February books
Mar. 1st, 2008 06:57 pmThe Great Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages. I know why this made it on my list of books I wanted to read, but I'm not quite sure how I found out about it. It's a children's book about kids growing up in Los Alamos during WWII. It was enjoyable.
Accelerando by Charles Stross. I've been working on this one on my phone for six months or so, and finally got through it. I probably would have got through it faster on paper. Phone is terribly convenient, but a touch awkward. I kinda want to go back through and read it again to see if I can put the threads together better the second time through... but with the first read taking that long, I don't think so. At least not immediately.
Stross is strongly influenced by Vernor Vinge, and aspects of this book were strongly reminiscent of Vinge's Rainbow's End, which was released later. Which raises the question in my mind... was there recursive influence? I also want to go back and read Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep now, as I have a feeling I'd have a better grasp of it now (kind of like how I understood it better after discovering newsgroups and learning to read headers).
Accelerando has been released for free electronically, and it's available at http://www.accelerando.org/book/.
Huh, I mentioned that I was reading a Charles Stross short story collection last month, but didn't write it down here. Apparently I got distracted by other books, and stuck it back on the bookshelf thinking I'd finished it, but looking at it now I don't think I did. Oops. Guess that will be on next month's list.
The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner. A collection of short stories. She writes good mommy lit. And good other stuff, too.
Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children by Greg Bear. The first had been on my "to read" list for a while, and was compelling enough that I immediately read the second. I had a hard time overlooking some of the biological issues that made no sense to me (how exactly are male "new" children born?), but enjoyed them overall.
The Protector's War by S.M. Stirling. Ok, I'm cheating on this one. I actually finished it today. But this was my second attempt at it, and I've been struggling to get through it the whole month, and it would be an awful shame if I got through it and then forgot to do this next month, right? Besides, if this were a normal month, it would have been under the deadline. Anyways, I really enjoyed the first book in the series (Dies The Fire, an alternate history where most modern technology suddenly stops working). This was set 7 years after that one. I did enjoy it well enough this time, once the English people got out of England. That was the part I was getting stuck on before. Sorry, English people, but your post-technology country is rather boring. Even the hippos.
Previous month
Accelerando by Charles Stross. I've been working on this one on my phone for six months or so, and finally got through it. I probably would have got through it faster on paper. Phone is terribly convenient, but a touch awkward. I kinda want to go back through and read it again to see if I can put the threads together better the second time through... but with the first read taking that long, I don't think so. At least not immediately.
Stross is strongly influenced by Vernor Vinge, and aspects of this book were strongly reminiscent of Vinge's Rainbow's End, which was released later. Which raises the question in my mind... was there recursive influence? I also want to go back and read Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep now, as I have a feeling I'd have a better grasp of it now (kind of like how I understood it better after discovering newsgroups and learning to read headers).
Accelerando has been released for free electronically, and it's available at http://www.accelerando.org/book/.
Huh, I mentioned that I was reading a Charles Stross short story collection last month, but didn't write it down here. Apparently I got distracted by other books, and stuck it back on the bookshelf thinking I'd finished it, but looking at it now I don't think I did. Oops. Guess that will be on next month's list.
The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner. A collection of short stories. She writes good mommy lit. And good other stuff, too.
Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children by Greg Bear. The first had been on my "to read" list for a while, and was compelling enough that I immediately read the second. I had a hard time overlooking some of the biological issues that made no sense to me (how exactly are male "new" children born?), but enjoyed them overall.
The Protector's War by S.M. Stirling. Ok, I'm cheating on this one. I actually finished it today. But this was my second attempt at it, and I've been struggling to get through it the whole month, and it would be an awful shame if I got through it and then forgot to do this next month, right? Besides, if this were a normal month, it would have been under the deadline. Anyways, I really enjoyed the first book in the series (Dies The Fire, an alternate history where most modern technology suddenly stops working). This was set 7 years after that one. I did enjoy it well enough this time, once the English people got out of England. That was the part I was getting stuck on before. Sorry, English people, but your post-technology country is rather boring. Even the hippos.
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