Mostly Book Foo
May. 25th, 2008 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Finished: 13 Great Stories of Science Fiction by Various Authors (50s short story collection)
Started: The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein
Well, it was a short story collection, mixed bag, some good, most unmemorable. Best of the lot was probably The Analogues, by Damon Knight. They're all from the 50s (and maybe a year or two on either side), so there's a retro, nostalgia vibe to them all reading them now.
Started and Finished: Starfish, by Peter Watts (available online, and read that way)
Thoughts behind the cut, not especially spoilery, though. Overall: okay with some cool beats, but not as good as the other Watts I read, Blindsight. So yeah, I liked Blindsight and was idly considering reading his other work, but wasn't super interested in the plot of his Rifters books, so I decided I'd try what I did with Blindsight - read some online and see if it grabbed me enough to want to buy the book. Well, it didn't. Grabbed me just enough to be willing to keep reading, but I never really got sucked in.
There's a lot of thematic similarities to Blindsight... both involved groups of really messed up people in an extreme situation, a sort of looming worry of AIs making humanity irrelevant, but it's all put together a little differently, and I never really felt I got to know most of the Rifters, or, I suppose, that I wanted to. There's still a good deal of cool ideas and if you like (deep, deep, deep) undersea stuff this might be a book for you. I'm not sure if I'll read the second book (also available online free), though. The book only left me wanting more in the sense that the story was obviously unfinished (as it's part of a trilogy), and the completist in me would like to see how it winds up. On the other hand, it's reading online and I do feel a bit guilty for reading with no intention of buying. Who knows.
Finished: Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2004 Hugo Award Winner, 2004 Nebula Award Winner)
Started: (To be determined, have a couple choices and probably won't choose till Wednesday... most likely the last Otherland book)
PoS thoughts behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Short version: Meh, okay.
PoS is technically a sequel to another book, but I didn't find I was lost - it seems to be set far enough into the future that it might as well be a completely new story. It's a fantasy book, and I suppose it's decent enough one, but falls into the category of 'really not my cup of tea'. I like Bujold's SF work, but this doesn't do much for me... it held my interest, but that's about it. So I'm actually a little perplexed that this won both the Hugo and the Nebula. It doesn't seem to be all that groundbreaking or spectacular, but maybe that's just my own disinterest in straight fantasy. Still, it seems odd. Maybe it was a year of poor competition or was one of those things where she won in part due to her past work (I can see the book winning the Nebula from that year's shortlist, but I see at least two books on the Hugo list I enjoyed more).
Now, most importantly, after reading Paladin of Souls, I have completed one of my life goals. Well, or half completed one. Or half-completed one, also requiring ongoing maintenance.
In any event, with this book, I have now read every single Hugo Award winning novel. (Not counting Retro-Hugos, but there's only one of those I haven't read yet so maybe I'll try to pick it up eventually). That goes from 1953 to 2007. That's been a goal of mine for something like 10 years at least. Technically it requires ongoing maintenance (the next winner is announced late this summer), and you might consider it only half completion of my goal to read every Hugo or Nebula award winning novel, since I made the decision to read all of both at the same time. (I have 7 Nebula winners left to go). Still, yay me, reading milestone.
In non-book news... well, TV's sucked this weekend since most everything's been on a skip week. Supernatural finale was okay, mostly for how it ended, though the episode itself kind of felt flat and lame for what was going on. I think I'm pretty well done with Grey's Anatomy for good. It's been hanging by a thread all year, and the thread finally snapped. I might watch eps if nothing happens to be on at the time, but no more priority watching.
What else... that chat (with the castaways from the closed BKV forum who formed a new one) seems to have died off mostly. Chats often die out (particularly ones where you can't stay connected easily and so have to depend mostly on people randomly showing up at the same time), so I can't say I'm surprised, but usually the dropoff isn't quite so fast. Most of the people I particularly enjoyed chatting with haven't been around in weeks, which kinda sucks, and it seems the only one there with any regularity is a twit who refuses to identify him/herself (and has on at least one occasion impersonated me, possibly only because he knew I was there, but still), and yet still seems to expect conversation, so I've taken to mostly ignoring him. I'll probably hang around there a little more just to ensure it wasn't some kind of natural lull, but I don't have much hope. Ah well. Maybe it's me driving people away. I know I'm not the greatest conversationalist in the world. Who knows. Anyway. Yet another thing seemingly falls into the category of 'fun while it lasted', and there's still the forum.
Started: The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein
Well, it was a short story collection, mixed bag, some good, most unmemorable. Best of the lot was probably The Analogues, by Damon Knight. They're all from the 50s (and maybe a year or two on either side), so there's a retro, nostalgia vibe to them all reading them now.
Started and Finished: Starfish, by Peter Watts (available online, and read that way)
Thoughts behind the cut, not especially spoilery, though. Overall: okay with some cool beats, but not as good as the other Watts I read, Blindsight. So yeah, I liked Blindsight and was idly considering reading his other work, but wasn't super interested in the plot of his Rifters books, so I decided I'd try what I did with Blindsight - read some online and see if it grabbed me enough to want to buy the book. Well, it didn't. Grabbed me just enough to be willing to keep reading, but I never really got sucked in.
There's a lot of thematic similarities to Blindsight... both involved groups of really messed up people in an extreme situation, a sort of looming worry of AIs making humanity irrelevant, but it's all put together a little differently, and I never really felt I got to know most of the Rifters, or, I suppose, that I wanted to. There's still a good deal of cool ideas and if you like (deep, deep, deep) undersea stuff this might be a book for you. I'm not sure if I'll read the second book (also available online free), though. The book only left me wanting more in the sense that the story was obviously unfinished (as it's part of a trilogy), and the completist in me would like to see how it winds up. On the other hand, it's reading online and I do feel a bit guilty for reading with no intention of buying. Who knows.
Finished: Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2004 Hugo Award Winner, 2004 Nebula Award Winner)
Started: (To be determined, have a couple choices and probably won't choose till Wednesday... most likely the last Otherland book)
PoS thoughts behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Short version: Meh, okay.
PoS is technically a sequel to another book, but I didn't find I was lost - it seems to be set far enough into the future that it might as well be a completely new story. It's a fantasy book, and I suppose it's decent enough one, but falls into the category of 'really not my cup of tea'. I like Bujold's SF work, but this doesn't do much for me... it held my interest, but that's about it. So I'm actually a little perplexed that this won both the Hugo and the Nebula. It doesn't seem to be all that groundbreaking or spectacular, but maybe that's just my own disinterest in straight fantasy. Still, it seems odd. Maybe it was a year of poor competition or was one of those things where she won in part due to her past work (I can see the book winning the Nebula from that year's shortlist, but I see at least two books on the Hugo list I enjoyed more).
Now, most importantly, after reading Paladin of Souls, I have completed one of my life goals. Well, or half completed one. Or half-completed one, also requiring ongoing maintenance.
In any event, with this book, I have now read every single Hugo Award winning novel. (Not counting Retro-Hugos, but there's only one of those I haven't read yet so maybe I'll try to pick it up eventually). That goes from 1953 to 2007. That's been a goal of mine for something like 10 years at least. Technically it requires ongoing maintenance (the next winner is announced late this summer), and you might consider it only half completion of my goal to read every Hugo or Nebula award winning novel, since I made the decision to read all of both at the same time. (I have 7 Nebula winners left to go). Still, yay me, reading milestone.
In non-book news... well, TV's sucked this weekend since most everything's been on a skip week. Supernatural finale was okay, mostly for how it ended, though the episode itself kind of felt flat and lame for what was going on. I think I'm pretty well done with Grey's Anatomy for good. It's been hanging by a thread all year, and the thread finally snapped. I might watch eps if nothing happens to be on at the time, but no more priority watching.
What else... that chat (with the castaways from the closed BKV forum who formed a new one) seems to have died off mostly. Chats often die out (particularly ones where you can't stay connected easily and so have to depend mostly on people randomly showing up at the same time), so I can't say I'm surprised, but usually the dropoff isn't quite so fast. Most of the people I particularly enjoyed chatting with haven't been around in weeks, which kinda sucks, and it seems the only one there with any regularity is a twit who refuses to identify him/herself (and has on at least one occasion impersonated me, possibly only because he knew I was there, but still), and yet still seems to expect conversation, so I've taken to mostly ignoring him. I'll probably hang around there a little more just to ensure it wasn't some kind of natural lull, but I don't have much hope. Ah well. Maybe it's me driving people away. I know I'm not the greatest conversationalist in the world. Who knows. Anyway. Yet another thing seemingly falls into the category of 'fun while it lasted', and there's still the forum.
