Reading in March 2010

[PeterWilliam]

Last night I finished Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley.

Ever since I saw Hobbit recommend this, I've been dying to pick it up. I keep forgetting to go to re-open my list and add Cobley's name. Doing...it...right...now...

 

[deez sniderz]

I read the first two Viriconium stories - The Pastel City and A Storm of Wings by M. John Harrison. I liked both but I need a break from that style before I read the final book.
I also read The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan and while it's not an SF story, I thought it was worth a mention because I liked it so much. Great horror story.

 

[T77]

I just finished Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. I really enjoyed Revelation Space, but I thought Chasm City was just OK. It did not draw me in the way RS did and by the end I found myself not caring what happened. I'll probably try one more of his books to see if I want to continue with his books.

 

[Jeroen]

I've just read JG ballard's The Drowned World. I think he is a very good writer.

 

[Hobbit]

Nothing ground-breaking, but I did enjoy it. I'll probably buy the sequel, but I think I'll wait to read it until the final book in the trilogy comes out.

Yup: had the second one arrive on Saturday. Not sure myself, but I think there's a quote from SFFWorld about it somewhere... please let us know if there is!

Mark

 

[beniowa]

Yup: had the second one arrive on Saturday. Not sure myself, but I think there's a quote from SFFWorld about it somewhere... please let us know if there is!

Mark

I had totally forgotten you guys had written a review on it. I'll be sure to look for the quote once I get the next book in.

 

[Hobbit]

I had totally forgotten you guys had written a review on it. I'll be sure to look for the quote once I get the next book in.

Thanks Ben. Always helps our collective egos when we find these things out!

For those who didn't know, the review is HERE, by the way.

Mark

 

[suciul]

I finished "Orphaned Worlds" by M. Cobley sequel to Seeds of Earth and it was disappointing even at lower expectations after the underwhelming but promising space opera debut:

While I had very high expectations for the series debut, only to be partially fulfilled after an intriguing beginning followed by an almost fatal descent in costume-aliens pulp, my expectations were tempered for this one; still the novel managed to under-perform them with occasional snippets of brilliance with Banksian overtones and a lively engaging style, but with a very 50's like content which is far from the modern space opera standards

The many threads of the novel are uninspiring and with too little attention devoted to most; I think that the main failing technically is precisely this spread into way too many stories for the page count/depth; a 800 page novel would make it work, a 400+ page no way

I am not sure I will read the next volume - if it comes my way maybe - since I could not care that much overall about what will happen next

 

[chitman13]

Liviu - I also just finished The Orphaned Worlds, but I seem to have enjoyed it more than you! I do agree on the fact that the threads of the novel are it's downside as I felt they sometimes switched when I had started to really get into the situation and characters. It does suffer from being the middle book and having to do much setting up for the final volume, but there is a solid foundation now for the third book to really deliver a satisfying conclusion.

 

[PogiRunner]

I just finished Endymion by Dan Simmons. I will hold some thoughts until I finish the next and final book of the series, The Rise of Endymion.

I loved the first two books, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and found both to be very thought-provoking. I think of both of these as one as the first ends with a frustrating cliffhanger. The stories and plot lines here are amazing!

I cannot say the same for Endymion. I still was impressed with the prose and Simmons' storytelling ability as I 'visited' various locations. However, I felt the two major plot lines within this book to be lacking. I believe I was strung along with not much happening until about the last 100 pages. Also, along the way, I think a couple of times silly events occurred out of the blue just to force plot advancement.

Despite lackluster reviews here and elsewhere, I decided to continue with Endymion being such a fan of the first two books. Furthermore, I wanted to see any outstanding mysteries revealed. Perhaps these mysteries are better unresolved and left to the imagination? Nevertheless, I feel compelled to finish and will now start The Rise of Endymion. Hopefully after finishing the series my opinions will change.

 

[suciul]

Liviu - I also just finished The Orphaned Worlds, but I seem to have enjoyed it more than you! I do agree on the fact that the threads of the novel are it's downside as I felt they sometimes switched when I had started to really get into the situation and characters. It does suffer from being the middle book and having to do much setting up for the final volume, but there is a solid foundation now for the third book to really deliver a satisfying conclusion.

That was partly the issue, but also I disliked all the stereotyping of races, like each race has one dominant characteristic and that's that; the hyperspace levels also seem so 50's - "level 1 through 100, take a dimensional elevator up and down" - why the heck do they need to be linear, so considering where the novel is positioned it just comes so short that as mentioned it's unlikely I will read the conclusion

Check Grand Central Arena by Ryk Spoor (tbp USA soon, there are 9 free chapters in Webscriptions and 40 chapters so about 1/2 the novel on fifth imperium where the Baen snippets are) which is unabashed alien-costume 50's like pulp with modern sensibilities and a lot of high level tech and it's fun end to end and better than the Cobley series by a lot

Back on topic I got an arc of the huge hype The Passge by J. Cronin and the first 250 pages are brilliant and awesome, but then the novel becomes completely different since it moves 100 years in the post-apocalyptic future and it's a bit boring so far, hopefully it will pick up; the author though knows how to write for sure and those 250 pages are among the best I've read in a while

 

[chitman13]

I've just finished Starship: Mercenary by Mike Resnick in audio book format. This series goes from strength to strength and I really enjoyed this one, probably the most out of the three so far. It's narrated excellently and I've got the last two ready to go and really looking forward to seeing how it all ends

 

[chaunur]

Just finished Red Mars and Green Mars and I'm about halfway through Blue Mars all by Kim Stanley Robinson.

 

[WhiteWolf]

Reading DEEPSIX, by Jack McDevitt. Very good!

 

[nquixote]

Now finishing up the Demon Princes saga with:

The Face, by Jack Vance
The Book of Dreams, by Jack Vance

 

[suciul]

I finished Terminal World by A. Reynolds, one of my top 5 expected novels of 2010 and it was good but not awesome and the weakest novel I read from Mr. Reynolds as execution goes - I did not like The Prefect and Century Rain as much as the others mainly because I thought the mystery/thriller part in each was too detrimental to the sense of wonder part, but they were well done overall, while Terminal World reads like a draft that needs a lot of editing and tightening. When heroes discuss/declaim before shooting the villains in what's supposed to be a surprise attack that is just sloppy writing regardless of the author...

The other problem is the main hero Quillon who just does not have the weight to carry an ambitious novel like TW - again the author tried to compensate with stronger characters like Fray, Meroka, Curtana and even Ricasso, but they are all supporting characters that seem to come and go as the script goes rather than in a natural way.

There are lots of moments of brilliance which show how awesome the novel could have been an the ending is excellent though in many ways I would have loved the novel to start then so to speak...

An A- and a moderate disappointment

 

[chitman13]

I finished a couple more books over the weekend, both fairly short. The first was 40 Years by Bernd Struben and I was thoroughly impressed with it. It's only a short novel (190 pages) and looks at another war that humanity is fighting on a new planet. Very thoughtful for a mil-sf novel and very enjoyable. I'd pitch it as similar to Old Man's War, but without the humour.

The other was Silversands by Gareth L Powell. Another short one (98 pages in PDF review format) and it flew by. Nice and political in places with enough going on to give the story a purpose. The ftl method is rather familiar (wormhole gates created by an ancient race) and the end revelation was very obvious, especially to Stargate fans. Highly recommended though and well worth a read.

 

[algernoninc]

I've stayed away from SF too long, and giving too much space on my shelves to fantasy lately. I'm saying this because I've just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi, and it took me back to my much younger self that was just discovering Dune, and Foundation and Rama and knew nothing about Tolkien or Brooks or Eddings yet. Being a fanboy of Heinlein sure helped with this new author...

 

[SusF]

I've stayed away from SF too long, and giving too much space on my shelves to fantasy lately. I'm saying this because I've just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi, and it took me back to my much younger self that was just discovering Dune, and Foundation and Rama and knew nothing about Tolkien or Brooks or Eddings yet. Being a fanboy of Heinlein sure helped with this new author...

I felt the same way when I read Old Man's War. It was like an updated version of Heinlein, without the weirdness he was prone to. The other two books are as good. I haven't read Zoe's War yet, but I plan to soon.

 

[Hobbit]

Well, it took long enough, but I finally finished Peter Hamilton's Temporal Void.

Enjoyed it very much: and funnily enough, the parts with Edeard in the Void most of all. Considering that these almost read as a Fantasy novel (admittedly with Sf trappings) it suggests that peter should be writing Fantasy as well as SF.

And, of course, all set for the next novel, though not as cliff-hangery as some of Peter's previous novels.

Mark