Earthweb

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating treatment of the Web of the future!
Review: Although this might at first be taken for another "alien invades Earth" type, IT IS NOT !Marc Stiegler has projected an inventive, fanciful, and perfectly valid hypothesis as to the future of the Earth as intertwined with Internet/Web technology. In Mr. Stiegler's story, Earth's society has assumed a much more enlightened and unified form, without losing the undercurrents of what still keeps us human and believable. Hard to envision, but efficient, intelligent input is available from every member of the race - read it - you might be able to believe it !

Rating:
Summary: dazzling ideas, quirky characters & heart-pounding adventure
Review: Earthweb envisions a mid-21st century in which mankind is engaged in a desperate effort to stave off destruction at the hands of robotic spaceships sent by a mysterious alien race. Sounds overly familiar? Not in the hands of a writer as inventive as Marc Stiegler. Earthweb begins with a fascinating extrapolation of how the world wide web can evolve to form the backbone of a global defense system. Then Stiegler throws in an unusual cast of characters and takes the reader on a good, old-fashioned adventure.

Rating:
Summary: The Future of the World Wide Web in one book.
Review: Earthweb is a book that contains interesting characters. It also has an exciting alien attack. Those two elements would make this a good book. The element that makes this a great book is the way the author makes the future of the web come alive for every reader. We learn about Capablilty-Based Security, Idea Futures and Bidirectional links. These are real technologies that are being developed right now. In this book we see how these technologies may change the face of the internet forever. Please Mr. Marc Stiegler, give us more!

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good but with 2 nagging questions about the villain
Review: Earthweb was pretty good, at least as good as David's Sling from a decade ago. What I really enjoyed was the lively optimistic setting (I liked the idea of Earthweb Everywhere) and the characters that intrigued me and were worth caring about. I honestly look forward to seeing the other 2 books in the trilogy to see the fates of CJ, Dealer and everyone else.

My nagging questions are: Did it seem like Shiva was a video game? Every 5 years a new level, with deadlier bad guys, new traps and layouts, etc. And sandstone in space? Surely you don't think the author was referring to sedimentary rock.

Rating:
Summary: Our Web-enhanced Future
Review: How do you enable a billion people to work together as a tightly knit team?

How might our lives change when a mature version of the World Wide Web becomes the underpinning fabric of global society?

I have spent over a decade working with, and often managing, organizations in Silicon Valley dedicated to answering these questions. Indeed, I was working on these questions even before the term "World Wide Web" was invented: in 1988 I published an article for Analog magazine about hypertext and hypermedia, predicting the development of a global network that would embody the bulk of human knowledge, allowing us access from our homes. For those of us working in the hypertext community, the sudden arrival of the Web was not a surprise; the only question had been, which companies would first deliver Web-like capabilities successfully? But the Web as it now stands is not half so remarkable as the Web that will one day grow from it.

In fact, we already know how to enable a billion people to work together as a tight-knit team. We already know how to replace the bulk of government bureucracies, laws, and regulations, with Web-based machinery that can form the underpinning fabric of global society. The only question is, which companies will first deliver these capabilities successfully?

EarthWeb is the story of a world in which we have navigated through this evolution of the Web to a new, better place, only to see a terrible threat from deep space descend upon us. All the future machinery of the Web will be needed to meet that threat. This is a story of how billions of individual human beings, pursuing their own individual goals, often selfishly, sometimes altruistically, always with great differences in opinion, can come together and forge a solution to a problem of global scope. It is a story of liberty, wrapped in a story of the Web, cloaked in a story of alien battleships and cataclysmic combat.

You can read the first few chapters of EarthWeb at http://www.baen.com

You can read other information related to EarthWeb at http://www.the-earthweb.com

Related information at www.the-earthweb.com includes:

--Links to R&D efforts now underway to build the technologies of EarthWeb;

--Comments by various early readers of EarthWeb, including K. Eric Drexler (Engines of Creation), David D. Friedman(Machinery of Freedom), and of course Vernor Vinge( who is quoted in the elsewhere on the Amazon.com Earthweb page);

--Links to the EarthWeb Contest, revolving around the question, "What Ever Happened To Microsoft In the EarthWeb Universe?"

Join the Contest--you too can be a winner! :-)

And thank you, Amazon.com, for being a part of the evolution of the Web that will one day lead to a world not unlike...EarthWeb!

Rating:
Summary: Wow! Out of the gate and blowing the competition away.
Review: I admit it. I had never heard of marc stiegler before. Where has he been hiding? Apparently his first sci-fi book out and it's good! A lot of nice character development and use of flashback and foreshadowing. Only point of improvement I could think of would be a little more of the Shiva in the next book. Nice Job Marc, can't wait for a sequel or another book in general!

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking
Review: I saw a mention of this book on Slashdot a week ago. When both Vernor Vinge and David Friedman recommend a book, it is a pretty safe bet that it is a good story and well thought out. I wasn't disappointed.

The origin and purpose of the Shivas practically demands another novel. While I am not a big fan of series that never die, I'll be looking for that one. I hope that once again, the ideas are the best part.

Rating:
Summary: hypermedia saves the world in a future I'd love to live in
Review: I've been looking forward to this book for some time. It's a fun read, and interesting extrapolation of current Internet trends. I very much hope that the future really does turn out like this (aside from the invaders, of course). One of the next readings will go towards seeing whether I can catch all the references to earlier SF.

Rating:
Summary: Space opera for the thinking reader.
Review: It is a future where pseudoanonymous identities with persistent reputation contract, over the web and in person. Decisions are guided by anonymous betting on idea future contracts. Reporters must be honest and accurate, because bi-directional, reputation endorsed public commentary follows them wherever they go. And Shiva V is coming to destroy the world.

Welcome to Marc Stiegler's latest book, "Earthweb". It is a space opera with a bibliography. (And the bibliography includes some of my favorite links.

Highly recommended.

Bill Frantz

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful vision of global computer-enhanced collaboration
Review: Stiegler a presents an intriguing vision of computer-enhanced collaboration. He draws on the work of Robin Hanson, Norm Hardy, Mark Miller, Dean Tribble and other little-known, but first-rate thinkers. Earthweb is a nearly painless introduction to the "good" sides of cryptography and of free markets. Unfortunately, the writing isn't as good as the ideas he showcases. I would have liked the characters to be more complex, the plot to be more compelling or at least not quite so blatantly contrived, and the writing to be less syrupy and self-congratulatory. If you read lots of Science Fiction, you probably won't mind these flaws. Even if you are spoiled by excellent writing, Earthweb is still well worth reading.