GDNGWC and Book Foo
Aug. 11th, 2007 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Went down to the Taste of the Danforth today, where I followed tradition and got a gyro. It wasn't the best gyro... could have used more sauce. And meat for that matter. And it was hot out, and sunny, and I could probably have gone to a closer gyro place if I wanted. But it is tradition to go to the taste of the danforth to get it, and even though I made the tradition myself and am often disappointed, I am bound to follow it. Nothing much else to report to it of course, but it was still a gyro, and gyros do not go without comment.
Also, Book Foo!
Finished: Seeker, by Jack McDevitt (Nebula Award Winner).
Thoughts behind cut, not too spoilery. Generally: Not bad.
Seeker's sort of an archeological mystery story about a group of artifact hunters on a quest to find an ancient colony ship that founded a lost colony that has become like Atlantis in popular legend.
It's not a bad book. The author took an interesting tact, with the story being told not from the perspective of the genius artifact-tracker, but from his partner/assistant who does most of the leg work. Which I suppose makes sense, because all he seems to be good for is providing the occasional flash of brilliance to move the story along. The assistant gets to do all the interesting things in the meantime.
Also slightly interesting is the notion of a future so far away that much of what would be our own future is completely lost to them, because of lack of records, etc. There were times I would have hoped that, given how far ahead it was, that things would look more... different than the modern day, but since they'd had repeated dark ages and such it's not so bad to have them at a level we'd normally associate with only a few hundred years away, rather than thousand. I do wonder a bit about the plausibility of it still, but, meh, it serves the story all right.
Also enjoyed some of the things they did with AIs and AI simulations of people who once lived. Some nice work there.
I do have to say that I wonder a bit about how this won a Nebula award. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, but because Nebula award winning novels are given by other writers and editors, I usually associate it with books that are either clearly of really high quality, or somewhat experimental and novel in some way, or in some cases both. This just seems to be a decent SF story in the mid-range of quality, with nothing really all that exceptional about it (and it's part of a series, so presumably anything that was exceptional was so in the other books too). The plot is a little on the stock side and some of the twists were also stock. Maybe it's like when they award the Oscar to someone who deserves it, but didn't really do anything actually Oscar worthy in the year they decided to award it, so they awarded whatever they happened to be in. I don't know. Or maybe it was just one of those cases where none of the other nominees set everyone on fire, so this won by slightly appealing to everybody.
Started: Cyteen, by CJ Cherryh (Hugo-Award winner)
Once I'm done with Cyteen, I'll only have one more Hugo Award-winning novel to read before I've read every one, and then I'll become unstoppable.
I'm assuming, without any evidence, that having read all the Hugo award winning novels will somehow make me unstoppable. I'm not sure how it's going to work, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed nonetheless.
Also, Book Foo!
Finished: Seeker, by Jack McDevitt (Nebula Award Winner).
Thoughts behind cut, not too spoilery. Generally: Not bad.
Seeker's sort of an archeological mystery story about a group of artifact hunters on a quest to find an ancient colony ship that founded a lost colony that has become like Atlantis in popular legend.
It's not a bad book. The author took an interesting tact, with the story being told not from the perspective of the genius artifact-tracker, but from his partner/assistant who does most of the leg work. Which I suppose makes sense, because all he seems to be good for is providing the occasional flash of brilliance to move the story along. The assistant gets to do all the interesting things in the meantime.
Also slightly interesting is the notion of a future so far away that much of what would be our own future is completely lost to them, because of lack of records, etc. There were times I would have hoped that, given how far ahead it was, that things would look more... different than the modern day, but since they'd had repeated dark ages and such it's not so bad to have them at a level we'd normally associate with only a few hundred years away, rather than thousand. I do wonder a bit about the plausibility of it still, but, meh, it serves the story all right.
Also enjoyed some of the things they did with AIs and AI simulations of people who once lived. Some nice work there.
I do have to say that I wonder a bit about how this won a Nebula award. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, but because Nebula award winning novels are given by other writers and editors, I usually associate it with books that are either clearly of really high quality, or somewhat experimental and novel in some way, or in some cases both. This just seems to be a decent SF story in the mid-range of quality, with nothing really all that exceptional about it (and it's part of a series, so presumably anything that was exceptional was so in the other books too). The plot is a little on the stock side and some of the twists were also stock. Maybe it's like when they award the Oscar to someone who deserves it, but didn't really do anything actually Oscar worthy in the year they decided to award it, so they awarded whatever they happened to be in. I don't know. Or maybe it was just one of those cases where none of the other nominees set everyone on fire, so this won by slightly appealing to everybody.
Started: Cyteen, by CJ Cherryh (Hugo-Award winner)
Once I'm done with Cyteen, I'll only have one more Hugo Award-winning novel to read before I've read every one, and then I'll become unstoppable.
I'm assuming, without any evidence, that having read all the Hugo award winning novels will somehow make me unstoppable. I'm not sure how it's going to work, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed nonetheless.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-12 03:04 am (UTC)Jack McDevitt is appearing at the local con this year. He's worth checking out then? I've been trying to read books outside of my usual liking this summer.
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Date: 2007-08-12 03:25 pm (UTC)True story.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-12 03:30 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think I made the same mistake, I passed by a gyro place that had a bit of a lineup, and saw one later that didn't have one and bought there... probably should have just gone back to the one with the lineup, but it was hot and there were a lot of people out there. Ah well.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-12 03:48 pm (UTC)Well, as I said, I wasn't super excited by the book and would never call it one of my favorites, but it wasn't bad either, and has a fairly 'easy reading' style which can be nice sometimes. But it's the only thing I've read of his and since it's a little forgettable I'll withhold actually giving him a 'recommendation' at this point. He might be worth checking out solely because he'll be at the con and if you do like it you can meet him, though. :)