Werthead Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Finished The Road. Great book. More of a mood piece than a novel, but still highly affecting. Not sure what to read next. Celia Friedman's Black Sun Rising is looking appealing, Justina Robson's Selling Out isn't looking appealing at all and I think I'm going to put off Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince until I can read the final two books together. John Birmingham's Weapons of Choice (ultra-high-tech NATO war armada accidentally teleports from 2021 to 1942 and inadvertantly sinks the US fleet headed to Midway, resulting in SHENANIGANS) looks outrageously cheesecorn, so I may have to go with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Finished reading 'The Magicians Guild' (Trudi Canavan) last night. I reckon it would have been better if I was reading it as a 12 year old but I'm not 12 so found it rather 'meh' instead. Absolutely nothing new in it at all, I've posted my review Here I'm now well into 'The Words of Their Roaring' by Matthew Smith, a tale of zombie gangsters in South London. It's not going to win anything but it is unpretentious and good fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo Rebelo Firqoralas Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Yesterday i finished Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones (which was perhaps not quite her best work, but still very entertaining) and started Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker. That means that I'm reading two books with a centaur on the cover in a row, and that's a bit weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Thursday and Friday I went through my annual re-read of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a book that I always enjoy when work makes me super cranky. As always, I've had Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" stuck in my head ever since. Now I am reading Joel Shepherd's Breakaway, the second of his Cassandra Kresnov novels (after Crossover, which I read back at the beginning of the year). Like Crossover, it is an entertaining if not particularly deep read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betrayer of hope Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Finished reading 'The Magicians Guild' (Trudi Canavan) last night. I reckon it would have been better if I was reading it as a 12 year old but I'm not 12 so found it rather 'meh' instead My thoughts exactly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Finished Brasyl by Ian McDonald yesterday. ...I liked it, it was well put together, the science was OK, but I didn't find it groundbreaking and I felt it was kind of slow (until the end, which was rushed). It seemed to me that this was the setup for another novel, but there's not a follow up planned, right? SPOILER: the endingSo, he got the three 'players' together (Quinn, Fia, and Marcelina); now they're going to shut the quantum computer down. To what end? The multi/universe is at the end, all the stars have burned out. I could see shutting it down and starting it back up with the multiverse consolidated so that one ghost universe could 'live' longer before the quantum computer stops... but what's the point? What happened to Edson? anything? everything? Basically I was left with the feeling that Q, F, and M were going to gather more people like them. Then hack the quantum computer, but I didn't get what theire ultimate goal is. I don't mind ambiguous endings, but that was a little much. So, I thought it was OK, but not as good as River of Gods. 7/10 Up next is a re-read of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Regarding Brasyl: SPOILER: BrasylThe idea is that all the existing energy in the universe is going to keeping the quantum computer going. By shutting down the computer, the energy is released. Because the universe is so old and the laws of physics are breaking down, I think the idea is that a sudden release of energy into this environment would cause a new Big Bang. Or that's the hope, anyway. Edson was offered the opportunity to go home, back to his old life, but chose to run after Fia. I think the ending was deliberately ambiguous as if to whether he reached her in time before she left forever. As Brasyl is the thematic sequel to River of Gods (future history of a nation not normally covered in SF revealed), his next book is a thematic sequel to both, except this time it's set in Turkey. Whether it's set in the same universe or not is unknown. McDonald says it takes him 3 years to write a book, so expect this one in 2010. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Regarding Brasyl: SPOILER: BrasylThe idea is that all the existing energy in the universe is going to keeping the quantum computer going. By shutting down the computer, the energy is released. Because the universe is so old and the laws of physics are breaking down, I think the idea is that a sudden release of energy into this environment would cause a new Big Bang. Or that's the hope, anyway. Edson was offered the opportunity to go home, back to his old life, but chose to run after Fia. I think the ending was deliberately ambiguous as if to whether he reached her in time before she left forever. As Brasyl is the thematic sequel to River of Gods (future history of a nation not normally covered in SF revealed), his next book is a thematic sequel to both, except this time it's set in Turkey. Whether it's set in the same universe or not is unknown. McDonald says it takes him 3 years to write a book, so expect this one in 2010. SPOILER: Yea, but...The Big Bang wasn't just a blast of energy, it was a blast from massive superdensely compacted matter. At the point of the story most of the universes matter is already spread thin. (unless there's some new Big Bang theory that I'm unaware of). So, why would turning off the quantum computer cause a Big Bang? And even though they're "ghosts," how is shutting off the quantum computer any different than murder? Who's to say that their existence is any less real than what came before? And how can they ensure that something comes after (assuming their plan for a new Big Bang succeeds)? If the laws of physics are indeed breaking down, they could end up creating a new universe that is incapable of supporting in life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caillean Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 I just finished I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Had to jump on here to seriously recommend this author to any Sci-Fi, vampire, Stephen-King-type fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share Posted June 11, 2007 Finished Brasyl by Ian McDonald yesterday. ...I liked it, it was well put together, the science was OK, but I didn't find it groundbreaking and I felt it was kind of slow (until the end, which was rushed). It seemed to me that this was the setup for another novel, but there's not a follow up planned, right? SPOILER: the endingSo, he got the three 'players' together (Quinn, Fia, and Marcelina); now they're going to shut the quantum computer down. To what end? The multi/universe is at the end, all the stars have burned out. I could see shutting it down and starting it back up with the multiverse consolidated so that one ghost universe could 'live' longer before the quantum computer stops... but what's the point? What happened to Edson? anything? everything? Basically I was left with the feeling that Q, F, and M were going to gather more people like them. Then hack the quantum computer, but I didn't get what theire ultimate goal is. I don't mind ambiguous endings, but that was a little much. So, I thought it was OK, but not as good as River of Gods. 7/10 Up next is a re-read of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Due to technical issues with Scalpel Magazine, my review hasn't come out yet, but I come to a very similar conclusion. The ending felt too incomplete to me - the novel could have been great, if he only finished it. After all the glowing reviews that this keeps getting, I'm happy to see that someone else seems to have felt the same way as I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Being out of work isn't ideal but it has given me time to catch up on my pile of books to read I've just finished 'The Words of Their Roaring' by Matthew Smith, a 'chock full of gore' gangster romp in a zombie filled South London It won't tax your brain in the least but it is fun to read! I've posted my review Here I'm now well into 'Mass Effect: Revelation', a tie-in to the upcoming computer game... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Plumped for Weapons of Choice, which has turned out to be a thunderous page-turner which looks like it's been co-written by Tom Clancy (on a good day) and Stephen Baxter. Birmingham is clearly aware that his premise is ludicrous, but takes it seriously so the reader is forced to as well, but with some nice winks at the audience (some cheesy references to other alternate history authors like Harry Turtledove; Prince Harry is a tough SAS officer trapped in the taskforce and whisked off with it into the past). The only problem I had with the book was that the incorrect designation of the USS Hillary Clinton as a George Bush-class supercarrier (hilarious though that juxtaposition is). The USS George H.W. Bush is the final Nimitz-class carrier. The replacement/successor class is the Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier. And yes, I know 99% of the readership won't care about this mistake Also, whilst a lot of the weapons described in the book are already on the drawing board or even being prototyped (missile-intercepting laser point-defence systems; ceramic bullets; combat-aiding VR goggles, greater integrated AI battle command systems etc), it seems a might optimistic that all of them will be in service in less than fourteen years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 John Birmingham's Weapons of Choice (ultra-high-tech NATO war armada accidentally teleports from 2021 to 1942 and inadvertantly sinks the US fleet headed to Midway, resulting in SHENANIGANS) looks outrageously cheesecorn, so I may have to go with that. It sounds a bit like the film "The Final Countdown" which was quite an entertaining B-movie about a 'modern' (1980s at the time) carrier which is transported back to just before Pearl Harbour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multaniette Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 reading Burndive by Karin Lowachee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellis Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 I finished Boys and Girls Together which was easily the most wonderful, realistic, depressing, excellent study of human relationships I have read in a long long time, and will probably turn me off of reading fantasy for a while. Thanks to Mult who I first saw pimping it! Now to talk my friend in theatre into reading and possibly adapting it!! I bought Anne of Green Gables over the weekend for my little niece. I hadn't re-read it since my teens, so I had a nice nostalgic few hours with it. Good memories! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat5150 Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 I just finished Sergei Lukyanenko's The Night Watch and loved it! Having heard so many good things about Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch series last year, my curiosity was piqued in such a way that I couldn't not buy the first two volumes. And although my expectations were high for this book, I was truly impressed by The Night Watch. It's no wonder this urban fantasy trilogy made Lukyanenko the bestselling speculative fiction author in Russia. Hopefully reviews like these will help generate interest for this imaginative series. The Night Watch is comprised of three different parts. Although they're related, the three parts read like distinct novellas, each with its own storylines. And yet, each part is a thread in a vaster tale. Sergei Lukyanenko's writing style could be qualified as "minimalist." Nothing is overwritten, no words or sentences are wasted -- you won't find flowery prose in this book. The author's concise style makes for a brisk pace, and the novella-type format turns this novel into a real page-turner. Had I read this book last year as I intended, The Night Watch would certainly have ended up in my Top 10 of 2006. I can't wait to read both sequels, The Day Watch and The Twilight Watch. Highly recommended. . . Check the blog for the full review! Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 Just finished reading 'Mass Effect: Revelation' (Drew Karpyshyn) this morning, I've posted a review Here I guess it's ok if you like computer game 'tie-in' books (which this is) but I was after something that didn't read like a manual to the game itself... I'm now reading 'Death Hulk' (Matthew Sprange) which is more like what I'm after (zombies on the high seas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 I finished Mainspring by Jay Lake last night (full review). It's an interesting book that had me up a while thinking about it. There's more to it than meets the eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbie of High Heart Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Over the weekend I finished Endymion by Dan Simmons. It took me a while to get into it. I had the same experience with Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. But I found in those books that if you stick with it, Simmons will reward you. Same with Endymion. Enjoyed it. I started on Paladin of Souls by Bujold today. Bujold has me hooked on the main character in the first 50 pages or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Adder Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 currently reading Proven Guilty then White Night by Jim Butcher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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