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These posts mostly relate to books I am reading or series I am collecting to read in order (I tend to collect the series and then read it in one block). You can see a see a list of the books I am currently seeking, as well as a list of all the books I've bothered to catalog if you're interested.
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Wed, 18 Nov 2009
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Sun, 15 Nov 2009
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Wed, 11 Nov 2009
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Fri, 06 Nov 2009
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Thu, 05 Nov 2009
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Wed, 28 Oct 2009
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ISBN: 0425053830
LibraryThing
| This is the first book in the EE Doc Smith Lensman series, a series which sweeps from pre-modern Atlantis all the way well into the future. Its pretty old, so some of the science is dangerously dated, but that's not its biggest flaw. This book suffers from uncontrolled hyperbole, which I guess isn't that unexpected for a space opera. I guess it was also more common at the time, before science fiction started taking itself seriously. The plot is also a little hard to believe, with both sides at one point murdering entire cities. They then of course forgive each other because "its logical".
However, I have an emotional attachment to this book, because it is the one which interested me in reading as a young child. Despite its flaws in both science and plot, it is still an ok book. I enjoyed reading it, and it was entertaining.
Tags for this post: book( ) EE_Doc_Smith( ) |
posted at: 05:22 | path: /book/EE_Doc_Smith | permanent link to this entry
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Tue, 20 Oct 2009
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ISBN: 034529873X
Del Rey (1984), Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
LibraryThing
| Moreta is a book about a pandemic, and its hard to make those fun... If you've bothered to find out anything about the book in advance (or read the preceding Pern books, where it is referred to), you know that its not going to be a fun ride. On the other hand, the book is an interesting read, and its educational to find out how much knowledge has been lost in the Pern universe between Moreta and Lessa. For example, its clear in Moreta that everyone knows they moved from the Southern continent, whereas that is much less clear in the books set in Lessa's time.
Its hard to say that a book about thousands of people dying is enjoyable. However, the story is a gripping one, and I'm glad I read it.
Tags for this post: book( ) Anne_McCaffrey( ) |
posted at: 13:01 | path: /book/Anne_McCaffrey | permanent link to this entry
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Thu, 15 Oct 2009
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Sun, 11 Oct 2009
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Wed, 07 Oct 2009
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Tue, 06 Oct 2009
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Sat, 03 Oct 2009
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ISBN: 0451408721
Signet (2000), Paperback, 416 pages
LibraryThing
| This book isn't very good. I read it because my six year old son really liked the front cover art, and wanted me to read it. He wanted me to read it so much in fact that he bought two copies to give me.
The book starts off with something which feels like its lifted straight out of the Andromeda Strain, you know, government agency / possible alien infection / we need a crack team of scientists! The book then moves on to introduce a selection of surprisingly one sided characters -- the fat self obsessed scientist, the thin young lady obsessed with getting it on, et cetera. The story jumps around, with sometimes implausible outcomes... For example, people are mid argument, and just magically stop when something happens nearby. Do you know people who stop arguing because the lights flicker?
The book does pick up a little at the end, and I assume all the weird personification we're subjected to is an attempt to convey that the characters are losing their grip on sanity. Overall, I thought this book was quite rough, which is surprising from an author who apparently has had four other books published.
I have revenge on my six year old planned -- I am going to make him read this book when he is older.
Tags for this post: book( ) Leonard_Goldberg( ) |
posted at: 15:11 | path: /book/Leonard_Goldberg | permanent link to this entry
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Sat, 26 Sep 2009
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ISBN: 067187781x
LibraryThing
| There seems to be a formula for bolo books -- an obsolete bolo or two, and alien invader, a solitary bolo commander, and preferably a management chain which either doesn't trust bolos, the officer, or preferably both. Its even better if the chain of command is also grossly incompetent. This book has all of those, and I am left feeling that it didn't really add much to the overall bolo universe. Other books have explored some new aspect of the bolo psyche, or expanded on the history of the concordiat universe in some way, whereas this book didn't feel like it did any of that.
However, this was an entertaining book, and is reasonably well written. It just wasn't as ambitious as I'd hoped it would be.
Tags for this post: book( ) Keith_Laumer( ) |
posted at: 03:02 | path: /book/Keith_Laumer | permanent link to this entry
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Tue, 22 Sep 2009
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ISBN: 0671698591
Baen (1990), Paperback, 283 pages
LibraryThing
| This book is a novelization of "Night of the Trolls", which I have already read as part of The Compleat Bolo and Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow. I'm pretty fond of the short story, and this book version didn't start out strongly -- there is a prelude to explain some background, and then the book launches into what feels like the exact text of the short story. You can tell it hasn't been edited much, because there are minor continuity errors between this first chapter and the prelude. There are other continuity errors as well -- the blurb on the back says that the main character goes into stasis in 2002, but his wife dies in 1992 which is meant to be after the main character goes into stasis, and the map that he uses once out of stasis is copyright 2011 (even though the main character claims to have bought it just before going into stasis). Note that these dates are different to those used in the short story. These errors are distracting although the underlying story is still a good one.
However, the good bits of the story are all contained in the short story. This feels like a poorly edited and heavily padded version of that short story, and I think we would have been better off without it. There is in fact a whole heap of seemingly pointless dialogue in the center of the book, where I think what we're meant to be learning is that post-apocalyptic life isn't much fun. I think we could have worked that out, and perhaps saved 50 or so pages. Worst of all, Laumer has changed the ending to a much less satisfying one.
I recommend just sticking with the short story.
Tags for this post: book( ) Keith_Laumer( ) |
posted at: 00:19 | path: /book/Keith_Laumer | permanent link to this entry
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Sun, 20 Sep 2009
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ISBN: 0553290126
Spectra (1994), Paperback, 528 pages
LibraryThing
| This is book seven of the extended Deverry series (preceeded by Daggerspell, Darkspell, Dawnspell, The Dragon Revenant, A Time of Exile, and A Time of Omens). The blurb on the back cover of this book implies that it should be safe for a new reader to enter the series here, and I can understand why publishers would want to do such a thing for such a long series. By contrast, Asimov's Extended Foundation Series has many entry points, with most stories being free standing. I think Kerr did a reasonable job of introducing the characters without being overly annoying about it. I've seen reviews from others that say that there is a lot of annoying ground to recover, such as the Etheric travel sequences. I disagree however -- these are just as long winded as in other books in the series, and we're talking about a couple of paragraphs, not hundreds of pages.
The only part of this book which didn't sit well with me was Rori picking up a girlfriend with basically now warning. Perhaps I'm dense, but I didn't see it coming at all, and thought it was rather abrupt. I'm also not sure it did much to further the overall story. On the other had, Jadho is an interesting character, and I'd like to see him explored more.
This book ends mid plot line, so I guess they're expecting me to read the next book soon. That would have been a lot more annoying if I was reading this book fresh off the presses and had to wait for Kerr to write the next one before I could read it.
Tags for this post: book( ) Katharine_Kerr( ) |
posted at: 14:18 | path: /book/Katharine_Kerr | permanent link to this entry
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Mon, 14 Sep 2009
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Sat, 12 Sep 2009
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Thu, 10 Sep 2009
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) Keith_Laumer(
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