Book Review - Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker

I read this trilogy after finding it at my local library. I thought it would be a bit of a daggy read, so I took it home.

I was impressed with the general quality of the writing. I was a little less impressed with the lack of political correctness.

There is some degree of misogyny and poor race relations (e.g. the chapter N****r Heaven in Live and Let Die). Having said that the presentation of woman in particular is much more positive and capable than most Bond movies.

Casino Royale

When a communist leader attempts to gamble himself and his organisation out of debt, the powers that be decide to send their best gambler. Of course their best gambler is Bond that we all know and love.

It is quite refreshing that the villains are quite happy to shoot our hero or beat him up, rather than selecting some over the top method of doing him in.

I was surprised how good this book was and it was not at all "over the top".

Rating: 4/5

Live and Let Die

Bond is out for revenge against SMERSH, so he is chasing a shadowy figure called Mr Big.

Although Mr Big does go for the slightly complicated method of dispatching Mr Bond it is somewhat justified - he doesn't want to leave a mess after all.

Rating: 3/5

Moonraker

Moonraker is a more typical Bond story. A mysterious multi-millionaire offers to build a ballistic missile on behalf of Great Britain - what could possibly go wrong?

From the strange, diabolical attempts on Bond's life to the incredible way he saves all Brittania and his own skin, this story is pure Bond.

Yes Moonraker is well written and exciting but it is also a little over the top.

Rating: 3/5


Title: Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker
Author: Ian Fleming
ISBN: 9780141187419

Book Review - True Believers

True Believers is an accessible history of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, however the narrative is a little dull.

As a political tragic I found the book compelling, however True Believers is not particularly effective at presenting an interesting narrative. I believe this is due to the lack of linkage to the impact on Australian society. Most of the book is "Caucus this and Cabinet that". Perhaps an outsider would have been better at focusing on the Australian public's perspective.

The book The Great Crash by Sexton is proof that political history does not need to have a dull narrative.

Rating: 3/5

Title: True Believers: The Story of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party
Author: Faulkner and Macintyre
ISBN: 9871865085272

Going Native 2012

I recently viewed some amazing videos from the Going Native 2012 conference. I would thoroughly recommend the videos for C++ developers on all platforms.

There is substantial coverage of the new C++11 features and clang. Even though this conference was sponsored by Microsoft the majority of the material is common to all platforms.

Specific videos I would recommend are:

• Bjarne Stroustrup: C++11 Style
• Threads and Shared Variables in C++11 
• STL11: Magic && Secrets  
• Clang: Defending C++ from Murphy's Million Monkeys

If you have time I would also recommend the end of day round up: Interactive Panel: Ask Us Anything!

Update: the question  in Interactive Panel: Ask Us Anything! at 1:16 regarding tooling is very enlightening, particularly Carruth's (clang) answer at 1:20 Looks like Java-like analysis tools are coming through.