Reading in August 2006

[Hobbit]

New month again..... this is where you tell us what you're reading in the worlds of Science Fiction this month. Good or bad, please let us know what you thought.

Over to the Book Clubs....

The SF Book Club this month is reading Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith;

The Fantasy Book Club is reading The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll. Join in if you can!

Hobbit

 

[FicusFan]

I think I am going to re-read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell for my RL book group.

 

[Colonel Worf]

I'm reading The Stars, My Destination (aka Tiger! Tiger!) by Alfred Bester for the first time. The only thing I've read of his previously is the short story "Fondly Farenheit." This novel is really not what I was expecting at all, but I'm enjoying it. Technically, it's the first sci-fi book I've read all year. I didn't read anything for several months, then read Harry Potter 2-5 and Dean Koontz's The Taking. After I read the next Potter book, I'm going to either read some Van Vogt (Slan, Voyage of the Space Beagle, The Weapon Shops of Isher, The War Against the Rull) or Heinlein (The Rolling Stones, Between Planets, Stranger in a Strange Land, Red Planet, etc.) or reread either Orion or As On A Darkling Plain by Ben Bova. Those are two of my favorite books and I'd like to refresh my memory.

 

[beenorthern]

I was about halfway through *Year Zero* by Jeff Long last week, but broke off to read other library books with earlier due dates ... I'll get back to it soon.

I'm sorry to say only three of the books I read last month were SF, but one was *The Sparrow* which (as promised) was Excellent!

 

[odo]

I'm currently reading "Learning the world" by Ken MacLeod. I'm really enjoying it!

 

[intensityxx]

I recently finished Way of the Wolf, the first of the Vampire Earth series by E.E. Knight. While it was a bit too military for my tastes, there were promises of a very richly-imagined world yet to discover. I will definitely read the second book, as I suspect that the series will improve as more of the world is revealed.

 

[Archren]

I recently finished Superluminal by Tony Daniel and Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan.

Superluminal was good, but not as good as its predecessor Metaplanetary. That one was one of my favorite books I read all year, but this one suffered from "middle book of a trilogy" sydrome. All the plots get advanced a little, most of the world building has already been done. It seemed to drag in places. This is particularly a shame since the publishers decided not to print the third book, so it will forever remain an unfinished trilogy. If only he'd decided to go for a duology instead!

Market Forces was a wierd, wierd book. Deathrace 2000 meets corporate politics in the late 21st century. Lots of violence, fatal car races, beatings, bludgeonings, shootings, all in the service of pointing out how awful capitalism is. It was interesting, and he balanced the views around the conflicted protagonist well. However, it got the point where I really didn't want to read one more screaming swearing fight between the protagonist and his wife. Started to hit the same notes over and over without progressing. Still, it was certainly an interesting viewpoint, if obviously unsubtle.

 

[Colonel Worf]

I picked up a book I couldn't resist... The Rosetta Codex by Richard Paul Russo. It's been pretty good so far. It's entirely unpredictable. Still reading on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince too. I guess that's fantasy, though.

 

[odo]

Finished "Learning the world". I did like it, but the ending was too rushed.

I will keep on reading Hugo nominees, now those stories in Dozois' and Hartwell's Best of 2005 anthologies.

 

[Colonel Worf]

Just finished The Rosetta Codex by Richard Paul Russo.... 375 pages... just took me four days. I'm going to give it a good 4/5 starrs. i think it could have been a little longer, and there was plot point involving a secondary character that I saw coming when we first meet him.

Good book though... I recommend it.

I just read Harry Harrison's introduction to Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. I wasn't a big fan of The Stars, My Destination, but I'm eager to read this one. It looks good.

 

[ArthurFrayn]

The Demolished Man is a more focussed effort,IMO.
There are a number of people here who have a stated preference for it over TSMD.

 

[ArthurFrayn]

Back on the Bayley Ship

I finished Barrington J Bayley's second novel Annihilation Factor. Not as bad as the reviews you might encounter on line would suggest, but does crumble a bit as it nears to completion. Full of interesting things though.Not as good as Star Virus, his first novel, better than Empire of Two Worlds, his third.
**1/2
On to his short story anthology for which the buzz has been uniformly positive-The Knights of the Limits

 

[tdeanatoz@yahoo]

I finally got done with A.E van Vogt's classic The Voyage of the Space Beagle, which consists of the following original stories:

The Voyage of the Space Beagle, A.E. van Vogt, Simon & Schuster 1950
----Black Destroyer, (nv) Astounding July 1939
----War of Nerves, (nv) Other Worlds May 1950
----Discord in Scarlet, (nv) Astounding Dec. 1939
----M33 in Andromeda, (ss) Astounding Aug. 1943

It's not as good, IMO, as the two [*Isher] novels, but it's still pretty good. A.E. van Vogt received an undisclosed sum from the studio that made the film Alien because of perceived similarities between the movie and the above novelette "Discord in Scarlet."

 

[odo]

A.E. van Vogt received an undisclosed sum from the studio that made the film Alien because of perceived similarities between the movie and the above novelette "Discord in Scarlet."

Humm, I found also very strong similarities between Alien and Theodore Sturgeon's story "The girl had guts"...

 

[SusF]

I just finished Building Harlequin's Moon by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper. I thought it was very good and it got me back to reading Science Fiction again.

Right now I'm halfway through Chindi by Jack mcDevitt. I have not read any mcDevitt before this. I'm going to have to find more by him.

I also have a stack of SF library books and used paperbacks waiting for me. One thing about taking breaks in reading SF is that catching up is a lot of fun!

Susan

 

[Colonel Worf]

^ Engines of God is the first in the series. I'm reading it right now and enjoying it.

 

[tdeanatoz@yahoo]

I just finished another collection by Henry Kuttner:

Return to Otherness, Henry Kuttner (Ballantine F619, 1962, 50¢, 240pp, pb)
----See You Later [*Hogben] • ss Thrilling Wonder Stories June 1949
----This Is the House • ss Astounding Feb. 1946
----The Proud Robot [*Gallegher] • nv Astounding Oct. 1943
----Gallegher Plus [*Gallegher] • nv Astounding Nov. 1943
----The Ego Machine • na Space Science Fiction May 1952
----Android • nv F&SF June 1951
----The Sky Is Falling • ss Planet Stories Fall 1950
----Juke-Box • ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb. 947

 

[clong]

Scifi reads so far this month:

Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold - a fun and at times funny adventure story about a guy from a homosexual planet.

Rogue Star by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson - put this one in the comically bad category. It's hard to believe half of this came from the pen of the author who gave us Gateway and The Space Merchants.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - I had very high expectations for this book, and frankly I was a bit disappointed. As an exercise in characterization, it's impressive.

The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You by Harry Harrison - this James Bond in Space spoof starts out weakly, but gets a bit better. If this is Bond it's pretty much of the Roger Moore variety.

The Killing Machine by Jack Vance - a very good book. Way better than the Harrison I read right before it. Gersen is definitely more in the early Sean Connery Bond mode.

 

[odo]

Finished "The soul of a robot" by Barrington J. Bayley. I was very curious about this author (because of the various recommendations in this forum) and I happened to find this one in a second-hand bookshop (by the way, it is the only book by Bayley which has been translated into Spanish, apart from a Warhammer novel). I must confess that I had high expectations and the book didn't quite meet them. It was a quick read and fast-paced, but not very deep in the speculative ideas

Now I'm reading "Downbelow Station", by C.J. Cherryh (September BOTM at the SF book club)

 

[ArthurFrayn]

Mileage varies

Soul of A Robot was for me, offbeat, a lot of fun- not life changing. Not as interesting as it's sequel The Rod of Light. I liked the robot character Jesperodus enough to move on to that sequel. The sequel has a lot more stuff in it. Liked that one a lot.
But Bayley is not a speculative writer in the sense I think you mean.
He's less interested about science, and extapolations in that regard, and more interested metaphysics, and playing with loopy math and crackpot metascience, so if that's not what you're looking for, he's not going to be your bag.

BTW, Odo, your english comprehension skills are obviously excellent. Why read a spanish translation when it could turn out to be not as good as in the original?