of Old Man's War. Not just because I was invested in the story and the characters (I was) but because after I'd read several excellent chapters, I wanted to see if Scalzi could keep up the momentum all the way to the end.

Lots of books blow their load early and fizzle out. Dean Koontz, for example, writes some wonderful first and second chapters, but he suffers mightily from the sort of mid-book doldrums wherein it feels as though he's just winging it until he can find his way to the conclusion.

Scalzi does not suffer from this problem. After packing the first half of the book with a fast pace, wit, and clever things, he shifts gears and ends it with a fast pace, wit, and more clever things. He never runs out of clever things! He stays witty, get this, all the way through the book! And the pace? It's fast.

Bravo. I've already purchased the next two sequels from the used bookstore and look forward to reading them when I need some serious entertainment.