Some of you may be saying why in the world is he having a book review on a tech site. Some of you may be saying, well at least there's something new on this site for a change.
It's true, I haven't written in a long time and it sure feels good to exercise the mind and fingers once again. Last week, I did a bit of house cleaning and got rid of unnecessary web baggage and moved all my blogs back to blogger. I deleted my myspace account and deleted unused server accounts. All of this just to simplify things to free up time for things like reading and writing. So far, it's been wonderful.
Book Review:
To be honest, I haven't even finished the book - 21 steps by Charles Cummings, published by Penquin books. However, since it is such a unique concept and I think a first step into something more I feel, I felt obligated to share it with you.
The book, 21 Steps, is a story told on Google maps. Yes, that's right, it's told on Google Maps. You click along in links within the little balloons (typically that give you address info) and it moves the waymark around the map through London showing you the movement of the character in the story. Pretty neat huh. Sort of.
The story is a little constrained, and as Charles Cumming said in an interview, it was difficult at first to stay in the parameters of the media since it does not allow a lot of room for character development, it's all about the plot. However, he mentioned as he worked through the constraints it became very exciting to write because it was all about keeping the characters moving with a pace.
When you first start reading the story it feels choppy and a little annoying. However, as you go it pulls you in. As I mentioned before, I haven't finished this short novel yet, but I'm sure it will be worth the read. From what I've read of the critiques so far, some like the idea and that it's a possible stepping stone for bigger ideas. One critique said at least it was better than reading it on a cell phone. I'll pass on the cell phone novels, pda's are bad enough.
If you want to read the book and follow along, just click on the following link to go to the story: