false 7 49 49 true 5911107 read 0 true 869487 currently-reading 0 true 869486 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53267687 to: Never Let Me Go (Paperback) by Kazuo Ishiguro
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53267654 to: On the Beach (Paperback) by Nevil Shute
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53267627 to: We (Twentieth-Century Classics) by Yevgeny Zamyatin
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53267612 to: Brave New World (Paperback) by Aldous Huxley
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53267606 to: Fahrenheit 451 (Paperback) by Ray Bradbury
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53267598 to: Oryx and Crake (Paperback) by Margaret Atwood
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53267577 to: 1984 (Paperback) by George Orwell
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7209-what-are-you-reading-right-now Mosker made a comment in the Apocalypse Whenever group:

I wasn't thrilled with Canticle either, but it was hard for me to separate my dislike from my disappointment: John Gardner (On Writing Fiction/Becoming a Novelist)plugged it in his work so I figured, "oooh if literatti approve, it must be good." Heh. Maybe he just read it and was overly impressed that it was sci-fi without aliens named Zorbl stealing earth women.

I think Canticle was more important in literary & sci-fi history because of its approach than its quality. Someone once told me that most novels have "the shelf-life of milk" so there has to be something to its appeal.

Anyone read the Canticle sequel? I think it was written decades later. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14826589 Leslie's review of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain

I listened to this one on CD: with his TV-trained voice, Bourdain is one of the few authors I prefer to read their works. Hysterical. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11006178 to: Ballad of the Stars (Hardcover) by Genrikh Altov
[It's qualifier-palooza time!--Go to the bottom for the quick summary]

I dig Russian and Soviet sci-fi [in translation]. Maybe it's because the culture is so strong. American sci-fi (and I got shelves of it) is by definition muscular--even more thoughtful writers like LeGuin--because we are the can-do nation with lots of resources. Russia is rich only in disappointment and theoriticians (and apparently violin teachers until Brezhnev, and then a decade later Gorbachev let the six-pointers leave).

When it's good, it's the best of hard sci-fi with the best of deep thought (Think early Asimov with C.S. Lewis' non-Narnia work). Othertimes it's extraordinarily dull, as I find the Strugatsky brothers [Nota bene: this is much like saying I love Elizabethan poetry except for Shakespeare, you've just eliminated much of what's available and alienated your audience.]

That said, Vladimir Savchenko's "Self-Discovery"is one of the greatest books I've ever read, so I'm willing to give anyone with enough syllables in his name a decent chance.

There are some nice little stories from this husband and wife team, but unfortunately, the title novella end piece is the weakest. Mind you, most of this series is "approved" work, but even so, I was sort of surprised to find actual discussion of Communist theory, quoting Marx and Lenin on occaision. It seems organic, works, making this a good craft reference for religious writers.

[Disclaimer seventeen: can you tell my work is stalled?] ]]>