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Acts of the Apostles/Cheap Complex Devices 77

Posted by Hemos from the look-into-the-future dept.
John F.X. Sundman is the author of Acts of the Apostles , an independently published, computer science, science fiction-attach-whatever-label-you-want-but-it's-good book, which we've reviewed on Slashdot before. Recently, he's taken his other work Cheap Complex Devices, updated, edited, and put together a package with Acts, available in PDF and dead tree version. I had the pleasure of reading both of them again -- read more to see my thoughts.Update: 09/09 16:11 GMT by T : Oops -- that should have read (as it now does) "Cheap Complex Devices" rather than "Cheap Computing Devices." That is all.
Acts of the Apostles/Cheap Complex Devices
author John F.X. Sundman
pages 400
publisher Rosalita Associates
rating 9
reviewer Hemos
ISBN (see website for each)
summary Two Sundman books combined for even greater power.

First of all, I'm not going to be doing another review of Acts, as I've already done that once. It is worth noting, however, that this is the first time both CCD and Acts have been brought together in an omnibus edition. I've got two different copies of Acts, but greatly enjoyed reading the two together again. Why? Because they fit together like two sides of the same coin -- or better yet, like Walther Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

Cheap Complex Devices's backdrop is that of being (supposedly) machine-written. (The foreword and descriptors of the book itself are greatly entertaining. It's that kind of writing that flows over into Acts.) While the scene may (or may not) have not even the slightest passing resemblance to reality, it's still something that grips your mind. You believe that the "Hofstader Prize for Machine Written Narration" could exist, and that the Society for Analytical Engines sounds pretty reasonable. Heck, it sounds at least as reasonable as the ACM.

BTW, if you can't be bothered to read Acts of the Apostles, take my advice and do it. I believe my standing quote on the book is that it's what Tom Clancy would write if he wasn't dumb. Essentially, it's a great techno-thriller, except the technology is something that a geek would appreciate -- but it's also written well enough that non-geeks will enjoy it. The hero of that book makes an apperance in CCD as one of the heroes in one of the automata written texts.

The actual text of the stories in CCD are just as amusing as the commentary about them, although oddly enough I think I actually like the commentary more then the stories. "Bees" is a commentary on what it means to be human, albiet with a peculiar focus on Gatorade. And the Bonehead Computer - well, just doing a little Googling for it.

I'm not sure what else to say about these books, other then read 'em. If you liked Naked Lunch, or any sort of thrillers, or thought GEB was an amazing work, or just like to read, these books will thrill ya.

To get them, John has a website to purchase CCD. He takes Paypal or checks in the mail. You can buy them in PDF or have dead tree versions sent, or both. Whatever -- you do what want. One caveat though: "Final 'truth in advertising' note: the version of CCD on my website is 87.9842% the same as the final book form (the book is better). I'll reconcile them soon. " (note from John)

Enjoy.
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Acts of the Apostles/Cheap Complex Devices

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  • I have seen a copy of this and I'm gonna go out and get it.
    I'm a sci fi freak

  • Awesome Idea! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by BlkPanther ( 515751 )
    This is awesome, now we've been seeing more online "Open-Source" books of good quality available. In fact I just watched the screen savers on tech tv a couple of nights ago (Kilt episode) and saw an interview with another open source publisher.

    Unfortunately I think that a lot of people will right these guys off as amatuer writers, because they aren't just using traditional publishing means, as well as the fact that other people are helping write the book!

    I don't care what other people think cuz I like 'em!
    • This is awesome, now we've been seeing more online "Open-Source" books of good quality available.

      What is an "open source" book? It *sounds* like it's a book where the source , i.e., the text, is available for anyone to read. You know, just like a, um, *book*.

  • Acts was... okay. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09, 2002 @11:12AM (#4221239)

    Okay, I read it a while back, and Acts of the Apostles is a good argument against self-publishing, or at least a good argument for finding an editor. The tech is okay, but the story suffers for it. The story is clunky and some of the characterization is kind of weak.

    I suppose you might think it was good compared to Tom Clancy, but Tom Clancy is lowbrow jingoistic pap, so _that's_ hardly a compliment. At least you can escape the chest-beating in Acts of the Apostles...

    It was okay, but it was just okay. Worth a read if you aren't doing anything else for a long time and don't have anything better kicking around.
    • Worth a read if you aren't doing anything else for a long time and don't have anything better kicking around.

      so it's something to do at work?
    • For a range of opinions on my book "AofA" just google on "Sundman Apostles." There are scads of reviews out there, from the ecstatic to the lukewarm. And there are more than forty reviews on Amazon, of which I wrote zero.

  • Nice to see holy powers making inroads (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sure transistors are cheap nowadays, but devices could be even cheaper if they were working on faith instead. Glad to see someone tossing away his semiconductor textbook and basing his designs on the physical effects documented in the Bible.
  • Dead tree version? Does that mean environmentalists shouldn't read that one? ;)
    • Dead tree version? Does that mean environmentalists shouldn't read that one? ;) Depends. Is the electronic device you are gonna read it causing more consumption that a book? That's actually a good question... Unless you're solar charging your palm-device to read it, it's probably a tossup.

  • Doesn't Luke the Physician [blueletterbible.org] have a trademark on the "Acts of the Apostles"?

  • My opinion of Acts of the Apostles (Score:5, Informative)

    by henben ( 578800 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @11:28AM (#4221333)
    I bought Acts of the Apostles on the basis of a previous Slashdot mention, and the sample chapters available on the web.

    Although Sundman writes well and creates some interesting scenes, I found that Acts didn't really gel. The plot developed more slowly than I expected, and there was too much exposition and discussion. Although he obviously knows a lot about computers, his attempt at plausible biotechnology wasn't convincing.

    MILD SPOILER:
    Bad guys demonstrate a nanomachine that can activate single genes. Sundman thinks that if you activated a growth hormone gene along one side of a mouse, that side would grow, in a matter of minutes!
    END SPOILER

    The bad guys' evil plot, when it's finally revealed (more by authorial fiat than anything else, IIRC) is a good (if implausible) premise for a thriller, but it is all left too late in the book. With the wide-ranging plot strands and technical detail, it could have been a biocomputing equivalent of Cryptonomicon, but I was a bit disappointed.

    On the plus side, there are LOTS of ideas and plot strands in the book. The portrayal of the ways of computer developers is interesting and engaging. In particular, a lot of the book revolves around the actions of what seems to be a thinly disguised version of Sun Microsystems (Sundman worked for them) and their computer language 'espresso', so it might be especially entertaining if you know the company well.

    I wouldn't particularly recommend Acts, but I would like to read his future books.

    • I bought this book from Sundman at LinuxWorld, and I'm maybe an hour or so from finishing it. If I hadn't -met- Sundman I would assume he was a promising teenage sci-fi writer (he's over 40 I'd say), because the story line develops nicely and he obviously has the ability to tell the story fairly well. But the characters are flat and seem to reveal various '-isms' and stereotyping I would expect from an immature writer. Several times he describes new characters with something along the lines of "straight out of central casting." That's a pretty weak band-aid to cover up the fact that your characters -are- straight out of central casting. The expositions seemed quite awkward at times also.

      And the main character I found to be a boring pathetic overly-macho chump whose always-in-charge abilities were completely unbelievable. I have no sympathy with him whatsoever, and I'm praying he gets killed before the end :)

      All that said, it was worth the $5 I paid. You could see some promise there, and I'll probably check out his next one just to see if he's improved. But I have to disagree with the reviews that place him up with Bruce Sterling or Neal Stephenson, it's not even in the same league. His use of technology and geek-material is thorough and fairly well done (maybe even better than Sterling or Stephenson), but Sterling and Stephenson aren't just geeks ...they're also very acomplished writers.
    • For a range of critical opinions, google on "Sundman Apsotles."
      • Searched the web for "Sundman Apostles.". Results 1 - 1 of about 2. Search took 0.09 seconds.

        Your original search: "Sundman Apsotles." returned zero results.

        The alternate spelling: "Sundman Apostles." returned the results below.

        Wetmachine ... You may be able to find a mention or two elsewhere -- try using Google to search on "Sundman Apostles.". And a big raspberry to the ...

        www.wetmachine.com/reviews/index.shtml - 15k - 8 Sep 2002 - Cached - Similar ages



        Correct grammer + incorrect spelling == 1 link to wetmachine on all of Google

    • Acts was a great book and I've bought a number of copies as well as tried to convince a number of retailers to stock it and give it some good shelf placement.

      The author is a very dedicated and passionate writer and I've talked with him in the past. I hope to see someone pick up his books and boost his success because I'd like to see him doing well enough financially that he could continue to put out these high quality stories more often rather than sacrificing his personal and family life as we have all heard about in the past just to get a book published.

      Considering the crap that is published today and makes a lot of money, I find it unforgivable that publishers haven't taken to his work. There's an audience for almost *everything* if the gaurdians of the publishing gateways weren't so damned stingy.
  • I've read the dead-tree editions of both books.

    Both are good reading. Both are very different.

    1) Read Acts of the Apostles first.

    2) Read Cheap Complex Devices second.

    Buy both. CCD explains the backstory/metastory of Acts, albeit in a roundabout, artsy-fartsy way. (And I'm sure there are the kernels of at least two or three more AI-authored novels in CCD. *g*)

    Does anyone know if Sundman (the author) will be at LinuxWorld in New York or the next one in the Bay Area? (I found out about him through a geek who loaned me a dead-tree copy he got from Sundman, who was selling copies at LinuxWorld SF.)

    • I went to Linuxworld in San Francisco; lost money on the proposition. I may do linuxworld new york if I can get a much cheaper (free?) booth, or if my books are so damn successful that by then I can sell 'em like hotcakes. In the meantime I'm pretty likely to get a table at at least one of those lulu tech festival deals.

  • I want a second edition / SGE by Matt Ruff (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mbrubeck ( 73587 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @11:33AM (#4221366) Homepage
    I have a copy of Acts of the Apostles and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but the frequent spelling errors and bizarre typesetting goofs (weird spacing, line breaks, paragraph indentation, etc.) are a bit distracting. I'd love to see a second edition with all these little problems fixed. Is the treeware version of CCD better-proofread than AotA?

    On a side note, I highly recommend Matt Ruff's Sewer Gas & Electric [att.net] to any Sundman or Stephenson fans.

    • Yes, Cheap Complex Devices is much better proof-read than the original printing of Acts. I have prepared a much cleaner source of Acts; I need only to raise enough dough for the second printing. I'm trying to figure out a way to do a "book upgrade" for anybody who bought the first edition and would like a copy of the cleaned-up second edition. Suggestions welcome.
    • I bought a copy of Dune from Ace Books and found the editing errors to be enormously distracting. The most egregious, and recurring, errors were single, and sometimes multiple, arbitrary lines in a different fontsize than the others. Three pages had the left side of the text completely missing due to a bad cut of the paper.

      I've plowed through many a $3-5 fantasy book and have never seen such publishing problems. What gives nowadays?
      • I've plowed through many a $3-5 fantasy book and have never seen such publishing problems. What gives nowadays?

        I just completed my first book (co-completed, actually), and according to a couple of old-timers who did other work on the series the quality of compositors has really gone down in recent years. We got lucky and got a pretty good one, but apparently competent compositors are really getting hard to come by -- at least at the prices publishers are willing to pay.

        Of course, there is such a thing as author review. Ultimately, a lot of these problems really rest with the author failing to do an adequate job of reviewing the final draft.

  • Is it anything like Neil Stephenson's work? It sounds a bit similar.
    • Many people have compared my "AofA" to Stephenson. I don't have an opinion, because I've never read anything by him. But if you google on "Sundman Stephenson" you'll find several reviews that compare us. Dozens, even.
  • I can't find this omnibus edition the review is talking about. Amazon has both books seperately, as well as the referenced website, but no omnibus edition. How do I order it?

    Bryan
    • As of right now, there is no omnibus edition available. It had been my original intent to combine the two books into one volume, but costs were prohibitive. Several months ago I told Hemos that I was planning to release a "two-in-one" and I guess that when I sent him the review copy I did not make it clear enough that I changed plans. Sorry. Of course, if these books ever really take off such that I think I could sell a printing of a two-in-one, I would very much like to do such a printing, as I consider them part of one work. For now they're just two separate books.

  • How uninformative can a review get? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by thunderbee ( 92099 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @11:58AM (#4221517)
    I didn't read the first edition. I have no idea whatsoever what these books can be about.
    Now re-read the "review" with this in mind. See? Or actually don't see?
    Some guy sells a book the reviewer liked but can't describe or at the very least give a good reason to read. You can buy it on paper or as a PDF.
    So what? I still have no clue whatsoever what this is all about.

    It's a book. A review should allow me to decide wether it might be a book I'll like or not. I just know that I can buy it using Paypal.
    I'll go and read what's online. To achevie this goal, a simple link was enough.

    Don't call it a review.

    I can write tons of 'reviews' about books I loved: I can't tell you why it's good, it's just sort of Brin & Robinson come togeter, you'll like it! Even If you're not interested in reading a book, give it a try, you'll like it for no reason I can describe, but its a sure hit nonetheless! I could even add more exclamation points to mask my total lack of arguments by some textual manifestation of over-excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Acts of the Apostles (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nis ( 81721 )
    I read that book based on the previous review on slashdot. It was completely lame. The plot was convoluted, and the science didn't really make any sense. I liked some of the ideas, like that the Iraqis really poisoned America during the gulf war by sending the soldiers back here with some kind of high tech contagious disease, but the way he elaborated it was awful. It seemed like an unfinished product, like he didn't have an editor or something.

    People, there's a reason why this book wasn't picked up by a major publisher - it's crap.

    -Nissim
  • Looks like /. got him. No more downloads from this web site for awhile.
    Google cache is at: http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:MGBZE0sAFnUC: www.wetmachine.com/+&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8
    and cache is available for subsequent pages.
  • I'd like to throw in my $0.02 in favor of Acts of the Apostles. Sure, some the tech is iffy; however, we accept completely bogus tech all the time in our fictional books and programs. Why do so many people suddenly have such huge caveats when the tech is written so much more realistically?

    I will grant that the younger /. audience members may not appreciate the references to DEC and the Mill, but I don't find they detract from the story, which blends a fictional plot with real-life facts, and whether you believe it could be true or not, it's still a good story. Maybe there's a proofing problem here and there, but that's not the reason to skip out on a well-thought book that in particular caters to the intelligent reader.

    I thoroughly enjoyed Acts and in fact read it through nearly nonstop, except for the annoying interruption of having to go to work. I'll be ordering CCDs as soon as I can find my checkbook under the rubble of my desk.

    • It's even better if you've been involved in some of the companies in Silicon Valley or Boston that Sundman parodies.

      Hidden in the plot are all sorts of inside jokes, parodies, and even accurate descriptions of real events that shaped the valey.

      By far my favorite is his retelling of the kinda-famous Borland-Microsoft-Limousine-Recruiting Lawsuits that may have crippled Borland. (Check out http://computernewsdaily.com/128_050897_102205_922 .html and scan below when it talks about signing bonuses and limousines.)

      Coolest thing is that apparently AotA was written even before those limo trips became public! Scary how similar they are, though.
  • I plan to buy a copy (and have planned to do so for a while, honest), but I was curious which got more $$$ into the author's hands, buying by paypal or by check. I assume paypal takes a cut, but maybe you are using a check-guaranteeing service that also takes a cut? Thanks.


    - adam

  • Jump into his diary, it is very amusing (he uses the nick "johnny").

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