April 2011 reading

Getting into Breakaway.

Gave up on Accelerando on audio. The quality of the tech and the reader were awefull. I'll read it some day.

Started listening to Childhood's End. Liking it. I have the feeling this story influenced many others, including movies.

Finished Generosity by Richard Powers on audio, which I enjoyed. I don't think the sci fi element of the novel was necessarily original, but was done in such a way that made it very believable. More a literary, than a sci fi novel though. Can't find a good audiobook to replace it with yet.

Just starting Sea-Kings of Mars, which I picked up a few months ago, and pretty excited about it.

3: paradoxosalpha

That looks like a real good read.

It is. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Turned me into a fan of her stories.

I just finished Hellquad by Ron Goulart. Not one of his funnier books.

About to give Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress a go.

Being in the middle of Windup Girl and loving it so far.

I just started The Planet of the Apes. It's a purse book, meaning it's small enough to fit in my purse and carry around to read while waiting on line, etc. Not my main reading material.

Starting Dark December by Alfred Coppel.

#9 I read that last year, thought it was terrible. You're better off watching the film.

>11 iansales: Will keep that in mind. I got the book through BookMooch and have no compunctions about dropping it if I don't like it. Just chalk it up to another one where the movie was actually better than the book.

Started reading Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg. He has long been a presence in the science fiction community so I thought I'd try one his works. So far it has been enjoyable reading.

I am starting Triton tonight.

The complete Northwest Smiths stories: Northwest of Earth by C. L. Moore.

Very Good so far. Killing time until until Dumarest books arrive.

Woman on the edge of time by Marge Piercy. Femism/dystopia/utopia - lots to think about.

China Mieville's Kraken is meh so far...

starting River of Gods by Ian McDonald, will be my first by McDonald...

Childhood's End was great. I have the distinct feeling that I've read it before. I liked how it didn't have one of those cheap "and they walked into the sunset" endings. Good audiobook reading too.

Finishing Breakaway. Good mil spec tech and tactical violence with a dash of sexuality. At four-fifths through, however, it needs to put together a big finish.

Took a brief break from C. L. Moore to read the second Dumarest novel Derai

Just starting The Sky People by S. M. Stirling...

I have just finished Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Excellent sf/steampunk/zombie novel set in 19th century Seattle

More Dumarest with Toyman, now on to Kalin

Done with Kalin, on to The Jester at Scar..

You're romping through the Dumarest books. Do you have them all? Up to No 33?

24: iansales

Sadly no, I have a couple more of the later ones, but want to read in order. I have ordered cheapo copies of Lallia, Technos, and Veruchia. Mayenne I already have a copy of. They are very quick reads.

As soon as I'm done with The Jester at Scar it will be back to finish the C. L. Moore (not a bad thing).

The last few Dumarest books are pricey, fortunately there are many more to go before I hit that point.

I am trying to read some more SF classics so don't shoot me for this question but just be happy that I am finally getting around to these books... Anyway, what should I pick up next: Foundation or Lord of Light? Have brand-new copies of both waiting for me on the TBR shelf.

A 'Name That Book' question led me to re-read Assignment in Eternity, a set of Heinlein's short stories from the 40's. Rather dated and not his best.

I also read Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn, an urban fantasy I really liked.

Just started Side Jobs by Jim Butcher.

>26 sturlington: Can't help you. I first read the Foundation trilogy as a teenager, so it will always have that feel for me and I've never read Lord of Light.

As usual, touchstones don't seem to be working. We should make a texting shorthand for that, maybe TDSTBW. :-)

Edited to insert a comma, and no, I'm not actually Obssesive-Compulsive. :-)

#26: I enjoyed the Foundation books. The first few anyway.

#26: I'm going to say the opposite and recommend Lord of Light. Foundation is vastly over-rated. Asimov's prose is inept, the world-building is perfunctory (everything feels like 1940s US), and the few ideas he puts in can't sustain the plot.

Currently reading The Quantum Thief, and wondering what everyone saw in it to lavish so much praise on it. I suspect they all went "I don't understand this, so it must be really good..."

Am I the only one that finds the writing style in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to be very annoying! And I'm only on chapter 3!

Most people who didn't grow up reading Heinlein in the 1960s probably find his style very irritating.

Ian, Ive read plenty of Heinlein in the past but this one is different!

I read most of Heinlein's stuff as a youth... only recently was I able to complete The Moon is a Harsh Mistress... must have picked it up and put it down a dozen times.

Stay with it... it gets better after the first 50 pages or so.

>26 sturlington: Foundation and the next two in the original trilogy are well worth the effort IMO, but be prepared for a long haul... I can recommend just about anything by Zelazny, but don't recall having read Lord of Light.... so it's going on the 'be on the lookout for' list.

I loved the Foundation trilogy in my youth. Recently tried to reread it and ended up throwing it across the room. I have zero interest in a book that conceives of a world where women are all but invisible, except for cooking meals and providing sex.

It took me a while to get used to the style in Moon is a Harsh Mistress but decided it was worth it. It is different from the rest of Heinlein's work.

Oh, and I like his usual style and my parents would have been the right age to grow up reading his juvies in the '50s and '60s, although I have no idea if either of them did.

I read the first Foundation book not that long ago, for the first time... it was what I imagine a cardboard & sawdust sandwich would taste like.

Reading The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Amazing world-building so far.

Quite the opposite to One Hundred Years of Solitude that I'm also reading at the moment: With The Diamond Age, I can't wait to get back to it, but I can drift away from it quite easily, whereas with One Hundred Years of Solitude it's almost a struggle to pick it up, but then I become totally engrossed.

38: I loved The Diamond Age, it's brilliant.

Just started The Last Colony by John Scalzi

Regarding The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: I ended up enjoying the book. Several months ago a LT thread got OT on the subject of sexist authors and RAH in particular.

#39: Did you read Old Man's War and the next one before The Last Colony? I enjoyed the series.

I want to read Old Man's War, how does it compare to Haldeman's Forever War?

41> I'd say quite favorably. FW probably had more social commentary in it, but I found both to be excellent.

40: Randalhoctor

Can you remember which thread, I'd like to have a read through it.

41: sf-addict

Myself and my wife read Old Mans War recently and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Both that and Foerever War are in the process of being made into movies.

Finishing The Reality Dysfunction. I know Hamilton isn't for everyone - he certainly kills the trees with his character and world building - but I can't get enough of the space opera stuff. As evidence, although not quite as voluminous, I am starting Chasm City.

44, really? I hope they do a good job on FW (What am i saying, this is hollywood after all...)

41;Old Man's War is much closer to a "conventional" military thriller as opposed to Forever War. It's a little strange when someone mentions Scalzi my first thought is about the Internet celebrity he's made for himself. It takes a few seconds to remember hey he wrote some books too. Although now he's writing fanfiction apparently...

#41: I'd echo what brightcopy wrote in #42. Namely, that both were very good but very different. Old Man's War was fun, but Forever War made me think.

#45: Have you read fallen Dragon? I liked that Hamilton and the 5 "Commonwealth" titles but couldn't get into the Reality Dysfunction books.

40: yes, i read Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades, i'm enjoying the series too.

41: I agree with randal, Old Man's War is fun, but forever war made me think as well. Scalzi has a breezy writing style that is easy to get into though.

Armor is a good read and shares some DNA with both Forever War and Old Man's War. I will say I liked the first half of the book much more than the second, though.

46: sf-addict

With Forever War it's Ridley Scott directing, he's a huge fan of the book.

Just finished New Model Army by Adam Roberts. I have enjoyed his work up to now but this one tanked...nonsensical plot, very weak ending. Am starting the collection Engineering infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan.

#52
I was wondering about reading New Model Army. I read his Yellow Blue Tibia, and while I enjoyed it I did not feel motivated to go out and read his other work, despite the prompting of others. You have stayed my hand for at least another short while.

Thank you!

Started Hull Zero Three and 1984 on audiobook.

Now reading Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer - I guess I overlooked this one when it was published in the 80s...

#54: Wow! Both those are heavily distorting to a persons psyche. I loved them both, and they both still haunt me. ;-)

I did finish Breakaway : a Cassandra Kresnov novel and it did have a big finish. It was clearly a set-up for the third of the trilogy, which seems a bit of a cop out. I'd give it a solid 3/5.

Started The Engines of Light omnibus. Jumped right to Dark Light 'cause I have already read the first of the trilogy.

For audio: I'm enjoying some short fiction collections before going to a full length audiobook.

Just plugged another A. Bertram Chandler 'John Grimes' novel The Wild Ones while waiting for more Dumarest books to arrive.

Finished The Quantum Thief last night. Am still trying to work out what I think to it...

No sign of the next Dumarest books yet..

So more 'John Grimes' completed with Into the Alternate Universe and Contraband from Otherspace

and nearly finished with Gateway to Never

I have been reading Singularity Sky

I'm finding Moon is a Harsh Mistress a struggle. Wish I hadnt started it!

#61 sf_addict

Well, there was a clue in the title.

Finished Dark December by Alfred Coppel.
Starting The Monitors by Keith Laumer.

#56: Ugh. I just finished Generosity which left me despairing over genetic progress. Still, enjoying the reads despite what they will do to my psyche. Thanks for the heads up!

My review of The Quantum Thief is now up here.

Just started Foundation and I have to already agree with those who say Isaac Asimov is not the world's greatest writer. You'd think the opposite, judging from how many best of/essential lists the Foundation books are on.

#65: Thanks for the review Ian. I think I'll check it out when I can get a copy.

Does anyone have any feedback on:
The Seeds of Earth (Humanity's Fire) by Michael Cobley
and the book #2
The Orphaned Worlds. (Humanitys Fire 2) by Michael Cobley

They've got an Iain M Banks quote on the cover. However, I've learned that those are not always terribly instructive.

Well, I finally finished Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem. My review:

It took me three attempts to read this book. The first time, I got bogged down in the middle of the first chapter, waiting for something to happen. Instead, I was treated to fascinating descriptions of one rock formation, then another rock formation that is quite similar but not totally identical to the first rock formation, then yet a third rock formation that is even more similar but not totally identical... The second time, I picked up the book forgetting it was the one with the mind-numbing geological fetish and took it on vacation. Only then did I realize and yet I tried it again - another failure. So I decided to look up some reviews and see what I was missing. I really wanted to like the book, as I had thoroughly enjoyed Lem's Peace On Earth. I found many reviews saying, yes, the first chapter is really boring but just stick with it.

Armed with this knowledge, I braced myself for a third attempt on the summit. This time, I mainly skimmed the first chapter, making sure I didn't miss anything. Turns out you can go through the entire chapter and only read the first few and last few pages and you'll only miss lots of dry recitation of the geology of Titan.

After surviving the first chapter, I approached the "good" part of the book with gusto. And it certainly picked up the pace, but then I think this might have been true had the entire rest of the book consisted only of blank pages. I found myself enjoying it more but still... not that much. The thing is that the book has some really interesting ideas, and in generally a really great story. Unfortunately, it gets completely crushed by the long stretches of exposition (we're talking pages at a time) on subjects that in the end really don't bear much on the plot. Some might say this is part of world building, but it must be used much more sparingly than this. I felt the actual plot of the book might have filled up less space than that excruciating first chapter. Part of this could be blamed on having to read it in something other than Lem's native tongue, but I honestly can't see how those chapters of exposition could have been more lively in any language. Perhaps Klingon.

So I give it three stars. Like I said, the story is good enough that I can't call it a bad book. But I feel that perhaps it wasn't worth the chore of sticking with it, especially three time.

#67 I've known Mike for many years, but even so I can recommend The Seeds of Earth and The Orphaned Worlds. It's full-on space opera, a little bit Banksian in places, although without his mordant wit. Mike has a tendency to over-egg his cake, and there's a lot going on in the two books. But he's put them together well, and I certainly enjoyed them.

This is what I thought of it when I read it.

#67

I've read them and I think you will like them. They are a bit more traditional space-opera than most new space opera. As Ian said there is plenty stuffed in them and the plot progresses at a fair old pace.

I started John Wyndham's The Chrysalids last night, although my copy bears the U.S. release name of Re-Birth. The Chrysalids is such a cool name for the story I can't figure the reasoning for the name change, although it wasn't the only Wyndham renamed for the U.S. Wyndham was a favorite author of mine in my youth, but this one that I've had for decades i never got around to reading. I like it a lot so far. Wyndham is a good writer and this is just the sort of old science fiction (written initially in 1955) that I like to read once in a while and tend to love. It seems to have aged well, so to speak.

Reading World War Z by Max Brooks.

I'm rereading Ringworld after 30 or so years. It's still good fun.

Just reserved Old Man's War online at the library after seeing the chatter about it here. Looks like it might be a good page turner to numb my brain after I finish my taxes this weekend.

My god, you would think someone would review those tax forms before they publish them- some appear to be word puzzles where you have to put yourself in the mind of someone whose second language, English, has only been practiced for three weeks in order to understand which value goes in which underlined slot.

the pages were out of order in singularity sky and since i was reading it in sahort bursts on public transport. i failed to notice till throughily confused. I kept trying to pick it up where I left of an missing.

Got bored and annoyed with Moon is a Harsh Mistress so I bailed!
Now reading For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster instead, a re-read and the prelude to the Commonwealth/Pip and flinx books.

Still on the A. Bertram Chandler 'Grimes' books. Just finished Rim Gods and started Alternate Orbits

Still waiting for further Dumarest books to arrive...

I just finished After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn.

Getting into Dark Light.

For audio I've started Singularity's Ring.

#76: Hmm. I enjoyed Moon is a Harsh Mistress. However, I do totally agree with you; there is nothing noble about finishing a book you're not liking.

Just finished Heirs of Mars and Heirs of Mars: Preludes by Joseph Robert Lewis.
I was lucky to get these in the member giveaway and what a treat. I enjoyed them enormously.

Not my typical week, I had more time to read than usual. The results are as follows.

Read Side Jobs by Jim Butcher and really liked the book.

Next up was Old Man's War by John Scalzi which I think suffered from high expectations. I thought it would be a great book but after reading it I decided I'd rate it as good but not great.

Finished up the week with Singularity Sky by Charles Stross which I didn't like.

Unfortunately, work always gets crazy about this time of year. My reading is going to be curtailed to near the point of non-existence. :-(

#81 Have you tried agent to the stars by John Scalzi. It's a fun take on first contact. Very light reading but laugh out loud at time's.

I know it's not true SciFi but fits in the interstice's One of our Thursdays is missing by Jasper Fforde. Finished today love the Bookworld series.

Finished another Grimes novel. Dark Dimensions

And About to finish the series, working on The Way Back

And of course the online bookseller I ordered the next Dumarest book Lallia from sent me the wrong damn book...Grr.

Reordered 'Lallia' and ordered Jondelle, Eloise and Zenya for good measure.

Finished World War Z. Overall, a very enjoyable read. However, the short interviews did leave a little something to be desired. It became a bit of a tease, making me want to keep reading about a particular person's story. I needed something to sink my teeth into (as the Zombies might say. Oh wait, no, they probably wouldn't... they'd probably say "MWWAAAAAAAANNNNNNGGGGGG"). In retrospect, this would have made a really good bathroom book.

Finished Foundation. Did not like. Now reading Contact.

Finished Absolution Gap last week - might have helped if I'd read Redemption Ark first as this appears to be a direct sequel rather than a novel set in the same universe.

Now reading an interesting biog of Patrick McGoohan - Not a number by Rupert Booth (touchstones just gone gaga). Although it covers his whole life and career, it does give a lot of space to 'The Prisoner' and it does throw up some interresting angles on it, especially the penultimate episode, "Once upon a time" (which was actually filmed early on in the sequence and nowhere near the final episode, 'Fall Out').

>82 AMAMUR: Old Man's War was my first Scalzi novel. Since I wasn't overly impressed, I'm not in a rush to read more of his books though I'm sure I will at some point. Next up is Doc by Mary Doria Russell which was an Early Reviewer book and just arrived today. :-)

Touchstones are doing their usual hiccups so I skipped them. :-)

#87 I'd be interested to know know what you think of Doc. I've read A Thread of Grace but none of her other mainstream work and felt it was overshadowed by The Sparrow.

>88 AMAMUR: I really liked The Sparrow and it's sequel Children of God. I also like historical fiction so I found A Thread of Grace and Dreamers of the Day interesting and liked them but I enjoyed Sparrow and Children more. I'm not aware that she's written any other novels.

I'll review Doc when I finish it, probably sometime next week.

In the middle of A Pleasure to Burn by Ray Bradbury.

I just finished Old Man's War also before I finished my taxes. It was a nice page turner as I anticipated but will win no awards I guess as others have intimated above. To me a mash of Heinlein Starship Troopers, Babylon 5, and Altered Carbon. Not as edgy as Morgan's Carbon and I liked the sparse but adequate explanations {to me} of the sci fi technical hardware. Interesting and sometimes borrowed concepts.

This was one of those sci fi series publishers? Obvious sequels ahead. Surprised I burned through it in a day. Movie rights sold yet? ::edit::Aha just re read #44 Cosmic dolphin post where he states movie is on the way.

91: There are a few sequels to Old Man's War. The Ghost Brigades comes next.

84- brightcopy

I highly recommend the audio book. I am not typically a big fan of audio books but I bought this one because I had heard so much about it. It doesn't cover all the interviews, but the full cast of characters is great.

reading and enjoying Hellspark

Had to skip Lallia for now since my copy will take another 10 days to get here. Finished Technos (Dumarest of Terra #7)

Finished Dark Light as part of the Omnibus The engines of Light. Pretty good stuff. Looking forward to the 3rd of the trilogy Engine City but will get to it later. Next up Ubik or Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel.

For audio; halfway though Seeds of Earth.

76> The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of the few sci-fi books I give 5 stars.

My most recent read: a self-pub, Wĭthûr Wē, in PDF. I gave it 2.5 stars only because it needs an editor; over-long and some bad English, or I would give it 3.5 or even 4.

Just Finished Lallia (Dumarest of Terra #6) by E. C. Tubb (It finally arrived)
Veruchia (Dumarest of Terra #8) by E. C. Tubb

and

Mayenne (Dumarest of Terra #9) by E. C. Tubb

oh please. Foundation lacks a single significant female character and for that I hate it. I also despise Harlequin romances.

I love Altered Carbon so have no difficulty with so-called HARD scifi.

Those who think Foundation or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are the best science fiction books ever published should perhaps widen their reading a little - to books other than just those two, for example...

102> Hey, look, ian and I have had tons of disagreements on which books are "good" or what "good" even means. I think we're about as far apart as can be on personal reading preference (and yet seemingly very similar on politics!). But I will say he is always been respectful when he disagrees. There's no place on this forum or Talk generally for this kind of TOS-violating abuse.

And now for something a bit lighter. Gabe from Penny arcade comments on The City and The City:

"I got about half way through this book and gave up. I just don’t understand these fucking cities. His next book should be called “I’m Smarter Than You” and he can just take a shit inside it."

Um, zero books in his collection. Thinks Hitler is left-wing. Believes in climate change denial. And since he immediately attacks me, I suspect a sock puppet for someone I may have inadvertently offended in the past by daring to disagree with them.

107> Are you honestly implying that he's Neal Asher? That's really a little beneath you, Ian. Haven't you noticed the internet is just FULL of people who'll jump on a forum and start flaming?

ETA: Of course, you may be referring to some mystery enemy. I still think it's going a bit out on a limb and occam's razor just says it's yet another drive-by.

ETA: Careful, RBeffa, Tim has sorta said just posting "don't feed the troll" is a personal attack as well. ;)

Neal Asher? Not at all. He's not the sort of person to do that. I was thinking of a couple of people who have attacked be on other threads on here.

Besides, Neal knows which side of centre Hitler's politics were.

#108 It may be a drive-by, but I'm the only person he's singled out for abuse on two separate threads...

#108 uh-oh. I deleted it.

btw, I enjoy Asher's stuff quite a bit, and they don't offend my left-leaning US sensibilities. Perhaps it is different in the UK ...

And now for something completely different: I'm now reading Angelica by Sharon Shinn. Some of the books in this series lean more fantasy, some more to SF. Not really far enough into the book yet to tell which way this is going to go.

Comments on another thread last week prompted me to pull The Gate To Women's Country by Sheri S Tepper off the TBR bookcase and give it a go this morning. I surely hope it lives up to the praise. So far so good.

Forgot to mention I started Angel Station by Walter Jon Williams. I've been impressed by him in everything I've read of his in the past, but this one might be my first miss. It's also one of his older titles (late 80s). Shame. Maybe it'll pick up. I stopped by our local scifi bookstore and picked up a stack and I'm eager to get started on several.

#111 I stopped reading his blog because of his politics, but I stopped reading his books because I got bored with them.

I'm on a Neal Stephenson kick this year and just finished Zodiac which I enjoyed. It's an older book but i think it has held up well.

>112 Unreachableshelf:: Angelica was too much of a romance for me, even by Shinn's standards! Loved the other Samaria books though.

Found The book of skulls by Robert Silverberg at a second-hand bookshop yesterday, so that will be my next SF read.

>117 Sakerfalcon:

Yeah, looks like it probably will be rather heavily in that catagory too, but I like some of that now and then as long as it's in an interesting world.

I'm sooo behind in my reading program, but I did finish up The Dying Planet (B+) yesterday, which is an interesting take on how our evolving knowledge of the planet Mars influenced speculative fiction.

Finished Jondelle (Dumarest of Terra #10) and Zenya (Dumarest of Terra #11), and started Eloise (Dumarest of Terra #12)

After that I'm out of Dumarest again. Hitting the used bookstores tomorrow.

Just finished The Frozen Sky, by Jeff Carlson. It's a 60-page novella about humans meeting some nasty aliens on Europa. Not a bad little story - especially considering that this was the author's first published work (it was a "Writers of the Future" finalist in 2007.) Ending was a bit flat, though.

In the middle of Accelerando, fun ride so far.

Can't wait to obtain some of that spiffy augmented reality / mental outsourcing hardware :D

I just finished Betrayer by C.J. Cherryh. I really enjoyed it, even the politics. I don't know how she comes up with that stuff. It was a good fast read.

Just finished Engineering infinity, a superb collection, now starting Ken MacLeod's The Restoration game

Finished the Ghost Brigades and I have started zoe's Tale by John Scalzi. I liked the Ghost Brigades ok but unlike the first novel Old Man's War the author starts using a lot of {pages of} "exposition" that seem to stop the flow of the tale.

I am not sure I am going to finish Zoe's tale since {spoiler alert} it is the Ghost Brigades, the same story, from a different characters perspective as others at LT have noted. A nice way to put a chunk of change in the pocket I am sure however. I imagine any movie made will combine the trilogy and show the different perspectives concurrently instead of sequentially - that would be a bore I think.

125: i think the third part of the trilogy is the last colony

#125 yep, you are right! my bad. They kind of ran together. The last colony is repeated in Zoe's Tale the fourth of the series by having the same scenes shown through Zoe's perspective.

After the first novel in the series they seem to not hold my interest as well. But after an error like mine folks will make that determination themselves I guess.;-)

Finally reading Altered Carbon...

Finished Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell a few days ago. Finally got my Early Reviewer's review done tonight. I liked it, and thought it better than her other two historical fiction novels, but still not as good as her sci-fi books, The Sparrow and Children of God. Of course, that could be because I generally prefer sci-fi and fantasy over historical fiction. :-)

Can anyone tell me about the Man-Kzin Wars books. They "smell" like some marketing fluff, but they seem well rated on LT and I've heard good things about them elsewhere.

I guess what I'm really asking is: Do they "flesh-out" they Known Space universe or are they cheap military SF?

Is there any other kind of military sf? :-)

I vaguely recall reading one years and years ago. It didn't inspire me to read the rest of the series.

131: iansales

I read We All Died at Breakaway Station by Richard C. Meredith which got a plug from David Drake as being a book that should belong among the top of the Military SF ranks. I thought that was a solid read. Different than your run of the mill stuff.

I'm reading Nerd Do Well now, which is memoir, but considering the chapters mixed in with that in which Simon Pegg is a superhero with a robot butler, it doesn't seem entirely out of place here.

Finished the The Bookman (C+), a workman-like steampunk novel which is just weird enough to keep one interested.

I picked up that and Camera Obscura at the Eastercon. Lavie was there so I got him to sign them.

134>Agree that The Bookman was only so so. His stories 'jump about' between different styles.

#136: About the main downer for me is that I can't say that I found the characters all that engaging, which is another way of saying I'm over weird for weird's sake. I will give the follow-up book a shot though.

131 iansales

Is there any other kind of military sf? :-)

I like military sf. Why is it "cheap"?

Hope you loved it as much as many others (including myself) have.