The Notes of Glitch the Hamster
Alexey Gerasimovich's blog about books, music, Cyprus, and everything else
A very strange book. Judging by the ratings, most readers consider it almost a revelation, although, in truth, its entire message can be summed up in one phrase: “Find what interests you and do it without fear.” And that’s it. At times, the author seems more interested in drawing illustrations and quoting famous people than in trying to build something coherent.
My rating: 1/5
You can’t always trust book blurbs. The book is essentially the author’s account of a couple of years spent in Cyprus in 1953-54. These were likely the last years when the island could still be called both unified and peaceful. At first, you can clearly sense the author’s condescending attitude toward the locals, even though he calls them his friends. Gradually, this tone fades, giving way to reflections on the difficult political situation on the island, which led to tragic and bloody consequences. Had the British made the right and, most importantly, timely decisions back then, we might not have had the bloody history and forty years of division and intercommunal hatred that still exist on the island today. Sadly, history doesn’t deal with hypotheticals.
As for the writing itself, the book is uneven, sometimes slipping into dull recollections of meetings with friends whose names mean nothing to most readers, then shifting to colorful descriptions of the local lifestyle or detailed analyses of the events of those years.
The book doesn’t provide any groundbreaking insights into management, and, in my opinion, it’s more focused on the experience of managing lower-level employees (at least, most of the examples are about that). If you’re expecting to find a real plan for how to suddenly become a great manager, it’s not here. The advice is quite general and vague. However, the book is still very useful as a kind of checklist, allowing you to periodically self-assess and ask yourself, “Am I doing this or that?”
Blizzard has given me countless hours of enjoyment through its games. WarCraft and StarCraft were captivating not only because of their engaging gameplay but also due to the well-thought-out worlds behind them. The creators went beyond the typical “good vs. bad” battle. Even the seemingly evil orcs had their own goals and code of honor. Blizzard meticulously crafted the lore, and the later novelizations of these games were written under the company’s close supervision. Incidentally, their official website explicitly states that writing fan fiction about these game worlds is strictly prohibited.
When I learned about the release of books based on these beloved worlds, I was eager to buy and read them. However, none of these books had ever been published in Russian up to that point. So, without hesitation, I bought the original English versions of the novels. I must admit, I had little experience reading fiction in English before that.
Jeff Grubb’s novel Liberty’s Crusade is the first of three books set in the StarCraft universe to be published in print. The main character, reporter Michael Liberty, is not someone players would be familiar with from the game. By a twist of fate, he finds himself on the front lines of the war between humans and the mysterious Protoss and Zerg. To survive, he has no choice but to take up arms.
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I read the first novel of Nick Perumov’s The Empire Above All dilogy as soon as it was released, but had to wait for the second part. By the time it came out, I could barely remember the plot of the first book. So, I decided to reread the entire dilogy, starting from the beginning.
The events of the dilogy take place in a future roughly two centuries behind our current time. However, the people of that time are almost no different from us. The differences lie not in the people, but in their place of residence—various planets. Even in terms of technology, civilization hasn’t progressed much.
In this world, the largest power is the Empire. It controls nearly all human-inhabited planets, though there are always those who are discontented. The main character of the book, Ruslan Fateev, is Russian, hailing from the Russian planet New Crimea. The inhabitants of this planet fiercely hate the Empire and long for independence, and with that goal in mind, Ruslan joins the Imperial assault forces—to undermine the enemy from within. Naturally, everyone around him, including his beloved, considers him a traitor.
For reasons unexplained, the Empire also calls itself the Fourth Reich, with its army bearing the insignia and unit names of the infamous Third Reich. It’s hard not to hate them for that.
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