Finished Priest's Inverted World, what a great read! His writing style is very fluid and the unique story had me interested from the start, especially as only snippets of information are given along the way as to the reasons for the strange physics encountered. It was a shame it was over fairly quickly
Currently reading "The Dervish House" by Ian McDonald. I was very interested in this one because it takes place in Turkey, a country I have visited many times. So far it is quite good...
Finished Ilium by Dan Simmons, the first of a two part series.
Simmons has a creative imagination and it was very interesting and entertaining regarding how he mixed the Trojan War with science fiction.
Overall I was impressed with this novel. Although it is a serious, suspenseful drama, quite a few times I burst out laughing with unexpected comic relief.
I felt some scenes were drawn out a bit too long and repetitive. I was hoping some outstanding mysteries were revealed in Ilium. They (hopefully) will be in Olympos, book two. As with his prior works Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, Ilium ends in a cliffhanger leading to Olympos.
Simmons is an excellent writer and Ilium is intelligently written.
I started Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan last night. I was in the mood for some steampunk (Isn't it actually dieselpunk?), and I loved what I read. I think I managed 100 pages last night, and I plan to finish it today
Good, I suppose. I don't want to say too much, though, as I'm not even halfway and this is my first book of his. It's seemingly aimed at teens (It's not YA, perhaps the level below), and it's enjoyable, although I do have a few little problems with it.
There's a few implied actions that should have been detailed, a couple of terms/phrases used without explanation, and something about the female main character is grating with me a little.
I started in on Connie Willis's Blackout a few days back. It's the May discussion book here on the SF side of things. I'm about 1/3 into it so far...not saying anything about it other than I already broke down and ordered All Clear so I can finish the duo up in May sometime.
Finished Christopher Priest's The Separation, and was bit disappointed knowing it's an award winner and one his best books. I just found the sections on the war itself just too long and uninteresting - if I wanted to read a history book I'd have chosen something else.
That said though, his prose is very easy to read and the story makes you think about what's really going on, but I just thought overall it was average. A shame, as I found Inverted World (which I finished before starting The Separation) so much better.
suicul mentioned a few weeks back that The Separation is probably his least favorite Priest book. I haven't read it yet to comment, but you're not alone in feeling it wasn't for you.
It was good, but riddled with flaws. The technological aspects of it were rather unbelievable, even by Steam/Dieselpunk standards, and I just didn't 'buy' a lot of it. Even if things had happened as Westerfeld says in the afterword, they still felt like they would have happened too quickly, especially considering how the technology we have and use for such movements didn't exist back then, so his strand of alternate history seems to be on very, very shaky ground. The characters were mostly well written, although Deryn was nothing short of problematic for me, and the dialogue was fairly good. It was nice that it was punctuated with illustrations of the characters and creatures in the story, but they did have the unfortunate effect of spoiling the page you were about to start from time to time. If there's an eBook of this, I doubt that'll be a problem.
Oh, and I got sick of the same set of curses used repeatedly. If I hear the words 'clart', 'ninny' or the phrase 'barking spiders' once more, I'm going to flipping hit someone. It was like reading an episode of Battlestar Galactica at times. I also dread to think how frequently the word 'beasties' was said...
Good read, works well if you don't think about it or as a 'My First Steampunk' book, but really... It's not that great. Good, yes, but not great.
Clarification about Deryn, for those who like spoilers:
I didn't buy Deryn disguising herself as 'Dylan' (i.e. a 15 year old androgynous girl disguising herself as a 16 year old boy), nor the spark of luuuurve that happened between her and Alex.
suicul mentioned a few weeks back that The Separation is probably his least favorite Priest book. I haven't read it yet to comment, but you're not alone in feeling it wasn't for you.
I finishedCamera Obscura by Lavie Tidhar and even did the FBC review tonight since I really enjoyed it a lot; there is something about books that throw references I enjoy in crazily inventive ways (whether historical like in Paul Hoffman's series or from 19th century literature like here and in The Bookman) that makes me really appreciate them; while connected with The Bookman by milieu this is a series standalone which raises it to the next level; pure fun
From my FBC review - this is the heart of why I really liked this one:
I liked the author's debut The Bookman for its many references to popular 19th century culture, the imaginative steampunk setting and the main character Orphan, though I found it lacking balance on occasion. Camera Obscura which is set in the same milieu some 3 years later but features mostly completely different characters and takes place largely in France's sort-of republican society as opposed to the Imperial Britain of Les Lesards - sort-of since AI's as embodied in the Council lead there after the Quiet Revolution.
The references naturally are Dumas first and foremost - Milady as agent of the Council, the Gascon - aka D'Artagnan as police officer of all things - the Monsignor aka the Cardinal as a Council AI - but also Poe's Rue Morgue locked room mystery and oddly enough, Winnetou makes an unexpected appearance later as agent of the Vespuccian state whose president is Sitting Bull.
The Island of Dr. Moreau - though the doctor is in retirement for now - and the (in)famous Marquis de Sade - sort of but with all his parts intact as he points out to Milady - are among other attractions as is the Chicagoland fair in Vespuccia and much more.
Edit - regarding the book club discussion about City Dreams Nightmare, The Bookman was for me a very similar novel as appreciation and enjoyment but now as opposed to the very middle volume in the Whates series, here L. Tidhar really steps it up at least if you enjoy the fast and furious ride plus the references noted above, so I am now much more interested in the third volume of this series than in the finale of the City trilogy
Finished Connie Will's To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is sort of like Hitchhiker's Guide written at a much higher level of sophistication to the extent where the book qualifies as actual science fiction. Its not nearly as funny as Hitchhiker's Guide, and nothing I'll remember forever, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.
Also read Swarm by B.V. Larson, top selling sci-fi book on Amazon right now, only 2.99. The description made me nervous it would be too campy, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. If Starship Troopers (the book) was a guilty pleasure, Swarm is a lot closer to serious sci-fi while managing to be just as fun.
Since you enjoyed To Say Nothing of the Dog, I'll point out that our next book club discussion is on Connie Willis's Blackout, which is set in the same universe of time-travelling historians. That discussion will kick off next week if you'd like to join in.
