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Been a while since I've done this...
Finished: City at the End of Time, by Greg Bear
Three young people in the modern day have the ability to 'fate-shift', to become parallel universe versions of themselves. They also share inexplicable dreams of a city in the far future, the last city in existence, and guardian-ship over strange stones called sum-runners. They're pursued by people who seem to want to complete the destruction of time.
Okay, the title is an evocative image, and the premise is intriguing enough that I had to pick it up. And it starts off fairly well... the city of the Kalpa is odd but plausibly 'so far futuristic it might as well be magic' without outright seeming magic most of the time. And the modern-day stories of being on the run from the Chalk Princess and her minions... well, it's engaging enough, if a little too into the 'fantasy' side for my tastes. It goes reasonably well for about half the book. Then it all turns to $@!$.
(spoilers behind cut, fairly significant ones)
( Read more... )
Finished: Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds
Last one was a book I thought had promise at first, but wound up hating. Here's a book with an almost opposite story. I though I wouldn't much care for it, but I wound up really enjoying it. Part of the reasons for my misgivings was the author - I've liked some of his work, but I didn't like my first experience with him, and even some of the sequels have elements I didn't much like, mostly because it was full of characters I didn't like.
The other part was that the premise, although okay, wasn't one I was super-excited about. I thought from the description that it was going to be a specific, fairly common type of SF story, and to my pleasant surprise, it turned out to be completely different. To explain more goes into minor spoiler territory, so I'll cut.( Read more... )
So, with a few flaws, quite liked, and I'd even like to see a follow-up.
Finished: Accelerando, by Charles Stross (reread)
Finished: Glasshouse, by Charles Stross (reread)
Both rereads, and multple-time-rereads, so there's not much more to say on them. Always enjoy Stross, particularly these two works of his.
Finished: Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman
A prose superhero novel, following dual storylines, one of Doctor Impossible, a supervillain engaging in his latest plot to take over the world, and another, Fatale, a cyborg hero and relatively new member of the New Champions, who are reforming to investigate the disappearance of Superman (or rather, the Superman analog of the world, named CoreFire).
It's fairly enjoyable, using the tropes of superhero comics, if not in particularly novel ways, than at least in novel form (ha, see what I did there?). Some decent explorations of characters, but too much of it feels familiar, like warmed over stuff I've already read many times, and only a cool new insights to why things are the way they are. Still, not every book has to break new ground, and I liked it, except, I think, it fell down at the end a little, and by extension, throughout the book. (minor spoilers, although I don't actually reveal much about the ending itself, just the feel of it).
( Read more... )
But minor flaws, and I did enjoy it, and hey I got it used for $2, so at that price, a bargain.
Started: The Evolutionary Void, by Peter F. Hamilton
Started: Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson
Finished: City at the End of Time, by Greg Bear
Three young people in the modern day have the ability to 'fate-shift', to become parallel universe versions of themselves. They also share inexplicable dreams of a city in the far future, the last city in existence, and guardian-ship over strange stones called sum-runners. They're pursued by people who seem to want to complete the destruction of time.
Okay, the title is an evocative image, and the premise is intriguing enough that I had to pick it up. And it starts off fairly well... the city of the Kalpa is odd but plausibly 'so far futuristic it might as well be magic' without outright seeming magic most of the time. And the modern-day stories of being on the run from the Chalk Princess and her minions... well, it's engaging enough, if a little too into the 'fantasy' side for my tastes. It goes reasonably well for about half the book. Then it all turns to $@!$.
(spoilers behind cut, fairly significant ones)
( Read more... )
Finished: Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds
Last one was a book I thought had promise at first, but wound up hating. Here's a book with an almost opposite story. I though I wouldn't much care for it, but I wound up really enjoying it. Part of the reasons for my misgivings was the author - I've liked some of his work, but I didn't like my first experience with him, and even some of the sequels have elements I didn't much like, mostly because it was full of characters I didn't like.
The other part was that the premise, although okay, wasn't one I was super-excited about. I thought from the description that it was going to be a specific, fairly common type of SF story, and to my pleasant surprise, it turned out to be completely different. To explain more goes into minor spoiler territory, so I'll cut.( Read more... )
So, with a few flaws, quite liked, and I'd even like to see a follow-up.
Finished: Accelerando, by Charles Stross (reread)
Finished: Glasshouse, by Charles Stross (reread)
Both rereads, and multple-time-rereads, so there's not much more to say on them. Always enjoy Stross, particularly these two works of his.
Finished: Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman
A prose superhero novel, following dual storylines, one of Doctor Impossible, a supervillain engaging in his latest plot to take over the world, and another, Fatale, a cyborg hero and relatively new member of the New Champions, who are reforming to investigate the disappearance of Superman (or rather, the Superman analog of the world, named CoreFire).
It's fairly enjoyable, using the tropes of superhero comics, if not in particularly novel ways, than at least in novel form (ha, see what I did there?). Some decent explorations of characters, but too much of it feels familiar, like warmed over stuff I've already read many times, and only a cool new insights to why things are the way they are. Still, not every book has to break new ground, and I liked it, except, I think, it fell down at the end a little, and by extension, throughout the book. (minor spoilers, although I don't actually reveal much about the ending itself, just the feel of it).
( Read more... )
But minor flaws, and I did enjoy it, and hey I got it used for $2, so at that price, a bargain.
Started: The Evolutionary Void, by Peter F. Hamilton
Started: Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson
