Reading in February 2010

[Hobbit]

Just in case you didn't know, this is where you tell us what you've been reading in SF this month. Good or bad, we want to know what and why.



Mark

 

[bio]

Mike Resnick Starship: Mutiny .I was very long time waiting for this book in Polish translation. I don't belive Mike wrote this piece of s**t. And, if ...?

 

[kcf]

I just finished up Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - which I thought was pretty good.

Now I'm reading Spiral Hunt by Margaret Ronald. It's supposed to be a short, easy read while I'm waiting for what I really want to read. So far it's only OK, but I'm not that far into it yet.

 

[Hobbit]

I just finished up Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - which I thought was pretty good.

Yup - I finished that one last month, Ken: also really enjoyed it. Solid, dependable, engaging SF: as might be expected from KKR.

Have bought her Retrieval Artist series to read as well, though it is getting quite hard to get these days.


Mark

 

[Rob B]

while I'm waiting for what I really want to read. So far it's only OK, but I'm not that far into it yet.

What are you really wanting to read, Ken?

As for me, I opened up Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson today, which has received some good word of mouth so far. I think I recall Wert enjoying it.

 

[kcf]

@Hobbit - yes, solid and engaging are good words for it.

@Rob - I really want to read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Supposedly it's on the way, but it's taking its time. If it goes much longer I'll email Orbit again about it. I had hoped to be nearly finished with by the time it's release comes around - now I won't even have started it. Sigh.

I've also got a copy of Galileo's Dreams. I like KSR, but haven't read anything from him in a long while. Hopefully I'll find the time to read it in the next few months.

 

[Rob B]

@kcf - I've got a copy of the Jemisen book, I might break up my WOT re-read with it, since I plan on jumping into Edelman's Geosynchron after KSR.

 

[suciul]

@kcf - I've got a copy of the Jemisen book, I might break up my WOT re-read with it, since I plan on jumping into Edelman's Geosynchron after KSR.

I hope you love both (Jemisin and Geosynchron) as much as I did though the one regret I have about Geosynchron is that the author did not start the series here or at least continue it from here since it gets really interesting - there is a clear ending btw, but still i would love to see where the universe of the novel goes from here

Of new "hot" sf books I have Ghosts of Manhattan and will get to it soon and I read about 1/3 from the 09 Aurealis sf winner "Wonders of Godless World" by A MacGahon and is superb so far and I plan to finish it soon though it's more fantasy-like than sf imho (in the meantime I received two of the biggest asap's of 2010 Black Hills/Simmons and Folding Knife/Parker so I *had* to read those first and now after I spent 3 days and did 3 reads of The Folding Knife, I need a day to let the effect pass so i can enjoy something different...)

 

[Gizmo]

Currently reading Job: A Comedy of Justice by Heinlein.
Loving it so far.

 

[beniowa]

Last night I finished The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. The first Dying Earth novel reads like a collection of short stories following various characters in their journeys on a far-future earth. With humanity only a glimmer of what it once was, magic and technology are often indistinguishable. While Vance's storytelling allowed him to explore his world a bit, I felt a lack of a central character or plot hurt the novel just a bit. I didn't really enjoy it until the final chapter with Guyal searching for the Museum of Man.

Looking ahead, I see the next Dying Earth novel is pretty short so I'm going on with The Eyes of the Overworld.

 

[beniowa]

This afternoon I finished The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance. It's the second book in the Dying Earth and introduces the character of Cugel. Cugel is something of a rogue/thief/rascal who crosses the wrong magician, and is forced to undertake a quest for a rare artifact in distant lands. The world building and storytelling are well done, but I had trouble identifying with the main character. Truth is, he's just not very likable. Normally, this isn't a problem (I liked the Brothers Grossbart for example) and he did get his comeuppance, but for some reason I just couldn't help rolling my eyes. I think the problem is mine, that I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to be reading this book.

I'm going to put down Tales of the Dying Earth for now and come back to it another time. I'm hankering for a quick read right now so I'm going to start Paths Not Taken by Simon R. Green.

 

[suciul]

I finished "Things We Didn't See Coming" by Steven Amsterdam, a sfnal collection of nine chronological stories that follow the unnamed narrator through the slow collapse of civilization starting with computers going haywire and the "interdependence" breaking down, continuing with a stark separation between "city people" and "rural folk", and then disasters due to rain, plague, drought, fires...

From my FBC rv (tbp Saturday 2/13) a run down of each story with short excerpts from the beginning of each

1:What We Know Now
For the first time, Dad is letting me help pack the car, but only because it’s getting to be kind of an emergency.

The narrator at 14 on New Year's Eve 1999-2000 and the beginning of the "troubles". The one pure mainstream story, it seems a later addition for the sake of completion but the last story connects back here and illuminates it.

2:The Theft That Got Me Here
The new pills seem to be helping. Her eyes droop less. Grandpa’s not optimistic, but that’s not news.

The narrator at 16 living with his grandparents in a city that's isolated by manned barricades from the countryside; when grandma has a lucid day and grandpa's is depressed since the city is taking away his driving license, the three of them manage to escape the city and have a romp in the countryside; of course city folk are not welcomed there...
The true beginning of the book in many ways and partly comic, partly tragic but always excellent.

3:Dry Land
A rain horse is a horse that’s been sensitized to travel in down*pours without complaint.

The best story of the book follows the narrator at 23 working for the "land management" agency that evacuates people from the countryside following months of continuous rain; when a mishap happens and he is forced to seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned house, he discovers a mother and daughter that want more to be together than to survive...
Powerful and with a great twist ending

4:Cake Walk
Margo walked off this morning, as soon as the sun started warming up the ground, leaving me to dig up something else for us to eat

The narrator is about 26 now in the first of the 3 Margo stories that follow the narrator's relationship with a practical girl that is willing to do anything to survive and prosper in the "new world"; in this one they hide in a desert-like scape after they left the city following a plague, when an infected man happens upon their hidden tent, while Margo went on a trek in the morning with their only gun.

5:Uses for Vinegar
That could only be her.

Set some 2-3 years later in a burnt out town, the narrator is a bureaucrat dealing with relocation of the dispossessed folk there, when Margo and her current boyfriend appear; still "in love" with her, the narrator is willing to follow her away from there, but is she coming or not?

6:The Forest for the Trees
I’m on the terrace of the main campus, in a recliner doing my work, the screen propped on my lap, my shirt off.

Several more years passed and now there is some resemblance of order; a rich girl turned politician and Senator representing a large part of the country becomes the narrator's and Margo's latest patron...

These three stories are the heart of the collection in many ways and they are all superb too, though they lack the power of "Dry Land" to some extent; the narrator has to answer the question: what price is he willing to pay for survival and for love/relationship?

7:Predisposed
All I did was ask Jeph if he would help collect branches for a roof repair today.

Narrator at 36, weary of the world and asking for refuge in an isolated commune as security specialist and guardian of the only child alive there, the 14 year old teen Jeph; the first of three shorter, more vignette-like stories that deal more with moral questions than with the narrator's place in the world at large; more plague, privatized medicine with cures for the cash payers, long waiting lists for the rest; a good story but less polished than the previous ones.

8:The Profit Motive
This is an era of violence.

Several more years passed and now there is another attempt at rebuilding the civilization after a truce in the local wars was imposed; still idealistic the narrator goes to ask for a position to help and has to take a test that quickly becomes weirder and weirder; another superb twist ending, but the story would have benefited by being slightly longer too.

9:Best Medicine
I leave them badgering the nurse in the cafeteria. All I want is to appreciate the volcano alone, without the whole needy-​crowd thing.

The narrator at 40, running a small business as a private tour guide for the terminally ill; here we get more background and a connection with the beginning, while the ending is another superb one

All in all "Things We Didn't See Coming" is a gem of a book that will stay with you for a long time and I strongly recommend it for anyone who wants an interesting but a bit unusual book that is very well written and has an endearing narrator who never loses his humanity despite all that happens

 

[tulsa]

Turtledove

I'm reading Colonization: Aftershocks, by Harry Turtledove. Started with the World War series and am making my way to the end.
It's pretty good. Gets a little slow and repetitive at times, but the action is good.

 

[suciul]

I finished a fast space opera series first volume (at least I think that more will come based on the ending) Grand Central Arena by Ryk Spoor - Baen e-arc available to buy now, book tbp April; the blurb below is accurate:

"It was supposed to be a simple test flight, one that pilot Ariane Austin was on only as a last-ditch backup; intelligent, superhumanly fast automation would handle the test activation and flight of humanity's first faster-than-light vessel. But when the Sandrisson Drive activated, every automated system crashed, the nuclear reactor itself shut down, and only the reflexes and training of a racing pilot saved the test vessel Holy Grail from crashing into the impossible wall that had appeared before them, a wall which is just part of a monstrous enclosure surrounding a space twenty thousand kilometers across. With all artificial intelligences inert and their reactor dead, they had to find some other source of power to reactivate the Sandrisson Drive and—hopefully—take them home.

And that was only the beginning. As Ariane, Dr. Simon Sandrisson, darkly enigmatic power engineer Marc C. DuQuesne, and the rest of the Holy Grail's crew explore the immense artifact, they discover that they are not alone; they have entered a place the alien inhabitants call The Arena and there is no way out without joining one of the alien factions . . . or winning recognition as a faction in their own right, playing by the Arena's rules - and by the Arena's rules, one failed challenge could mean death or worse, perhaps for the entire human race.

Surrounded by alien factions, each with its own secret plans and motivations, some wielding powers so strange as to be magical, Ariane sets out to beat the Arena at its own game. With DuQuesne's strategies, Sandrisson's genius, and her own unyielding determination, she's going to bring the Holy Grail home even if she has to beat every faction in the Arena to do it!"



Very entertaining novel which combines a lot of pulpier "old style" space opera (costume aliens, heroic/plucky humans) with modern sensibilities and awareness of current speculations in cutting edge physics; good narrative pacing and some superb scenes mostly in the beginning and ending parts, while the middle part is the more pulpier 30's like stuff, it was a fun though not that deep read and I am in for the next book (I expect at least one sequel though I have not seen mentioned it anywhere) A solid A

Lots of excerpts (up to chapter 40 out of some 80 or so) are HERE

 

[Aurian]

Blackout by Connie Willis. I dunno... I enjoyed two of her other books (Doomsday Book, Passage) but not two others (Bellweather, To Say Nothing of the Dog) and I think this book is going to end up in the latter category. I am halfway through or so and feeling bored with it. I don't really like any of the characters, I don't really understand the importance of these missions, the time travel non-interference theories don't make sense to me and the mystery of why the missions are being rearranged is more annoying than mystifying.

There is no sense of urgency either. One character is freaking about not being able to do his research paper properly and another is worried about annoying her teacher. Of course, you know they are safe because they researched the danger spots beforehand. Its just not working for me.

If it doesn't pick up in the next chapter or two, I'm going to move on.

 

[chitman13]

Had a slow month so far due to having a cold and not able to focus on reading. Still, I've managed to finish two audio books and I'm making my way through a couple of good books too.

The Waste Lands by Stephen King - listened to this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've read it before a couple of times but it's been a while. I particularly like the way that King is building the setting up nicely as well as creating some memorable characters. Looking forward to Wolves of the Calla more than Wizard and Glass (which will be up next).

Starship Mutiny by Mike Resnick - another audio book I listened to this month. Really enjoyed this one and it's just the sort of quick paced SF that I love to read. I'm already on to Starship Pirate and I think I'll be polising this series off fairly quickly.

Currently reading The Orphaned Worlds by Mike Cobley (following on from Seeds of Earth in a great way) and Spellwright by Blake Charlton (a new fantasy that grabbed my eye and is reading like a dream so far). I'm also still reading Forbidden Knowledge by Stephen Donaldson, but it's taking a while and I doubt I'll finish it.

 

[suciul]

More sf finished, this time inspired by Jeff Vandermeer Locus Online Best 0f 2009 article - I did a quick post on FBC too with links to our many reviews from the books there - I read Mercury Station by Marc von Schlegell; a short take here:

"I have to say that this one is closer to what one would call "essential sf" than things usually labeled such; it is innovative in so many ways, and while Venusia was weird but with a sort-of-clear-plot/action and I have not decided yet if Mercury Station truly makes sense plot-wise, the things thrown in almost casually from a chrono-dynamics theory, to Quantum computers, to Medieval imagery and action combined with 22nd century Solar System intrigue, all in a package that will make you a bit dizzy but still compel you to turn pages, should make this one a must for any sf-lover. Highly, highly recommended"

 

[Gizmo]

Just finished Job: A Comedy of Justice by Heinlein. Absolutely loved it.

Don't know whether or not to go back to Deepness in the Sky. Hm, I think I'll persist with it even though I really can't get into it.

 

[bearcatmark]

I read Banks' Look to Windward. Really enjoyed it...it's my fifth culture book in the last year and I've enjoyed every one. less action in this one, but a great look at Orbital life...plus I did really enjoy the story. I'd rank it with The Player of Games, but below Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas.

Reading A Fire Upon the Deep right now. I'm about half way through and very very impressed.

 

[Zappster]

I'm also still reading Forbidden Knowledge by Stephen Donaldson, but it's taking a while and I doubt I'll finish it.

You should! I remember it being a struggle at the start of the series because it was almost unremittingly grim, but I do recall that some of the political intrigue and machinations are revealed towards the end of the book. That's one of the things that made the series for me. Some of the new PoV characters introduced in the remainder of the books are fantastic. It was all about finding out how the "quicksand of plots and counterplots" (as one character puts it I believe) would play out in the end. Also Warden Dios is amazing.

Anyway, currently reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. My first Reynolds book and I think I'm finally getting a grip on it. I was getting lost with some of the terminology and just the vastness of everything. Finding it hard to visualize things and basically it was making my brain melt. I've done what I always do when faced with these types of books. Power on and hope things become clearer as I continue, which they invariably do in almost all the cases. It certainly does hold promise and his writing - technical tomfoolery notwithstanding - is clear and easy to read. He does have quite an imagination (if this book is anything to go by) and there's a fair bit of the sense-of-wonder feeling to this book for me. Now I just need it to proceed and end well. Then maybe I'll tackle some of his Revelation Space books.