Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

May 22, 2010

Bound By Darkness (Soul Gatherer Book 02) by Annette McCleave

Filed under: Reviews-Paranormal,Reviews-Romance — Suramya @ 7:29 PM


Bound By Darkness (Soul Gatherer Book 02)
by Annette McCleave

Description:

Death’s warriors guard against demon soul thieves for one chance at redemption…Desire be damned.

Bound together by burning desire and a similar darkness in their hearts, Soul Gatherers Brian Webster and Lena Sharpe race against time to take back from a demon ancient coins that could destroy civilization. But as the truth behind a deadly bargain Lena made surfaces, Brian is faced with a desperate choice-save the one, or save the many.

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Rating:

Review:Bound By Darkness is the second book in the Soul Gatherer series and I have to say, I have some mixed feelings about the book. The first 3-4 chapters were quite confusing and if this was the first book by the author or of the series that I was reading I would have stopped reading then and there. However once I got past the quite rocky start the story started to make sense and I got into the flow of the book.

I think the problem was that the author expected you to remember the story from the first book completely which I didn’t and thus I missed the undertones of the book that would have been visible to me if I had. But once I got into the plot it was quite interesting and the book turned into a decent read.

The book is not one for anyone who is a prude as there are some quite steamy scenes in the book. So if you are one of those then I suggest that you skip the book. They are not as explicit as some of the other books I have read (like the last few books in the Anita Blake series) but are enough to merit a warning.

Final recommendation: A decent read, but make sure you read the 1st book before you read this one.

May 19, 2010

Outsourcing unit to be set up in Indian jail

Filed under: My Thoughts,News/Articles — Suramya @ 11:01 PM

If this hadn’t been on BBC then I would have dismissed this as a joke and a bad one at that. But apparently it is true. There are idiots who think that outsourcing backend processes of Banks to convicted criminals is a good idea. I mean come on… Are you even thinking? If they were doing this with phone bills or utilities bills it would have made sense. But banks… Seriously?

The unit will employ 200 educated convicts who will handle back office operations like data entry, and process and transmit information.

The project will begin at Charlapally Central Jail, near the state capital Hyderabad, in the next four months.
…
…
The unit, which is expected to undertake back-office work for banks, will work round the clock with three shifts of 70 staff each.

I want to know what banks will be part of this program so that I can move my money to another bank if required.

– Suramya

Source: BBC News – Outsourcing unit to be set up in Indian jail
Thanks to Schneier on Security for the story.

Dead in the Family (Southern Vampire Book 10) by Charlaine Harris

Filed under: Reviews-Urban Fantasy — Suramya @ 7:16 PM


Dead in the Family (Southern Vampire Book 10)
by Charlaine Harris

Description:

If you think your family relationships are complicated, think again: you haven’t seen anything like the ones in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with a whole host of family problems, ranging from her own kin (a non-human fairy and a telepathic second cousin) demanding a place in her life, to her lover Eric’s vampire sire, an ancient being who arrives with Eric’s ‘brother’ in tow at a most inopportune moment. And Sookie’s tracking down a distant relation of her ailing neighbour (and ex), Vampire Bill Compton. In addition to the multitude of family issues complicating her life, the werewolf pack of Shreveport has asked Sookie for a special favour,and since Sookie is an obliging young woman, she agrees. But this favour for the wolves has dire results for Sookie, who is still recovering from the trauma of her abduction during the Fairy War.

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Rating:

Review:The newest installment in the Southern Vampire series picks up from where the previous book ended. The Faery War has ended but everyone is still recovering from it.

I really didn’t remember a lot from the previous books and so for the first few chapters was a bit lost. Plus the books are completely different than the TV series so that was another thing that confused things for me. It would have really helped if the author had written a short summary of the events till date before starting the new story. Unfortunately very few authors do that.

Thankfully a few chapters into the book enough was explained and I remembered enough from the previous books that I was able to enjoy the rest of the book without wondering what was going on.

Final Recommendation: A good read but it could have started off better.

May 18, 2010

Boot From a USB Drive even when your BIOS Won’t Let You

Filed under: Computer Software,Computer Tips,Tech Related — Suramya @ 11:37 PM

If you are like me then you have gotten into the habit of carrying a Live Linux CD with you at times, I keep mine in my Laptop bag so its there when I need it. However CD’s have a lot of inherent problems like, an inability to update the version without burning a new disk and a susceptibility to scratches.

Having a Bootable USB drive with the latest version of Linux solves all these problems. USB drives are quite cheap now and it makes sense to have one available loaded with the latest diagnostic tools. But till date I didn’t carry a bootable USB drive with me because a lot of the systems I encountered didn’t allow me to boot from USB which made the bootable drive pretty much useless. Now, there is a way to fix the problem. What you need is a Blank CD and the latest version of PLoP.

PLoP is a Bootmanager that allows you to create a boot CD that will enable the system to boot from a USB drive even when that option is not supported by the BIOS. You can download PLoP from here. Installing it is quite easy. You just need to extract the .ZIP file that you downloaded and burn the .iso image to a CD. There are two ISO images on the CD and you can use either one of them, however according to the readme file plpbtnoemul.iso should work “everywhere” so if you have some doubt use that image.

Once you burn the image to the CD, reboot the system and configure it to boot off the CD. When the system boots up you will get a boot menu that will allow you to choose USB as the device to boot from. Once you do that the system will boot off the USB drive as normal and you can proceed from there.

Hope you find this as helpful as I am going to.

– Suramya

Source: Boot From a USB Drive Even if your BIOS Won’t Let You – How-To Geek.

Hard Magic (Paranormal Scene Investigations Book 01) by Laura Anne Gilman

Filed under: Reviews-Urban Fantasy — Suramya @ 7:13 PM


Hard Magic (Paranormal Scene Investigations Book 01)
by Laura Anne Gilman

Description:

Welcome to P.U.P.I. – Private, Unaffiliated, Paranormal Investigations

A handpicked team trained to solve crimes the regular police can’t touch – crimes of magic.

My name’s Bonnie Torres. Recent college grad, magic user and severely unemployed. Until I got a call out of nowhere to interview for a job I hadn’t applied for. It smelled fishy, but the brutal truth was I needed the work – so off I went.

Two days later I’m a PUPI – me and Nick, Sharon, Nifty and Pietr. Five twentysomethings, thrown into an entirely new career in forensic magic.

The first job we get is a doozy: proving that the deaths of two Talents were murder, not suicide. Worse, there are high-profile people who want us to close up shop and go away. We’re sniffing out things they’d rather keep buried.

Looks as if this job is gonna get interesting. The only problem is, we’re making it up as we go along..

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Rating:

Review:Hard magic is the first book in a new series based in the same universe as her famous Retriever Series.

The P.U.P.I (Private, Unaffiliated, Paranormal Investigations) is an organization that is mentioned a couple of times in the Retriever books but their origins and manifesto were never told. This book makes up for the lack and introduces us to the P.U.P.I and takes us through their first case.

The storyline was fun and clean and the characters were well defined. Even though its set in the same universe as the Retriever books none of the characters from them appeared in this book though it might change in the future books.

As this was the first book a lot of groundwork was laid before the actual story started but none of it was too tedious or boring, which was good.

The ending not one that answered all the questions but I think that was intentional so that the next novel has a base to start from. But even though it didn’t answer all questions it was a fun read.

Final Recommendation: A fun read

May 17, 2010

Ghostbusters: The Return by Sholly Fisch

Filed under: Reviews-Paranormal — Suramya @ 7:08 PM


Ghostbusters: The Return
by Sholly Fisch

Description:

It’s been 2 years since the events in Ghostbusters II and the group finds itself neck deep in ghosts and ghouls as some of the most unsettling urban legends – like the hook-handed killer in lovers lane and The vanishing hitchhiker – all come to deadly life.

But the worse is yet to come for Ray Stanz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore – and quite possibly the people of New York. The ghost buster leader Peter Venkman has been chosen by an independent political party to be their candidate for Mayor!

With the city reeling under a supernatural reign of terror, can the Ghostbusters stop the arrival of an ancient fear-demon in time to save election day – or should Venkman start looking for another job already

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Rating:

Review:This is the first book in a new series of Original stories featuring the characters in the Original Ghostbusters movies. The events in the book take place a couple of years after the second movie.

As a forerunner to a new series of books this book was a good choice, the book remained true (mostly) to the characters in the movie and still managed to get a decent storyline and plot in the process.

The plot remained interesting throughout and even the minor characters were well developed. Though he didn’t develop them to the point where a reader would get tired of it and start skipping portions of the book.

I really enjoyed the book and since this is the first book I have read by the author I will be making it a point to search for more books by him.

Final Recommendation: A good read. Waiting for the next book in the novelization series.

May 16, 2010

Gryphon’s Quest (Tales of the Order Book 01) by Candace Sams

Filed under: Reviews-Fantasy — Suramya @ 7:06 PM


Gryphon’s Quest (Tales of the Order Book 01)
by Candace Sams

Description:

Druid Warrior, Gryphon O’Connor must retrieve the Rune Stones of the Tuatha De Danan, which were stolen from an ancient Irish burial site and will allow a person to shape shift. By the time he gets to New York where the stones have been taken, they’ve been used to commit a hideous murder. At the Manhattan Museum of Antiquities, Heather Green is an Acquisitions Assistant. To find the stones within the cavernous museum, Gryphon approaches her for help. His story about stolen rune stones is just too unbelievable, and Gryphon isn’t the kind of man Heather can trust. But if Gryphon reveals too many of his secrets it will cost him and Heather their lives.

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Rating:

Review:Gryphon’s Quest is the first novel in the Tales of the Order series and also happens to be the first book by the author that I have read. So far I am quite impressed by her writing style and I really liked the book.

The characters were quite well defined and even though the plot wasn’t too involved and was a bit simplistic, the way she told the story covered all of that up and made the book into an engrossing story.

Since its the first book in the series it sets the stage for the next books in the series but thankfully doesn’t do it with a cliff-hanger or by leaving threads untied. I think this series is going to be a set of stories that happen to be set in the same universe rather than a continuing story line.

Final Recommendation: A good read.

May 15, 2010

The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles Book 01) by Rick Riordan

Filed under: Reviews-Young Adult Fantasy — Suramya @ 7:03 PM


The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles Book 01)
by Rick Riordan

Description:

Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them–Set–has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe–a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

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Rating:

Review:In this first book of a new series Rick proves that he is a great author and that you don’t have to load your books with sex or violence to make it good.

The book is narrated to us by Carter and Sadie Kane who take turns to tell us the events in the story. The two are the typical brother and sister and the way they tell their story reflects that, with all the silly comments and fooling around the characters are quite real and well developed.

The plot is also quite interesting and I can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out. This was the first book that actually explained well how the Egyptian Gods were interrelated without bringing Incest into it. I like this take better than the standard one.

This is a problem I face with the really good books; I run out of things to write. i.e. I can’t think of items to talk about that don’t also include spoilers.

Final Recommendation: A must read.

Why no new photos in the Gallery

Filed under: My Life,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 4:40 AM

A few people asked me why I don’t upload any photos to the Photogallery anymore so I checked the logs and found that the last time I uploaded stuff to the gallery was in August of 2009. Considering that the photogallery was the most frequently updated section of the site before then, it is a long time to not upload new stuff. Plus even before then it was sporadic and not all trips/events got shared on the site.

This is not because I don’t have photos to upload and share. It wasn’t because I was feeling lazy and didn’t have time. It takes me about 15 mins to create a new section and upload new pics and most of it is spent on creating captions. The main issue is that I have gotten tired of getting crap from people about the photos I post. I spend hours deciding what photos to post and what not to post. The no of photos I post on the site are not even 1% of the total photos I have taken. The gallery wasn’t made to embarrass people, it was made to share photos of the good times I have had with friends.

When people asked me to remove a particular photo or change a caption I usually remove the photo if their reason made sense to me. Then I started getting comments telling me that I always post crappy photos of people on the site to make them look bad. If that’s what you think. Fine. Its your point of view. I am tired of listening to the crap and have people giving me shit. So I have stopped uploading photos to the site.

I take photos because I like it. I don’t HAVE to post it for others. If you want a copy of the photos I take email me and I will put them up in a private section of the site and give you access. But I am done posting these photos publicly for now. This is not a decision I have made today. Its been in my thoughts for a while but this is the first time I am writing this down.

I am seriously considering moving the entire photos.suramya.com domain to a password protected area. No public photos no BS. But its not something I have decided yet. Lets see, I am still thinking about it.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

May 14, 2010

Victorious (The Lost Fleet Book 06) by Jack Campbell

Filed under: Reviews-Science Fiction — Suramya @ 7:01 PM


Victorious (The Lost Fleet Book 06)
by Jack Campbell

Description:

Now Victorious leads the charge again-and “Black Jack” Geary is in command…

As war continues to rage between the Alliance and Syndicate Worlds, Captain “Black Jack” Geary is promoted to admiral-even though the ruling council fears he may stage a military coup. His new rank gives him the authority to negotiate with the Syndics, who have suffered tremendous losses and may finally be willing to end the war. But an even greater alien threat lurks on the far side of the Syndic occupied space.

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Rating:

Review:Victorious is the sixth book in the Lost Fleet Series and concludes the series. In the previous books Jack “Black Jack” Geary fought his way through enemy space and has finally made it home with the remnants of the Alliance Space Fleet.

Now he has to deal with the political leadership of the Alliance while ensuring that the fleet doesn’t stage a coup in his name.

The book ties up a lot of loose ends in the plot that were left unresolved in the previous books and even though it doesn’t have as much action (space battles) as the previous books it has enough to ensure a good read.

One thing I really liked was that the author didn’t use a lot of shipping terms during the battles and if he did then they were explained so at no point did I feel like skipping the battle descriptions.

Although, the book can be read on its own without having read the previous books I recommend that you read them first so that you get a better idea of the backdrop and the current situation in the universe.

Final Recommendation: A great read.

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