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Learn more about today's best books of the month releases below, or browse all of our favorites for July here.
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When the English Fall by David Williams
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American Fire by Monica Hesse
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What We Lose by Zinzi ClemmonsSign up for the Amazon Book Review to discover best books of the month picks, author interviews, reading recommendations, and more from the Amazon Books editors
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Sungrazer by Jay Posey - If you like your military science fiction to be fast, chock-full of tactical details, and fun (as I do), then Posey's new tale should hit the sweet spot. Our heroes, the 519th Applied Intelligence Group (aka, the Outriders) are sent to stop a city-killing space-based weapon from being deployed"¦and to avoid starting a war between Mars and the American countries on Earth. Outriders team leader Lincoln Suh's perfect balance between hard-edged effectiveness and self-deprecation is what sets this novel apart from the rest of the military SF genre. Light on politics, heavy on problem-solving and engagement, and as generous with giving the tech people as much to do as the shooters, this kinetic space thriller is gripping. I didn't read Outriders, Posey's previous novel, before I read Sungrazer (and you don't need to either), but I plan to fix that oversight immediately.
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When the English Fall by David Williams - In this spare but tense novel, only the Amish have the skills and the food stores to survive after an unexplained event destroys most modern technology, causing planes to fall out of the sky and electricity to fail. Told through the diary entries of Amish farmer Jacob, the bubbling-up of anger and violence in the outside world slowly begins to affect the self-sufficient Amish, forcing them to rethink their relationships with the non-Amish and how they will stay true to their beliefs while under new pressure. A fascinating exploration of the corrosive effect of anger and the strength that can be found in holding true to one's beliefs, even if it leads to the harder path. When the English Fall won a spot on our overall Best of the Month list for July, making it a top 10 pick among all books published across all categories this month.
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Amatka by Karin Tidbeck - Jeff VanderMeer tipped me off to this book a few months ago, and I'm confident in saying that if you like VanderMeer's works, this book will be just right for you, too. The strange and unknowable aren't explained directly, and there's a deliberate opaqueness to the world-building that insists that you trust the author and just go along for the ride. Vanja, seeking a change, travels to the colony of Amatka to do research and finds herself surprisingly at home among the cold, dark town and its people. But there's a secret that the colony government is hiding, and Vanja's inquisitiveness threatens to reveal something that could destroy the entire community. Lovers of neatly resolved endings should look elsewhere, but those who enjoy submersing themselves in the surreal will be happy with Tidbeck's gritty, bizarre story.
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Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook by Christina Henry - I went into Lost Boy with a lot of goodwill built up after reading Henry's bleak and scary Alice and Red Queen, and Henry came through in spades with her reimagining of the early relationship between Hook (here, Jamie) and Peter Pan. Peter is self-centered and a near-sociopath, while Jamie (Peter's first Lost Boy) is the mama bear to the new boys Peter brings to the island. Most boys die through adventures or a coughing sickness; others are killed by pirates or forced out if they get older. When a new, much younger Lost Boy joins the group, Jamie starts to challenge Peter's decisions, putting them on a collision course. Henry's novels are briskly paced while filled with color and nuance, and she isn't afraid to go to the dark side of our psyche, exposing that which makes us weak and strong at the same time.
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The Waking Land by Callie Bates - A hostage for 14 years in the king's court to assure her noble father's good behavior, Elanna is blindsided by the death of the king--a murder the newly crowned ruler quickly blames on Elanna. Escaping to her homeland, Elanna stumbles into a bubbling rebellion just as her own dormant powers to speak with trees, rocks, and the natural world begin to bloom, setting her at the heart of the uprising. Confident storytelling and a sympathetic protagonist overcome the initially hard-to-follow political shenanigans, and enough characters get killed off, Game of Thrones-like, to keep the reader on his or her toes. A strong start to a new trilogy.Also on our list of the best SF and fantasy of July is Tad Williams' The Witchwood Crown, launching a new story arc in the world of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Kevin Hearne's Besieged and Diana Gabaldon's Seven Stories to Stand or Fall collect shorter works centered on their fan-favorite series. Sarah Beth Durst continues her excellent Queens of Renthia fantasy series with The Reluctant Queen.
Click here to see the full list of editors' picks for the month.
And although it's not on our SF and fantasy list, those who enjoy supernatural thrillers shouldn't miss Marcus Sakey's spectacularly twisty Afterlife, in which the world beyond death reaches into the world of the living, forcing two FBI agents to confront a power they never imagined.
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"What, I wondered, did other children's authors write when they were their readers' ages? Illustrators, too. What did they draw?" Those were the questions Elissa Brent Weissman asked herself after discovering a shoebox full of stories she'd written as a kid in her parents' basement. "I couldn't be the only one who'd want to know. So I began to ask."
Weissman, author of such award-winning middle-grade novels as The Short Seller and Nerd Camp, reached out to dozens of artists and writers. She was surprised by how many were willing to write about their early creative work and share examples of it.
That collection became Weissman's anthology, Our Story Begins: Your Favorite Authors and Illustrators Share fun, inspiring, and Occasionally Ridiculous Things They Wrote and Drew as Kids. It's published this week by Atheneum, and it's a gift to children who are enamored with the work of favorite writers or illustrators, and wonder how they got their start. It may also prove to be a gift to future scholars of children's books.
From Brian Selznick to RJ Palacio, Kwame Alexander, and Yuyi Morales, there's enormous variety in the experiences of the 25 contributors included in Our Story Begins. Some had encouraging teachers and parents; some persevered despite early challenges. As Weissman writes in her introduction, "The whole collection is honest and passionate and often over-the-top. It's raw, in every sense of the word. It reflects the authors and artists these authors and artists admired, and without a doubt, the authors and artists they someday became."
What may strike you is how "adorably normal" (to use Tim Federle's words) these budding Caldecott and Newberry winners were in their youths. They were just kids who loved to draw and write, and demonstrated the strength Kathi Appelt's teacher noted in her: "stick-to-it-ness."
Elissa Weissman spoke to the Amazon Book Review about the process of creating Our Story Begins.
Amazon Book Review: How did you get started on the project that became this book?
Elissa Brent Weissman: The story began with a box in the basement. I was at my parents' house and I found this box that was filled with stories I wrote in my childhood.
When I visited schools to talk about my books, I would mention that when I was in middle school I began writing a novel called The Ryland Revolt. Kids would ask, "Can we read it?"
I started thinking, "I can't be the only one who has all this stuff saved from when we were kids."
So what happened next?
I called my agent with the idea, but at first she thought it would be complicated to put together -- which it was.
A little while later I went to a Simon & Schuster dinner and I was sitting next to Candace Fleming on one side and Tim Federle on the other. Candace told me this awesome story about how when she was a kid, she wrote a story, and she thought it needed a medal on it, so she scraped the Newbery sticker off another book and put it on hers. It was Candace and her illustrator, Eric Rohmann, being on board and their willingness to ask other writers and illustrators that got the ball rolling.
Tim Federle was one of the first people who gave me early work. He had this adorable journal from 6th grade theater camp. You can totally see, looking back, that of course this is the young Tim Federle who went on to write theses hilarious books.
It's interesting how many people talked about how much they learned, as kids, by copying published work.
Quite a few of the illustrators talk about copying explicitly. Marla Frazee talks about drawing Snoopy over and over. Dan Santat; Brian Selznick; almost all of them talk about copying. I totally copied other writers, too.
In the back of the book we have a list of tips, and in it initially I wrote, "Copy artists and writers you like." My editor said, "You can't say that. Teachers place so much emphasis on the importance of not plagiarizing." So, I wrote: "Get inspired by artists and writers you admire" but I don't say, "Copy them." But really, if you read the essays in the book, writers and illustrators are saying, "I copied this."
I want to make it clear that I don't condone plagiarism in any way! But as long as you're giving credit to the original creator and not trying to pass off someone else's work as your own, copying is really a great way to learn. When you imitate someone's writing style, you're paying close attention to the choices the author made and experimenting with how those choices affect the story. I imagine copying is even more central to a visual artist's development, since they're learning to take what they see and recreate it on paper. The end goal is to develop your own style but that comes later.
Did anything you experienced in putting together the book come as a surprise?
I had one negative surprise and one positive surprise. The negative surprise was that I was completely unprepared for how much work it was to put this book together. I spent a lot more time on it than I would have writing a novel. I've gained a lot more respect for the administrative component of what editors and agents do. On the positive side: I was very happily surprised by how readily most of the authors and illustrators got back to me and how excited they were to talk about their early work. It was such a pleasure to hear a little about their childhoods.
You found your old work in a shoebox in the basement. What would you say to people who are intent on decluttering, Marie Kondo-style?
It's tough. It's true that decluttering feels so good. I would encourage people to save their children's work. So many writers said they wrote all the time but "My mother didn't save anything." Now with computers, we kind of feel we have everything, but we also don't have everything. Who knows if we'll be able to retrieve things later? I'm glad I have a print-out of the first 3 chapters of my novel because it is probably on a floppy disk and there's no hope of getting it off there.
What did you learn from Our Story Begins?
I learned that there's no right or wrong way to become an author or illustrator. Some of the people in the book "“ like myself "“ knew when they were very young that they wanted to see their work in print, and they worked actively towards that goal (one of them, Gordon Korman, even published his first book at 13!) But so many others came to this career later. Lots of people I approached about the book "“ extremely successful authors! "“ couldn't participate because they barely put pen to paper before they were adults.
Further, when I first started this project, I worried that everyone's childhood work might be so amazing it could be discouraging to child readers who might compare their own writing or art. But while some of the childhood work is certainly impressive, most of it is typical for the age at which it was created, which is, I hope, inspiring to young readers. The one thing that shines through"”no matter what the perceived quality "“ is how much each kid enjoyed creating it. That passion, together with hard work, is what leads to success.
The takeway for me is that it pays to create a lot as a kid. What's running through all these creative works is this uninhibited passion you have as a kid. You're not second guessing yourself yet, and so it is over-the-top, and maybe overdone, but is full of personality. I kind of wish I could get back to that. Yes, I've honed my craft now, but it's not nearly as uninhibited or flowing as it used to be. I look at what I wrote and some things are just so silly or melodramatic. There's something to just letting letting out that emotion and raw talent. It's putting yourself out there without any embarrassment.
Thank you so much, Elissa. It's been a pleasure talking to you about Our Story Begins.
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A few weeks ago, we talked on the phone with comics writer extraordinaire Greg Rucka about Wonder Woman. Rucka, the winner of multiple Eisner Awards for his work, has written Wonder Woman comics twice"”first in 2003 and now with DC's new Rebirth series.
Rucka told us about the differences between writing Wonder Woman in 2003 and now, the enduring core of Diana's character, and how she has remained both relevant and unique over her 75-year history.
Enjoy!
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Amazon Book Review: At the beginning of Wonder Woman, Volume 1: The Lies, you tackle the subject of rebooting Wonder Woman right away, with Diana questioning the truth of her various origin stories. What sparked the idea of not just accepting but using the various origin stories to propel her forward?
Greg Rucka: It's not a reboot; it's an attempt to bring things in line. When you have a character with 75 years of history, you have a lot of history. And when you don't have a single creative team governing that or a single editorial team governing that, things get confused. And then you add to that the vagaries and necessities of publishing, and that superhero comics are constantly reinventing themselves and trying to find new ways of selling the old wheel. What was relevant and easy for an audience to connect to in 1950 certainly is not all the same things that will connect in 2017. So one of the things you're always faced with is how you stay true to the core of a character while making certain that the character continues to grow and continues to evolve and continues to be relatable. And so Volume 1: The Lies and Volume 2: Year One were very much an attempt to follow a publisher mandate, which was to bring her back to her core. And at the end of the day, this is about trying to distill Diana to those wonderful core elements of the character that make her so magical and so relevant.
You've written Wonder Woman before. How has she changed, aside from her core, between when you wrote her before and this time around?
She hasn't changed. I would say that I've changed. The character is constant. The goal is to find new ways to illuminate those core truths of a character and to articulate them in ways that remain relevant. I [wrote] her in 2003. That was a very different era. We had different concerns, socially, than we do now. The first time out, I was more interested in talking about her as a politician, because she's a political figure. She's always going to be a character that's going to have a social agenda. She's always going to be commenting on the world around her in a way that Batman is not necessarily required to do so in a Batman story. She doesn't show up to lecture or to scold, but she comes from a different way of life. She comes from a better place that is working in a better way. First bite of the apple was far more about trying to negotiate the conflict that arises from that collision of politics and the resistance she meets and how she certainly attempts to overcome it. This time it is a far more straightforward adventure. I suppose if I had to define the difference between the two runs as divided by 15 years, the first run was about what she was doing, and the second run is about who she is.
Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman weave in and out of each other's lives. How challenging is it to write your story and either keep out of other writers' way or know what they're doing while you're working on Diana's story?
One of the things that I asked for when they handed me the reins this time around was that we keep her clear of everything else for the time being. Give me a year where I don't have to worry about what's going on over in Batman or over in Superman or over in the Justice League, so Diana can have a story where she is surrounded only by her own cast. And that's part of the agenda: Let's build up what's around her. Make sure her house is in order before she starts traveling around the neighborhood again. That said, part of the joy of DC Comics is the interconnectedness of the universe. These are characters who know each other and who interact with each other. So it's kind of ironic that you ask this, because the capstone of where I am in the run is bringing her back into the environment and having her interact with these characters again. I think when we talk about the DC universe as a grand thing, we talk about the DC universe as trinity of characters. It's Batman; it's Superman; it's Wonder Woman. From those three all other things spring forth. That's not to place any other character in higher or lower regard. It is the genome. We used to say the universe is built on these three characters. These are the three pillars that DC stands on.
I say, Why? I've heard all sorts of reasons. "It's for girls." Well, that's garbage. I'm sorry you feel that way: That because it's a female protagonist, it's for girls. I have more sympathy for people who say, "Well, I never really got it." I respond, OK, then you should look at these stories. A good Wonder Woman story should absolutely explain why she is Wonder Woman. And I mean that not in the story sense but in the cultural sense"”why the character matters and still resonates after so long. The great thing about comics is that if you've found a story you don't like, odds are that someone has written a story with that character that you will like. With the right help, you will be directed to places where you're like, "Oh, I get it now!" And hopefully what happens is that when you read a Wonder Woman story, not only are you like, "Oh, I get it now," but you really get it.
She is unique. I've said this over and over again. There's no other character like her. There just isn't. And when she is given that due, I universally see people say, "Oh, okay, now I see what I was missing. She's kind of awesome." There are Batman analogs out there; there's Superman analogs out there. You can find them and experience them because those are character templates that get replicated. But Wonder Woman has never been duplicated. What happens, oddly with her, is the opposite. Sometimes she gets reduced to another template. To understand a character who really is motivated by love, understanding, and compassion and can yet punch people"¦ It's easier to understand an angry woman with a sword and armor. It's far easier to dial her into that [literary trope] than to just stay true to who she is. She can be an angry woman with a sword, but that's not what defines her. That's a facet; that's not the character.
I was going to ask you how you became the go-to writer for strong but flawed female characters, but now I'm not sure Diana can be described as flawed. She's not necessarily as broken as some of your other characters.
Well, I think that's a common misconception with the character. The same way as some people will say, "Nobody who has the powers of Superman would be as good and noble as Superman," you get people who look at Wonder Woman and say, "She's supposed to be this perfect woman." It's not about her being female. It's about her being a character, a person. She has her flaws and her foibles; her strengths are extraordinary. These are stories about heroes and heroism, so she needs to be aspirational. She needs to represent the best we can be. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have bad days. That doesn't mean she isn't prone to all the things that human beings are prone to. And if you don't plan the character like that, then I believe that you take away their heroism. If it's effortless for them to always say the right things and do the right thing and to answer hatred with compassion"”if it's something they can do without thinking about it"”then I think you diminish them. Our heroes have to struggle. They are only going to be as great as the adversity they have to confront and triumph over.
I saw on your Tumblr, Greg, that you're going to stop writing Wonder Woman with issue #25.
Yes, that's correct. Issue #25 is the last issue of this run for me. I'm being followed by a woman named Shea Fontana. More than anything else, it was a question of schedule. You want to give the best work you can. I found myself in a place where going beyond 25 issues, I wouldn't be able to deliver my best work given my other commitments.
One of the things about putting out this many issues over the course of a year is that you'll kill an artist if they have to draw them all. So working with Liam Sharp on The Lies and then with Nicola Scott on Year One, it allowed us to address that core mission"”What are the essentials of Diana?"”in a really interesting and positive way. We were able to tell one story [in The Lies] about how she is now as a fully realized adult. And with Nicola in the Year One story, [Diana] is a young woman who is experiencing our world for the first time. The artists [worked] together to make sure they were referencing each other, and their stories really complement each other. Both juxtapose and enhance each story. I think as a package, I couldn't be happier. It's a collaborative medium, and I'm only as good as the people I work with. And working with Bilquis Evely and Nicola and Liam"¦gosh, it's hard to screw things up when you have that kind of partnership.
Have you had a chance to get a sneak peek at the film?
What I got to see of it, I saw a while ago. But I loved it! And I'm not an easy audience for that subject matter"”I'll admit that straight off. I went in [with an attitude of] "Prove it to me." And after everything I saw, I came out, saying, "Okay! I really want to see this in a theatre with a bucket of popcorn." I think it's going to be tremendous. I think Patty Jenkins has done a wonderful job. I think Gal Godot is just luminescent. She is so compellingly true, and her chemistry with Chris Pine is fantastic. The Steve and Diana stuff is amazing. I'm really, really looking forward to seeing the final film.
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And don't forget that Saturday, June 3, is Wonder Woman Day. See here for ways to celebrate.
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I'd previously asked Bilton if he would write something for The Amazon Book Review, and the morning I received his piece below, I had just finished The Upstarts and was struck by the connection between the personalities in that book, and that of Ross Ulbricht. As you'll see below, I was not alone in these thoughts, as Bilton himself ponders the "what if" of Ulbricht's choice of a startup that changed our world in unexpected ways...
When reporting the book American Kingpin, about the rise and fall of the Silk Road drug and guns website, I encountered so many twists and turns that the story almost seemed completely unbelievable. Yet for me, a journalist who has covered Silicon Valley and tech culture for over a decade, the similarities with the way the Silk Road and traditional startups are run was astounding.
For example, I could show you a quote from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road, and another statement from Travis Kalanik, the CEO of Uber, and you wouldn't be able to tell who had said (or written) which passage. I could do the same with discussions between the Dread Pirates Roberts, the secret moniker Ulbricht used while running his drug and guns empire, and his underlining, and those between Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, and their respective employees, and those too would be indistinguishable. Ulbricht ran his website with the same ambition, authority and hunger as the CEOs in Silicon Valley who run the world we live in today. They have all read the same libertarian books, cited the same anti-big government stance, and have used their smarts and coding ability to "disrupt" industries they all see as over-regulated and unfair to consumers.
The big difference, of course, is that the CEO of Uber chose to disrupt the taxi cartels, the founders of Airbnb chose hotels, and Ross Ulbricht decided he was going to disrupt the illegal drug and guns industry.
In the end though, the ambition of both almost always seems to come at a cost. For traditional startups in The Valley, overly aggressive CEOs end up getting fired, sued, or, more often than not, investigated by a government entity. In Ross Ulbricht's case, he ended up getting arrested and sentenced to two life sentences in jail. You have to wonder, though, what would have happened had he decided to go after the taxi or hotel industry, instead.
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I'd previously asked Bilton if he would write something for The Amazon Book Review, and the morning I received his piece below, I had just finished The Upstarts and was struck by the connection between the personalities in that book, and that of Ross Ulbricht. As you'll see below, I was not alone in these thoughts, as Bilton himself ponders the "what if" of Ulbricht's choice of a startup that changed our world in unexpected ways...
When reporting the book American Kingpin, about the rise and fall of the Silk Road drug and guns website, I encountered so many twists and turns that the story almost seemed completely unbelievable. Yet for me, a journalist who has covered Silicon Valley and tech culture for over a decade, the similarities with the way the Silk Road and traditional startups are run was astounding.
For example, I could show you a quote from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road, and another statement from Travis Kalanik, the CEO of Uber, and you wouldn't be able to tell who had said (or written) which passage. I could do the same with discussions between the Dread Pirates Roberts, the secret moniker Ulbricht used while running his drug and guns empire, and his underlining, and those between Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, and their respective employees, and those too would be indistinguishable. Ulbricht ran his website with the same ambition, authority and hunger as the CEOs in Silicon Valley who run the world we live in today. They have all read the same libertarian books, cited the same anti-big government stance, and have used their smarts and coding ability to "disrupt" industries they all see as over-regulated and unfair to consumers.
The big difference, of course, is that the CEO of Uber chose to disrupt the taxi cartels, the founders of Airbnb chose hotels, and Ross Ulbricht decided he was going to disrupt the illegal drug and guns industry.
In the end though, the ambition of both almost always seems to come at a cost. For traditional startups in The Valley, overly aggressive CEOs end up getting fired, sued, or, more often than not, investigated by a government entity. In Ross Ulbricht's case, he ended up getting arrested and sentenced to two life sentences in jail. You have to wonder, though, what would have happened had he decided to go after the taxi or hotel industry, instead.
You might also like:
Subscribe to Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review, featuring picks for the best books of the month, author interviews, reading recommendations, and more from the Amazon Books editors.
By
I'd previously asked Bilton if he would write something for The Amazon Book Review, and the morning I received his piece below, I had just finished The Upstarts and was struck by the connection between the personalities in that book, and that of Ross Ulbricht. As you'll see below, I was not alone in these thoughts, as Bilton himself ponders the "what if" of Ulbricht's choice of a startup that changed our world in unexpected ways...
When reporting the book American Kingpin, about the rise and fall of the Silk Road drug and guns website, I encountered so many twists and turns that the story almost seemed completely unbelievable. Yet for me, a journalist who has covered Silicon Valley and tech culture for over a decade, the similarities with the way the Silk Road and traditional startups are run was astounding.
For example, I could show you a quote from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road, and another statement from Travis Kalanik, the CEO of Uber, and you wouldn't be able to tell who had said (or written) which passage. I could do the same with discussions between the Dread Pirates Roberts, the secret moniker Ulbricht used while running his drug and guns empire, and his underlining, and those between Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, and their respective employees, and those too would be indistinguishable. Ulbricht ran his website with the same ambition, authority and hunger as the CEOs in Silicon Valley who run the world we live in today. They have all read the same libertarian books, cited the same anti-big government stance, and have used their smarts and coding ability to "disrupt" industries they all see as over-regulated and unfair to consumers.
The big difference, of course, is that the CEO of Uber chose to disrupt the taxi cartels, the founders of Airbnb chose hotels, and Ross Ulbricht decided he was going to disrupt the illegal drug and guns industry.
In the end though, the ambition of both almost always seems to come at a cost. For traditional startups in The Valley, overly aggressive CEOs end up getting fired, sued, or, more often than not, investigated by a government entity. In Ross Ulbricht's case, he ended up getting arrested and sentenced to two life sentences in jail. You have to wonder, though, what would have happened had he decided to go after the taxi or hotel industry, instead.
You might also like:
Subscribe to Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review, featuring picks for the best books of the month, author interviews, reading recommendations, and more from the Amazon Books editors.
By
I'd previously asked Bilton if he would write something for The Amazon Book Review, and the morning I received his piece below, I had just finished The Upstarts and was struck by the connection between the personalities in that book, and that of Ross Ulbricht. As you'll see below, I was not alone in these thoughts, as Bilton himself ponders the "what if" of Ulbricht's choice of a startup that changed our world in unexpected ways...
When reporting the book American Kingpin, about the rise and fall of the Silk Road drug and guns website, I encountered so many twists and turns that the story almost seemed completely unbelievable. Yet for me, a journalist who has covered Silicon Valley and tech culture for over a decade, the similarities with the way the Silk Road and traditional startups are run was astounding.
For example, I could show you a quote from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road, and another statement from Travis Kalanik, the CEO of Uber, and you wouldn't be able to tell who had said (or written) which passage. I could do the same with discussions between the Dread Pirates Roberts, the secret moniker Ulbricht used while running his drug and guns empire, and his underlining, and those between Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, and their respective employees, and those too would be indistinguishable. Ulbricht ran his website with the same ambition, authority and hunger as the CEOs in Silicon Valley who run the world we live in today. They have all read the same libertarian books, cited the same anti-big government stance, and have used their smarts and coding ability to "disrupt" industries they all see as over-regulated and unfair to consumers.
The big difference, of course, is that the CEO of Uber chose to disrupt the taxi cartels, the founders of Airbnb chose hotels, and Ross Ulbricht decided he was going to disrupt the illegal drug and guns industry.
In the end though, the ambition of both almost always seems to come at a cost. For traditional startups in The Valley, overly aggressive CEOs end up getting fired, sued, or, more often than not, investigated by a government entity. In Ross Ulbricht's case, he ended up getting arrested and sentenced to two life sentences in jail. You have to wonder, though, what would have happened had he decided to go after the taxi or hotel industry, instead.
You might also like:
Subscribe to Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review, featuring picks for the best books of the month, author interviews, reading recommendations, and more from the Amazon Books editors.
By
I'd previously asked Bilton if he would write something for The Amazon Book Review, and the morning I received his piece below, I had just finished The Upstarts and was struck by the connection between the personalities in that book, and that of Ross Ulbricht. As you'll see below, I was not alone in these thoughts, as Bilton himself ponders the "what if" of Ulbricht's choice of a startup that changed our world in unexpected ways...
When reporting the book American Kingpin, about the rise and fall of the Silk Road drug and guns website, I encountered so many twists and turns that the story almost seemed completely unbelievable. Yet for me, a journalist who has covered Silicon Valley and tech culture for over a decade, the similarities with the way the Silk Road and traditional startups are run was astounding.
For example, I could show you a quote from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road, and another statement from Travis Kalanik, the CEO of Uber, and you wouldn't be able to tell who had said (or written) which passage. I could do the same with discussions between the Dread Pirates Roberts, the secret moniker Ulbricht used while running his drug and guns empire, and his underlining, and those between Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, and their respective employees, and those too would be indistinguishable. Ulbricht ran his website with the same ambition, authority and hunger as the CEOs in Silicon Valley who run the world we live in today. They have all read the same libertarian books, cited the same anti-big government stance, and have used their smarts and coding ability to "disrupt" industries they all see as over-regulated and unfair to consumers.
The big difference, of course, is that the CEO of Uber chose to disrupt the taxi cartels, the founders of Airbnb chose hotels, and Ross Ulbricht decided he was going to disrupt the illegal drug and guns industry.
In the end though, the ambition of both almost always seems to come at a cost. For traditional startups in The Valley, overly aggressive CEOs end up getting fired, sued, or, more often than not, investigated by a government entity. In Ross Ulbricht's case, he ended up getting arrested and sentenced to two life sentences in jail. You have to wonder, though, what would have happened had he decided to go after the taxi or hotel industry, instead.
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I'd previously asked Bilton if he would write something for The Amazon Book Review, and the morning I received his piece below, I had just finished The Upstarts and was struck by the connection between the personalities in that book, and that of Ross Ulbricht. As you'll see below, I was not alone in these thoughts, as Bilton himself ponders the "what if" of Ulbricht's choice of a startup that changed our world in unexpected ways...
When reporting the book American Kingpin, about the rise and fall of the Silk Road drug and guns website, I encountered so many twists and turns that the story almost seemed completely unbelievable. Yet for me, a journalist who has covered Silicon Valley and tech culture for over a decade, the similarities with the way the Silk Road and traditional startups are run was astounding.
For example, I could show you a quote from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road, and another statement from Travis Kalanik, the CEO of Uber, and you wouldn't be able to tell who had said (or written) which passage. I could do the same with discussions between the Dread Pirates Roberts, the secret moniker Ulbricht used while running his drug and guns empire, and his underlining, and those between Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, and their respective employees, and those too would be indistinguishable. Ulbricht ran his website with the same ambition, authority and hunger as the CEOs in Silicon Valley who run the world we live in today. They have all read the same libertarian books, cited the same anti-big government stance, and have used their smarts and coding ability to "disrupt" industries they all see as over-regulated and unfair to consumers.
The big difference, of course, is that the CEO of Uber chose to disrupt the taxi cartels, the founders of Airbnb chose hotels, and Ross Ulbricht decided he was going to disrupt the illegal drug and guns industry.
In the end though, the ambition of both almost always seems to come at a cost. For traditional startups in The Valley, overly aggressive CEOs end up getting fired, sued, or, more often than not, investigated by a government entity. In Ross Ulbricht's case, he ended up getting arrested and sentenced to two life sentences in jail. You have to wonder, though, what would have happened had he decided to go after the taxi or hotel industry, instead.
You might also like:
Subscribe to Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review, featuring picks for the best books of the month, author interviews, reading recommendations, and more from the Amazon Books editors.
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