Exam, The Apartment Hunt, and Book Foo
Apr. 23rd, 2004 06:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Had my last exam of the term yesterday. It was... easier than I thought it would be. Don't think I did great, but I did decent, and I did it fast.. 3 hour exam and I got out in an hour. But yay, I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. (cue creepy puppet boy with wireless music and running through the fields)
On the apartment search... looked at a place yesterday before we left... a place that was literally, _literally_, right next door to my gyroplace. But the rooms were too small (except for the living room, which was huge, but I plan on spending all my time in my room), and the price was a bit too high. Another place I'm going to look at today, that apparently has no living room, but two big bedrooms, and we might be going with that. The irony? It's on my street. It's less than a block away, maybe 2-3 minute walk.
And, finally, Book Foo!
Finished: Double Contact, by James White
Started: Moving Mars, by Greg Bear
Comments, thoughts, minor spoilers past the cut tag.
Double Contact was... well, a sector general book. I've already discussed the series before, but it was pretty good, I was just left wanting a little more in the way of resolution to some of the plots raised. Unfortunately, as the author died a couple years back, this is the last book (assuming he didn't have an unpublished draft squirreled away somewhere).
As to Moving Mars, it's about, well, Mars, and the settlers there, in particular one who's getting into politics and planning on visiting Earth and such. The back of the book says it's about Martian Independance, but that hasn't really been raised a whole lot (it's on the fringes, but they're fairly independant as is and there's a suggestion that Earth might come down on them).
I've had a bit of a bad track record with Bear. Some of his books haven't really drawnme in, either with too many characters, or too many separate plot lines (I hated Slant for that last reason). He's also definately not a 'one idea' writer, which can be a great thing or an annoying thing, depending on how it's used. That is, his futures are futures... there's not only primitive AI, but all sorts of genetic engineering, normal technological progress, sociological changes, age retarding treatments, etc, etc, although seemingly all within the bounds of the probable/plausible (nothing physics-defying yet).
In this case though, it's working well. The first person form restricts Bear to focusing on one character, which cuts down some of the fragmentedness, and allows the character to experience parts of the society (like Earth and it's tech) so exposition dumps don't take you out of the story. So far I'm liking it more than I thought I would.
On the apartment search... looked at a place yesterday before we left... a place that was literally, _literally_, right next door to my gyroplace. But the rooms were too small (except for the living room, which was huge, but I plan on spending all my time in my room), and the price was a bit too high. Another place I'm going to look at today, that apparently has no living room, but two big bedrooms, and we might be going with that. The irony? It's on my street. It's less than a block away, maybe 2-3 minute walk.
And, finally, Book Foo!
Finished: Double Contact, by James White
Started: Moving Mars, by Greg Bear
Comments, thoughts, minor spoilers past the cut tag.
Double Contact was... well, a sector general book. I've already discussed the series before, but it was pretty good, I was just left wanting a little more in the way of resolution to some of the plots raised. Unfortunately, as the author died a couple years back, this is the last book (assuming he didn't have an unpublished draft squirreled away somewhere).
As to Moving Mars, it's about, well, Mars, and the settlers there, in particular one who's getting into politics and planning on visiting Earth and such. The back of the book says it's about Martian Independance, but that hasn't really been raised a whole lot (it's on the fringes, but they're fairly independant as is and there's a suggestion that Earth might come down on them).
I've had a bit of a bad track record with Bear. Some of his books haven't really drawnme in, either with too many characters, or too many separate plot lines (I hated Slant for that last reason). He's also definately not a 'one idea' writer, which can be a great thing or an annoying thing, depending on how it's used. That is, his futures are futures... there's not only primitive AI, but all sorts of genetic engineering, normal technological progress, sociological changes, age retarding treatments, etc, etc, although seemingly all within the bounds of the probable/plausible (nothing physics-defying yet).
In this case though, it's working well. The first person form restricts Bear to focusing on one character, which cuts down some of the fragmentedness, and allows the character to experience parts of the society (like Earth and it's tech) so exposition dumps don't take you out of the story. So far I'm liking it more than I thought I would.
