January 2011 reading

My first read of the new year was the very first email issue of Locus, number 600, for January 2011. As an overseas subscriber I normally get the airmail edition which reaches me much later in the month. Available in PDF and PUB formats it was easy enough to read in Calibre. Alongside the usual reviews and news it contains a special section on e-publishing in SF.

Currently ready Officer-Cadet as a start into the series by Rick Shelley - decided to do some military fiction for a while. So far it's a light read and fairly "blah"...

Starting to get back into SF and picked up Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I'm enjoying parts although my reading is going slowly in some areas...

Still wading through The Passage. The middle third is like molasses. And, to make it worse, it opens with a new character and moves straight into a series of flashbacks. I've lost track of the story's timeline completely. So much for all the hype...

Just completing Paloma by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

I'm halfway through Avram Davidson's The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy. Erudite entertainment.

I've started Fledgling by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, a new (for me) Liaden Universe novel.

We All Died at Breakaway Station by Richard C. Meredith

I just finished the first 2011 editions of the e-book versions of Analog and Asimov's on my Sony Touch.
Am also reading 1633 by David Weber. The characters are well drawn, the history well researched, and the plot interesting. A good sequel to 1632, the first book in the Grantville series. These are available for free at the Baen Free Library.

Finished Officer Cadet and moving on to Lieutenant (second book in series), then going to back to Fantasy (Tad Williams)...

Listening to Anansi Boys on cd. Very enjoyable and well-read, several laugh out loud moments.

#3 How do you like Neal Stephenson ? My old academic advisor is into him. He turned me on to Neuromancer and The Sandman which I liked and read more by both authors (I'll never have my library complete), but Stephenson didn't really look like SF. Is his stuff SF?

Managed some reading over New Year's. The Dinosaur Hunter by Homer Hickam is a thriller with a heavy dose of paleontology. I am not now, nor have I ever been a paleontologist but the science looked good, certainly by thriller standards. I was born and raised on a farm though and the main character is a cowboy who presumably knows more about cattle than I do, but he made one assumption, later pointed out to him to be incorrect, that I would have expected him to get right. I did, and the character probably spends more time with cattle each week than I did every year I was growing up. Still, a book I enjoyed and I'll probably aim to read more by Hickam.

Book two was Valley Forge by Gingrich and Forstchen, a straight historical fiction about, surprisingly enough, Valley Forge.

Last was Atlantis, and other places by Harry Turtledove, a series of unrelated short stories. I'm generally not a big fan of short stories, so it's no surprise they didn't really work for me. These were largely concept based and I found them interesting but I doubt I'll ever re-read them.

12: I enjoyed both Neuromancer and The Sandman as well as other works by Gibson and Gaiman. I got turned on to Stephenson because i heard his book snow crash is a cyberpunk classic and I wanted to pick it up, but my bookstore didn't have it. i also heard Anathem was well regarded so I grabbed it instead.

the book has a long buy in. it's taken several days and a few hundred pages to really get into the story. it's SF, his world building is amazing. i'm only half way through, and i'm enjoying it for the most part. I would read more by him.

I'm halfway through Glasshouse and really enjoying it. I stuggled through Accelerando last month and am really suprised as to how different the two books are.

I enjoyed Glasshouse - or rather, I enjoyed the first half. It fell apart about halfway through, and the interesting thought experiment Stross had set up turned into a dumb action plot.

I'm reading Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear and How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Quite different but both very interesting so far.

Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein

Finished Spin State by Chris Moriarty. It was alright. I'd read more from the same universe. I'd hope the author would tighten up on the action, mil spec, and hard SF in general, and go lighter on the love/ passion sub-plots which were sweet but not really what I read for.

Beginning Gardens of the Sun the sequel to Quiet War which I liked.

On audio I'm going back to an old favorite author Poul Anderson and specifically Harvest of Stars.

#17 I'm interested in what you think about Hull Zero Three.
#15&16 I'm trying to get my grubby little hands on Glasshouse and Accelerando.

Just finished Glasshouse and really enjoyed it. The story had me interested and entertained the whole way through with no annoying characters that I wish someone would kill off like in Accelerando.

Am now moving onto more serious things with Liberty in the Age of Terror then I'll head back to something SF when that's done. I'm trying to read more non-fiction this year so I want to alternate between fiction and non-fiction.

The Best of the Best, Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels edited by Gardner Dozois contains 13 novellas. Unfortunately the only criteria for selection was if Dozois enjoyed it. Like most people there's a particular type of story he enjoys. There's a lot of the same here. Themes of extended life span and perception of reality. I'd be OK if they at least treated the themes differently but they often use the same plot devices (alien biological material invading humans is probably the most glaring). LeGuin's hand wringing about gender roles in Forgiveness Day was almost a relief. There is some great stuff here Sailing To Byzantium by Robert Silverberg, The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman and Mr. Boy by James Patrick Kelly. I ranted about Beggars In Spain in an other thread. The only other one that completely fell flat for me was Oceanic by Greg Egan. By the end the repetitiveness was taking its toll. I'd probably think better of New Light On The Drake Equation by Ian R. MacLeod and Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds if I had got to them earlier. I do have the other volume which contains short stories. Question for the group is there any more variety in the actual Best of collections?

Also knocked off the last two books in the Hunger Games trilogy. Great stuff.

#21, sounds pretty neat. I like finding short story compilations in used book stores. I will keep my eyes open for Best of the Best 1&2.

22:it definitely has its moments. If I had it to do over I would have read 1 novella a week instead of the whole thing in two weeks.

I've finished Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi and Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn. Now working on The Native Star by M. K. Hobson.

I decided to start off the new year by finally getting around to reading Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley. I ran across it months ago and thought it sounded interesting but I'm struggling with it. Its a little bit different than the reviews and summaries made it seem and its another one of those books that would benefit from an appendix of characters, races, etc.

How is it different? I'll admit Cobley keeps a lot of balls in the air, and it's sometimes difficult to keep track of who is who and what is what, but I don't recall any reviews that misrepresented it. Admittedly, I liked the book - and its sequel, The Orphaned Worlds; and I'm looking forward to the final book of the trilogy - and Cobley is a friend of mine.

I am reading Mammoth by john Varley for a RL book group. Not really enjoying it. Interesting idea, then he throws everything into it, and it keeps changing every so often. Boring.

I just finished Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis. It's a World War 2 alternate history. Quite good, very dark, not exactly enjoyable but worth it anyway.

I felt much the same about Bitter Seeds. I almost feel like I can't really judge the book until the series is done and we find out how all the pieces actually fit together.

>>26 iansales: Ian, I think I just had different expectations going in. Most of the reviews and summaries I read focused on the Swarm War background and touched a little on the Darien coloney without giving any more of the plot away. I felt a little disappointed how quickly all of that was dismissed and the story went off in a different direction. Now that I'm over the hump I'm enjoiyng it more and will be curious to see how the sequel plays out.

Ah, I see. I actually thought the prologue was unnecessary. It felt as though it was included so the book could begin with a battle-scene.

I read Recovery Man by Kristine Kathryn Rusch last night in one sitting, her 'Retrieval Artist' series just keeps getting better, on to Duplicate Effort then I'll have to wait a few months before the next one comes out.

>>31 iansales: I couldn't agree more. I think if that had been left out and the book cover/summaries hadn't even mentioned the Swarm it would have put a different spin on the book completely.

#33 I preferred the story he did tell - it wasn't military sf, for a start. And his idea of layered hyperspaces is really cool.

#34 Ack, spoliers. I haven't gotten that far yet on the hyperspace layers. Haha.

Wild Cards I, just started, please be good....

Still reading Gardens of the Sun

Started audio viewing Consider Phlebas. This was the first Iain M Banks I read and the audio rendition (2010 version) seems quite good.

#37 Randalhoctor
Consider Phlebas was the first Iain Banks novel I read. I found it a great yarn. It encouraged me to seek out his Wasp Factory, and then I was hooked.

I finally finish The Passage. That was a slog. Now reading Genesis by Bernard Beckett, and it is not boding well: it opens with a future-history lecture...

Quantico, a competent SF thriller, is done. am looking forward to Phlip Mann's Wulfsyarn

I got the Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set by Brandon Sanderson for christmas and I am on book 2. This is my style of fantasy, but taunting me is the last colony the sci-fi book I have been trying to get for a few months.

I will also be getting Steven L Kent's newest clone republic book once it comes out.

2011 seems to have many books and this site is only adding more to the list.

The Man Who Folded Himself was my first read of 2011. Given to me by one of my students a great time travel book.

Finished Tempest Rising (A), an excellent start to a new paranormal romance/urban fantasy series.

Still reading Gardens of the Sun. I'm quite enjoying it, but slogging a little through the set-up stage. As an aside, IMHO, the phase of human expansion described in the series (and Ben Bova's works) is really interesting, with or sans alien involvement.

Still listening to Consider Phlebas. I'm struck by how my recall of reading the book and that of the audio version (2010, is handled well) is nearly interchangeable. Mr. Iain M Banks is the cat's pajamas

Now. I know this forum is for books, but I'm still a bit of a swaggering pirate, so scold me if you must. I saw District 9 last night and was pleased. I look forward to a sequel. Considering that 99% of SF movies are purified and concentrated crap this was interesting and fresh albeit on a low budget.

#19 Randalhoctor

Just finished Hull Zero Three and I really enjoyed it. The plot kept unfolding in ways I didn't anticipate and the concepts were fascinating. I'm still processing everything, which I think is the sign of a good book--it keeps you thinking.

#45 Oh, that sounds promising. I've been tempted by that book already... Not that I need any more books....

I've heard good things about Hull Zero Three, although Bear has always struck me as a poor man's Egan... and I've never been a big fan of Egan's fiction.

> 44: randal, agree totally on the merits of 'District 9'. You might want to revisit the thread that ran just over a year ago on 'District 9' vs. 'Avatar' : http://www.librarything.com/topic/80025

Don't worry, I sometimes come to stuff late, too...

Just started Lightpaths...

Saltation and Fledgling were good, with more of the story to come. I'm looking forward to it.

First time poster, long time lurker. I just started The City & The City and so far I'm enjoying it. That hardboiled feel in an off-kilter setting reminds me a bit of The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I'm really just getting back into reading science fiction after a decade or so off and this forum has been a great place to get ideas about what I've been missing.

I've given up reading the non-fiction and have read Radio Free Albemuth and was thoroughly dissapointed. It was really odd and after the first couple of chapters was glad that I borrowed it from the library rather than actually spending money on it. I've now moved on to Young Miles which I got in SantaThing.

Radio Free Albemuth is Dick at is most strange. It is the first attempt at what became VALIS, so stay away from that one as well.

Just finished Space opera by Jack Vance. Silly but fun.

I found a copy of Flow my tears the policeman said by PKD at my local Oxfam shop, so that will be up next.

Just posted my review of The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein, the first book of my 2011 reading challenge. Review is here.

> 55 Great review. I love this series. I'm pretty sure the omnibus you mention, The steerswoman's road, only contains the first two books though so check before you buy it. The third book was only available used last time I looked; really annoying that the publisher doesn't seem to want to keep these books in print, or promote them at all.

#56 Damn. I just checked and you're right. Mind you, there's an eleven year gap between books 2 and 3.

Thanks for the advice andyl, I will definitely avoid Valis.

Reading ::Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card. Also listening to Brave New World.

Just finished Robert Silverberg's Downward to Earth. I hadn't really understood before how much he likes to write stories where his protagonist gets to wander around and describe the scenery. Sometimes I find this wearing, but this one was short and the end was worth the few times I was bored.

I'm not doing much reading outside of my textbooks. :(

Just finished Discord's Apple (A); file under fables for adults, as Vaughn deftly mixes thriller, classical mythology, and a paean to family and land in one sharp story.

Just finished Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon. Evidently she's written some other science fiction, but this is the first of hers I've read.

Currently reading One Jump Ahead - fun so far...

Just finished "Blackout" and "All Clear" by Connie Willis. Captivating story with a great sense of the period. Ms. Willis' treatment of time travel is probably the least fraught with inconsistancies (I wonder if she's read Sean Carroll's "From Eternity to Hear"). I only have two criticisms: I don't think the story needed two volumes of nearly 600 pages to tell. That dovetails into my second criticism: There may have been too much internal "what if" narrative from the characters' point of view. The reader was constantly in a character's mind as they questioned their personal effect on historical events. To my mind this could have toned down somewhat. These, however, are very minor points. The story is very entertaining.

Good to know! I just started Blackout. I liked her Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog a lot.

#65 Ms. Willis' treatment of time travel is probably the least fraught with inconsistancies

Pity one cannot say the same about her treatment of Britain. Very poor research IMO which should have been caught in the editing process.

I just finished Hull zero Three after reading the chatter about it here, I was in the library and saw a copy. I thought it had several novel {to me} ideas and I enjoyed the book.

It reminded me of nightmares however with the constant running from impending danger {read it straight through late at night}. I was a bit confused by the spatial descriptions of the colony ship but maybe that was intentional.

I clicked on several titles of recent touted SF novels and saw several of the "colony ship" genre and decided I might read several of those soon. Maybe catch up on postulated "migration technologies". ;-) If Anyone cares to suggest a relatively recent selection on that topic that they like feel free. I know I have seen discussions here on colony ships before.

Finished Music for Another World, edited by Mark Harding, which I reviewed here.

Then read Spreading My Wings, Diana Barnato Walker's autobiography, which was research for a story.

And then read The Sodom and Gomorrah Business, in which Barry Malzberg tries to channel Ballard and fails miserably.

Now reading Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard.

#68 I liked Hull zero three. From a technical point of view, that is colony ship strategy it was a new one on me. It was an ingenious and disturbing variation on the "we'll quicken colonists from a frozen embryo" strategy. Quickening human colonists from gene sequence data and recorded personalities was a new one on me. This method seems so incredibly detached from the original humans involved that its hard to see what the point is.

Finished Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley yesterday. After a somewhat slow start it picked up towards the 3/4 mark and held my attention more. I'll have to pick up the sequel some time.

Moving on to Stealing Light by Gary Gibson now. Read it about 2 years ago and thought I'd follow back around to finish the Shoal Sequence series.

For those of you who read Hull Zero Three, the summaries I read sounded like the typical generation/colony ship scenario where they wake up to find something's gone wrong while they were in cryo/sleep/etc etc. Is that the case with this one too? Is it like the film Pandorum or even Approaching Omega by Eric Brown? I've got a ton of backlog to get through after the Shoal Sequence and was thinking about reading Hull but I don't want to read the same old thing we've seen before.

>68 DugsBooks:
Charlie Stross has made a few posts on his blog recently re STL colony ships and matters arising which might be of interest (with lengthy discussions). The latest one is here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/01/looking-under-the-street-lam...
You'll find more if you look back through posts in the last few months.

Enjoyed Wulfsyarn, it really impressed. Am looking forward to Lightborn as Maul was excellent.

I'm a big fan of Phillip Mann, a much under-rated sf writer.

This turned into a Carrie Vaughn weekend. I read two of her fantasies, Discord's Apple which I thought was OK but no better than that, and Voices of Dragons which I really liked. I still have her latest Kitty novel, Kitty Goes to War on my To Read list, but it's going to be a few weeks before I get to it.

#72 The Stealing Light trilogy keeps catching my eye but I can't seem to get my grubby little hands on them. Are they worth the trouble? I'd have to special order them at a bookstore I suspect.

With regard to Hull zero three: yeah you pretty much have it right, but with archetypal monsters, paranoia, and a feverish/nightmare quality to it. Messed my head up real good ;-) I reviewed it here in LT. Not a masterpiece, but I'll re-read it in a few years.

Discovered Andre Alice Norton. What a find! Started with Time Traders, and continuing through the series. Many of her works are in the public domain and able to be downloaded for no or a very low fee.

#77 Gary Gibson is a friend of mine, but I still thought the Shoal Sequence were good. He's very good at the special effects - there's plenty of gosh-wow in the books - although they're a bit weak in the plotting department at times.

#74

I didn't enjoy Maul as much as you although it had some excellent writing. I don't think Lightborn is as ambitious as Maul, especially in structure, but I enjoyed it more.

Have you read Double Vision and Sound Mind by Tricia Sullivan? I enjoyed those a lot.

Finally got round to starting Surface Detail. The first three chapters are certainly action packed.

#76: While I liked Discord's Apple quite a bit, it does have more than a wiff of the shaggy dog about it.

>82 Shrike58: Depending on your exact definition of a shaggy dog story, that may have been my problem. There was a main story, a major back story and a minor back story, all in 299 pages. I thought the main story needed more depth and possibly the major back story as well. I also worry when authors have three (or more) novels out in one year which is what Vaughn did last year, and it looks like the plan for 2011 as well.

#77: Thanks for confirming on Hull Zero.

On the Shoal Sequence thats a tough call. I liked Stealing Light and thought it was a good read but personally I don't know if I'd special order it. If you have a good library system nearby you might be able to get it there or through an interlibrary loan.

Message 73: mart1n
... blog .... STL colony ships and matters arising which might be of interest (with lengthy discussions). The latest one is here:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/01/looking-under-the-street-lam...

Great link Martin! I have read novellas shorter than that thread, I am about half way through! Interesting ideas thrown about.

#72, I just hooked up with netflix streaming and watched Pandorum, which I enjoyed. Yep very much the same plot as Hull zero three.

I've just started reading Yarn (not touchstonable - there are loads of books called Yarn which are more popular) by Jon Armstrong. It is a prequel to his previous book Grey.

>85 DugsBooks:
Glad you're enjoying it - he does get some interesting people contributing, and a few, er, "interesting" ones too ;-)

Check out this one too:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/07/insufficient-data.html
in which he asks "What is the minimum number of people you need in order to maintain (not necessarily to extend) our current level of technological civilization?". Clearly an important question for a self sustaining colony ship. Set the boundaries of your own answer before reading - people's answers vary wildly, needless to say!

I don't mind Stross's posts, but I get seriously annoyed at the self-professed righteous "experts" who fill up the comments thread. You quote something from a book by someone qualified in a field, and these commenters insult you for posting something that "is plainly crap". Er, no. Stross attracts self-important nutters like that. Which doesn't surprise me in the least.

>88 iansales:
Welcome to the internet ;-)

I find there's generally enough genuinely interesting stuff and the irritating buggers sufficiently ignorable to make the whole thing worthwhile. Though there are the occasional topics which suddenly get invaded by the libertarian massive - game over (isn't it ironic that they seem to travel in packs?).

I'm about 100 pages into The Evolutionary Void. A bit slow going.

Reading The Icarus Hunt - so far entertaining...

Touchstones still aren't working (they display correctly in edit but then don't work in post).

Edit: Until you edit them, then they activate - goofy.

I read Twisted Metal by Tony Ballantyne. Interesting story, but I had problems with the fact that the sentient robots act way too human.

Still reading Gardens of the Sun. Yes, its taken me forever. I've got a lot going on right now. It struck me while reading that, the amount of scientific knowledge some sf authors display is actually quite commendable and impressive. I know many authors are lettered and many have technical advisers, but they must still do a good bit of research.

I just think that's pretty cool.

83: You might find this commentary by Vaughn on her own work interesting.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/07/06/the-big-idea-carrie-vaughn-2/

>94 Shrike58: It was interesting, but it didn't really address what I was saying (or trying to say if it didn't come across. :-) )

I was trying to say that either the book needed to be bigger to handle the amount of ideas she was putting into it, or she needed to cut back on some of the ideas so that she could do justice to the story in that size book.

I felt like the book was rushing from plot point to plot point. But what do I know? Publishers Weekly called it, “brilliantly structured, beautifully written”. :-)

Now reading The Ghost Brigade...

Finished Little, Big, Equal Rites, and now starting A Fire in the Sun.

I've just read The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein, a true masterpiece.

Started The Diamond Age and am really enjoying it, every page is great

Just finished Native Tongue for a group read in the 75 Books Challenge. Really enjoyed it a lot - more than I thought I would!

Finished The Last Colony and am now reading Boundary - actually pretty good and interesting so far.

Don't stop. it really is a very good book. Can't wait for the next one

#99 brianjungwi
The Diamond Age is on my TBR pile. I'm always pleased to see positive comments about books in my pile. It helps build the anticipation and push the book mentioned a couple of nano-metres up the pile.

> 99, 103 I loved The diamond age. Though as usual with Stephenson it ended too quickly.

#104 as usual with Stephenson it ended too quickly.
Try Cryptonomicon.

> 105 It's on the tbr pile!