Rating: 
Summary: disappointment
Review: Lewis is a great journalist, and a witty writer, but this is a lazy piece of work. He gets many facts wrong (see the recent Washington Post review for a complete list). Worse, he refuses to pass any judgement on the boorish and greedy Jim Clark. Also, the astounding lack of detail about Clark's personal life - his marriages, his children, etc. - is odd. Did he make a deal with Clark - no personal detail, in exchange for full access to business dealing? If so, Lewis never owns up to it.
Rating: 
Summary: ...in which your other leg is pulled.
Review: LIAR'S POKER explored Wall Street's rip-off of S&L's and bond investors by means of a flash-in-the-pan computer algorithm which obscurely manipulates the value of financial assets. MBA's got obscenely rich doing funny (but kind of naughty) things. Taxpayers paid. Author Lewis moved on. THE NEW NEW THING is the same plot on an updated set - technology is being misrepresented so less than admirable types can vie for biggest billionaire. The orgy is a boat trip - that's new.I keep thinking of "chutzpah." Silicon Valley relies on imported engineers whose (overseas) education apparently avoided touchy subjects like securities fraud ("blue sky" IPO's), tax fraud (expensing development costs), public utility regulation of natural monopolies, the link between inefficient , binary code and infinite PE's, how political wannabe's are romanced into not rocking the boat ... and the Dewey Decimal system (search engine of America's scandalously underpaid librarians). Silicon Valley's unthinkable wealth relies absolutely on its army of dim bulbs at INS, IRS, DOJ, academia and, not least, Congress. Come to think of it, "chutzpah" is not a crime, so I take that back. There are hints that Lewis understands but thought better of blurting out realities that can well do much greater harm than mortgage derivatives inflict. Wet blankets don't sell books like funny stories do. No predictions. Read for laughs. Don't try these stunts at home.
Rating:
Summary: No Liar's Poker...
Review: I guess I read Liar's poker about 4 years ago - an exceptional book. I was hoping that this would be at least as good. Unfortunately, Lewis is to technology what I am to stock broking. The book lacks the charm & self effacement of his earlier work. Its was never clear where Lewis stands in the story - I remember seeing him writing for Microsoft's Slate as a 'trial correspondent' in MS v DOJ. Chunks of this work appear toward the end of the book. Lewis's only role appears to be as a journalist along for the ride. Too much of the book is the kind of Tom Wolf-ish gush verbage. Anyway, I'm still waiting for someone to write the great tech novel of the 90s : Kurt Anderson's 'Turn of the Century' is far better written and much funnier.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book about a fascinating man
Review: Clark is a gas. This guy with his craziness and his vision and his scary disregard for his people's safety, makes for a whallop of a book. Michael Lewis is an excellent writer (as is Po Bronson, contrary to the above). Lewis has more comedy in him which keeps you going throughout. The story here is many times beyond belief, particularly the Hyperion sailboat run by 25 SG computers. What this book leaves you with is a feeling of how easy it is to make a billion dollars on paper. This is a thrilling but unsettling book. How big can the house of cards get?
Rating:
Summary: An accurate and vivid portrayal of ClarkWorld
Review: One of the best reads this year. Reads like fiction and is highly entertaining. Lewis should get the nomination for the Pulitzer. Of the recent Silicon Valley books, this by far is the most interesting and accurate insider's view of the the Silicon Valley start-up craze, the dynamic interplay of the VCs, Investment Banks and Jim Clark, and the exploding bombs that go off after each deal is made. Almost surreal in content, as an insider in this industry, I can personally attest to the fact that Lewis has done a remarkable job of getting the story right with ALL of details that only silicon valley insiders are privvy to. If you want to start up an internet company, this should be mandatory reading as Clark has become the ultimate rule-breaker renegade with an insatiable appetite to be the richest man on the planet.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid, But Not Liar's Poker
Review: Lewis' book has one key feature that sets it apart from The Silicon Boys & Nudist on the Late Shift - it's extremely well written....this makes it an engaging page turner - a real story you can sink your teeth into - not a string of poorly written vignettes. The downside?...unlike Liar's Poker, Lewis isn't actually 'in the fray' here, and the third person perspective dulls it a bit....those who have read Liar's Poker will get this off the bat. Overall, an entertaining & enlightening read, definitely one to have in your quiver as you make the social/networking rounds.
Rating:
Summary: Worth a Listen
Review: I thought about it, and really I think Jim is a great guy and a has a lot of brainpower.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on the Valley
Review: Finally, someone with a brain writes a book about the valley! This one really stands out above all the drivel that has come before it.
Rating:
Summary: A good story -- actually a biography of a sort
Review: At first, this book seemed to be only a biography of Jim Clark. This was indeed the case, but soon into the book, I no longer cared. The story of Jim Clark is really an interesting one. It is a great book. However, a couple of complaints. The author comes across as a bit of a sycophant, running around the globe with Clark and writing primarily glowing stuff. My second complaint: Lewis is not at his best here. I've enjoyed some recent NYT magazine articles of his more. Furthermore, one can find evidence of laziness in writing -- drooping socks appear in this volume again (Liar's Poker fans will remember the metaphor in his description of the old British economy). But it's a solid read, and I really do recommend it. One more thing, it would have been great if Lewis had stuck with the deal he was doing with Thestreet.com. Would have been nice to see him in print more often.
Rating:
Summary: This is to the nineties what Liars Poker was to the eighties
Review: Loved the book. Lewis has the knack for distilling down the driving force of the decades economy to a single person (Jim Clark) and distilling that person down to his own driving forces (ego, superior foresight and a new new sailboat.) I came away with knowledge and context I'd expect to get from a textbook and a reading experience not unlike Dave Berry. Lewis just has this tremendous sense of irony. There is practical information as well. You may find your self tempted to buy every stock which has a CEO graduated from IIT in India. Regardless of what he writes in the meantime, I'm already looking forward to his take on what will have driven the world of business for the decade ended 2010.
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