Reading in April 2011

Hobbit

Hobbit

Cat Wrangler and Reader
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2001
Messages
18,614
This is where you talk to us about your monthly SF Reads: whether good or bad, we want to discuss with you what you thought.

Our Fantasy Book of the Month is City of Dreams and Nightmare by Ian Whates . Discuss here.

Our SF Book of the Month is Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Discuss here.

Mark
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hobbit said:
This is where you talk to us about your monthly SF Reads: whether good or bad, we want to discuss with you what you thought.

Our Fantasy Book of the Month is City of Dreams and Nightmare by Ian Whates . Discuss here.

Our SF Book of the Month is Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Discuss here.

Mark
Click to expand...

I finished up Canticle for Leibowitz (enjoyable-certainly was an interesting study in all three parts having same structure in each part-also interesting to observe how much we really DONT change).

I am now starting the (apparently) derided Hugo Winner "The Forever Machine". I just started into the first couple of chapters, and my first impression? The writing strikes me as very "simple" in style, and I don't know if that's a good thing in this case- I shall press onward, though I'm getting the creeping feeling I can predict what's going to happen)
 
I appear to be reading Dauntless (The Lost Fleet #1) by Jack Campbell. Impulse buy :)
 
The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge. Ive decided to go ahead and read everything the man has ever written.
 
livens said:
The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge. Ive decided to go ahead and read everything the man has ever written.
Click to expand...

It's pretty good, but I think Vinge is a better novelist than short-story writer.
 
I'm getting close to getting another Tepper into my rotation soon, not sure which, though. I have a bunch of her books, so maybe I'll pick something randomly.
 
Bought, started and finished Slan (A.E. van Vogt). Read it many years ago and had a fit of nostalgia while browsing Amazon. Good old fashioned SF. Probably ahead of it's time when it was written.

Also bought and started The Technician (Neal Asher). I've enjoyed all of his Polity universe stuff and this is no exception although.... it might just be me but I keep getting thrown by some (tiny amount) of the sentence structure. Have to stop to re-read to be clear about what's being referred to. Anyway, if you like his stuff (and I do) then well worth a read.
 
Read Pink Noise by Korogodski. Very technical and lost me somewhere along the way. Even after a quick re-read, I still have doubts as to what occurred. It does it's best to use war in the physical realm and in the digital realm and for me just never got into it or enjoyed it.
 
Cheerwell said:
I appear to be reading Dauntless (The Lost Fleet #1) by Jack Campbell. Impulse buy :)
Click to expand...
Put this off for now. Got a few books I want to get through first..

Got further in On Basilisk Station last night, and a lot of the problems have not exactly gone, but there's not a lot of technical talk at this point, so it's easier for me to follow.
 
Erfael said:
I'm getting close to getting another Tepper into my rotation soon, not sure which, though. I have a bunch of her books, so maybe I'll pick something randomly.
Click to expand...

Gate to Women's Country and the one I'm reading now, Gibbon's Decline and Fall , are her most overt feminist pieces. So if you're not looking for that sort of thing, don't read those. (Though, The Gate to Women's Country is one of her most poignant novels, I think, and my favourite thus far).
 
Those two are both in my pile, along with a few more. I'm not looking for anything in particular. In reality, I'll probably read whatever is on the pile that was published earliest. I've read three Tepper novels before and have enjoyed each of them a lot, so I don't think subject matter will make or break it for me.
 
It has been a while since I read any SF that didn't revolve around some near future apocalypse, so I picked up Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief. Although, could be I just have a thing for author names that I can't spell without referencing the cover. I am about forty pages into the book, which is a bit of a surprise, because I could have sworn I'd only read it for a handful of minutes before heading to bed. It is either fast paced or I was so into it I lost track of time. Whichever one, it is definitely a good sign. I am enjoying it so far, but my mind does occasionally turn to mush when it starts delving too deeply into the technical.
 
Finished Pump Six (see main form for review).

Onward to Infoquake, by David Louis Edelman!

infoquake-thumb.jpg


Finished with about a third of it already, actually. It's a very fast read, very absorbing. I love the characters - obviously drawn from real people somewhere in the software industry.

It's interesting that Infoquake postulates basically the exact same set of future technologies that featured in Tony Daniel's Metaplanetary, but with such a different social result...
 
I've been on a slow month in March, plus I was reading a fantasy book for a change (Songs of the Earth, rather enjoyable). I received The Noise Revealed by Ian Whates a week or so ago and as this is one of of my most anticipated books of the year I'll be getting stuck into it next :)
 
While I was psyching myself to read the heavy White luck warrior, an unexpected copy of The Clockwork Rocket appeared in my inbox and since that is definitely the most awaited sf of mine in 2011 this side of How Firm a Foundation as well as the one i give good odds to beat Leviathan wakes for #1, I will read that now, though I may go through Camera Obscura first if too tired to delve into Greg Egan mind blowing stuff....
 
Well, Hobbit, to answer part of your question, I am LABOURING through "The Forever Machine"-not that it's a hard read so much as its....well....how do I say it....it has a hard time keeping my interest....
 
Just finished Endymion, the 3rd in Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. I was a bit apprehensive about starting this as a number of people have expressed disappointment after the impressiveness of the first 2 novels.

Well I have to day I enjoyed this immensely, at least as much as Fall of Hyperion! Probably also it's been a while since I read the first two, so it was good to be back in this world and read about some of the characters again. I loved the different planets the travellers go through as they journey through the farcasters, and the character development was interesting and well done too. (Rhadamanth Nemes is such a full on killing machine; would be a good entry for a tough character in some of the other threads that come up).

The fight at the end
between Nemes and the Shrike was very cool too, as they each go through different speeds of fast-time to try to outmanoeuvre each other.

Very much looking forward to The Rise of Endymion now.
 
Connie Willis - Blackout. Excellent, excellent, excellent :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.

Latest posts

Back
Top