SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Neroon
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Recently finished The Covenant of Genesis. It's an action thriller with fantastic/mythical/biblical elements, which is enough for me to say its SFF. Kudos to Andy McDermott for yet another great yarn. I'm looking forward to the next one.
About two thirds of the way through The Never Ending Sacrifice and although it is a superb book, I would have preferred more of a substantial plot to it rather than a series of vignettes which is what it appears to be. Perhaps it will be tied up at the end
Still reading The Murdered Sun. As it's my bedtime reading, it's slow going--especially since it was written by Christie Golden-- though it is more enjoyable than her post-finale Voyager books were, but only just.
About two thirds of the way through The Never Ending Sacrifice and although it is a superb book, I would have preferred more of a substantial plot to it rather than a series of vignettes which is what it appears to be. Perhaps it will be tied up at the end
Still reading The Murdered Sun. As it's my bedtime reading, it's slow going--especially since it was written by Christie Golden-- though it is more enjoyable than her post-finale Voyager books were, but only just.
Reading Star Trek Deep Space Nine the Soul Key, about to read Winds of Dune, and later on hopefully Star Wars The Essential Guide if it ever finally comes into Chapters.
It turns out ok-but he needs to move away from Old Man's War into fresh territory.
The problem with the book was that he spent the vast majority of it to cover the same stuff as in "The Last Colony" - and not from a very interesting angle. When you finally get to the interesting part that diverges from the last book (convincing the Consu to help), it seems to be over too quickly.
Definitely not up to the (very) high standard of the previous books in the series.
I think "The Androids Dream" was a far superior novel from Scalzi. Very much recommended. A sequel in that universe is apparently in the works.
Fahrenheit 451 was great, as I expected from Bradbury. I also liked reading his afterword(s) to the book. At one point he talks about letters he's gotten from readers about The Martian Chronicles; in particular they complained that in one of the stories, about black people escaping racism by going to Mars, which was one of my favourites in the book, was out of date and needed to be taken out. Bradbury answered them in the afterword with a resounding "No!" Interestingly, I've just bought the only hardcover edition of TMC on the market...not only is that story missing, but all the dates got forwarded by 30 years (it originally began in January 1999). I was a little miffed at that, and now I'm even more so. Does Bradbury know or did they do it behind his back?...
I had picked up a book called The Classic Era of American Comics to brush up on my knowledge of the Golden Age...and quickly put it down again. I'm warning everyone right now: do not bother with that book. Heavily illustrated, yes, but the reproductions are fairly poor (a couple look like they were scanned in using my own rather lousy scanner) and placed on the page with almost no sense of design or balance. To top it off, the text itself reads like my writing in the fifth grade, lots of repetition, silly adjectives, and just generally childish vocabulary. I only made it through the first chapter, skimmed the rest, and I'm giving it back to the library soon.
To partly satiate my thirst for classic superhero adventure, I'm re-reading Les Daniels' Superman: The Complete History; familiar, doesn't quite live up to its title anymore, but at least it's a good read. I'll follow it up with his volumes on Batman and Wonder Woman.
I had picked up a book called The Classic Era of American Comics to brush up on my knowledge of the Golden Age...and quickly put it down again. I'm warning everyone right now: do not bother with that book. Heavily illustrated, yes, but the reproductions are fairly poor (a couple look like they were scanned in using my own rather lousy scanner) and placed on the page with almost no sense of design or balance. To top it off, the text itself reads like my writing in the fifth grade, lots of repetition, silly adjectives, and just generally childish vocabulary. I only made it through the first chapter, skimmed the rest, and I'm giving it back to the library soon.
To partly satiate my thirst for classic superhero adventure, I'm re-reading Les Daniels' Superman: The Complete History; familiar, doesn't quite live up to its title anymore, but at least it's a good read. I'll follow it up with his volumes on Batman and Wonder Woman.
Much to my shock and amazement (and gratitude), I found a copy of The Soul Key by Olivia Woods in my NEX on base in Japan yesterday. Previously, they only had a couple of Star Trek books which were at least a few months old, if not older. Naturally, I stopped reading the book I was currently on (The Wish Maker by Ali Sethi, while enjoyable, doesn't have a driving narrative) and started on The Soul Key right away. 
If you can find it there's a book called: All In Color For A Dime
It covers the Golden and Silver Ages of comics. It's from the 70s and horribly outdated but fascinating if you're into the classic comics.
I ordered The Winds of Dune. It should be here by the end of the week.
Bradbury's a funny old crank. All these decades people thought Fahrenheit 451 was anti-censorship, and a couple years ago he says, no, it's about how TV rots your brain. Fahrenheit 451 is about book burning. In the real world, book burning is a common form of censorship and intimidation, not a statement about the value of TV. It really seems to me that the message that censorship is bad is more meaningful and important than the message that TV sucks.
Fahrenheit 451 is a rich, multi-layered work. It's often seized upon and misconstrued as being more simplistic than it actually is, particularly for the purposes of one side of the political divide trying to claim it as their own.
It's not really a warning against censorship imposed from the top down by a totalitarian government. It's a warning that society could become so deadened by consumerism and immediate gratification that censorship bubbles up from the bottom and becomes the law of the land because no one wants to think anymore or to have their entertainment disrupted by intrusions from political and religious debate. And so everything burns, conservative and liberal texts alike, and the public sinks into a stupor, with suicidal bouts interrupting desperate attempts to gain happiness through jolts of entertainment or the adrenaline of driving at ultra high speeds.
It's not really a warning against censorship imposed from the top down by a totalitarian government. It's a warning that society could become so deadened by consumerism and immediate gratification that censorship bubbles up from the bottom and becomes the law of the land because no one wants to think anymore or to have their entertainment disrupted by intrusions from political and religious debate. And so everything burns, conservative and liberal texts alike, and the public sinks into a stupor, with suicidal bouts interrupting desperate attempts to gain happiness through jolts of entertainment or the adrenaline of driving at ultra high speeds.
I picked up two books from the library today, and I'm still debating which to dive into first. Galactic North is a short story collection by Alastair Reynolds (whom I've recently discovered) and the other is called The Wreck of 'The River of Stars' by a guy called Michael Flynn. I've read the first 30 pages or so and it doesn't seem too bad, but I find it brings up a desire to read Patrick O'Brian again, and the whole Aubrey-Maturin series is sitting on my shelf...
I finally finished Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. I found the book to be a bit uneven. Some chapters I was bored and reading felt tedious, and other chapters moved really fast. Overall I liked the book well enough that I plan to eventually read the sequel, Judas Unchained.
I have started reading To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Kathryn M. Drennan. For those not familiar, it is a Babylon 5 novel that JMS considers to be canon. I have enjoyed it so far.
I have started reading To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Kathryn M. Drennan. For those not familiar, it is a Babylon 5 novel that JMS considers to be canon. I have enjoyed it so far.
'Galactic North' is apparently a sequel of sorts to the 'Revelation space' series. So if you haven't, read them first.
I recently read Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained. Judas is a bit better, mostly because Pandora did all the heavy groundwork of putting the characters in motion.
But Hamilton has this annoying tendency to just introduce a bunch of character threads and then keep them separated for most of the book. It can be tedious to follow, before you remember each one and who's side they are on. They all tie together at the end of the Judas book - but there's got to be a better way of writing than that.
His best book is still Fallen Dragon IMO... And even that one I have some reservations about.
That didn't stop me from picking another book from him, though
(I must be desperate for reading material) - I am now half-way through The Dreaming Void, a much removed sequel to Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained. It is interesting so far, but hard to judge, since no clear-cut adversary has presented itself yet. (like the Prime)Yep, I've read Revelation Space.
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