He/Him. In the USA... for now. Mastodon
I only track books that I read for pleasure, mostly SF/Fantasy. I've fallen out of the habit of actually writing reviews beyond giving a star rating. It would be nice to get back into that habit.
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Book club book. Quite good. It's one of those books where you have the feeling of dread midway through that everything is going a little too well and that something awful is going to happen. Sure enough...
Dave says I only need to read the first 5 books. I did. Pretty good. A quick read with some neat ideas.
What is Un Lun Dun?It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of …
Starts out in the traditional way, with the chosen child getting strange hints that something weird is going on and then being transported to a strange world. Then it gets much better.
Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka) is a 2002 novel by Japanese author …
Intriguing. I think I still don't understand what happened in all of the plot threads.
The Door in the Hedge is a collection of fairy tales by Robin McKinley, published …
Disappointing. Fairy tales, but too "nice".
Jessica left this around. It's a quick read about how maps necessarily bias the information they portray and how the design choices of mapmakers can clarify, confuse, or conceal -- intentionally or not. Pretty basic stuff, and fairly dry.
During an interstellar war one side develops a language, Babel-17, that can be used as …
This turned out to be a double-book with Empire Star printed upside down. I happened to pick it up that way up when starting, so I read that first. I found the novella annoyingly pat, which was part of the point, I guess. The mechanism was clever, though.
Babel-17 was better. An interesting premise about language shaping thought, and some neat ideas in the world. It had that 60s SF flavor, but I enjoyed it.
A collection of short detective stories. Generally pretty good. Centered on understanding motivation, rather than observing details. Never invite Father Brown to a dinner party unless you want someone murdered.
number9dream is the second novel by English author David Mitchell. Set in Japan, the 2001 …
Good. Well constructed. Engaging. Solid characters and a real sense of place.
God is dead. Meet the kids.
When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like …
Fun. Fairly light.
A witty and surreal novel of the future.
In a rather dull stuck-in-a-rut future, a …
Quick. Interesting premise.
From its bravura opening onwards, THE CROW ROAD is justly regarded as an outstanding contemporary …
I'm normally skeptical about non-M Banks books, but Ted says this one is good.
It was better than the other non-M books I've read. I didn't really get into it until after it became a mystery. I can see the appeal of the characterization, but it's not really my thing.
Engine City is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Ken MacLeod, published in 2002. …
MacLeod seems to be skipping a lot to bring this to a close in the third book. Major parts of the action take place offstage, and the sense of caricature is even stronger than in Dark Light. The conclusion seemed to lack finesse. Satisfying in that the plot wraps up, but not otherwise.
In Cosmonaut Keep, MacLeod gave us some pretty good characters in an interesting setting. In the second book, they've mostly devolved into ideas, their personalities lost behind their driving ideals. Less satisfying.
After the Ural Caspian Oil War, nobody really trusted the EU government. So why should …
Decent near-future SF. First of a trilogy, it turns out.
