bookshelves: currently-reading, sci-fi
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bookshelves: sci-fi
Since I read the big Science Fiction anthology by Gardner Dozois religiously every year, I hardly ever pick up another best of anthology for fear of duplication. This year my friend Bonnie mentioned this anthology and there was only one duplicated story.
Anyway -- it's a pretty decent anthology and a good read. Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman is the first, and perhaps best storyy of the bunch, certainly one I will remember. It's hard for me to consider these the "best" stories of the year, it's more like reading a very good and extra long issue of one of the better magazine like Asimovs or or Fantasy and Science Fiction.
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bookshelves: sci-fi
What if R'lyeh rose off the coast of california and jack kerouac, william burroghs and neal cassady had to defeat the great old ones, after crossing the country from San Francisco to New York?
Frankly, the idea is better than the book. The book is fun, and Mamatas does a fair job with some of his impersonations, although at the end, he never really captures keroauc. Then again, maybe he does, it has been many years since I last read On The Road... maybe the problem is that Keroauc's gifts don't really lend themselves to a fantasy darker than the one he describes himself ie the America he, Neal and the Beats decried. They narrative never really reconciles the worlds of the Diamond Sutra and that of the Elder Gods.
If you are a Lovecraft fan, this book is a must... we just don't get that many chances. If you are a Kerouac fan, you should probably stay away.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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bookshelves: currently-reading
Good but not great.
A Sequel to Old Man's War, the Ghost Brigades is set in the far-ish future where humanity has spread to dozens of worlds. Our segment of the universe is very crowded, and there is a lot of competition for worlds to colonize. Basically, the human race in space is constantly at war.
In the first book, we learned about the practice of taking the consciousness of older/retired people from Earth, and transferring it into custom built bodies that are young, dumb and full of fun. We were also introduced to the "special forces" -- soldiers who are created from an even more bizzare process.
Now, I'm not a big fan of military science fiction, but I liked the first book a lot, mostly for it's interesting depiction of how the Defense Forces had figured out how to recylce people into soldiers, in other words, the social commentary was interesting.
In the sequel, the commentary is much less focussed, and the plot is mired in the frankly rather pedestrian philosophical and personal issus surrounding the protagonist. I didn't learn too much more about the millieu, I didn't find out anything I really cared about regarding the characters, and I'm really not planning on reading the third book in the series, although that might change. ]]>
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bookshelves: currently-reading
The only book my divorced parents universally declared a masterpiece. ]]>
bookshelves: sci-fi
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Chris
took the never-ending book quiz.
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