Reviews for Graphics modeling and visualization in science and technology

The average rating for Graphics modeling and visualization in science and technology based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-04-20 00:00:00 Alexander Elenskiy Inside Straight was the first Wild Cards book I ever read. I read it right around when it was first coming out, because, hey, GRRM's name on the cover and it did sound like an interesting premise. At the time I read it, I enjoyed it without really getting it. With the most recent of the Fort Freak-centered novels calling back to the characters introduced here, I was curious to go back to read it again now that I know more of the universe and more of where everyone ends up. I also wondered whether everything would make more sense now that I've read the first three Wild Cards books in addition to the five that have come after Inside Straight, which is #18. To my surprise, the answer is no, not especially. While I've now got a better idea of the origin of the wild cards virus on Earth and how it affected modern history, the specific hook for the plot with the Egyptian Old God joker/aces is not something addressed in any of those early novels, nor is the whole situation with John Fortune, the son of Peregrine and Fortunato. Those are two names from the earlier novels, but again, the specifics of how he's come to be a nat are still missing. I appreciate that it's probably a similar challenge to the writers for a comic book. How do you get someone to start reading issue #157 when they haven't read a single thing before? You want to draw in the new people with a big splash, represented in Inside Straight with the American Hero competition, but you can't do TOO much to alienate the dedicated readers, which is how you get a whole bunch of stuff about the Caliph and the involvement of a hermaphrodite shapeshifter James Bond, a magic necklace with a magic lion inside, and a German ace, pictured for some strange reason on the cover looking like a Jedi Knight, who is apparently big in his home country as a pitchman for BMW. I still think it works for the first-time reader, with the auditions and early rounds of the American Hero show providing a great introduction to the notion that this is a version of Earth pretty much like ours, only some people are running around with awesome powers and others have some deformities and maybe also powers. Anybody who watched the TV show Heroes and wondered what it might have been if it had been better, Wild Cards is effectively your answer. Of course, a Wild Cards TV show would probably have some necessary concessions due to budgetary concerns. If you have a guy with six arms who is a living drum set, then you have to spend money to CG that stuff continually. Sorry, Drummer Boy. Unlike a comic book, TV, or movie, the only budgetary concern with reading a book is your imagination. If you like to imagine people with superpowers of any sort, this is your kind of story.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-02-19 00:00:00 Kenneth Greer After a long time away (I don't know that I read the last couple of books), I was drawn back to Wild Cards by the promise of an updated universe and my interest in George R.R. Martin thanks to Game of Thrones. I was very pleased with the results. As with all of the "mosaic novels," there are chapters, writers and characters who are not as strong as the rest, but the American Hero reality show and its varying contestants make up a pretty strong group, as diverse and interesting as the original Wild Cards (and I see that Holy Roller, mentioned in the GURPS Wild Cards book, made it into the universe he helped create after all). I was particularly taken with Jonathan Hive and the blog post entry style used to convey his writing, but I also really liked Curveball, Drummer Boy and the British spy, whose identity and powers I can't really talk about without giving away one of the cooler surprises of the book. The story transitions nicely from the manufactured TV drama of American Hero to the more serious politically-infused drama in Egypt, without making either story feel like a waste of time. I'd love to see it adapted to comics, because there are a lot of cool visual moments in the writing, but even as a standalone novel about superheroes, it shows why the Wild Cards universe captured my attention way back when and sort of makes me long to reread them all. Except that I don't own them anymore, and I definitely don't have time for such a mass re-reading.