Current category: scifi
Blog home
About me: I'm an unrepentant generalist finding my way in a world of specialists. I started this blog to review books, but I now talk about topics ranging from management to cognition to social software.
email me if you have any questions or comments.
Using WordPress
2.2
This is a pretty standard sci-fi book, picked up randomly from the new book section of the library mostly because of the review on the back from Melissa Scott (whose work I like): “Imagine a Stand on Zanzibar written by a left-wing Robert Heinlein, and infused with the most exciting possibilities of the new cyber-technology”. Near future, AI presence, virtual reality, crazy diseases, etc. Some interesting speculations on which directions things might go. Nothing too spectacular, though.
While at the library a few days ago, I was browsing along and noticed this book by Bruce Sterling. As a longtime subscriber to his Viridian mailing list, I’d almost forgotten that Sterling makes his living as a writer. So I picked this up and read it. Our protagonist is Leggy Starlitz, a band promoter among other things, who has a strong line into the cultural narrative of the times - the Zeitgeist, if you will. And the narrative draws him into one ridiculous situation after another. The metaphysics is kind of wacky, but the idea of having the cultural narrative being too strong to break out of is a fascinating one; to take an example not used in the book, when the evil villain is given a chance to repent, they always end up saying “No, I have chosen to be evil, and evil I will be!” Plus there’s a couple laugh-out-loud scenes when the semi-antagonist taps into the narrative and pulls off a ridiculous James Bond escape sequence. Wacky stuff.
I borrowed and read this while at a friend’s house on vacation. It’s got some interesting ideas. While I don’t think much of Gibson as a writer, he’s definitely a sharp observer of cultural trends. This book follows the adventures of Cayce Pollard, a “coolhunter” (somebody who hits the streets trying to observe new trends that advertising companies could then exploit), as she tries to track down the source of mysterious film footage that appears haphazardly on the net. The feel of the footage actually reminded me of the movie The Ring, but that’s another story entirely. Worth a read, but not a buy in my opinion.
I loved the original Ender’s Game series, so this re-examination of the universe bothers me. This is the third book in the series (Ender’s Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon were the first two) detailing what happens on Earth after Ender leaves, when all of his fellow “soldiers” battle it out for control of Earth. The geopolitical ideas are somewhat interesting, but the characterization is really lacking. I’m glad I borrowed it from the library rather than buying.
I’ve read several other books by John Barnes, and have enjoyed them, so I picked this one up from the library. It’s got a very odd premise, and is very confusing, even after he starts to explain what’s going on. I’m not sure I particularly liked it. But the premise is interesting, so I’ll roll with it. I’d go into more detail, but it’s too confusing to try to explain.
After rediscovering the library recently, I took the opportunity to read several of the Pratchett Discworld novels that I had never gotten around to. My personal collection petered out at Feet of Clay (book 15 or so), and I’d lost track of the ones since then. The library had several of the more recent ones, so I’ve been picking them up and reading them for fun. They’re nice quick fun reads, but I’m not sure they’re entertaining enough to be worth buying. The ones I’ve read recently (all from the library) are:
After reading Memory and Dream from the library, I was reminded of the interesting worlds that de Lint constructs, so I picked this up on my next visit. Not much to say - magic is real, faeries are real, you choose what kind of world you live in, etc. Eh.
Caitlin reminded me when I saw her over Christmas of the works of de Lint, one of the best urban fantasists around. I’ve read only a couple of his books, so when I noticed one in the library recently, I picked it up. As seems to be common in his novels, a straightforward story quickly involves elements of the fantastic sneaking in at the periphery. This one in particular does a good job of exploring dreamlike elements and how they come to pervade the protagonist’s life. And of exploring the thin line between memory and dream…
