I have been creating PowerPoint presentations for about eight years, and in that time I have designed dozens of slide shows.  I thought I was pretty good at it. 

But then I saw the new book slide:ology - the Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte. 

Nancy Duarte’s company, Duarte Design has a boatload of clients who are Fortune 500 companies, including Google, HP, Adobe, Cisco, and others.  Her company is recognized as the leader in presentation development and design.  You know the presentation Al Gore used in his ”An Inconvenient Truth?”  Yeah, her company designed it.  Other than producing an unhealthy amount of methane gas that year, I really didn’t have any part in Al Gore’s presentation. 

In fact, when I really thought about it, I remembered that none of my presentations have won any awards.  Maybe slide:ology could teach me a few things.

I opened it.  I learned.  A lot.   

slide:ology is simply chock full of amazing, colorful pictures and ideas.  I would not be surprised if it ends up being used as a text book in college-level courses.  But that’s the funny thing:  it has the look and feel of a text book, but the approachability of a dime store page turner - it pulls you in, and won’t let go.  It’s entertaining and informative.  How often do you hear that about a text book?   

slide:ology is available on Amazon right now, and probably also at your local book store.  Before you create your next presentation, I strongly suggest you check it out. 

You can see the cover to the left. It has a red dragon sitting in front of what appears to be a character sheet for a role playing game. As you may have guessed from the title, The Elfish Gene is Mark’s memoir about growing up while playing Dungeons and Dragons.   

Look, I know I am a complete and total geek.  Heck, I write for a website with the word Geek in it!  I get to write about awesome geeky stuff.  So, this makes me a complete and total geek, and I accept that.  I cherish it.  

However, looking at the book, I realized there was somebody out there who, dare I say it, grew up even more geeky than me.  Someone who might even be currently unhealthfully geeky.  Strange geeky, even.  

So, I worried, just for a moment.  Would I like the book?  Or would it make me feel uncomfortable - the same kind of embarrased and uncomfortable feeling I got as a kid watching reruns of Leave-it-to-Beaver when the Beave did something totally stupid?  I felt for him, but I also felt embarrassed for him and uncomfortable watching him screw up, knowing he was going to get in trouble for it.

I mean, who in their right mind would write a memoir about playing a single game?  And how could he possibly hold my interest over 277 pages?     

Well, I shouldn’t have worried.  This is a good, funny book, and I am enjoying the heck out of it so far.  Barrowcliffe used to be a stand-up comedian before wrting his first book (this is his third).  He has an excellent writing style that is light and funny, and when he describes the game, you feel his excitement as he rolls the dice.    

Let me share with you the first couple of paragraph of the book.  I hope this sample intrigues you as much as it intrigued me:

An elf cloak is designed to render its user invisible.Worn in the Coventry shopping precinct when the City soccer team is playing at home, however, it has rather the opposite effect.  

What follows explains why, on 24 October 1981, I was thrown into a fountain by soccer hooligans and how I eventually came to wish they’d done it years earlier.

The U.S. Version hits shelves in November.  However, you can purchase the European version now.

Back when I started gaming all we had was a brand new Atari 2600. I cut my teeth on Laser Blast and ET (yeah, I played the whole thing several times. I think I was the only one). If somebody told me back then that one day people would play video games and get paid for it, I would have laughed. But not my father: he would have frowned. He never could see the lure to watching all those pixels dancing across the screen.

That was back in the early 80’s, near the dawn of video gaming.

Did you know the average gamer in 2005 was thirty years old? I suspect the average age is even older now. We’re all a little older. I’ve come a long ways in that time. Games have come a lot further. These days, professional gamers get paid big money to, well, play video games. Hah! Take that, Dad!

You hear a lot of stories about professional sports players… from drugs to women, these guys have it all. They are the lucky few, and some will do anything to get an edge… placing a win above all else.

According to the cover to the book Game Boys, some professional video gamers aren’t too different from their more physical counterparts. They “win, lose, scout opponents, cheat, quarrel, skip practice,” and even use performance enhancing drugs (designed to alleviate ADHD).

Game Boys is the story of two competing teams, the misfit underdogs “CompLexity”, and the deep pocket all-stars, “Team 3D”. What lengths will they have to go to win? I can’t wait to find out.
 

Find it on Amazon- Game Boys: Professional Videogaming’s Rise from the Basement to the Big Time 

Truancy is about a dystopian society run by “The Mayor” and his “Educators”, and it was written by, get this, a fifteen year old.  This is no kid’s book, however: it’s filled with a lot of pain and misery, death, murder, and psychological abuse.  But it’s also pretty good, especially considering this is a “first” book, written by one so young.  Fukui’s age allows for a unique and personal perspective to his story…

The concept sounds silly at first:  It’s about Tack, a young man growing up in a nameless city.  He’s just trying to keep his head above water as he juggles indifferent parents and unrelenting school work.  His teachers are abusive… troubled students are expelled and murdered, for example. 

Against this society, the Truants fight.  They aren’t much better than the Educators:  they aren’t above killing innocents in their fight against the establishment.  “Collateral Damage,” they say.  And after a personal tragedy, Tack finds himself drawn to their cause, yet alienated by their ways.   

Isamu’s writing is a bit rough around the edges.  However, he tells an interesting story.  This kid has won several awards… he started writing when he was thirteen.  So, I would suggest picking this one up.  It might be a collector’s item some day!  In the meantime, it just might make you think.   

AMAZON        

I just finished V: The Second Generation by Kenneth Johnson. Set in current times, twenty years after the arrival of the Visitors, it concerns the ongoing struggle against the lizards.

The past twenty years haven’t been good for Earth. Nearly all the water is gone, and much of the population lives in delusion that it will be returned. The Resistance is on its last legs… very few fighters remain after “The Great Purge of 1999,” in which many were wiped out. But they are about to discover that the distress call they made nearly twenty years ago has been heard… and answered. But at what cost?

Kenneth Johnson tells the story from the perspective of individuals as they strive for, or against, the Human race. All of your favorite aliens and humans have a part in the story, including Mike Donovon, Diana (pictured), Willie (remember Robert Englund?), Martin, Julie Parrish, and others. There are also new heroes and villains.

Of course, there are plenty of explosions, adventures, love, life, and death between the pages. And while it is a bit predictable in places, there are still surprises.

I saw some mixed reviews on Amazon. There are a lot of feelings out there about this one. I guess you’ll have to read it to find out for yourself.

So what did I think of it? I ‘m glad you asked. I though it was excellent: Johnson tells a great story. This isn’t a feel good book, but it is one that really makes you think about things. I really enjoyed my time with it, and hoping they make it into a film. Overall, I’d give this one a Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

See it on Amazon

Remember the mini-series? IMDB

I have been meaning to sit down and watch the series as an adult.

Every once in awhile, I wondered how the story ended. There was a comic for awhile, and also a regular TV show. But V slowly faded away. Guess what?! It’s back!

I got my hands on a copy of V: The Second Generation, a new novel by the creator of V, Kenneth Johnson, and you know what, it’s really interesting. I’m a few chapters in and I can tell I am going to enjoy it.

It kicks off twenty years later, and things haven’t gone well for the Resistance, in fact I gather they are on the ropes. Not only that, but the Visitors aren’t the only aliens in town….

I’ll post a full review when I finish the book.

See the book on Amazon

The October 2007 Geekscribe Book of the Month is: Expendable by James Alan Gardner

Expendable was James Alan Gardner’s first book. Don’t let that fact scare you away. It’s a good one.

Gardner’s universe is an interesting and complicated one, filled with intrigue, and interesting characters. His books are thoughtful and compelling, with people you root for and against.

Expendable takes place in the distant future when humans have ventured out into space, and we’re not alone. We’re also not the strongest, fastest or smartest. In fact we rank about as high in the evolutionary ladder as your common everyday kumquat.

Interstellar space is controlled by the “League of Peoples,” however they have only one rule: only sentient beings can cross into interstellar space. Non-sentient creatures are killed instantly: they just drop dead in interstellar space. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong!

You’re sentient as long as you have never murdered someone, or through your inaction caused someone’s death. However, this also works for the species: if human society is involved in a war, the League might just decide to declare the entire species non-sentient. Same goes for a human society that is aware of people dying or being killed by aggressors and doesn’t go out of its way to intervene.

Expendable is told from the first person perspective of Festina Ramos. She is a member of the Explorer Corps, or E.C. Whenever a new species or planet is discovered, a member of the E.C. is sent to make first contact.

Frequently, first contacts end in death, because there are tons of ways to piss off an alien you just met.

The people who are in charge have realized that when a well-liked /good looking person dies it has a lasting impression on those around him/her. Morale goes down; people make mistakes, possibly fatal mistakes. Therefore, members of the Explorer Corps are usually deformed in some manner, or are loners or “broken” mentally.

Even though the technology exists to fix deformities and deficiencies, the higher ups see to it that they remain that way. It’s easier on morale to lose someone no one knew or even liked.

Festina Ramos has a port-wine birthmark covering the right half of her face. She is perfect in every other way: smart, sexy, and tough. But her birthmark makes her a perfect member of the EC, an Expendable. Life in the Explorer Corps is brutal, lonely, and above all short, but Festina has always come back alive.

Now, her mission is to escort an unstable Admiral to a planet that no one ever comes back from: Melaquin, “the Planet of No Return.” Countless other Explorers have tried, and have simply disappeared. No one knows why. Will this be Festina’s last mission? Read Expendable and find out!

Gardner’s Official Website

You can still find this book on Amazon.com, or ebay.