stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley (no blather posts)

Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:55:00 GMT

ISBN: 0380841940
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I'm not really sure what I think about this book. Its well written, and very readable, but depressing. The book starts with a sexual assault, and then moves on to describe what its like to be the minimum wage labor in a space colony. The short answer -- its not much fun. Worse than that, when you try to escape your oppression, you end up being abused by both the authorities who have power to help, as well as assorted criminals. This is not a feel good book.

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Books read in December 2008

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:20:00 GMT

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Daughter of the Empire

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:16:00 GMT

ISBN: 055327211x
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This is a really good book. It was a delight to find something so good that it kept me up well past my bed time several nights running. I really enjoyed this one -- its set on Kelwan, the planet that invades Midkemia in the Riftwar series, and is written from the perspective of the invaders.

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Prodigy

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:35:00 GMT

ISBN: 0441373844
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This is the fourth book in the Robot City series, which is based in Asimov's Foundation universe. This one follows Odyssey, Suspicion and Cyborg.

This book has quite a different style, the robot characters using quite convoluted sentences, which I found annoying. It is a little jarring in this series that each book is by a different author -- it takes me a little while to transition between the authors' various styles when I read them, especially when they're back to back. I think what Cover was trying to achieve is a more intellectual style of book than the others in the series, and it suffers the same fate as the Benford's Foundation's Fear -- the style is out of place with the rest of the books in the series, and that decreases from the enjoyment to be derived from this book.

The actual plot line is fine though, if a little simplistic. Because of the very verbose style, it feels like less happened in this book than the others (which are of similar length). Overall, a bit of a disappointment.

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Cyborg

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:12:00 GMT

ISBN: 0441373836
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This is the third book in the Robot City series, which is based in Asimov's Foundation universe. This one follows Odyssey and Suspicion, and is a pretty good book. Its also a very fast read.

The robot-wandering-the-city subplot is very reminiscent of Caliban, which is yet another Asimov spinoff. The plot lines are different enough that it doesn't feel like a rehash, but there are certainly strikingly similar elements.

I liked this book.

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Polgara the Sorceress

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:32:00 GMT

ISBN: 0345422554
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This is the final continuation of the Belgariad and the Malloreon series, following on from the Belgarath the Sorcerer continuation. The two continuation books are really just the same stories told from other perspectives, yet Belgarath the Sorcerer managed to be a really interesting read. It probably helped that Belgarath's story predates the Belgariad by thousands of years. On the other hand, most of the territory covered in this book is not new.

This book started well, but the tone quickly became annoying for me. I think it was the several hundred pages of Arendish history that ruined it for me -- its just not that interesting where Polgara's bathroom is located, and who won a particular jousting match. There are also these really annoy asides littered throughout the text. The same element appeared in Belgarath, but seemed less annoying there for some reason. It annoyed me that there would be a passage of prose, broken in the middle with supposedly witty comment, which invariably fell flat.

The other problem with this book is that Polgara herself comes across as a bit of a sociopath. She's always sure of herself, and lacks depth as a character because of it. I've got kids, and I find a character who is dumped into raising an orphan at zero notice being so self assured all the time. Surely she made mistakes and learnt something along the way? You wouldn't know it from the book though -- all of that is glossed over.

On the other hand, the book is ok apart from the long middle bit in Arendia. This would have been a better book if that had been omitted.

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Darkspell

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:24:00 GMT

ISBN: 0553568884
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This is the second book in the Deverry series, and I liked it. Its a direct continuation of Daggerspell, and deals with Rodrhys and Jill's life on the road.

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Amtrak Wars

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:57:00 GMT

A post apocalyptic struggle between the three groups of North American survivors -- a military society called "The Amtrak Federation", the mutes (the survivors of American poor neighborhoods), and Ne Issan (former Japanese who sailed from Japan when their islands were flooded).

Year	Title
1983	Cloud Warrior
1985	First Family
1987	Iron Master
1988	Blood River
1989	Death-Bringer
1990	Earth-Thunder

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Earth Thunder

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:36:00 GMT

ISBN: 0747400024
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This is the last book of the Amtrak Wars series. I'm much less comfortable with Steven's character in this book -- he's always been a bit mixed up, and I don't blame him for that given his background, but in this book he's actively disloyal to those he loves, which is something new. That made the first 50 or so pages of this book quite hard to read, because I find it hard to read books where I hate the main protagonist.

A lot of people complain about the ending of this book, especially as its the last Amtrak Wars book written, but doesn't resolve the main plot line. I didn't think it was that bad though, although perhaps that's because the coda didn't appear in earlier versions? The coda resolves a lot for me, and although the ending is sad, I thought it was fair.

I liked this book overall.

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Death Bringer

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:22:00 GMT

ISBN: 0747400016
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I feel sorry for Jake Olsen. It must be hard having the ensign-in-the-red-shirt role. This book is as good as the rest of the series, and the First Family truly are bastards. I really liked this one.

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Books read in November 2008

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:15:00 GMT

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Blood River

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:17:00 GMT

ISBN: 0747400008
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This is the fourth book in the Amtrak Wars series. Its pretty good, about the same level of writing as Cloud Warrior and Iron Master, which I guess means it was better than First Family (which was mostly a connector between the first and third books in the series). In this book we learn that the first family are even more nasty than previously disclosed, and that Cadillac is possibly the most annoying person on the planet.

This book must not have been very popular in the US, because I've never seen it for sale in the US, but its reasonably common in Australia. That's a shame because the copy I have is about to fall apart, which means I'll have to wait until next time I am back home to try and find a replacement copy.

Overall this book was quite readable, and I enjoyed it.

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Suspicion

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:21:00 GMT

ISBN: 0441731260
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This is the second book in the Isaac Asimov's Robot City series, and follows on directly from Odyssey. In fact, it follows so closely that it feels like it should be part of that earlier book.

I preferred this book to the first in the series, I suspect because it didn't need to use a random unexplained change to escape a dying plot line (which is what I felt happened about a third of the way through the first book). This book does feel a little juvenile though, but I forgive it.

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Odyssey

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:39:00 GMT

ISBN: 0441731228
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This is the first in a series of robot stories endorsed by Isaac Asimov. I enjoyed the first third of the book more than the last two thirds, mainly because I found the second two thirds a little hard to believe. Interestingly they were hard to believe in a similar manner to some of the Stainless Steel Rat books (such as The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World, The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You, and The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell). I wont get too specific, because I don't want to spoil the plot.

This book felt kinda juvenile as well -- the plot lacked depth in my opinion. On the other hand, I did enjoy reading it, and it was better than I expected it to be.

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Daggerspell

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:01:00 GMT

ISBN: 0553565214
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This is yet another book I read as a kid and liked. I must admit that I find the Celtic names used through out the book to be quite confusing, especially when there are multiple similar names in use at the same time. Despite that, I really enjoyed this book -- even though its a pretty classic formula story.

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Foundation and Earth

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:05:00 GMT

ISBN: 0586071105
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I really like how Asimov wraps up the extended Foundation series. Specifically, I'd previously complained while reading Pebble in the Sky that it was hard to believe that everyone simply forgets that they originated on Earth -- this book and Foundation's Edge go a long way to resolving that annoyance for me. Its also good to find out what happened to Aurora and Solaria finally -- especially given the Solaria mystery has been bothering me since Robots and Empire.

Speaking just about this book so a moment, I do find the use of sex as a plot development method quite odd. There are three examples that bother me -- when Bliss is slipped through interstellar customs with the explanation that she's just a whore and therefore not important enough to make an issue of; the second is when Trevize basically shags his way out of an awkward situation, despite the other protagonist being quite hostile initially; and finally where he bonks someone on a rural world. I find all three of those incidents a little out of place with the rest of the book, and in fact the rest of the series. Other authors use those kinds of plot elements, but they seem out of place in Asimov's work.

Overall, I loved this book and it was a good conclusion to the series.

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Foundation's Edge

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:40:00 GMT

ISBN: 0586058397
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I'm back to reading Foundation Series books actually written by Isaac Asimov. This one is the fourth in the Foundation Series if you count them in the order they were written, but is the second last in chronological terms. Its set 500 years after the failure of the first galactic empire, and follows the first Foundation's attempt to discover if the second Foundation still exists. Well, its a bit more complicated than that, but I don't want to ruin it for you.

As an aside, the user interface described for the ship's computer is really cool. Its a bit like augmented reality, mixed with gesture control, mixed with a direct interface into the brain. I'm not saying I want one in my house, but its cool that a book written in 1983 still has a user interface description which isn't dated, and still seems plausible.

This book has minor inconsistencies with the story presented in the second foundation trilogy (Foundation's Fear, Foundation and Chaos and Foundation's Triumph), but I see that more as a failure in those followup authors than in this book. In fact, I've already complained about how untrue to Asimov's vision some of those books are elsewhere.

This is a good read, and I enjoyed it greatly.

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The Riftwar Series

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:39:00 GMT

This series follows to young kids who grow up in a rural castle on the edge of an empire. Pug ends up being the greatest Magician to ever live, and Thomas ends up being merged with an ancient being of massive power. Its a good series, even if people accuse it of being steeped in cliche.

Year	Title
1982	Magician (later sold as Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master)
1985	Silverthorn
1986	A Darkness at Sethanon

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A Darkness at Sethanon

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:33:00 GMT

ISBN: 0553263285
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This book took longer to read that I would have liked, because I have been busy with other things. Its a good book though, and a fine conclusion to the Riftwar Series. I liked this book a lot, although I do think that Magician (Apprentice and Master) was a better book.

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Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:39:00 GMT

ISBN: 0380756625
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(Edited by Harry Harrison.) This book started off better than Planet of the Robot Slaves, but I found the random Star Trek and Star Wars rip offs in the middle of the book intensely annoying. This isn't so much a satire it is a disjointed list of ideas. I'm disappointed to be honest.

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