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After a bright, shiny morning, today has grown grey. The light through the clouds has a yellow tint. I can smell the rain: it will be wet tonight.
I hate grey. And there has been far far too much of it!
More books read to add to the 2006 total. That's forty-eight so far this year. (More than a book a day, but some days I read four or five, and some days none, so... I really will have to stop soon.)
Book-reading 2006 #5:
Charles Stross, Accelerando.
My head wasn't big enough to fit all of this book in at once. I needed to stop every ten pages or so to catch my breath, because there was just so much going on (also to cradle my inadequacy for a while, but we won't talk about that). The quote from The Guardian reads: 'Like being trapped in the middle of an exploding ideas factory without a helmet'. I can't put it better than that.
Guy Gavriel Kay, The Summer Tree.
Why did no-one ever tell me about this book before?! It was first published in 1985, for crying out loud, and I have to wait my whole life to find out about it?!
Possibly there are two more powerful books than this in print. Maybe three. There can't possibly be four. And one of those would be The Lord of the Rings. And even Tolkien didn't make me cry, not like this.
I am impressed beyond words. Beyond words. Tomorrow there will be trip! to the bookshop to fetch books two and three of the Fionavar Tapestry, The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road.
Chris Moriarty, Spin State.
I have mixed feelings towards this book, possibly due to having read it shortly after finishing Accelerando. Spin State has AIs, FTL, thriller plot, espionage and coalmines. It's good reading, but compared with Accelerando? It's like Cadbury's chocolate vs Lindt. Tasty, but not the same.
(Okay, now I've made myself hungry.)
Kristine Smith, Code of Conduct.
Those looking for AIs and visions of a posthuman future are doomed to be disappointed with this book. Those looking for good story, good characterisation and interesting aliens, however, should find themselves satisfied. Jani Killian, former captain in the Commonwealth military forces, has been wanted by the authorities for treason and mutiny for the better part of two decades. Now the Interior Minister, Evan Van Reuter, wants her help to preserve his political career.
This is an exceedingly good book, and if it wasn't for the fact that Amazon.com is prohibitively expensive (and I, as ever, am broke and blessing the fact that some bookshops run loyalty schemes) I'd have already ordered its sequels. Just the antidote for the head-hurting idea-storm that is Accelerando.
Patricia Briggs, Moon Called.
I like Briggs' work. It's always good. In Moon Called, though, she's taken a departure from her previous fantasy: this book is set in a sideways-turned version of this world, complete with werewolves, vampires, and all other kinds of fey sorts.
Mercedes Thompson is a mechanic. Her next-door neighbour is a werewolf, and she's fixing a vampire's Volkswagon. But, of course, Thompson isn't exactly ordinary herself, and when a new werewolf shows up with trouble not too far behind, things get complicated.
Despite its obvious relationship to such antecedents as Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books, it manages to be reasonably original and fresh. Still, the relationship is obvious (but, one must add, Ms Briggs has not included the OD of sex that Ms Hamilton seems to feel obliged to provide). I liked it, and I'll probably reread it at some point, too. And buy its sequel.
Tamora Pierce, Trickster's Queen.
YA fantasy, sequel to Trickster's Choice. Pleasant enough reading, but all the really interesting, hard choices were avoided or elided. Not a bad book, and excellent YA (beats that Potter thing hands down), but it could have been so much better.
And Amazon.com still hasn't shipped my copy of C E Murphy's Urban Shaman. Which, after reading The Cardinal Rule, I am really, really, really impatient to read.
I hate grey. And there has been far far too much of it!
More books read to add to the 2006 total. That's forty-eight so far this year. (More than a book a day, but some days I read four or five, and some days none, so... I really will have to stop soon.)
Book-reading 2006 #5:
Charles Stross, Accelerando.
My head wasn't big enough to fit all of this book in at once. I needed to stop every ten pages or so to catch my breath, because there was just so much going on (also to cradle my inadequacy for a while, but we won't talk about that). The quote from The Guardian reads: 'Like being trapped in the middle of an exploding ideas factory without a helmet'. I can't put it better than that.
Guy Gavriel Kay, The Summer Tree.
Why did no-one ever tell me about this book before?! It was first published in 1985, for crying out loud, and I have to wait my whole life to find out about it?!
Possibly there are two more powerful books than this in print. Maybe three. There can't possibly be four. And one of those would be The Lord of the Rings. And even Tolkien didn't make me cry, not like this.
I am impressed beyond words. Beyond words. Tomorrow there will be trip! to the bookshop to fetch books two and three of the Fionavar Tapestry, The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road.
Chris Moriarty, Spin State.
I have mixed feelings towards this book, possibly due to having read it shortly after finishing Accelerando. Spin State has AIs, FTL, thriller plot, espionage and coalmines. It's good reading, but compared with Accelerando? It's like Cadbury's chocolate vs Lindt. Tasty, but not the same.
(Okay, now I've made myself hungry.)
Kristine Smith, Code of Conduct.
Those looking for AIs and visions of a posthuman future are doomed to be disappointed with this book. Those looking for good story, good characterisation and interesting aliens, however, should find themselves satisfied. Jani Killian, former captain in the Commonwealth military forces, has been wanted by the authorities for treason and mutiny for the better part of two decades. Now the Interior Minister, Evan Van Reuter, wants her help to preserve his political career.
This is an exceedingly good book, and if it wasn't for the fact that Amazon.com is prohibitively expensive (and I, as ever, am broke and blessing the fact that some bookshops run loyalty schemes) I'd have already ordered its sequels. Just the antidote for the head-hurting idea-storm that is Accelerando.
Patricia Briggs, Moon Called.
I like Briggs' work. It's always good. In Moon Called, though, she's taken a departure from her previous fantasy: this book is set in a sideways-turned version of this world, complete with werewolves, vampires, and all other kinds of fey sorts.
Mercedes Thompson is a mechanic. Her next-door neighbour is a werewolf, and she's fixing a vampire's Volkswagon. But, of course, Thompson isn't exactly ordinary herself, and when a new werewolf shows up with trouble not too far behind, things get complicated.
Despite its obvious relationship to such antecedents as Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books, it manages to be reasonably original and fresh. Still, the relationship is obvious (but, one must add, Ms Briggs has not included the OD of sex that Ms Hamilton seems to feel obliged to provide). I liked it, and I'll probably reread it at some point, too. And buy its sequel.
Tamora Pierce, Trickster's Queen.
YA fantasy, sequel to Trickster's Choice. Pleasant enough reading, but all the really interesting, hard choices were avoided or elided. Not a bad book, and excellent YA (beats that Potter thing hands down), but it could have been so much better.
And Amazon.com still hasn't shipped my copy of C E Murphy's Urban Shaman. Which, after reading The Cardinal Rule, I am really, really, really impatient to read.
