Ser Sean Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 Dude, you weren\'t reading \'my\' copy of I am Legend were you? Just checkin\'. No, Blade. I bought and paid for it myself. You are of course, welcome to have it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbie of High Heart Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 I had to give up on the 3rd book of Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars, The Burning Stone or some such title. She lost me; it meandered, dragged on, etc. Maybe I'll return to the series another day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellis Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Meh. KSR annoyed me here the same way he did in Years of Rice and Salt - superficial/overly romantisized depictions of non-Western cultures. Kind of a left-wing hippie ethnocentrism (and I consider myself a leftist hippie type). Plus it was kind of boring. I hope I never feel tempted to read the sequels. Then I read The Man in the High Castle. I am truly feeling the Philip K Dick love. Subtle, thought-provoking, great characters. A good example of the best "social idea SF", challenging no matter what notions you bring to it. No preaching. Right now, I'm slumming it with Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar, which should bring me into March. Totally trashy but compelling, I think this series is getting better as it goes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint777 Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 I bounced The Genesis Protocol about two thirds of the way through it. Horrible cliched writing and preachy with a lame monster: harbingers(armadillic raptors). Boring action scenes and no character development, I was expecting at least a fun monster mash but this book doesn't deliver. About a third of the way through The Lost World and it's much more fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stubby Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 I just knocked over Fevre Dream, for the first time. Unusually, for a vampire story, I got right into it. GRRM's writing about the US river systems and travel by steamboat made for a great yarn. I'm inspired to check out the possibility of a short cruise when we get over to the US in 08. The guy at Borders suggested my next read - a serial killer story called Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I'll give it a crack and see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multaniette Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on this if you read it. It's been on my shelf for years and wonder how it compares to her other stuff, specifically Doomsday Book. There was definitely a balance between great and 'oh my god, get on with it' in Doomsday, but the great won out. I think I need some type of assurance that the balance isn't tilted the other way if I ever commit to reading Passage. I finished Passage last night. It clocked in at 780 pages and took me two long sittings. Even though it was pretty much a page-turner, I can't shake off the feeling the story would have worked much better if it had been about 300 pages shorter. The premise is brilliant, and people like Charles Strauss could learn a thing or two from Willis about combining scientific jargon effectively with a flowing story without turning it into an acronym competition. Willis's writing, at least in her novels, is a meeting of hip chick-lit with sci-fi somewhere down the middle of the road. There are a lot of annoying (chick-litish) elements in the book her ideas (and prose - she can write teh funny) is usually good enough to compensate for that. The plot starts off strongly but meanders aimlessly starting from the 350 page mark and from there onwards, pretty much the only thing that carried the book was a certain character and the will to find out the ending. I was also annoyed with her penchant to finish almost all chapters with cliffhangers and the ending didn't live up to the expectations created by the premise at all. Willis sure does her homework with regard to the historical details though. The balance definitely tips towards 'OMG get on the with the frickin' story' with this one. :| I prefer Bellwether. Still reading Fiasco. Inspite of Lem's tendency to ramble occasionally in school-teacher mode this novel is rocking really hard. The science is bullshit but it's easy-on-the-eyes, well constructed bullshit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneeye Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I've had a heklluva month trying to find something to read. Started caverns of ice (yawn), the briar king (yawn- but might continue it later) and kushiel's dart (weird yawn). So now I'm reading Follet's Hammer of Eden, his usual working formula but darn good anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I'm started Child of Flame, the 4th book in the Crown of Stars series by Kate Elliott. White Raven Posted Feb 25 2007, 03.21 I had to give up on the 3rd book of Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars, The Burning Stone or some such title. She lost me; it meandered, dragged on, etc. Maybe I'll return to the series another day You have confused me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 White Raven, you're being stalked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfella Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Thanks for the review of Passage, Mult. Looks like that might be staying right where it is on the shelf for a while. But I do have Bellwether also, so maybe I'll pick that up at some point. I've also never read "To Say Nothing of the Dog". 200 pages of The Terror to go for me. I'm in the home stretch now. Also picking away at A Song for Arbonne by Kay on my PDA during spare moments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat5150 Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Just finished Justina Robson's Keeping it Real. A fun and entertaining read, quite different from what this short-listed author has accustomed us to. Another Pyr offering, another good read! Check the blog for all the details! Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint777 Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Instead of starting Anubis Gates and Atrocity Archives I've jumped into The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Thief Lord. I almost jumped into Perdido Street Station and Chasm City but I felt in a thiefy mood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokisnow Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Finished The Lies of Locke Lamora. Holy shit, that's one hell of a debut novel. It definitely deserves to be nominated and possibly win the Hugo. The writing isn't perfect yet, but it's damned good for a first timer. Overall superb on all counts, structurally it's a bit haphazard and some of the exposition of the mileau and inventions (like explaining 'gentling') take on an inconsistent POV voice, and some of the plotting doesn't feel as elegant as it could be. But the characterizations are superb, the world is wonderful and mysterious and I want to meet Sebetha right now dammit. I was shocked at some of the chances this book took, it pulled no punches. And did I miss something, what was the significance about the backstory of the whores of Camorr at the end of the book? Are we supposed to infer that's where Locke came from? perhaps his last name is Whoreson or something. Or perhaps he's the heir to the High Therin throne, I certainly hope not. Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agulla Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman. Great read, really. It was like one of those Vampire role playing games adventures with cool historical and literary characters thrown into the tale. The scary part of the story is that there is something believable in the way the author describes how the Victorians accepted that their queen had married a vampire and how many decided that being a vampire was not bad at all. Collaborating with the enemy is something that is not that strange. I loved the part when the vampire Prime Minister explains that he protects the also vampire Oscar Wilde because he does not want to imagine Lord Tennyson being the laureate official poet for the following centuries. Read and enjoy. The Voyage of the Night Shining White, by Chris Roberson. A novella about the travel of a space ship to Mars. The difference is that this space ship is Chinese in an alternative world where Imperial China is the greatest power on Earth. A good read by an author who has shown real talent. I preferred Paragaea, and if you had to choose among these two books choose the later. Ink, By Hall Duncan. I could say many things about this novel. I believe that my Goodking parody crossover The Soul of the Ink (a masterpiece by itself ) would be the most adequate review that I could write about Ink. The first half was a chore, I ended fed up with all the main characters, specially with Jack Flash, in fact the two characters that I liked the most in Vellum were almost absent. Then, in the second half, things get much better. The story picks pace and things start happening, I still hated the guts of all the characters, mind you, especially Jack Flash’s guts, but the story was interesting and Hal Duncan can write. I read something about that his next novel will be a Gilgamesh Epic gone furry; I can see that it will be a success in certain places of these forums and the BwB. I might even read this book (as long Jack Flash is not in it). Julian. A Christmas Story, by Robert Charles Wilson. A very good novella about a future USA in a world were the exhaustion of oil and other natural resources had lead to a terrible regression. We are in a world that technologically is closer to XIX century than to XX century, a country, the USA that worships the supposed values of XIX century (or the values of an idea of XIX that Christian fundamentalist could have). In this USA under the control of backward Christian churches, where Presidency has become something hereditary we witness through the eyes of the protagonist the story of a young man, his friend, someone we are told that will be a future leading figure. I really liked this book and I hope that Robert Charles Wilson will expand it in a novel. Illyria, by Elizabeth Hand. I loved this short novel, but I like most of Elizabeth Hand’s stories so maybe I’m not an objective reviewer. This is a story about growing up and having dreams, this story is about theatre and the craft of being an actor. It’s a story about magic. Read it if you can find this book. Bloodmind, by Liz Williams. This is the second part of a story that began with Darkland. A solid tale in which the author manages again to blend science fiction futuristic elements with fantasy. It’s not Liz William’s best effort but it’s good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 White Raven, you're being stalked! I am planning to read the series in the future, so I am watching what other people think about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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