What are you reading? Q3 July - Sept 2008

I realize i'm a few days ahead of schedule but wanted to get this set up while I was thinking about it.

July approaches and with it a new quarter! HERE'S the Quarter 2 thread if you really want to go back...

Lyonesse by Jack Vance

A re-read of Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy, my favorite of all her books, under all names.

a while back, someone posted a link on this list to a distance learning course out of the UofMinnesota on sci-fi/fantasy. I listened to the first 2 lectures on my way home from work Friday and really enjoyed them. I couldn't quite catch the techers names...but i THINK the woman was Pat Cardigan if i heard correctly? I can't fine more info easily on the UMinn site, so that's a bit frustrating, but i'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the courses over july!

That may be Pat Cadigan. I know she does have some connection to Minnesota but she lives in Britain.

A very nice lady and a damn fine writer in her own right.

If you find the URL can you post it here please Bob (even if it is only the first few).

I'm a little more than halfway through Pandora's Star.

Andy -et al..
here 'tis.

I've started listening to a series of (free) lectures downloadable from th UofMinn site.

http://lrc.lib.umn.edu/Engl3020.htm

will get you all of them. The lectures come in 25min 'pairs' with no information about them...but in the first one (intro and history of sci fi) mentioned that the course was going to be split, roughly, between sci-fi and fantasy. Well mentioning older writers (from Greeks onwards) Verne & Wells get pride of place in re putting two of the basic sci-fi schemas...1. the great adventure into the unknown (verne, duh); and 2. the "science based" and the social implications thereof (Wells)
I think i need to go the the UMinn site and go to their english depts home page and find the course listing..May be more description of each lecture there.
well..my internet if being way slow...but i think go here:
http://onestop2.umn.edu/courseinfo/courseguide_selectsubject.jsp?institution=UMN...
and enter Engl3020 in the catalog field and it show up??????

Having just got Principles of Angels by new British author Jaine Fenn I will be starting that at the end of this week.

After that I have Christopher Evans's Omega (not touchstone-able) on the shelf as well as Ramsey Campbell's latest book.

I ordered Omega, but there's been no parcel from PS yet. I'll have to give them another poke...

I ordered it last week along with the Ramsey Campbell and Zoran Zivkovic's The Last Book. The first two arrived today. The Zivkovic didn't so I might be chasing them on Monday.

I've just finished Incredible Good Fortune the most recent collection of poems by Ursula Le Guin. Some of them are whimsical, quite musical while others are more reflective and thoughtful; simple but not simplistic. Lovely stuff, really.

She turns 80 next year.

Recent re-reads:
Earth Abides by George Stewart
Malevil by Robert Merle
Drowning Towers by George Turner
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Recent New Reads:
Tunnels by Gordon and Williams
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Book of Dave by Will Self
Toward the End of Time by John Updike
The Children of Men by P.D. James

Just finished Balance of Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

Antartica - Everyone is interested in the future of Antartica - the oil companies want to extract methane and oil for power generation, there are some radical environmentalists want it to be preserved, and scientists want to study it. It's got a lot of hard science in it, and is extremely technical at times, which I enjoyed. The book was slow which suited the story, but I would have preferred a somewhat brisker pace, and I felt somewhat let down by the conclusion - I won't spoil it, but I generally expect the characters to figure their way out of their predicaments, unless it is part of the plot that the characters will get help. This is the first book that I have read by Kim Stanley Robinsonn, and I enjoyed the book enough that I will have a look for other efforts by this author. 4/5.

I've got another debut on the way ( I think it's a debut). The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams. It is blurbed by Stephen Baxter and Peter Watts. It looks like a near-future thriller type book which I'm in the mood for. At least that's what the book trailer made me think.

#6-- I started to read Pandora's Star, but decided to save it for a month or two. I'll be reading fewer books at a time in the fall.

Currently I'm reading A Specter is Haunting Texas by Fritz Leiber. I just finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and I'm about to start Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison.

I'm about halfway through Template by Matthew Hughes, which I have to review for Interzone.

I just started Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber (shame on LT for not having a touchstone for him!) and am enthralled. I love the resurgence of respectability that space opera is enjoying, and this book is so far a wonderful example of the reason for that resurgence.

As far as I'm aware the current vogue for space opera and new space opera has nothing to do with David Weber. Who writes military sf anyway. Despite the claims of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer in The Space Opera Renaissance, the New British Space Opera (as it originally was) began with the early works of Iain Banks and Colin Greenland's Take Back Plenty, before being picked up by the likes of Alastair Reynolds, Neal Asher and dabblers such as Paul J. McAuley, Justina Robson and Charles Stross...

Colony, Rob Grant - Earth's last hope is a generation spaceship of colonists, and things are not too good - the captain is a petulant spotty child, the chief technician is a devout religious person who explains everything as God's will, and the priest is a devout aetheist and a pervert. Extremely funny, and I would recommend it for it's humour alone. However, I was dissapointed with the conclusion, and there were some coincidences to help advance the plot that I did not like. 4/5.

Ron Hansen's 1983 novel, recently adapted into a movie starring Brad Pitt, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. Very good (nope, not interested in the film)

I'm reading Seed magazine and Wired magazine today.

Escape from Kathmandu, Kim Stanley Robinson - a hiking guide in the Himalayas has some adventures - whisks away a yeti from scientists, helps find the body of a perished explorer, climbs Mount Everest to help a holy man complete a spiritual quest, and I could not be bothered reading the rest. It is not funny, despite what the book blurb promised, nor does it excite with action, science, or ideas. 1/2 out of 5.

As a sidenote, is it just the books that I have read so far of his, or does every Kim Stanley Robinson book involve characters that hike, guide hikes, or people who give the hikers and hiking guides a reason to hike?

Finished Template by Matthew Hughes and wrote my review. Now reading fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson, and it's a bit like an anthropology and global warming text book with a plot. Good, though.

Just started the Privilege of the Sword because it was nominated for a Nebula...but I'm finding it such a sharp contrast to Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained) which I just finished that I'm actually having trouble sticking with Privilege.

I don't want to reopen the wonderfully interesting debate on Hamilton from another chain in this group, but I've have to note that the contrast is making me appreciate all over again the differences in writing styles of Iain M. Banks, China Mieville, and Peter Hamilton, which -- while certainly not all the same -- are a different genre all together than the light-fantasy likes of Sharon Shinn, Robin Hobb, and, so far, Ellen Kushner. And I don't think the difference is entirely the scifi/fantasy divide. Complexity? Expectations of the read? Whatever it is (and NO this is not a gender question!!!), diversity is truly a wonderful thing.

#22 -- SEED is simply wonderful. Their moniker "Science is culture" says it all for me.

Thanks for the recommendations all!

>21 CliffBurns: - my wife just gave me Hansen's fictionalized biography of Gerard Hopkins and his reaction to the wreck of the Deutschland Exiles which i'll start in on shortly.

#24

Seeing as though you are reading a Kim Stanley Robinson novel, can you tell me if the book involves characters that hike, guide hikers, or people who give the hikers and hiking guides a reason to hike?

#27

That series definitely includes hiking - and in one of the books there is a whole passage where the main character and his buddies go hiking in the mountains.

#27 One of the main characters decides to live rough in a park, and spends a lot of time running around with "ferals" or "fregans", chasing a frisbee.

#24 - no kidding(26,27) have it dead to rights..there's more "exercise" and play, camping and hiking in "50 degrees below" than in 99% of SF novels (that don't involve post-apocalypse trekking by foot). Even in a conventional sense - someone who's read it more recently can correct me - but don't the protagonist and another character spend time jogging and working out @ a gym in the beginning of the book? It IS pretty near future, and American urban professionals behavior is pretty much as is!
i liked this one too.

HE KILLS COPPERS by one of the best crime writers around, Jake Arnott. Read his novel THE LONG FIRM, it's amazing...

I just finished Invasion Earth by Harry Harrison, pretty good invasion story. I like the illustrations through out.

As I recall the Mars trilogy has lots of outdoor exercise for the sake of exercise all through it. The end, unless I misrememberize it correctly, of Blue Mars is the protagonist starting out on a circumambulation of Mars without the need of outdoor breathing assistance. It's possible that this is a little ambitious as to the scope of the walk, but a walk, a long walk, was what the character had in mind.

jerusalem fire is my current read.

I've got Antartica lined up so I'm glad that's one of his better ones. Anybody know if The Star Fraction by Macleod is any good? I picked it up cheap on a whim after recognising the name from some LT discussions.

Just finishing Charles Willeford's MIAMI BLUES (made into a decent movie in the early 90's). Seem to be on a bit of a crime book spree of late...

Sideways in Crime. A collection of mysteries set in various alternate histories. Ed. Lou Anders.
So far a v. good collection: Kage Baker, Baxter, KK Rusch, McDevitt, Paul Park, etc.
The Rusch story, "G-men," set in LBJ's administration is the best of a good lot. Hope to finish the stories this evening.

I've had a fondness for the crossover sci-fi/procedural/mystery for a long time (Lynn Hightower's Alien Blues and its sibs are favorites of mine; as are Richard Paul Russo's Carlucci series)

I liked Russo's SHIP OF FOOLS. Read that one yet, Bob?

Actually I've been posting my current reads on my home LT page, and I realized I haven't visited this thread in a while except to read:

I'm in the middle of a Brunner run-I mentioned earlier this year that it was a potential game plan to do so. It's good - I'm on his wavelength -having a good time...
Just finished The Whole Man which was terrific, The Long Result which was engaging, and am now on to The Squares of the City.

Good for you for giving a shot to an author who's starting to drop off the radar. Go for it, Arthur!

#21 - The movie is worth watching for Casey Affleck's performance alone; he was amazing - really. The rest was underwhelming, but his portrayal of Robert Ford was Oscar-worthy.

>37 CliffBurns: - Right..i liked Ship of Fools a lot too; i'll have to see about getting hold of Unto Leviathan and Terminal Visions which i haven't read yet.

Thanks, Mike, mebbe I'll see the film eventually. On a double bill with the remake of "3:10 To Yuma". I do love westerns...

Finished Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson. Good, albeit a bit didactic at times. Lots of interesting stuff in it. Of course, if you're stupid enough to believe Global Warming is some kind of lefty conspiracy to rob God-fearing capitalists of their hard-earned profits, you'll probably hate the book.

I'm now about to start The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield - another book in my challenge to read a classic author new to me each month. It's been an interesting challenge so far...

January: Patricia Highsmith - thought she was over-rated.
February: Ernest Hemingway - couldn't even finish it.
March: Rudyard Kipling - sort of fun, although very dated.
April: Anthony Powell - good, would like to read more.
May: Virginia Woolf - didn't like at all.
June: Joseph Conrad - hard-going, but would probably read more.

Like me, I'm not sure Hemingway ever constructed a good sentence in his life. His writing always seems clunky and disjointed, somehow.

Conrad, OTOH, is one of, if not my favorite, author. Heart of Darkness is one of the most prescient tales I've ever read. End of the Tether, Youth, Almayer's Folly, Lord Jim, Nostromo. . . the list just goes on and on: all books I've read more than once.

Peter K dug up the syllabus for the UMN online sci-fi/fantasy course:
http://idlwebdb.cce.umn.edu/details2.asp?id=ENGL-3020-02
Patricia Hodgell is the woman instructor who seems to handle mostly the fantasy side of things.
Perhaps if you actually bought the cds from UM the sound quality would be a little better - it sounds like 1 mike was being used as each lector moves closer and further away from it.
....
It doesn't seem that many people i run into (self included) actually LIKE Hemingway. At least, from what little i remember, the books of his we were assigned weren't long.

Sorry, lads, I like Hemingway.

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. Absolutely killer ending. Guy writer: all the obsessions and fears relating to manhood (and loss of same). The "Nick Adams" short stories. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (a staple in those NORTON college readers for a very good reason).

Me like Ernie. It's people's affection for Faulkner I have a hard time understanding...

i think you have to live in Oxford, Mississippi to heart Faulkner. When we visited our in-laws there, the town appeared dedicated to his memory and Ole Miss football. (not to be confused w/ futbal/soccer). Good bookstore, tho. Andrei Codrescu covers the cult of Faulkner in Oxford with humor and good cheer in Hail Babylon.

Oxford Town,
Oxford Town,
Everybody's going down to
Oxford Town

Tripoint which I've been looking for for ages, I hope it's worth the wait.

46>

"Me like Ernie. It's people's affection for Faulkner I have a hard time understanding..."

Me like Ernie too. First time I've ever heard him attacked for how he writes a sentence. ;) Usually he's regarded as the man who set the bar. I love Conrad -he could be one of my favorite writers as well, but they are apples and oranges, and Hemingway definitely has a more modern cadence to his writing, still, as far as I'm concerned.

Actually As I Lay Dying is a very interesting novel that you should check out if you haven't.

I have it on my shelf. Made it about 40 pages into THE SOUND AND THE FURY and tossed it to the floor in a fit of disgust. I won't give up on Faulkner but his style, that Southern floridness, really wears on a minimalist like me...

The Sound and the Fury is rough. I respect it, but I'm not sure it's worth it, necessarily. As I Lay Dying is rough, but less so, and definitely worth the trouble, especially for fantastic fiction readers. Great, morbid, atmospheric book.
Gene Wolfe takes a lot from Faulkner.

#52 -Gene Wolfe takes a lot from Faulkner.
that's a very astute comment, and helps me understand why i've never really taken to Gene Wolfe the way most everyone else has.

About to start Make Room! Make Room} by Harry Harrison

Macrolife, by James Zebrowski.

Heavy Weather, Bruce Sterling - people chase after tornadoes for fun. It was a pity that the author stuck to cyberpunk ideas to tell this story. It worked well at times - machines have programmed code in them to work, for example - but the author failed to get to the subjects of interest to non-cyberpunk readers. For example, rising CO2 causes more tornadoes, but no scientific reason behind this is given. The world government and monetary systems has collapsed in the mid 2010's, but this is alluded to as the collapse, and not much is said about how this actually occured, which is not good enough when it occured less than twenty years after the book was set. However, the end was quite a good idea, although introduced quite suddenly. 3/5.

While I quite understand a southerner's attachment to Faulkner, one does not need to be from the south to appreciate him. I teach at a northeastern prep school and our whole English Department not to mention a bunch of out alumni in a school book club are crazy about him, especially As I Lay Dying.

On Hemmingway I agree with many posters here - while a definite member of the canon, I have a hard time disagreeing with Gertrude Stein on him: "remarks are not literature."

Conrad is sublime. period.

#50, 52, 57 - I read As I Lay Dying a year or so ago and literally could not put it down. I was amazed! I also read The Unvanquished shortly after. I did not enjoy it quite as much as As I Lay Dying, but it was certainly worth reading.

I will give Monsieur Faulkner another chance, at some point. His reputation intrigues me and I'd really like some indication of what the fuss is all about. Certain writers just don't work for me--Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, Jack Kerouac, Saul Bellow. For whatever reason, the "voice" of their prose holds no appeal to me. No easy explanation why. There's no connection forged, no affinity formed.

But people change and ten or twenty years from now I might pick up Faulkner, read the first ten sentences and think to myself, "hmmm, Oprah was right: this guy IS pretty good..."

Gotta get back to work. Will check in on the state of the debate later. Have a good weekend, everyone...

I've yet to read Faulkner, but I love Saul Bellow. Sometimes people just happen to have different tastes. Try Bellow in the wintertime. I find that different seasons give one more of a feel for certain authors.

That might just be me, though.

I've been reading mainly out of genre this month, lots of John D MacDonald (which has been inconsistent) and A.A. Fair (which is all good).

In science fiction, I was disappointed by The Robots of Dawn, and really disappointed by The Palace of Love (which was not nearly as good as the first two Demon Princes books). And I just started The Big Time, which I think I'm going to like.

Currently reading The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds - I LOVE me some space opera, even tho I'm not sure what that term really means. This is my third of the five Revelation Space novels.

Also just finished two free Cory Doctorow e-books; Little Brother, which I loved despite the occasional preachiness/passion for the topic and Eastern Standard Tribe which was just ok. Do you all consider Doctorow's work to be SF? That's where it shows up in the bookstores but is it? really?

Maybe I'm too literal, but I have a hard time calling it SF - maybe just me...

Have just finished the book So Dark the Night, by Cliff Burns. It's on his website http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/ for anyone interested, under the "novels" section. A series of strange crimes are occuring, and two mis-matched investigators are on the case. Although it is not science fiction, it's written by an LT author who posts on this group, so I think it is worth mentioning here.

I must admit that I am not a fan of detective stories or urban fantasy. However, I quite enjoyed this book - it's written well, well-researched, and there are some really good ideas in here. My only criticism is that it assumes too much knowledge of some of the minor characters. For example, who, or what, the Old Man is was never explained in the book, even though this had some impact on how other characters acted. However, this is a small complaint, which does not affect the overall story.

The urban fantasy thing worked really well for me - the details were worked out extremely well. The detective story did not work as well for me, but that is mainly due to my own personal dislike for the police/detective story format. I'll give the "So Dark the Night" a 4.5/5, and my recommendation to head over to Cliff's site to read it.

#62 - agree..doctorow tries to be experimental and trippy..but unlike, say, Womak, in Going, Going Gone or even a off the wall, but tru sci fi like Vurt it strikes me as experimentation but not esp. sci-fi-ish (?). Maybe i should try again, but i've never finished a Doctorow book.

Thanks to Rojse for the plug o' my book. Hey, it ain't SF but it's weeeeeerd, okay?

I'm finally tackling Vernor Vinge's RAINBOW'S END but I'm reading while I'm editing and that's NEVER a good idea, I become hyper-critical, can't turn off the analytical part of my brain.

Also very much enjoying "So Dark the Night." which i started this AM. I enjoy classic noir, urban fantasy as well as the mergers of the two which is its own sub-genre, i'd guess. The story works very well both as an affectionate send up of genres which fall into cliche all too easily and simply as a very good, witty story even if i haven't caught many of the zillion references - i'm sure i've missed half of them at least.

Nightstalk's home protection unit, "Tree", is a wonderful reincarnation of AudreyII.

Thanks for giving SO DARK a shot, Bob. There are more homages and in-jokes in the novel than I care to mention; everything from crime flicks to "Get Smart". I'm a packrat of cultural references, murderously good at "Trivial Pursuit".

May the book entertain, that's the main thing...

>67 CliffBurns:

You had me at "Get Smart." I'm making a note to check that out in a couple of weeks, when my master's is finished and the TBR pile can shrink.

It's silly, the things that stick in my mind. Haven't seen an episode of "Get Smart' in 30 years but when I had an opportunity to drop in a tip o' the hat, I couldn't resist...

My wife is in the midst of her Master's too, so you have my sympathy...and respect.

In spite of reading what should be considered a lot of fairly intelligent stuff, I cannot spot references or homages unless they are made blatantly obvious, which sort of spoils the point, then. I must apologise that all of your research is wasted on a philistine like myself, Cliff.

Finished The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield. It was... okay. Perhaps I'm too much a contemporary reader because I found most of the stories to be more like vignettes than actual stories. They didn't have plots. And the assumption of privilege by the characters was... off-putting.

This "Reading Classic Authors" thing hasn't been working out so well... I mean, I read The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles (a favourite mainstream author) in three days, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But Joseph Conrad's Nostromo was hard work. And The Garden Party I finished more out of a sense of duty than because I was enjoying it. I'll keep up with the plan, although I don't hold out much hope for the other books I have lined up - which includes works by Jack Kerouac, Gerald Durrell, DH Lawrence and Marcel Proust... Next year, I think I'll reread a classic sf novel each month.

Oh, and I've just started Machines and Men, a short story collection by Keith Roberts - whose 'The Lake of Tuonela' is one of my favourite short stories (see here).

I'm hanging fire on Spin Control and Resenting the Hero. Maybe I'll get them finished this week; maybe not.

I feel it's important to me, as a reader, to tackle a wide variety of books from different eras and genres. Too many folks limit their reading and I think it affects their perspective, they become narrowly focussed connoisseurs with a stunted, wizened aesthetic and impaired critical faculties.

Always enjoy popping in here, finding out what everyone's got on their bedside table, jotting down the names of promising-sounding tomes, everything from Proust to Stross...

I've quite deliberately not listed the non-SF stuff I read here.

However I agree with Ian above. I found Nostromo extremely hard going. Conrad's The Secret Agent I found to be much more palatable. Although strangely I have a copy of the former and not the latter.

Ah, Andy, we're all friends here. Tell us what ya read, regardless. Show off a little. Tell us why THE CORRECTIONS was so darn good (and why it bored the snot out of me).

I've read SECRET AGENT and HEART OF DARKNESS and I have to say, ol' Joe is not for me...

The Corrections sounds as if it would bore the snot out of me as well.

I have recently read The Victoria Vanishes which is the 6th and final? novel in Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May series. Bryant and May are two very old, oddball detectives who have their own unit, the Peculiar Crimes Unit, within the Met. (that is The Metropolitan Police). Although detective stories it is quite clear that Fowler is writing from a fantasy/horror informed viewpoint - one won the Derleth Award (that is the British Fantasy Award) even though they contain little or no fantasy aspects. Although I guess the odd little short stories he writes would be more to your taste. If you can find one of his short story collections snap it up.

Also recently read was Thieving Fear by Ramsey Campbell. A psychological horror novel.

Some touchstones not working.

I've read quite a bit of Fowler's work. The other day I ordered a copy of ROOFWORLD (my favorite) because I wanted my oldest son to read it. Went down to the basement, to the shelf where I keep my Fowler offerings (RUNE, SHARPER KNIVES, etc.) but it wasn't there. Had I loaned it to somebody?

(Expletives mercifully deleted)

So off to Amazon, found a copy for 26 cents or something like that (plus six bucks shipping, of course). Hopefully Liam will get a chance to read it in about 10 days. Right now my lads, the little traitors, are reading all my old Stephen King books. It's my fault, I gave Liam SALEM'S LOT, telling him it was a good summer read and then he passed it on to his brother, who devoured it during a 12-hour bus ride from northern Manitoba.

I haven't read Campbell for awhile but I've always liked him. He wrote an introduction to one of his books, was it THE FACE THAT MUST DIE, where he talked about his childhood, the strange relationship between his parents. It was powerful stuff...

#73

Although I agree that it is important to read a wide variety of books, I honestly do not see why this should not be simply a wide variety of SF books. The genre itself has existed for over a hundred years, there is quite a variety of sub-genres, and there are a wide variety of SF authors who have written about nearly every conceivable subject. If that is not good enough, there are plenty of people on here giving good suggestions as to what is worth reading, and will make suggestions if people make up a thread to ask for a specific interest.

With the knowledge that I will probably offend everyone who has posted with their enjoyment for classical English novels, I find that most of the English classics tepid, cliched, and slow, even disregarding the extremely serious problem that the writing style can be hard to comprehend. I do agree that there is some great writing to be found, but surely I should be able to expect to be having some of my ideas challenged while I marvel at the author's skill in prose?

I will always choose a book full of ideas, but clumsily executed, over the book with no ideas written well. And there are quite a few SF novels that are written well and have a plethora of challenging and interesting ideas.

I'm currently reading Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee and Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan as book club reading.

I've also got Philip Roth's The Plot Against America open and occasionally read a few pages of this whenever I have absolutely nothing else to do - it's not bad but it's not very engaging either...

There are a number of other books in a similar state as the Roth - started and maybe I'll get back to them at some time.

The next set of books I own will be some more Doctor Who novelisations

I found THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA rather dull and unconvincing and that was after I'd read many rave reviews and plugs from authors I genuinely admire. I hadn't read Roth in years--way back when I read three of his Zuckerman novels and quite enjoyed them but I won't be rushing out and buying his complete canon, I'll tell ya that...

Author plugs - i've pretty much given up on trusting any author plug on a book cover (as opposed to at least giving some credence to a review written by an author). I've bought/borrowed way too many books which seem to have been shilled mindlessly by fellow writers. This is a problem which seems to be getting worse rather than better these days - or that's my impression, anyway.

I think your perception is correct. That's why when someone like Pynchon plugs a book, I sit up and pay attention. He does it so rarely and thus retains his credibility...

The Plot Against America was Roth's weakest novel in years, primarily because of the sf elements - the autobiographical segments were fine. The rest of the novels since late eighties have veered between the good and the very very good.

>78 rojse: - but great novels do challenge your ideas if read carefully - they are full of philosophical, religious, and social ideas. Most of what people call ideas in sf, i.e., FTL, time travel, wormholes, etc., are actually props in the story, like furniture in Henry James.

City of God - EL Doctorow. About 100 pgs in. haven't made up my mind yet..probably a good thing, as it means i'll likely finish this one. But mostly because it's a curious book, not an especially good one (yet).
Waiting for the crowds to diminish before checking out Dark Knight; probably see Gonzo, the biopic of HS Thompson before that.
My Amazon order should show up at work tomorrow..

Currently reading Bleak House. Just finished two very interesting books with similar themes: Middlemarch and The Age of Innocence. I heartily recommend both to people who seek ideas in their reading.

I love Dickens and his language is hard to beat. If you are not used to fully fleshed characters, meticulously laid plots, descriptive flights of fancy and, by golly, just the incredible sound of a well written English sentence, then I can understand how these books would be boring. They don't bear you along on the top of the wave, they are more like a climb to the top of Everest. The satisfaction and sense of enlightenment and achievement of such a hike makes these reads far more enjoyable. Riding the wave has its place as a palate cleanser between trips.

Nicely put, Gene.

Have just finished reading Catch-22. A satire on war. Quite well-written, insightful, and extremely funny, with the humour and satire working on several levels at once - there was the quite direct catch-22 contradictions, and there were more subtle jabs, too - sending up the stereotype of women who all want to have sex with American soldiers, for example. Brilliant novel - 5/5.

If you liked that give The Sotweed Factor by john Barth a try. It has a similar style and I thought it as well executed as Catch-22.

Just finished Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks and have moved on to Eifelheim by Michael Flynn.

Re: Catch-22: The story goes that someone once said to Heller: 'Since Catch-22, you've not written anything as good.' to which Heller responded: 'Who has?'

Even if it's not true, it's still funny as hell...

It's a terrific book and one that's hard to live up to, as Heller found out.

One of my favorite novels of all time. It's my "Fahrenheit 451" book. ;)

#92 arthurfrayn - Fahrenheit 451 is easily in my top five books of all time. I've read it many times.

#88

Will add that to my "if I can read it, I will," list, which numbers a few thousand right now.

In defense of food Michael Pollan's 200 page manifesto centered on "eat food, eat less, mostly plants." The "practical" followup book to the terrific The Omnivore's Dilemma. The Political Mind by Lakoff. The good prince fabletown #10 (i am a big fan of the whole series); Alan Moore's Promethea v. 1. I liked this..kind of a merging of Sandman w/ Moore's somewhat grittier sensibility. But defn. taken w/ the story of story as the key subtext throughout.

Finished Machines and Men, a collection of short stories by Keith Roberts. Not as good as The Grain Kings. All the stories in it were published in 1965 and 1966, and they're very dated.

Have now started Journey to the Moon by Eldon C Hall, which is about the development of the Apollo guidance Computer.

Currently reading Flood by Stephen Baxter - the waters are rising and it looks like the world is going down the tubes.

I have also heard that I am being sent an ARC (via the Early Reviewer programme here) of Infoquake by David Louis Edelman so I am planning to read that when it arrives.

Adam Roberts was much impressed by Flood*.

* Gah. These stupid touchstones. Is it too much to ask that they look first for the title closest to the one you've typed, rather than the most popular title which happens to contain one or more of the words you've typed?

On Flood. Last night I read the first third of the book and I'm pretty impressed so far.

Just finished The Dreaming Void and just started The Born Queen. Two relatively current books in a row. I'll have to find something older (and shorter) to follow up. Missing the days when paperbacks were 180 pages or so.

This is off topic but I don't want to start a thread for this unless there is some interest. I hope the regulars here and the lurkers will chime in. I am currently reading Bleak House for a group read in another group. There are two advantages to group reads: they encourage reading books one might not otherwise read, either due to ignorance of the work or because they may seem daunting, and reading together with others and discussing the reading as it goes along helps keep one going. I'm wondering if anyone here has ever attempted to herd the SF cats (similar to but not exactly like Nashville Cats) into such a group read.

In the Group Reads group we currently spend a couple of weeks gathering suggestions, then a week or so voting on those suggestions to find a winner, allowing another little while for everyone to acquire the chosen book, then reading and discussing it.

Is anyone interested?

interested; never tried a book group/read before and would try to be polite. this could be it's own thread, i think..

If enough people express interest I will set up a thread, but let's see what the interest is, first.

That sounds interesting. I used to belong to a book club with some co-workers at a previous job, but when I left I kind of lost touch.

I did read a lot of things I wouldn't have otherwise, some good and some bad.

Could that have been Pat Cadigan rather than Cardigan?

>105 ariaflame: if your going back to my misunderstood pronunciation of the woman teachers name in the UMN online course - you are correct that i WAS thinking Cadigan..but i was wrong..it's Patricia Hodgell. So my fkup for hearing SO badly..but i will say in my lame defense that the course, while interesting, is miked poorly.

#103

We did try quite a while ago. It fizzled out.

I'd be willing to participate in a group read. Would be nice to read books outside my normal selection.

Two suggestions, though:
1. On an SF discussion thread, we should be reading an SF novel, not a classic literature book.
2. Perhaps one person (Geneg - he came up with the idea) putting up a list of his ideas for an SF novel that we could read, and we vote for one on that list. We then argue about who makes the next book suggestion from there.

i was assuming SF books here too.

I've just started Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and enjoying it very much.

Yes, I apologize for not making it clear, a Sci-Fi book is what I was after and I, personally, would like to restrict it to sci-fi, not fantasy, and no graphic novels. However, the rules of the game are the prospective participants suggest and vote and if a graphic novel or a fantasy work is chosen, well, hey, that's why they call it democracy.

As far as my submitting a list from which to choose that's part of my reason for doing this. I am unfamiliar with much of today's best Sci-Fi and wish to correct that through this mechanism.

I will start a new thread for suggestions and be responsible for organizing this time. But organization is not my cuppa.

Okay, the new group for this shot at a group read is here. Please feel free to join if you are interested. Let's get busy selecting a book.

Finished Vernor Vinge's RAINBOWS END and while I found it interesting in places, it certainly didn't grab me like other works I've read by the author. Hugo Award-quality stuff? Nope, I don't think so. Found myself skimming as I got closer to the end. Not a good sign...

Now that the convention is over, I can read again. Just finished Walter Jon Williams' Implied Spaces and Kage Baker's The House of the Stag and two absolutely wretched free books (check my library if you really want to be tortured).

I am excited to finally start Daniel Abraham's An Autumn War. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the first two novels in this series. For the first time in a long time I have a stack of books to read including Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns, Stross' Saturn's Children, and a Douglas Coupland. Looking forward to the new Neil Stephenson in September.

The SF Reading Group that I belong to is:
http://swordandlaser.ning.com/ although I am NOT reading Watership Down again.

What did you think of the Walter Jon Williams book?

Have you checked out his blog?

http://walterjonwilliams.blogspot.com/

Finished Tim Jones's short fiction collection, Transported (yes, our Tim Jones, aka senjmito, LT author). The collection has several straightforward SF stories which I thought quite good. Unfortunately, the collection is not readily available outside of New Zealand. More notes on the book's page.

Just to qualify avaland's "not readily available" a little, Transported can be purchased from New Zealand Books Abroad, who specialise in supplying New Zealand books to overseas buyers: see their Transported page.

>117 timjones: true, true - I should've qualified that further. "not readily available" = import for most of us and relatively expensive with shipping. One can hope for a UK or US publisher, eh?

> 118 - yes, the mighty wheels of my publisher are grinding towards that outcome!

Congrats, Tim, truly.

May your book find success in New Zealand and farther afield too.

Great news for you...

> 120: Thanks, Cliff, but there's nothing definite to report yet about overseas rights - I just meant that efforts in this direction are continuing.

Regards
Tim

I'm actually going to get a novel finished this month; Resenting the Hero (B).

Have been on a military sci fi kick for awhile now. Have recently read;

Valor's Choice and Better Part of Valor by Tanya Huff
The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle
Just started reading King David's Spaceship also by Jerry Pournelle,and have obtained a copy of The Prince which is all of his Falkenberg's Legion books in one volume.

I have just received a pile of about six books from the Science Fiction Masterworks collection, and two Haldeman books. Looks like I am in for a great weekend.

I have already read Dying Inside, by Robert Silverberg - a lone psychic person is slowly losing his powers, and is slowly turning into a normal person. It's a great idea, and Silverberg explores how being psychic would affect life - how a person would handle relationships, both serious and casual, how they would make money, how they behave around normal people, and quite a few other things. A few niggles, mainly not liking the concentration on relationships, but I will definitely be looking out for Silverberg if he can keep writing books like this. 4.5/5.

Honestly, I have been pretty spoiled lately in my SF reading - everyone here gives great suggestions as to new authors and books, and Zeitgeist allows me to have a look at the 100 most owned books by this group.

good steampunk novel The Court of the Air (at least so far); Murakami, What i talk about when i talk about running - which is NOT "breaking clays"..it's exactly what the title says it is....Murakami's meditations on his running..and as he's a well known author he's asked to speak a lot..and having given up running his jazz bar..he now runs...
Everyone complains about the touchstones..but that 's the first time they've done something really off the wall to me!

Also just finished Whiteout and Operation Saddlebag by Greg Rucka...an author whose books work far better for me as comics than as conventional stand alone spy/thriller novels.

I am currently reading The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester.

Just started David Brin's Earth, yesterday. Plan to have it finished by the time we select the group read book. I'm reading this on the advice of a friend.

The Space Merchants Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth - a future where commercialism and advertising have taken over, and an advertising group needs to convince everyone that they want to get to Venus. I really liked the premise of the novel, and there were some points that were an extremely insightful satire about advertising and capitalism. However, there were too many coincidences in the plot for me to really accept the story. 4/5.

I recently read The Space Merchants and loved it. There were some clumsy elements to the plot, as well as some slightly dated mores, but the overall theme of the novel was enough to trump them for me. After 'Chicken Little,' I'll never look at chicken the same way.

I'm about to start Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

Jem Frederik Pohl - man is trying to colonise a planet with three intelligent races. While humanity is sending their precious resources to the planet, they also send along their conflicts along. An excellent indictment of our society, and I thought the portrayal of how we would pervert three intelligent races to our own twisted goals extremely insightful, and worse, probably exactly what would happen. I'll give it a 5/5.

I thought I would give an update here on what is happening on the Group Reads Sci-Fi thread (http://www.librarything.com/groups/groupreadsscifi), to see if more people might be interested in joining the group.

About two weeks of discussion has brought up thirty-odd books, which have been narrowed down to five books. A poll has been made at http://www.vizu.com/poll-vote.html?n=109847 for anyone who wishes to join in our read.

The five possible books that we get to choose from are:
A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
Old Man’s War, John Scalzi
Hyperion, Dan Simmons
Farthing, Jo Walton

Hope everyone else is as interested in this as I am.

Finished King David's Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle. A great story, it has it all. Space travel, political intrigue, barbarians at the gate and pirates at sea. And a love story to fill in the blanks.
Have started west of Honor and since I've been on the Pournelle kick I have dug out my old copy of The Mote in God's Eye for a re-read

Just finished Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

#133, What did you think of Grimspace? I read it earlier this year and found it inconsistent and disappointing--some good ideas played out in very conventional ways.

I just started City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer.

I just started A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt, my first book by him.

Timescape - Gregory Benford - man from the 2000's sends messages back to 1960's to change history. It's a really good hard SF book, and discusses the problems with time in the sense of physics, which is extremely interesting.

However, I have a serious complaint with how women are portrayed - for a book published in 1980, it's quite poor. There are three main stereotypes that are peppered throughout the book - the housewife, the women that are easy, or the easy housewife. There are only two characters that rise about such awful stereotyping, and both live in the 1960's.

Apart from that, an excellent book. 4.5/5.

As soon as I finish editing this manuscript of mine and load OF THE NIGHT onto my site in two weeks time, I am going on a BINGE of reading. Lurking on this thread, discovering what other folks are pouring into their minds, has made me very envious. Every time I pass my piles of books, I rub my hands together in anticipation: Mwwwaaa-aaa-aaa-aa.

Soon, I promise them, very soon...

#138

Is "Of The Night" related to "So Dark the Night", or am I getting my hopes up for an unrelated novel?

Just read The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi -- excellent book.

Currently reading A Science Fiction Omnibus, edited Brian Aldiss.It's interesting inasmuch as it shows how sf has improved so much over the decades. You have Asimov's 'Nightfall', which is complete and utter tosh... followed by 'Swarm' by Bruce Sterling, which is just so much better in so many ways. Reading some of those older stories - including those by the GOM - I can understand why non-sf readers look down on the genre...

Any book with Asimov in it will never, by definition, be a "Best of...".

The man was a disgrace to the English language.

Rojse: OF THE NIGHT is set in the same universe/city as the first book but features an entirely different cast of characters (two years after the events detailed in SO DARK THE NIGHT). More supernatural happenings in the city of Ilium but this time there are multiple viewpoints and an ensemble cast. Plus the book's much shorter, just over 160 pages. A fast read, Sherron went through it in four hours and that was with a red editing pen.

Gimme ten days and I'll have it posted...

Sounds like next weekend's reading is sorted for me.

As long as it's a fun, entertaining read, that's the main thing. Revisions have been intense but the book is coming along nicely.

But, as I've written, it's a draining experience and at the end of the day I don't have the energy to read anything more demanding than an old issue of FILMFAX magazine. A week to go and I should be done and then...reading...lots and lots of READING...

Isn't Ilium somewhere in the Alimentary System?

Gene...

Recently started 7th Son - Descent by J. C. Hutchins. So far, so good.

Just read The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich by Fritz Leiber. Quite a good read. It's a quick-to-read novella about a mystery involving, well, time and space and explosions and exhumations... Leiber wrote it in 1936 while in correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft, and the influence is apparent. Leiber never quite put me into the checking-over-my-shoulder-every-half-minute mood that Lovecraft often does, but the mood is decidedly more unsettling and less whimsical than most of the other Fritz Leiber I've read. I'll soon start on The Wanderer by the same author.

I wish our library had more of his work, because I'm quickly going through their store of Leiber, and will soon be in danger of spending more than I probably should through Amazon.

Reading my first McDevitt, A Talent for War. Finding it an interesting read--will have to write more when I finish.

Also reading my first McDevitt, A Talent for War and The Day of the Triffids.

#12 I see you have read Earth Abides. What did you think of it?
There are a number of post apocalyptic(?) titles. Any others you recommend?

http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=14802 - a whole thread for dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels.

I would suggest you have a look at these titles:

"A Canticle For Leibowitz", by Walter M. Miller Jr.;
"Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe;
"Jem", by Frederik Pohl.

The Algebraist - Iain M. Banks - My first Iain Banks novel, and quite enjoyed it. Several groups are after a document that might reveal the existence of a group of wormholes. Some of the ideas in this were excellent, but I felt it was let down by some formulaic characterisations (a pity when the author put so much time into the descriptions of the environments), and the switch between various time frames were not explained well enough, which was confusing.

I'll give it a 4/5, and I will be looking for more Iain M. Banks novels in the future.

As Banks sf novels go, The Algebraist is probably his weakest. So you've got some good stuff to look forward to.

Yes, EXCESSION and CONSIDER PHLEBAS by Banks are two of the finest SF novels of the past few decades. I've picked up ALGEBRAIST a couple of times at the Saskatoon library but it looked so fat and unwelcoming, I put it back.

i defn. agree on the Algebraist. I've enjoyed most of Bank's books a good deal; a friend gave me The Algebraist last Christmas and i haven't been able to get past the fist 100 pages.
Just finished Lonely Werewolf Girl by Millar, a very silly and enjoyable modern warring werewolves in London and Scotland fantasy. Long, but short chapters, and LOL quite often. Also Murakami's edited running diary What i talk about when i talk about running which is likely only of interest to runners who are Murakami fans..but i liked it.

My wife finished LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL last week, Bob. We're both fans of Martin Millar's work--LUX THE POET was a hoot and well worth seeking out.

Sherron found the first half of the WEREWOLF book was in desperate need of editing, repetitions, etc. but it picked up in the latter stages...

Well, Sherron is right..but w/ the chapters being so brief and the ease of putting it down and restarting, i wasn't bugged by the problems as it would have been in a more self-important book .

#153, #154, #155

When I get some time on my hands to dedicate towards the brick-thick SF space opera, I will have a go at Bank's Culture novels, although sinking in several days into a series of five-hundred page books is a bit unrealistic at the moment.

Just to contradict my last post, I have Illium next on my TBR pile, which I must have a look at, which will also be my first Dan Simmons novel.

Ha. And after Ilium, you have to read Olympos, as they're pretty much a diptych. A Banks novel would be shorter...

Finished A Science Fiction Omnibus. Brian Aldiss writes excellent introductions, but he choses crap stories for his antholgies. Mind you, even some of the "classics" in this were piss-poor. The stories were:-

* Eric Frank Russell - 'Sole Solution' - a weak start
* Ward Moore - 'Lot' - not much of an improvement
* Clifford Simak - 'Skirmish' - nor is this; I'd have chosen to represent Simak
* James Tiptree Jr. - 'And I Awoke and Found Here on the Cold Hill's Side' - this is better: still a classic
* Brian Aldiss - 'Poor Little Warrior!' - I can't actually remember what this one is about
* James H. Schmitz - 'Grandpa' - very ordinary colony on an alien world puzzle story
* Isaac Asimov - 'Nightfall' - dreadful; the resolution is given away in the first paragraph, the world-building is unconvincing, and Asimov makes only the most obvious use of his single idea
* Katherine MacLean - 'The Snowball Effect' - not very plausible
* Bruce Sterling - 'Swarm' - excellent, still stands up well
* Greg Bear - 'Blood Music' - one of the good ones
* Fredric Brown - 'Answer' - the first Shaggy God story; sigh
* William Tenn - 'The Liberation of Earth' - surprisingly topical, although the dated language spoils it
* Harry Harrison - 'An Alien Agony' - not bad, although a bit heavy-handed
* J. G. Ballard - 'Track 12' - it might be science fiction, but science still has to be plausible; I'd have picked another Ballard - the one about the train ride around an overbuilt Earth, or the one about the robbers of time-tombs (I forget their titles)
* Kim Stanley Robinson - 'Sexual Dimorphism' - I like KSR's fiction, but this one was near-incomprehensible
* Frederik Pohl - 'The Tunnel Under the World' - dated, but still fun; would make a great film but only if 1950s styled
* Eliza Blair - 'Friends in Need' - the made-up language was a terrible misstep, and added nothing to the story
* Robert Sheckley - 'The Store of the Worlds' - one of the better ones, although a bit obvious
* Isaac Asimov - 'Jokester' - only Asimov would think people tell jokes using exactly the same language in which they written in Readers' Digest
* John Steinbeck - 'The Short-Short Story of Mankind' - a curiosity, and not much more
* James Inglis - 'Night Watch' - apparently his only publish story; easy to see why: it's very dull and not very original either
* Ted Chiang - 'Story of Your Life' - excellent
* H. B. Fyfe - 'Protected Species' - not bad, although somewhat dated
* Arthur Porges - 'The Rescuer' - can't remember this one, and I don't have the book in front of me
* Walter M Miller Jr. - 'I Made You' - not very good
* Damon Knight - 'The Country of the Kind' - not sure about this one; reminded me a bit of the film of Fahrenheit 451
* Bertram Chandler - 'The Cage' - obvious and dated
* A. E. van Vogt - 'Fulfilment' - spoiled by the complete and utter bollocks van Vogt seemed to think would pass for computing
* James Blish - 'Common Time' - dull
* Garry Kilworth - 'Alien Embassy' - need to refresh my memory about this one
* John Crowley - 'Great Work of Time' - excellent

And now i'm reading Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson. I'll start on the group read The Shadow of the Torturer once I've finished it.

As the Science Fiction Omnibus is a new edition (with updated contents - both additions and omissions) of the earlier Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus so some the issues may be due to a the 35+ year time gap between the original choice and now.

The Sterling, Blair, Bear, Chiang and Crowley are clearly new to this edition, but I wonder if any others are.

Well the history is that Aldiss put together a 3 volume anthology series in the 60s. This was collected as the Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus.

The contents of the omnibus (in order) are as follows
Sole Solution / Eric Frank Russell
Lot / Ward Moore
The Short-Short Story of Mankind / John Steinbeck
Skirmish / Clifford Simak
Poor Little Warrior! / Brian W. Aldiss
Grandpa / James H. Schmitz
The Half Pair / Bertram Chandler
Command Performance / Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Nightfall / Isaac Asimov
The Snowball Effect / Katherine MacLean
The End of Summer / Algis Budrys
Track 12 / J. G. Ballard
The Monkey Wrench / Gordon R. Dickson
The First Men / Howard Fast
Counterfeit / Alan E. Nourse
The Greater Thing / Tom Godwin
Built Up Logically / Howard Schoenfeld
The Liberation of Earth / William Tenn
An Alien Agony / Harry Harrison
The Tunnel Under the World / Frederik Pohl
The Store of the Worlds / Robert Sheckley
Jokester / Isaac Asimov
Pyramid / Robert Abernathy
The Forgotten Enemy / Arthur C. Clarke
The Wall Around the World / Theodore R. Cogswell
Protected Species / H. B. Fyfe
Before Eden / Arthur C. Clarke
The Rescuer / Arthur Porges
I Made You / Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Country of the Kind / Damon Knight
MS. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie / C. M. Kornbluth
The Cage / Bertram Chandler
Eastward Ho! / William Tenn
The Windows of Heaven / John Brunner
Common Time / James Blish
Fulfillment / A. E. van Vogt

He dropped Clarke and kept two Asimovs?! I suspect the Brunner was also better than half the tosh he kept.

I've just checked dates and the three anthologies were published in 1961, 1963 and 1964.

Having just refreshed my memory the Brunner was one of his best efforts IMO.

Also I don't think you can complain too much at the inclusion of Nightfall. It was (and still is) considered a classic. The SFWA voted it the best short story written prior to the Nebulas.

Yes, well, they also vote on the Nebula Awards too...

Now, now, Ian...

I'm reading Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Reason edited by Damien Broderick. Fourteen essays about what might happen in the next 997,992 years. Contributors are: (not gonna touchstone them) Amara D. Angelica, Catherine Asaro, Gregory Benford, Robert Bradbury, Sean M. Carroll, Anne Corwin, Dougal Dixon, Robin Hanson, Steven B. Harris, Jim Holt, Lisa Kaltenegger, Wil McCarthy, Pamela Sargent, Rudy Rucker, and George Zebrowski.

The ones I've read so far are pretty good. Steven B. Harris comes up with an reason for the Fermi Paradox. Or why aliens (if they exist) won't come to us or us eventually go to them as 'meat in tin cans'.

Jim Holt talks about the Richard Gott III calculation for the longevity of humans then applies it to music and laughter.

Some views are optimistic and others pessimistic as these types of books typically are.

Ilium - Dan Simmons - a retelling of Homer's epic story, the Iliad. The part where future people are sent to the past to record history, and manipulate it, are extremely good, particularly describing the Gods. It is the highlight of the book, and a third of it is dedicated to this idea.

However, the other two parts of the novel are not nearly as good. The second plot of people living in the twenty-eighth century is passable, and the thread about futuristic cyborgs stalls the novel badly - I do not care about a deep detailed discussion on the literary merits of Shakespeare and Proust, or robots spending a hundred pages without really doing anything.

More retelling of epic stories, less literary-minded robots. 3/5.

Just finished The Shadow Of The Torturer and before rushing headlong into The Claw Of The Conciliator I am reading The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod.

Damn. I need to get a copy of the new MacLeod. I was going to buy it in Waterstone's a couple of days ago - that and The Steel Remains (it was on offer at £9.99). But then I decided I'd wait for the paperback of the Morgan... and so didn't buy the MacLeod either.

Yikes, the more I look into that Stephanie Meyers TWILIGHT/YA vampire series, the sillier it seems.

Subtitle this one:

"Buffy the Vampire Humper"...

My current sci-fi read: Day of the Vipers.

I had to put it down and start over and it's slow going but recommended to me by my ST/SS supplier.

The Host - Stephanie Meyer - this book should have been good - alien invaders taking over people's bodies. I have seen this done extremely well before - there should have been a tremendous clash of wills between the invader and the mind that existed previously. There should have been extended debates about morality and ethics. Different opinions about the alien invaders. Stuff like that to give you something to think about.

Instead, what I get is a love quadrangle with three bodies - the original human likes this person, but the host likes another person, but this is complicated by the fact that her body won't react the same way to the first person.

The love plot that nearly made me put the book down three times (I did not expect so much time and effort dedicated to this when the surrounding premise seemed so good), but there are many other complaints I have with the book. The life of the humans not hosted by an alien is barely sketched, which is a travesty. The differences between the host and the body are pretty much resolved in fifty pages, although this will occasionally crop up in order to advance the story of the love quadrangle. The few moral debates don't even last a quarter of a page, and are extremely biased towards non-controlled humans. There is no effort to extrapolate the near-future, either - apart from the existence of the aliens, the only difference is the new medicines which they bring. And the stupidity and one-dimensional rendering of just about all of the invaders really annoyed me.

Rubbish - 1/5.

Forever Peace - Joe Haldeman - the near future, between the haves - those that possess a nano-forge, capable of building nearly any item, and those that do not. Quite enjoyed this book - the war situations are done extremely well, the ideas and situations presented here are extremely interesting and worth some thought - soldierboys and the surrounding cultures, the nanoforge, the change in society resulting from the nanoforge, and the two central story ideas - a massive particle collision project ending the world, and clandestine efforts to forcibly turn the world peaceful, is great too.

5/5.

After many years of not reading sci-fi, I'm reading Shadow of the Torturer for the LT Group Reads Sci-Fi. So far it's interesting, but I recall being more entranced by many of the classic authors I used to read years ago. Part of the problem may be that I've never been into fantasy, and this seems to have elements that are more fantasy than sci-fi.

non SF at the moment...in between the Olympics on NBX and the web (thank goodness for the live feed from Saudi sports tv..got to see Rebecca Soni make the semi-finals in the 200m br) i've almost finished Alan Furst's latest pre-WWII spy novel - The Spies of Warsaw. As usual his setting, atmosphere and plotting are excellent..his characterization and dialog a good bit weaker. But few are as good as Graham Greene or LeCarre, and Furst has a lot of good facets to his books that usually more than offset his weaknesses.
Our library system doesn't have the Gene Wolfe for the group read..i was a little surprised.

#176

The problem with The Book Of The New Sun is that it isn't a straightforward narrative. Wolfe is playing all sorts of games and setting all sorts of puzzles for the reader. It has lead to the series being wrongly classified as fantasy before you.

CD1am: Welcome back to SF. If the Wolfe is turning you off, don't finish it. I admire Wolfe but he isn't for everyone--don't let it stop you from rediscovering SF. This is a good time to be diving back into the genre, good writers, good books (many of which you'll find plugged on a thread somewhere in this group).

Bob: I'm proud to say I have yet to watch a nanosecond of the Olympics. Someone was bitching about how poorly Canada was doing in the medal standings and I piped up "so we have to buy our athletes better drugs, that's all". An uncomfortable silence ensued but, really, that's what it comes down to. The Chinese and Americans have better masking agents for their illegal substances so they win the lion's share of the medals.

If anyone can dig up a copy of a short story called "The Mickey Mouse Olympics" by Tom Sullivan (appeared in OMNI back in early 80's), it perfectly sums up the cynicism many people feel when they see some drugged up arsehole take the podium and act like they deserved to win...for cheating.

i think the drugged events vary greatly by specialty...i doubt (except for epo, maybe..and that's finally testable, that distance runners can use much. I imagine the strength events are pretty much a drug fiesta. I give phelps and torres all the credit in the world for not only submitting to much extra testing but for having bloods and urines stored pretty much in perpetuity for any sort of future testing.
But volleyball? nah..bball? nah...seriously..have you ever tried to do a skill event on a stimulant? many many years ago i did..and everything i did (even straight running/swimming) stuff was worse. The whole question of steroids is a weird one in my mind. There's all this work on "nutrition" and changing diet to maximize whatever..and the line between "diet" and "illegal supplement" is really, really hazy. But then there's Ryan Lochte..surfer dude..who basically eats 5 meals a day at...McDonalds.. The whole benefit of steroids is being able to recover from workouts more qjuickly than would be otherwise possible..and thus getting more workouts in. In principle..this isn't much different from say...adding creatine - a "natural" ingredient of meat protein - and pretty well est. as a muscle strength enhancer...and..because it's in food, is "accepted."
Heck..i couldn't type if i wasn't getting cortisone (steroid) injections in my knuckles on a regular basis and i couldn't really breath if i wasn't on a regime of inhaled corticosteroids inhalers (asthma and chronic mycoplasmosis) and antibiotics..In one of my last road races, i realized i'd forgotten my albuterol inhaler and had the race director call out to see if anyone had brought one..and about 15 people showed up w/ their inhalers! I wouldn't have been able to run w/out it..Being able to breathe i ended up winning my age group race.. And that's basically the same drug that a US swimmer got kicked off the US team for using.

Just saw the time the Jamaican runner got, setting the world record in the 100 meters in 9.69--a tenth of a second faster than the incredible mark Ben Johnson of Canada set in Seoul when he was loaded to the fucking gills on 'roids.

Well, at least it wasn't a Yank who cheated and won or we'd be staring at this guy's face on cereal boxes for the NEXT four years...

Here's Tom Sullivan's website--the guy who wrote "Mickey Mouse Olympics". And see if you can lay your hands on the story, it's a great one:

http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com/

man...i remember Johnson..he had that totally balooned up look roid users get. A long time ago Patty and I were tutoring 4 guys on the UNC (american) football team in geography. In college these guys were big..(brian blados was..6'8" and always on plate check since he tended to be over 300lbs) and a def. end, Mike Wilcher, was maybe 230 lbs and 6'3"..Mike was really a gorgeous guy in college..pre roid Totally cut and strong, but "human" looking..We saw Mike the year after he had played for a year in the pros for the LA Rams..and he just looked...weird..Every muscle looked like it was about to explode..he went from being beautiful..to just looking ben johnson freakish. He still seemed like a really nice guy..but we weren't around him if he chanced to get mad by that point......
in many ways the saddest use was hormonally keeping pre-pubescent girl gymnasts ..from pubesceing hormonally. I was glad to see Nastia Liukin win..just because she LOOKED like a woman and not a pre-teen girl.

Bolt could have gone another 0.10s faster - he was cruising in the last part of the race and had time to play to the crowd.

now that we're temporarily totally OT..what about Bolt in the 200 where he'll have time to get to full acceleration!!!!
Also..the scary thing about gymnastics is the incredibly high injury rate..Liukin's parents tried to get her to do piano, violin, a bunch of other activities but..they were olympic gymnasts themselves and that was what their daughter wanted to do..But jeez..look at the wraps and bandages on these young girls and (somewhat older) guys. I was really pulling for the 33 yr old woman on the German team..proven "gravid" as she has an 8yr old boy....

I wouldn't put a sub 19.3 past him. I think he is going to breeze it and get another world record and gold medal.

Personally I'm enjoying the cycling and rowing - got to support the British effort.

#181

Some conversations between myself and severeal work colleague:

Them: "Australia's going really good in the swimming events. We're coming fifth in the medal tally."
Self: "I wonder how many of these medal winners will be revealed to be drug cheats?"
Them: "Isn't that a bit harsh?!"

Another conversation, another colleague:
Self: "Why do you watch the olympics?"
Colleague: "There is nothing better to watch on television."
Self: "There are plenty of better things to do than watch television."

On both occasions, everyone within earshot looked at me as if I had grown an extra head.

I don't see the big deal about the olympics, myself. Apart from the rampant use of drugs, the loss of any shred of decent programming that television had shown previously to the olympics, the glorification of useless physical feats over intellectual abilities really annoys me. How many people really need the skills to throw a javelin in real life? Or shoot a clay target as it flies in the air at a predetermined trajectory?

I'll be glad when the olympics is over, just so I don't have to hear about it for another four years, except for the relevation of drug cheats.

Just watched the Men's Relay in swimming with Michael Phelps winning a record eight gold. Pretty cool.
Too busy to sit and watch it every night, but I've enjoyed what I've looked at so far.

#185 - What about Addlington bringing it home for the Brits 2x? she was wonderful and broke Janet Evan's very longstanding record in the process? The Brit swimmers, esp. the women, did v. well, i thought.

#186: The Olympics were most relevant during the Cold War. Seeing as the men with the dead eyes are trying to start Cold War II, maybe it will seem so again.

On a lighter note I'm starting on a jag of genre-related reading, having just finished Death Masks (B+/A-). Victory of Eagles is next up

well..the Bull's Head (unc-ch excellent bookstore) didn't have "Shadow of the Torturer" so i ended up buying and starting Kop by Warren Hammond, an author whom i hadn't read before; the White Tyger by Paul Park..which i'd just assumed would be good w/out bothering to check it out; a wonderful (non-genre) graphic novel, Shooting War, really quite brilliant, on a par w/ Moore's best in terms of both content and style. Takes on network and non-network news...He's mad as hell and not going to take it...but. Now that the swimming's over, i'll be a lot more ad hoc about my Olympic viewing!
(Leisel Jones, Ryan Lochte, Rebecca Soni, Aaron Piersol and Jason Lezak being my esp. faves..not to take an iota away from Phelps and the rest). I was also glad to see Federer take the doubles title, and, for the first time in my life, sort of got into the gymnastics. 4 yrs on i'll place a bet now that the Brits will win at least 4 golds in swimming.)

Finished Shadow of the Torturer, although I'm still digesting it; almost all the way through Left Hand of Darkness and absolutely loving it; just started George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and still too early to tell what I think.

Outside of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, I'm re-reading The Princess of Cleves, Butterfield's The Origins of Modern Science, and Steven Shapin's The Scientific Revolution because I'm teaching them in the Fall.

Bob, the Bull's Head is indeed an excellent bookstore. I've found some pretty obscure titles in there.

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card - A six-year old boy joins up to a strategy training group to help fight against aliens. Not the most thoughtful of SF books, but I had great fun getting through it. 5/5.

I still cannot believe that this is the second-most owned SF book on here after Dune. Certainly, it's a great book, but there are plenty of other books I would put between this and Dune.

192:Actually it's just the second-most book tagged as science fiction. Defining SF broadly the list looks something like this. Note that this page of the Zeitgeist isn't updated that much so some of the numbers will be out of whack. http://www.librarything.com/z_books.php

10: 1984 by George Orwell (19,735)
22: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005)
27: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976)
31: Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360)
34: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979)
35: American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)
37: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537)
40: Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card (10,092)
43: Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)

Over the weekend I read On The Rim of the Mandala by Paul Cook. It was.. okay.

I finished Altered Carbon last week and really liked it nice and gritty and know I can't remember why I stopped reading it the first time around.

Currently I'm on a end of summer classic SF read though of books I have never read. This way I can clear some space on the self before I start in on some longer books and series and to also to better relate when they are bought up in the different threads. I am currently reading Childhood's End at a little over half way though it so far I'm throughly enjoying the ride, not the deepest of books but some fun reading. Some of the other books I have coming up....

The Stars My Destination
Demolished Man
Fahrenheit 451
The Shockwave Rider
Time Out of Joint
Fabulous Riverboat
The World Inside
More Than Human
Behold the Man

#193

I meant that it is the second highest on group zeitgeist for "Science Fiction Fans". Still, an interesting list.

#195

Tell us what you think of Childhood's End after you have read it.

There is some great books in your TBR list. I can't believe you haven't read "Stars My Destination" yet...

CHILDHOOD'S END...that's Clarke's best.

This seems to be the book of the hour here, so I have put it on my must read sometime list.

Outside of the 2001 series (can't recall just how many years there were?!), I haven't read a lot of Clarke.

I just finished Steampunk edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. I am starting The Great War: American Front by Harry Turtledove.

196. Oops.... :)

Considering SomeplacElse by B.L. Lindstrom is a science fiction novel. The hero of this morality tale is an unemployed white collar type who happens to have precognition. He discovers a website for SomeplacElse. A new kind of business that harnesses the potential inside employees. After some cajoling he finds himself running things. He is up against a stereotypical Republican gubernatorial candidate and a Senator.

The idea of a new corporate structure is quite interesting. How the old system will react to it is also something that could bring up all sorts of conflicts. It just doesn't work. The first 2/5 of the book is taken up with how powerful and creative SomeplacElse is so when the threat to its existence pops up it's not terribly credible. I had that problem worked out a good 20 pages before the main character. The conclusion goes into a metaphysical discussion. The characterization is quite good even minor characters come out three-dimensiona. The book is also very dialogue heavy this didn't bother me but some might find it a little much.

Not recommended.

Note: this book was provided to me for review purposes by a PR outfit.

Just finished Kop by Warren Hammond. Though it's set 700 yrs hence and on a planet lightyears away from earth - this is really a very good noir detective procedural. Hammond does a fine job describing the social and cultural setting on a planet whose economy was based on a single export luxury crop which collapses after the plant is smuggled out and grown successfully elsewhere.

Organized crime (similar to yakuza) hand in glove w/ what passes for a police force are the major power brokers in a stratified and corrupt world. The protagonist, Juno Mozambe, is a noir staple..the corrupt cop who still retains a core of dignity and integrity. The murder of patron of a (relatively) classy brothel opens up the proverbial cans of worms with wide ranging political, economic & personal consequences.

The characterization, dialog and world building are first rate - but be forewarned that this is primarily a noir detective story.

Dr. Bloodmoney Philip K. Dick - this is another book of Dick's that I love. It's basically about some of the nutty characters that live in the world after an apocalypse. I loved the mad nuclear scientist, Dr. Bluthgeld, and the conjoined twin. 5/5.

Earth Abides Gerorge R. Stewart - a virus kills most of humankind, some survivors try to create an existence and rebuild a society. The description of what animals live and die is excellent, and the degradation of the remains of human society are great, but I thought more effort could have went into describing social differences between characters and how this might affect the rebuilding of society. 4.5/5.

As an aside on the book, I think that the "Women in SF" thread ruined this book for me somewhat. When I read this book, I kept on thinking about how fortuitous the story is in these sort of books - no male has erectile disfunction problems, or a vasectomy, or low sperm counts. No female dies in bearing her first child, or is homosexual, or anything like that. There's probably a satire in there somewhere.

Just about finished Sixty Days and Counting, the final book of Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital trilogy. And it struck me that, for all its relevance to today - global warming! invasive surveillance! - it's a book that seems set a decade or two earlier. Several of the characters, for example, are Vietnam vets. The last US troops pulled out of Vietnam in 1975. If they were 20 then, they'd be 53 now. Yet the prevalence of them in the novel suggests a younger average age. There's also a thick thread of 1990s alternative lifestyle/politics running through the book - opting out, environmentalism, etc. I'm not saying that's bad, but it does feel a bit dated. Despite all that, it's proving the best book of the three.

I hope to finish it today or tomorrow, and then move onto The Shadow of the Torturer for the group read.

After Day of the Vipers, I read a couple of non-sci-fi and I now have a non-fiction.

I think it'll be Piers Anthony next. I try to mix my genre up.

#204 I'm surprised. I found 60 to be the worst of the three, with little cohesion to the earlier established character traits.

Gene - did you finish Earth did you enjoy it?

I'm currently reading a 1975 Analog with a editorial by Ben Bova on the non-dangers of genetic technology and the then current energy crisis. How the world stands still sometimes.

Fifty Degrees Below read to me like an anthropology textbook. It was also a bit thin on plot. From what I remember of Forty Signs of Rain, the plot seemed to jump about a bit - the Khembalis, Frank breaking to the NFS, etc. Mind you, it's been a whiel since I read that one.

as i recall (likely faultily, i'm older than those vets) the "free range" guys Frank kept running into in Rock Creek etc seemed pretty plausible as Vietnam era guys. The books had a (worthwhile) agenda, and at times sacrificed tension to exposition, but i liked the series a lot...My dad worked for the Nat. Academy of Science (i did my public health internship in their medical branch..in the SAME office in the Watergate where the infamous Republican breakin occurred..we had the arrest warrant on the wall of the front office!) and the NAS/NSF stuff seemed pretty well played. But us older guys can still play frisbee golf....And the dearth of younger science geeks is becoming an ever more dangerous problem.

Just finished FALL OF KINGS, the last book in David Gemmell's TROY series.

Not quite as good as the first two books but I give Gemmell credit for having the guts to change some of the well-known stories recounted in Homer's epic, including the final combat between Hector and Achilles, the fate of Helen of Troy, etc. Gutsy and it certainly kept things from becoming predictable.

This is the book that Gemmell's wife, Stella, had to finish for him (based on his notes) because he was found slumped over his keyboard from a heart attack (an author's death, I tell you).

Conn Iggulden, one of my fave historical fiction dudes, provides a very kind Afterword to the book, citing Gemmell's influence on his own work.

Fun and thrilling series, marred occasionally by clunky writing and cliched turns of phrase...

> 206

Fox, I finished Earth a couple of weeks ago. It was a fun read and would probably have been an excellent read twenty years ago. It relied quite a bit on popsci that was hot in its day, the science is a little stale now and while not distracting, didn't grab me the way it would have when first published. I think that may be a problem with SF that relies on real science for its story lines. This may be a reason old time SF that didn't rely on science at all, just imaginary tech and general weirdness, may have longer legs going forward.

Because it was engaging current science there were too many lectures for my taste. I love to learn from reading, but I prefer it worked into the story more than having it placed front and center in a speech that assumes I am scientifically illiterate, at least on that subject. there are ways to do this that don't require set pieces, it just takes effort and imagination to pull it off. The act of reading Dickens or Eliot immerses me in a world I know nothing about, but they don't lead me through it by the hand, they show me it and let me learn. Brin could have done that with some of his stuff and it would have been more enjoyable, less annoying, and probably wouldn't have aged quite so quickly.

I enjoyed it, but would not read it again, at least not until I had forgotten that I read it.

I'm currently reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie for the classics group read. I hope to finish it by the end of next week or sooner and then I'll dive into The Book of the New Sun for our group read. I find group reads are an excellent way to get into a habit of reading every day.

I finished Shadow of the Torturer and I am definitely NOT interested in reading another three books to complete The Book of the New Sun. I may try reading the last book of the four so I know how it ends, even tho someone in the Group Read said I wouldn't understand it without the two intervening books.

If this is Wolfe's best book, he's an author I'll look to avoid.

Unholy Domain by Dan Ronco is the second book in a trilogy. In the first book a computer virus was released that caused a near collapse of society. This book starts 10 years later. Technology is now controlled by the government. The Mafia cells bootleg components. There are also religious fanatics wanting to destroy all of it. The sun of the man blamed for the virus tries to learn more about his father. This leads to all sorts of violence and sex. Rather silly but still a nice way to kill a few hours. I'll probably pick up the third book. This was also provided by the above PR firm.

Now off to start Crystal rain.

I'm reading Whiskey Rebels for the Early Reviewers program right now, but yesterday when I could get to a computer but not my book I read the first quarter or so of So Dark the Night. I'm looking forward to getting back to it.

Hope it's fun for you, Estelle.

I started a new Nicholas Christopher novel, BESTIARY. I love this guy: he writes brilliant prose, kind of a cross between Paul Auster and Jonathan Carroll, brilliant poetry...AND the best book on film noir I've ever read called SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT.

Read anything by the guy you can lay your hands on: VERONICA and A TRIP TO THE STARS are both superb, as well...

The remnant of the order from PS Publishing has arrived and I am reading The Last Book by Zoran Zivkovic. It is a murder-mystery set in a bookshop with mild fantastical overtones. It is also very short, about 190 pages, and surprisingly readable for something translated from Serbian.

Mr. Zivkovic's got a nice little Wordpress site:

http://zoranzivkovic.wordpress.com

Seems like a nice man. Glad he found a good translator...

Apparently he is a fluent English speaker but he feels that translations (well his translations at any rate) must be done by a native speaker. Looking at the photos of his study it is obvious he loves books.

LOVE that study of his.

Clearly a bibliophile, bless 'im...

Currently reading: The Steel Remains, by Richard Morgan. I really enjoyed Black Man, so I thought I'd give this, his first fantasy, a try even though I'm not a big fantasy reader. I'm 150 pages in; first thoughts: cor, there's a lot of shagging, isn't there!

Waiting to be read: in a most unusual state of affairs (I usually read far more 'classic' SF than contemporary), I've a whole pile of recent SF books lined up, including Stephen Baxter's Flood, Karl Schroeder's Sun of Suns, Alastair Reynolds House of Suns, Greg Bear's City at the End of Time and Greg Egan's Incandescence. This will probably grow as I'm likely to pick up a new Scalzi or two when I'm in NY next week.

Today I will start Pet Peeve by Piers Anthony.

Anyone else for Xanth? It's a cute read, especially if you like puns and I think Anthony is a bit crazy.

Finished Nicholas Christopher's THE BESTIARY and thought it very good, his best offering since A TRIP TO THE STARS. Magic realism with an urban fantasy twist. If you're a fan of Paul Auster, Jonathan Carroll, even Charlie DeLint, you'll enjoy this book...

...and I read a graphic novel called I PAPARAZZI which was, like most graphic novels, diverting and not much more. Lotsa purty pictures but the text/story was pretty standard, the writing workmanlike and not much more.

Reading Snow Crash for the first first time. I'd somehow completely missed this book before. I'm not sure if it was the original intention, but these days it seems almost silly.

Given that the main character in Snow Crash is, as I recall, named Hiro Protagonist, I believe the excesses are intentional.

I recall liking SNOW CRASH...but that was 12 (or so) years ago.

HoldenCarver: Oh yes, I'm pretty sure it's purposefully tongue-in-cheek semi-parody, I'm just not sure how far is purposeful and how far is a side-effect of early '90s technological naivety.

Hiro Protagonist was basically what sold me on it, though. That has to be one of the ten best names for a main character ever.

Defn. way over the top - combines comic book super hero good/bad guys - though they DO acquire a good deal more than classic comic character development, w/ sf near future Swiftian social satire (probably not so over the top).

The concept of "The Deliverator" working for Uncle Enzio's(?) Mafia Pizza monopoly hooked me immediately. He's not so far off on the gated communities.

I have just read Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. At first I thought it was really cheesy cyberpunk SF or a parody - a mafia pizza delivery person that wields two katanas is definitely not a serious examination of the future of computing and the internet.

Then Neal Stephenson decides to introduce the central technical idea. It's a nasty trick - to suddenly introduce a bunch of extremely obscure and detailed ideas for an area that had not even been mentioned in the book previously. There had been one or two small incidents to lead up to this revelation, yes, but nothing to allow a reader to anticipate they will received an undisguised technical lecture to serve as an information dump. The premise, and surrounding ideas are explained, in great detail, over the course of about thirty or forty pages. The idea introduced is great, certainly, but surely it could have been introduced in a more modern and easily understandable way? It really sucked the fun out of the book.

So, it's too silly to read as a serious consideration of the future of computing and the internet, but the central idea is too serious to allow the book to be considered as a light, fun cyberpunk book or parody. I can't really recommend it - 2.5/5.

I've just started The Shadow of the Torturer for the group read.

Snowcrash... I always thought it was over-rated. But then I've also read Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line, which is just wrong. Having said that, I did enjoy The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon, but I gave up on the Baroque Cycle after ploughing through the first two books. In hardback. I have no intention of buying or reading his new one, Anathem.

Didn't Stephenson write ZODIAC under a different name? That one was was shorter and fun...

I finished off Childhood's end last week and while I very much enjoyed it I don't think it really rocked my world like it does for some others who have posted about the story. I think I had two things working against me one I had heard the last couple of pages read for a discussion SF last year so I had a nagging feeling that I had read it before. Second is that I had justed finished Altered Carbon and wow talk about switching gears...

So now I have started Time out of Joint my first PKD and I'm about a third of the way though. I am getting the great old twilight zone feeling so far anyway.

Childhood's End is one of those books that's a great one to introduce a junior high school kid to SF - i know it was one of the books that got me hooked way back when.

TIME OUT OF JOINT is not great Phil Dick.

I would've started with some of the other works cited on the PKD thread: UBIK, THREE STIGMATA, DO ANDROIDS DREAM, etc.

I'm currently reading The Disappearing Dwarf by James P. Blaylock. After picking up a copy of The Elfin Ship at my local Friends of the Library, I really enjoyed the whimsical universe created by Blaylock.

I started on Philip K. Dick with Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep when I was seventeen. Apparently I dove in headfirst and became an instant fan. For a while I sought out as much of his work as I could, and he's one of few authors I'll refuse to check out from the library if I can find a copy to buy. I'm so busy with several projects I'm working on that I've had to slightly re-order my TBR stack, but I'm going to try to make time for PKD's Eye in the Sky and Counterclock World.

I'll not ramble about it.

I just finished Gravity by Tess Gerritsen. It was pretty mediocre. Predictable, unremarkable. To say that it was competently done is about the highest compliment I can give it, and almost seems generous.

Almost done w/ Paul Park's the white tyger ..i really should have started with the first in the sequence as it took me far too long to get oriented in media res. But v. well written and original fantasy; and i'll go backwards and get the first two.

Paul Park is an excellent writer. His Coelestis is one of my favourite sf novels. And the Princess of Roumania series is a very good fantasy. I still have the fourt hand final one to read yet.

To be honest I couldn't get on with the Roumania series at all. But I agree that Coelestis (the American title doesn't have the o) is a great book.

The Starbridge Chronicles are excellent too.

Couldn't actually find my copy of Crystal Rain. So I pulled out The Free Lunch by Spider Robinson instead. Teenager tries to hide out at an amusement park. Has to try to defend it from various threats. Not as funny as his other books still enjoyable. Lots of Heinlein references.

Finished Time out of joint the other day, was a fun light read nothing to right home about. I started More Than Human today another author new me.

>240 jmnlman:

I always hoped Robinson would write a sequel - I'd love to hear about life in the evil amusement park!

I read (Snowcrash) after seeing it in a 100 greatest list here. I thought it was pretty good. ((Neil Gaiman)) (American Gods) was on the same list but I did not enjoy it as much.

I just finished ((S.M. Stirling)) (The Sky People) and am starting (In the court of the Crimson Kings). The first book was okay but is meant to leave you hanging. I will have to read the second to have a good idea about them together.

242:That would be fun.

I've just read Phantom Universe by David Garnett to satisfy my curiosity and Ian's. The result is that it isn't as painful as Stargonauts although that could be because there is no attempt at a forced humorous style. I guess it could be considered sword & planet although it reads much like a fantasy.

A martyr to the cause...

I've finished The Shadow of the Torturer and have moved onto The Claw of the Conciliator. I hadn't originally planned to read all four, but given that I have to review Lexicon Urthus for Interzone, it works out quite well. While I'm at it, I'll also be reading Solar Labyrinth.

After that, normal service will be resumed, with My Family and Other Animals lined up for my read-a-classic-a-month challenge and a book from my collection to review for mt Space Books blog.

I was also thinking that next year I might read a classic sf novel each month (which I've not read for years, or even decades), and blog the results. Seems appropriate given the response to my blog post here. I've already picked out some obvious candidates, such as Ringworld, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Grey Lensman, Stranger in a Strange Land, Radix, The Stainless Steel Rat...

Started Blue War by Jeffrey Thomas and The Political MInd by George Lakoff (non-sf)

Forever War - Joe Haldeman - people fighting an interstellar war against aliens, and the effects of time dilation have a major effect on the war and the year that the servicemen come back. Builds up multiple eras of time extremely well, the societies depicted are extremely realistic, and lots of stuff to think about. 5/5.

Just started Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades because I enjoyed Old Man's War. Also having a great time re-reading Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun for the SF group read over here.

248: If you liked Forever War, give Forever Peace a try.

Working my way through Robert Charles Wilson's BLIND LAKE for a bit of diversion.

I've read three books by Wilson and, hmmm, let me put it this way...

He sort of reminds me of Jack McDevitt: he might tell a decent story but after you finish his books, nary a detail is retained. A totally generic style, wrapped around a neat idea.

Just finished up Victory of Eagles (A) which, if nothing else, gets back to the nitty-gritty of Napoleonic warfare.

#250

Have read Forever Peace less than a month ago. Great military SF book, but goes about the subject in a different way to Forever War - instead of multiple eras portrayed well with good progression between them, Forever Peace has one era portrayed extremely well, with lots of different ideas bustling together.

I like both stories quite a lot, but Forever War is slightly better because of the multiple eras portrayed.

FOREVER WAR is a good book--never really saw the point of writing any kind of sequel, so I stopped at the first.

Aren't I a stinker?

Finished a mystery by Dick Francis and now I am going to read part 2 of the Terok Nor series of Star Trek: Night of the Wolves.

#254

Right about that - Forever Free started extremely well, set up an extremely good idea, then it shied away from the idea completely. That's really what I want in a book - the presentation of an excellent central idea, and then having the author deliberately going out of his way not to answer the central premise. You honestly have not missed out on anything.

Forever Peace wasn't a sequel to Forever War, though, and is worth looking at. Lots of different ideas bustling together there, but in a single time period, 2050, rather than over several time periods.

Between the beginning of July and now, I've read:
Hidden Fire by Kevin J. Anderson - typical 'airport' reading.
Starfish - Peter Watts - my first book by Watts - I'm a believer. I love his characterizations.
Incandescence - Greg Egan. I didn't like this at all really. Weak ending, and way too much of the local equivalent of 'orbital mechanics'. Shame really - I really love Egan's Schild's Ladder and Diaspora.
Blindsight - more Peter Watts. Again with the great story and fascinating, not-quite-normal characters.
Saturn's Children - Charles Stross. Ugh, YA level, airport reading, just.
Mathematicians In Love - Rudy Rucker. Typically way out there math, fun story. Better than his *ware and Ants books imo.

Wow, more scifi than I thought.

Of all the books I read during this period, 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, Death In Venice by Thomas Mann and Old Path, White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh were the most enjoyable for me.

Finished Robert Charles Wilson's BLIND LAKE.

Mediocre, at best.

Skimmed the last 1/3 of the book--THIS is a N.Y. TIMES "Notable" author?

Now I'll go for quality: I'm halfway through Martin Booth's ISLANDS OF SILENCE, Booth is one of those writers more folks should know about. He died about 3 or 4 years ago and left a legacy of outstanding novels like DREAMING OF SAMARKAND and HIROSHIMA JOE. A literary writer without pretension, hasn't let me down yet...

deacon's tale by Arrin Dembo it's a free book that came with and is set in the PC game sword of the stars. Game's not really engaging me but the book is surprisingly good so far. Arinn's got just 3 books on LT mine and two held by Blutyson, yet the blurb claims him/her as an award winning author?! Anyone got any more details?

Cliff,

Blind Lake was OK from my memories but not his best book. I believe that last 1/4 was where things got a bit more interesting. Try Spin which is a much better book IMO.

Read SPIN and see there's now a sequel to it (of course).

Not impressed by it--again, a neat idea but does a single scene in that book stand out for you, give you a "sensawunda" moment? Did the characters persist in memory?

The comparison I made between McDevitt and Wilson is a good one, methinks. Generic authors in the worst sense of the term--and, oddly enough, both faves of our old pal Steve King (the ultimate Big Mac and fries scribbler)...

The sequel isn't as good.

I can think of a couple of sections of Spin that still burn brightly in my memory and I read it in hardcover when it was first published.

Okay, Andy, good enough for me...

Just read:

Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi -- enjoyed almost as much as Old Man's War, that is, very much. Will continue to look up his books...

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross -- interesting concept and world-building of near-space without mankind, but plot became confusing.

Galaxy Blues by Allen Steele -- light, fun.

--btw... we're into Q4... someone needs to start up a new thread for this topic!!!

JUST received the Wolfe book for the group read today..really hoped i'd get it before the holiday weekend..but should finish it this week..if writing my cursed "self-assessment" for our annual review doesn't drive me round the bend...I really want to say.."i've done basically the same job, for the same group, for 20+ yrs and we'reall pretty happy w/ how we work together. the end.

Okay, Bob, good enough for us.

You can keep your job.

Now get reading that Wolfe book...