Black Wizard Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I just started Bernard Cornwell's Sword Song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellis Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 A few more shorter reads (I'm happy to see that some books out there are still less than 350 pages): The Quiet Woman Christopher Priest. This is my first Priest (not counting viewing The Prestige), and won't be my last. A really strange tale about identity and alternate histories, and storytelling, all standard themes of his. Oh, and it's set, quite unobtrusively, in a post-nuclear accident England. Brown Girl in a Ring Nalo Hopkinson. At first pass this feels like a standard urban fantasy/occult tale, at least in plot. Two aspects make it interesting - the near future dystopic Toronto setting, and the theme of immortality achieved by the exploitation, literal, of other bodies, both by magic and science. The World Without Us Alan Weisman. Ostensibly non-fiction, this is a what-if we weren't here, which is a thinly veiled device for a polemic about all the damage we have done to the environment. Many parts were eye-opening and scary. The sheer amount of trash. That cosmetic scrubs contain bits of plastic that get swept into the drains, sewers and oceans (which led me to raid my cabinets, checking labels). Some of it was slow. There was a lot of blink-and-you'll-miss-it dry humor. A very obvious an anti-technology, anti-industry bias. He made it clear that he'd rather we just stopped what we were doing and seemed to sympathize with voluntary extinction. But in the end, paradoxically, the planet would probably recover. Made me want to give a big shout out to George Stewert's Earth Abides, a fictional take on the same themes. Franny and Zooey JD Salinger. A couple young people in the 1950s rant at each other about ego and action and relating to society. Stuff like that. Surprisingly, it's pretty interesting. I would have liked it more when I was 20 though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Callers Only Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Rollback - Robert J. Sawyer - Cool. I was expecting something action-y but i got something reflective. Its ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I've just finished reading Mark Charan Newton's debut novel 'The Reef'. Although I had an issue with a sudden shift in focus (and a couple of areas that perhaps needed developing more) I really enjoyed the book, superb worldbuilding and a look at the darker recesses of the human mind. A full review is over Here. I fancied a bit of a change so it's time for some horror with Gary Braunbeck's 'Coffin County', bloody good so far... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 The Quiet Woman Christopher Priest. This is my first Priest (not counting viewing The Prestige), and won't be my last. A really strange tale about identity and alternate histories, and storytelling, all standard themes of his. Oh, and it's set, quite unobtrusively, in a post-nuclear accident England. I have been meaning to read more Priest. The Prestige is excellent (better than the movie, although the movie is great), The Extremes was good but a bit weird (Priest is great at ambgiuity, but bits of that one just plain didn't make sense) and The Separation is probably his finest work (that I've read). I really should get round to The Glamour, The Affirmation and The Quiet Woman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalabalik Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Just finished Richard Morgan's excellent Black Man. Not as wonderfully over-the-top badass as Altered Carbon, but still pretty badass enough. If I'd ever want to be a genetically modified negro hitman, I'd want to be like Marsalis. Currently reading Cobweb by Neal Stephenson and Frederick George. Don't know what to think of it yet. Not at all like The Baroque Cycle or Necronomicon, but it will have to make do until Anathem arrives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diabloblanco18 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Last Argument of Kings arrived at my house the very day I left for vacation last week. Now I'm back, and it's been waiting for me. Will start it tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peadar Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I finished with Vernor Vinge's Rainbow's End. I found it to be more fascinating than gripping. I don't think I was alone in that judging by what other people said. About to start Redick's Red Wolf Conspiracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry. Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Received three books today. Two of them I began during my lunch break, Umberto Eco's non-fiction essay collection, Five Moral Pieces (almost done, but it's full of that yummy Eco goodness) and Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts, which is off to a promising start after 30 pages. Will finish the Eco shortly and try to read at least half of the Hall, if my upset stomach will permit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanna Stark Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 A huge brick on Computer Network Technology cos I need it for work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThRiNiDiR Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 *wrong month* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mashiara Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 * wrong month. Oh well.* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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