Reading in June 2006

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. So far, I like it and I'm looking forward to discussing it in the book club.
 
Yesterday I finished "Accelerando". I liked it very much (I'll elaborate on that on the Book Club ;) )

I have begun reading "Blind Lake", by Robert Charles Wilson. It's my first Wilson, but I'll surely be reading another one (Spin, for the Book Club) later this month.
 
Planning on rereading a bunch of novels I read once a long time ago:

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner
Everything Ever Written by Philip K. Dick
 
Hobbit said:
In Fantasy we've got:

Peace by Gene Wolfe

Hobbit
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Brilliant! I've been meaning to read that for some time :D

On topic, I've started re-reading Lord of Light (a lot of it makes more sense the second time through), but am also reading Perdido Street Station (very slowly; my exams have taken priority for the last few months). Then of course I still haven't finished The Fellowship of the Ring, or the Iron Dragon's Daughter.

All great books, it's just a question of waiting until these exams are over (last one on the 6th, wooh!) :D
 
Reading 2 @ a time

The Jupiter Theft by Donald Moffitt
Tau Zero by Paul Anderson..(Sweden ruling the world?) good book anyway
Starhammer by Christopher Rowley(I read it as a teenager had to re-read it again just to make sure it was still as brutal ..and good)
Alastair Reynolds Absolution Gap...The last (I hope not) series in His Revelation Space novels..I have read all of em twice ,they should make a move..
Ben Bova Jupiter
Peter F Hamilton Pandoras Star
Hal Clement Mission of gravity
 
I just got Spin and will start that next. I broke down and bought the book even though I swore I would never read another Robert Charles Wilson book after Darwinia. Its thick too, I hope its good. :rolleyes:

I will eventually read Accelerando by Charles Stross, but it hasn't come out in paper here yet so I have not been able to read it for this month's book group. I know it can be downloaded but I don't read ebooks, too tough on the eyes and the brain.
 
FicusFan said:
I just got Spin and will start that next. I broke down and bought the book even though I swore I would never read another Robert Charles Wilson book after Darwinia. Its thick too, I hope its good. :rolleyes:
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It may help to know that many rabid fans of Wilson didn't like Darwinia either. I'm surprised Spin is thick in pb; it's a relatively short book. He has this magic way of packing tons of happenings into a small space, keeping it very readable, not dense and plodding. I pimp Spin every chance I get.
 
Well I have started Spin, and am more than 100 pages in, and I am enjoying it so far. Much better than my experience with Darwinia.

Though I do have to say so far the whole book seems premised on solving a problem that doesn't exist.;) But I will leave that for the book group, and my further reading in the book.
 
Currently reading The Engineer Reconditioned by Neal Asher. Very good so far, nice to see these hard-to-get early stories reappear.

Hobbit
 
I'm reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. It is a good book but I think I'm tired of SF. Or maybe this isn't the right book to rekindle the passion. It is good enough to finish it though.
 
I finished Spin, and have to say it was very, very good. One of those books you can't put down - a real page turner.


Not sure what I will read next, it may be another SF or a non-genre.
 
kron said:
I'm reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. It is a good book but I think I'm tired of SF.
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I was feeling in a similar mood and started reading some Christopher Priest: it is SF but not like anything else - far broader. There is a recent thread you can look at.
 
I'm about halfway through John Ringo and Julie Cochrane's 'Cally's War', which is a spin-off from Ringo's main 'Legacy of the Aldenata / Posleen war' series.

'Cally's War' deals with the counterespionage adventures and midlife crisis of the titular Cally, daughter of the main series' "Iron Mike" O'Neill. The book was rather poorly received by Ringo fans, and many blamed Cochrane for a move away from the heavy-duty military SF of the original series towards a more conventional thriller format.

The erotica content is up, and in that respect I'm inclined to think that here Ringo was beginning to indulge himself, although he hadn't quite gotten into his full swing (for that, check out his recent work, especially the 'Kildar' novels).

I actually like 'Cally's War' more than I thought I would. Can't spot any continuity errors, and it feels like Ringo did more of the writing on this one than when he partnered up with Tom Kratman for 'Watch on the Rhein'. Particularly fascinating are the almost travelogue-style interludes where we follow Cally as she hitches rides through postwar USA, travelling in convoy to avoid feral Posleen and discovering the surviving citizenry living a lifestyle of polar opposites- awesome galtech technology in some places, almost depression-era poverty in others.
 
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Yay, Ficus! I finished Through Violet Eyes, which was both interesting, fun, and a quick read. I'm not sure why, but I had expected it to be more noirish and darker. I was surprised to find a character-driven story, an interesting premise (certain people are born with the ability to see through the eyes of dead souls, and are used by society to create new art by the masters or testify in murder trials from the viewpoint of the dead victim) with examination of some of its many implications, and even a touch of romance. I will definitely read the sequels.
 
FicusFan said:
I finished Spin, and have to say it was very, very good. One of those books you can't put down - a real page turner.
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Ficus, I agree. I obviously don't read as quickly as you, but I'm really enjoying it. I did just hit a few pages of turgid techno-babble that I forced/skimmed my way through. I'd be happy to read more Wilson after this. But I'm curious, why didn't you like Darwinia? Does he tend to get carried away with long blocks of info-dump in his other novels? Or is there some other reason?
 
Darwinia was just.....odd. It was an odd little reading experience. I didn't dislike it when I read it, but it definitely was something a little different. It's been so many years that I can't really say what was a little different any more, but the fact of its being different has stuck with me.
 
Just finished Spin and enjoyed it immensely. May continue with Robert Charles Wilson and his book Chronoliths. But I haven't decided, may go fantasy, perhaps Naomi Novik.
 
Luke_B said:
Ficus, I agree. I obviously don't read as quickly as you, but I'm really enjoying it. I did just hit a few pages of turgid techno-babble that I forced/skimmed my way through. I'd be happy to read more Wilson after this. But I'm curious, why didn't you like Darwinia? Does he tend to get carried away with long blocks of info-dump in his other novels? Or is there some other reason?
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What I remember:

The story was chopped up and it didn't really hang together very well. There was one story that was about a time rip and it was written in a very YA manner, though it wasn't about YA stuff. I think that once you got settled in one story with one viewpoint, it jumped. The jumps didn't always make sense. I also think the characters were tough to care about.

Then the other story was set in space in some kind of sentient cloud (computer or singularity type setting). There was no real characters, and there was no real story, just awareness and being. It was very slow and it didn't really tie into the rest of the book. Even if it caused the rip there was no explanation.

Then I think there was a modern day time rip thread, and the time rip in an older time period (civil war maybe). In any event it was choppy, I didn't care for the characters, and the ending I think was a big shoot out. Nothing really worked for me.
 
I've been reading lots of non-scifi recently (including Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, The Thousandfold Thought by R. Scott Bakker, Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, and The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson).

Since I last posted here my scifi list has included

The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem - This is a book that starts out very funny, then gets surreal, then moves into a vision of a dystopian future, and then ends with a gimmick.

Scout's Progress by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - another beautifully told story from the Liaden Universe series. This one joins Carpe Diem as my two favorites so far.

Planet of Exile by Ursula Le Guin - A short little novel about a the survivors of an abondoned planetary colony who find themselves having to cooperate with a group of primitive natives.

Currently I am about 200 pages into Dhalgren by Samuel Delany.
 
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