Reading in February 2012

Still reading Cherryh's Foreigner. It has taken an unexpected twist that I find highly interesting. This new theme opens some doors for good speculative fiction.

The bit about the human representatives going mad without affection.
 
I've finally settled on a book that I'm going to read to the end, and it'll be the first this year :-/ Plus it's a comfort read.

So, for something like the seventh time, I'm starting Peter F Hamilton's Void Trilogy with The Dreaming Void. I haven't read any of them since the last book was released, and I'm enjoying it again just as much as I thought. I'm picking up on little things here and there that I didn't previously too, but basically I'm really just enjoying it.
 
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding. Hard to say whether this one is fantasy or science fiction, but I'm going with science fiction. Steampunkish and fun, although I keep on wanting to kick the main character.
 
I finished The Dreaming Void yesterday. Two days to read a Peter F Hamilton book. I'm slacking. Anyway, now on to The Temporal Void, and it's nice to be able to read them back to back.
 
started Pushing Ice by Alistair Reynolds. I understand this is the easiest way to start with this author, before tackling the big Revelation Space tomes. After about 100 pages it seems OK, I'm not bowled over by the prose and it doesn't seem very original with its mix between Rendez-vous with Rama and that Bruce Willis asteroid flick. I'm hoping for some better developments after Contact.
 
Just finished In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling. Though I usually like Stirling's books, this one was a rare disappointment.

Like all his stories this one (a sequel to The Sky People which I did like) it based on a ridiculous premise; that in an alternate universe, ancient aliens terraformed Venus and Mars to make the planets habitable and seeded the worlds with life from Earth about 200 million years in the past! As usual, the premise has nothing to do with science and everything to do with fiction.:)

Usually when I turn my brain off long enough to accept the premise and read the story that follows I tend to really enjoy the experience, a guilty pleasure.

However it didn't happen this time. In sections Stirling does show his usual dramatic flair for action and drama as well as a wonderfully creative imagination but the story is done in by a Martian Royal Court that is endlessly fixed on court ettiquitte and formal speech and body language that approaches obsession (though reading about these very formal Martians talk about sex is quite funny). I found myself droning through these seemingly endless sections to get to the more interesting parts.

So overall a very uneven effort that I can't reccommend as much as like Stirling's other works.
 
Now finished The Temporal Void by Peter F Hamilton. I enjoyed it once again. On to The Evolutionary Void...
 
I've started the third Jon and Lobo novel, Overthrowing Heaven today. I enjoyed the first two and have had this on the reading stack for well over a year.
 
Finished Foreigner by Cherryh yesterday. I enjoyed it. One of my favourite lines from the book, which I think sums it all up: "I don't know what he'll do next, nadi. He's not atevi! Isn't that the point of all this?"


Won't be jumping straight into the next book, 'cos I don't want to burn out on it. I'm hoping one of the later books follows from an atevi's point of view. I think it'd be thoroughly interesting.
 
I started John Love's Faith last week which I ran across mentioned somewhere. I'm about halfway though and enjoying it a lot. :)
 
I'm about 60 pages into Starship: Mutiny by Mike Resnick. I really enjoy a good sci-fi adventure romp and really hope this one lives up to the recommendations I received. So far, so good!
 
NickeeCoco said:
Finished Foreigner by Cherryh yesterday. I enjoyed it. One of my favourite lines from the book, which I think sums it all up: "I don't know what he'll do next, nadi. He's not atevi! Isn't that the point of all this?"


Won't be jumping straight into the next book, 'cos I don't want to burn out on it. I'm hoping one of the later books follows from an atevi's point of view. I think it'd be thoroughly interesting.
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The eighth book introduces an atevi POV. It's actually what made me stop reading the series. I wouldn't have minded it if Cherryh had done it earlier, but waiting til the eighth book, with only one POV character for the first seven, seemed silly to me.
 
beniowa said:
The eighth book introduces an atevi POV. It's actually what made me stop reading the series. I wouldn't have minded it if Cherryh had done it earlier, but waiting til the eighth book, with only one POV character for the first seven, seemed silly to me.
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Hmm. . . It does seem strange that she waited until the eighth book to introduce an atevi POV. Especially since she had an atevi POV in the first bit of Foreigner. Hopefully, since I'm waiting for it, and looking forward to it, it won't give me such a jolt when it happens. Anticipation can do wonders. On the flip side, anticipation can ruin a book too.
 
I'm done with Empire State by Adam Christopher. I'm sorry to say I found it quite disappointing, particularly given the hype around it. For a book packed with such exciting elements and great ideas it was very boring. I think this is due to the writing -- I found Christopher's prose very bland and unengaging. There's lots happening on the page but I just didn't care because ere was no atmosphere or sympathy for the characters created. I wouldn't say it was a bad book, but I didn't think it was a good book either. Just vanilla. I do think there's some promise there, and given that this is a debut I hope Christopher can improve his writing so that it is a match for his awesome imagination.

I'm now moving on to Heaven's Shadow by David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt. I've heard some good things about this one (including from writers like George R.R. Martin and Paul Cornell), but it seems to have gone under the radar at SFFWorld. I've read 50 pages today and so far I'm really enjoying it -- it's a modern take on the old-school, centre of the genre, hard sf book -- the kind of thing I've been craving for a while now. Think of the film Armageddon but only, you know, not really dumb.
 
I'm done with Empire State by Adam Christopher. I'm sorry to say I found it quite disappointing, particularly given the hype around it. For a book packed with such exciting elements and great ideas it was very boring. I think this is due to the writing -- I found Christopher's prose very bland and unengaging. There's lots happening on the page but I just didn't care because ere was no atmosphere or sympathy for the characters created. I wouldn't say it was a bad book, but I didn't think it was a good book either. Just vanilla. I do think there's some promise there, and given that this is a debut I hope Christopher can improve his writing so that it is a match for his awesome imagination.
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Sorry it didn't work for you, Luke!

I'm now moving on to Heaven's Shadow by David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt. I've heard some good things about this one (including from writers like George R.R. Martin and Paul Cornell), but it seems to have gone under the radar at SFFWorld. I've read 50 pages today and so far I'm really enjoying it -- it's a modern take on the old-school, centre of the genre, hard sf book -- the kind of thing I've been craving for a while now. Think of the film Armageddon but only, you know, not really dumb.
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OK: not under the radar particularly, just not very good, IMO. Written by two scriptwriters, it's a a script for a film in the guise of a novel, but nothing particularly new nor not-dumb. Be interested to see if you continue to read it differently. I'm all for comfort/entertaining reading (that why I sometimes read Baen Books!), but I suspect you'll be disappointed with that one.

Mark
 
Hobbit said:
OK: not under the radar particularly, just not very good, IMO. Written by two scriptwriters, it's a a script for a film in the guise of a novel, but nothing particularly new nor not-dumb.
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My understanding is that Michael Cassutt is more than a scriptwriter. He has several novels and short stories under his belt. But what's more is that he's considered something of a expert on space and has a few non-fiction books about the topic to his credit too. So far this expertise is showing in the technical detail in the novel.

And I've got nothing against scriptwriters trying their hand at novels. Remember George R.R. Martin started writing ASoIaF after at stint of working on TV shows in LA. Quite often that experience can help writers hone their technique in novel form. So far I'm finding this book well written; maybe a little thin on characterization but nothing too complaint worthy so far.
 
Luke_B said:
And I've got nothing against scriptwriters trying their hand at novels. Remember George R.R. Martin started writing ASoIaF after at stint of working on TV shows in LA. Quite often that experience can help writers hone their technique in novel form. So far I'm finding this book well written; maybe a little thin on characterization but nothing too complaint worthy so far.
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Martin had released novels years before ASoIaF, though.
 
Luke_B said:
Yes, I didn't say he hadn't. :confused: And Michael Cassutt has written novels before this one.
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Oh, I just read what you'd written as implying Martin hadn't written novels before ASoIaF. In fact, he was a published author before he was ever credited on a TV show (by a decade, almost)
 
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