Reading in August 2012

I'm totally geeking out on 'Who at the moment, so I'm reading Doctor Who: Apollo 23 by Justin Richards. Enjoying it, actually.
 
I finished two of the Doctor Who novelisations by Terrance Dicks:s The Terror of the Autons and Mind of Evil. Read purely as novels, they are fairly good but not exceptional. However, read them after watching the series on which they are based and they improve enormously. One can visualise the characters and incidents much more vividly and appreciate the greater depth that the novel brings to the characters and their motivations.
 
I have started The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. It's pretty light, whimsical stuff at the moment. I hope it develops a bit more substance as it goes on. The premise holds a lot of potential (pretty much the entire population of Earth gain access to layers of alternate reality Earths, which are unpopulated by humans).
 
DDCOrange said:
I remember that one. Read it years ago when it first came out. I have to agree that it's one of the better books of it's genre with an unusual storyline. I might have to dig it out of my book closet and give it a re-read except for my ever growing "to be read" pile! :)
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Yes, unusual in that it has other SF genres integrated very successfully into it:
alternate realities, trans-humanism, even a bit of hard-sf.
I finished it yesterday and enjoyed every minute. Even when I found the dialogue a bit clunky or a touch predictable, it still held together extremely well and the whole was much greater than the sum of the parts. Good ending too, that tied everything up and brought us back full circle, although there were still a few uncertainties left to the imagination.

****.5 out of 5 stars
 
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Started 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. Never read anything by him before. First 50 pages were pretty slow.
 
Chrysippus said:
Started 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. Never read anything by him before. First 50 pages were pretty slow.
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The next 500 or so pages are pretty slow too. It does have a few exciting chapters but they are separated by yawning chasms of not very much happening. Still a pretty good book.
 
I said in the thread dedicated to the book, 2312 is not a novel to read for its plot. The plot is little more than an excuse to move the characters around on a tour of the solar system. And the book is dense with ideas and worth reading slowly. But I didn't find it hard work.
 
Luke_B said:
I said in the thread dedicated to the book, 2312 is not a novel to read for its plot. The plot is little more than an excuse to move the characters around on a tour of the solar system. And the book is dense with ideas and worth reading slowly. But I didn't find it hard work.
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Hm. I may consider moving on to something else then. Things are kind of busy with me right now, and I'm not sure I have the kind of time necessary to give 2312 a fair read at this point. I'll think about it.
 
I liked the book a lot and would encourage others to read it and discuss it. But I don't think it's the right book to read if you're in the mood for a fast-paced space thriller. Better to wait until you're in the mood for something more slow burning and detailed.
 
Just finished Caliban's War, I think I enjoyed it more than the first book, especially the new pov characters. I agree it is more of the same, but that’s essentially true of many series. I suppose that reaction puts me in a minority on here.

Now delving into the occult depths of The Fuller Memorandum. I love this series of books, something about the British civil service fighting Eldritch horrors does it for me.
 
I made another push and finished Prophets by S Andrew Swann yesterday. I really enjoyed this one, more so than I first thought I would. Despite that, it comes across as a novel that builds a story, world, and characters, rather than tells one properly. The pieces have been set up nicely though, and after the events at the end I'm very much looking forward to get around to Heretics, the second book.
 
Luke_B said:
I liked the book a lot and would encourage others to read it and discuss it. But I don't think it's the right book to read if you're in the mood for a fast-paced space thriller. Better to wait until you're in the mood for something more slow burning and detailed.
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Good to know. I'll probably put it aside till winter break when I'm not writing a bunch of papers on Plato.

Just finished Caliban's War, I think I enjoyed it more than the first book, especially the new pov characters. I agree it is more of the same, but that’s essentially true of many series. I suppose that reaction puts me in a minority on here.
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I think I share your reaction; sure, Caliban's War was more of the same, but when the first book in the series was so good, I'm alright with that.
 
till winter break when I'm not writing a bunch of papers on Plato.
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I'm clearly spending too much time in the SF Forum: I read this as
till winter break when I'm not writing a bunch of papers on Pluto.
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*Sigh*

Anyway, to business: about 900 pages of the previously mentioned Peter Hamilton Great North Road read and about 200 to go. It took a long time getting going - possibly too long - but now it is going, it is really going.

Mark
 
Hobbit said:
I'm clearly spending too much time in the SF Forum: I read this as

*Sigh*

Anyway, to business: about 900 pages of the previously mentioned Peter Hamilton Great North Road read and about 200 to go. It took a long time getting going - possibly too long - but now it is going, it is really going.

Mark
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Really going huh? Tell us more.
 
Difficult to say too much, Kazz, without giving 'stuff' away, but

Nasty aliens, apocalyptic climate change, criminal politics, economic meltdown...

Going to be an interesting one to write a review for....

...but it could all go bad in the last 200 pages or so. Peter's juggling a lot of things altogether here at my point of reading...

Mark
 
Hobbit said:
Difficult to say too much, Kazz, without giving 'stuff' away, but

Nasty aliens, apocalyptic climate change, criminal politics, economic meltdown...

Going to be an interesting one to write a review for....

...but it could all go bad in the last 200 pages or so. Peter's juggling a lot of things altogether here at my point of reading...

Mark
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Right on, sounds like you're diggin it. Hopefully it ends good too.
 
Hamilton is one of the best in his field, but his endings..... Not so great in my opinion. Hope he delivers
 
Ash said:
Hamilton is one of the best in his field, but his endings..... Not so great in my opinion. Hope he delivers
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I havent read him yet, I need to give Reality Dysfunction another shot, I dont think I was quite in the mood for that kind of scifi at the time. I know alotta people loved it.
 
I read about half of the Booker long-listed The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman; despite the name and being included on the Locus list of books of sf interest, the novel so far is crazy, zany and darkly funny historical fiction and it's excellent but not really sfnal, though it has some affinity true; not recommended to read it when drinking or eating as you may choke laughing; just for a taste here are the first lines of the novel to be included in an updated post of memorable first lines and so it goes, while those are quite tame compared to what follows:

"When you knock a bowl of sugar on to your host’s carpet, it is a parody of the avalanche that killed his mother and father, just as the duck’s beak that your new girlfriend’s lips form when she attempts a seductive pout is a quotation of the quacking noise your last girlfriend made during sex."

Anyway, I also just got the second Orthogonal novel, The Eternal Flame by Greg Egan and considering that Clockwork rocket was my top sff last year, this is a huge asap so will start once I am done with the Beauman novel and its hapless hero, Egon Loeser and his quest to bed Adele Hitler ("no relation"), his former fat teen pupil turned beauty queen and femme fatale in the Europe of the 1930's; have not laughed so much reading a book in a while...

And as an aside I've also read the fourth Turtledove War that came early installment, Coup d'Etat, and it was much better than the tepid third and it rekindled my interest in the series
 
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