Anthony > Recent Status Updates

Yes, yes...starting, The Star King! And yes that is the first of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series. Reading that intense story of Futuristic Vengeance, is gonna take me a while. I will let you know how worth it each one is. Talk soon!

I spotted this book on a shelf at the book store and asked my wife to remember this for me, and then of course she got it for me for Xmas. Ha! She made the right choice. this is deeply involving so far. A story of the - sometimes - random turns our lives take, and how those circumstances can change not just our own fate, but the fates of those around us.

When I am done I should have a very extensive review...maybe...but extensive or not, I have some thoughts nonetheless to share.

My, my...there are a lot of Oz books!! But I am enjoying the ride.

This is, so far, the (obviously) perfect marriage of subject to method. Very few TV shows in history lend themselves so readily to consideration through philosophical viewpoints. I have already found some smashing essays If I stopped reading now I would give it 4 stars, and this is even with Peter S. Fosl's, Friends And Enemies In The State Of Nature, as one of the essays.

Ten Sigmas, by Paul Melko

A small suspenseful and moving tale.

Sissyphus and the Stranger, by Paul Di Fillipo.

An outrageous alternate world story set in a world that way different from the one we know, but shows us a peek at another way Albert Camus' life could have went.

Footvote, by Peter F. Hamilton.
Most readers know this writer from his massive modern Space Operas, but this is a short and powerful story about a world turned upside down by an unbelievable invention.

The Garden, by Eleanor Arnason.
This is a story which gives us a SF story written by someone from another world and another species, and it works big time.
I love the footnotes explaining the references made to humans and their culture, for the story's intended audience. It also makes a sly point about gender politics.

The Ocean of the Blind, by James L. Cambias.
This is a humorous (in a very black comedy way) story about two cultures not handling first contact in any way the right way.

The Dragons of Summer Gulch, by Robert Reed.
This is a sly alternate world story that at first glance seems to be about one thing and then shows what it kind of is really about.
Another great short work from Reed.

Falling Star, by Brendan Dubois.
This is a great little story; one for everyone (and they are out there) who thinks that the world would be better off without all the distractions of our modern world.
It also sends a message that shows how fast the haters of science and lovers of superstition will take over without the modern world to hold them back.

Riding the White Bull, by Citlin Kiernan.
What a vicious and disturbing story of first contact, that shows there are always more ways that such a thing could happen than we may think.

Mayflower II, by Stephen Baxter.
A huge massive epic story (in a small package) about the changes that a species, and a man, can go through in in 25,000 years. A great tale of hard science sociology, and psychology.

The Defenders, by Colin P. Davies.
A short and straight to the point story about how the goal of keeping things just like they have always been could be a cruel and heartless proposition.

Leviathan Wept, by Daniel Abraham.
This story isn't the usual story of a singularity, nor is it the usual story of terrorists and the people fighting them.
We check in on a world asking what if we were really all connected, and comes to the conclusion that that might not be a good thing to happen, especially if that connection was facilitated by something that thinks we are not a good thing at all.

Sitka, by William Sanders
A cool little stab in the gut of an alternate world story where we meet some unusual travelers and a couple of natives that figure in the history of many different worlds.

The Tribes of Bela, by Albert E. Cowdrey.
This one is indeed an old fashioned space adventure in some ways. It also makes a good stab at saying that before you start to exploit a new source of wealth, you had better be very sure of the consequences.

Delhi, by Vandana Singh.
An almost mystical story that skirts the boundaries of SF, while telling a story of loneliness and finding your true purpose in the world.

Skin Deep, by Mary Rosenblum.
This was a powerful heartfelt story about one man trying to become himself and another man, trying to recreate someone he has lost.

Read: Synthetic Serendipity, by Vernor Vinge.
A compact and laser sharp story that became the great novel Rainbows End.

Another story finished today.
Mother Aegypt, by Kage Baker.
Another in the line of Baker's tales of the time spanning Company.
This one is a little more sly than usual in slowly letting us in on that fact though. A strong story set in a fictional universe the author knows well.

Finished 3 stories: Tourism, by M. John Harrison. A story layered with a thick atmosphere of mystery that never lifts.
Scouts Honor, by Terry Bisson. This is classic Bisson maybe not up to the amazing standard he has set, but great anyway.
Men Are Trouble, by James Patrick Kelly. A detective yarn in the hardboiled tradition, set against the back drop of a crueler alien invasion than we usually see.

The Clapping Hands of God, by Michael F. Flynn.
This is a great little slow burn type of story. We follow an exploration team to a distant world where we find that hate and fear are just as powerful as love, and that you can't expect to know who is the good guy and who the bad guy just by cursory examination. As a matter of fact half the problem is that everyone thinks that they are the good people.

Read, Shiva in Shadow, by Nancy Kress. It was an intense story that seems at first to be a scientific riddle, but it is really a riddle about human nature.
Read, The People of Sand and Slag, by Paolo Bacigalupe. Often you hear about man destroying the ecosystem and bringing about his own death. But what if we save ourselves, and nothing else? In this story we meet the...people...gods? that are left.

I read Inappropriate Behavior, by Pat Murphy.
Start The Clock, by Benjamin Rosenbaum.
The Third Party, by David Moles.
The Voluntary State, by Christopher Rowe.
All very wonderful stories; with special kudos for Start The Clock, and The Voluntary State. Both of these are mind expanding works with ideas that are social technological and philosophical.

After finishing, Sunglasses After Dark, and now being more than halfway through, In the Blood, I can only describe these books by saying, imagine a gene splicing of, King, Barker, Charlaine Harris, then given birth to by a Stephanie Meyer vampire on drugs.
All this is then filtered through Nancy Collins' own peculiar horror sensibility. Lovin' it so far.