e-topia

Rating:
Summary: Better be called "e-today"
Review: Mitchell provides a well description of today and very near future. Covering most of the ideas possible with the current state of technology. He tells us what is available today and perhaps what is available later today. However, he fails in telling what is going to be a little later, say next week. A reader expects more from a book called "e-topia". A better title for the book would be "e-today". If you are a stranger to the field, you can learn a lot from this book. Otherwise, you already have many ideas addable this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fresh/broad vision
Review: The book helped me to put some commonsense about the Internet/technology and their impacts together. But it lacks of depth.

Rating:
Summary: Gem of a book with one flaw
Review: This is a great book, and you can't say 'great' without choosing the word carefully. Think of the book as very rich food, it is difficult to digest it at one sitting. The starter was like a think broth but it did help me settle into the author's writing style. The main course was enlightening but filling, and the desert comparatively light and attractive. This is no madman's ranting it is very well balanced and honest. I felt the author was sitting beside me reading the whole thing aloud as the style is friendly if a little bit too heavily laced with 'advanced English'. And this is it's flaw, this wonderful book is really only suitable for the native English speaker, I gave my copy to a Czech friend with excellent English and she was unable to enjoy it as I had. If you have an interest in what the physical shape of our existance might look like under the future influence of the virtual world we are creating then this is the book for you. This is not just a book for architects, it is a book for a very wide audience, it is not too heavily littered with technical jargon so native English speakers will be able to enjoy it.