Book Foo Mostly
Jun. 10th, 2009 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6No comic day. Next week I'll get it.
Work was... a bit interesting today. Because of some mixup, the total of my required work on this day was carrying a box or two into the office. Of course, my own sense of team spirit and 'wanting-to-get-paidness' made me pitch in and help with the stuff that's not I'm not normally responsible for, but it still wound up with me doing a relatively light work day.
On the way home, I was walking and reading, as I normally do, and at one point, I passed by a young woman who was also walking and reading. I noticed as I passed that she was reading The Dark Tower, by Stephen King. It occured to me a few steps later that that might well have been my soulmate. Rare enough is it to find someone who reads while walking, rarer still that it's both a woman and reading genre fiction, and one I've read. In some other, more perfect world, we might have met out of this chance encounter and fallen in love. Alas, as is the pattern of my life, I only noticed the potential of it belatedly, after I was well past the point of any contact. Not that it was likely we would have made a successful connection anyway, or any form of contact at all being managed even if I had thought of it in time, for that is also the pattern of my life. Ah well *wistful sigh*. To what might have been.
And let's get to the meat of the entry, book Book Foo.
Finished: Inversions, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Broken Angels, by Richard K. Morgan
Short thoughts on Inversion: Pleasant reading, but a little light. Kind of an interesting take on a Culture story. More involved and slightly more spoilery thoughts behind the cut.
The book is a Culture novel in which the word Culture or any of its tropes never appears, because it's from the point of view of the locals on a medieval-like planet they're lightly and covertly interfering with. But if you're familiar with the Culture, you get a good sense of what's going on, what's behind certain mysterious happenings. If you're not, it may be a little unsatisfying, not entirely being resolved or explained.
The book intertwines two stories, that of a female Doctor in service to the King, who's medical skill is beyond that of most others, and who's gained several enemies who wish her downfall, and the story of a bodyguard to another King-like figure in another country.
It's generally fairly pleasant reading, interesting enough, but feels a little light on the big ideas and in the end, with one exception, the stories don't really wrap up as much as drift off.
Not bad though.
Finished: Against a Dark Background, by Iain M. Banks
Started: The Yiddish Policeman's Union, by Michael Chabon
Short thoughts on AaDB: Okay, some interesting ideas and reasonably fun at times but in general not my style of books. Slightly more involved and lightly spoilery thoughts behind the cut.
The novel tells the story of a woman on a distant planet, who is being, legally, hunted-for-assassination by a religious cult that believes she must die within the next year. As part of their religious faith, they either have to kill her, or she has to return a lost, mythical piece of technology that an ancestor allegedly stole from them, one she doesn't know exists.
It's sort of an actiony novel, sort of like an action movie combined with a series of heist movies. Maybe like Mission Impossible, but with more SF. It's also one of those books in which there's a high body count, and nobody especially seems to care, even when innocents die for relatively little reason in the course of their business. It makes them feel a little unsympathetic, even if they otherwise do occasionally noble things. This generally isn't the kind of thing I like reading. But the ideas and the action are enough to carry me along despite that.
It does start to wear a little towards the end, and, like a lot of Banks works, I've noticed, it doesn't really end well, either in a sense of 'good things happen', or in the sense of being a satisfying conclusion. But it's a book that I'll possibly read again at some point.
Oh, and I don't think I mentioned yet, but I managed to track down and listen to Paul Cornell's radio play adaptation of the Banks story The State of the Art. And... well, not bad, I guess. Interesting to hear. Cut out a few of the parts I liked most.
Work was... a bit interesting today. Because of some mixup, the total of my required work on this day was carrying a box or two into the office. Of course, my own sense of team spirit and 'wanting-to-get-paidness' made me pitch in and help with the stuff that's not I'm not normally responsible for, but it still wound up with me doing a relatively light work day.
On the way home, I was walking and reading, as I normally do, and at one point, I passed by a young woman who was also walking and reading. I noticed as I passed that she was reading The Dark Tower, by Stephen King. It occured to me a few steps later that that might well have been my soulmate. Rare enough is it to find someone who reads while walking, rarer still that it's both a woman and reading genre fiction, and one I've read. In some other, more perfect world, we might have met out of this chance encounter and fallen in love. Alas, as is the pattern of my life, I only noticed the potential of it belatedly, after I was well past the point of any contact. Not that it was likely we would have made a successful connection anyway, or any form of contact at all being managed even if I had thought of it in time, for that is also the pattern of my life. Ah well *wistful sigh*. To what might have been.
And let's get to the meat of the entry, book Book Foo.
Finished: Inversions, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Broken Angels, by Richard K. Morgan
Short thoughts on Inversion: Pleasant reading, but a little light. Kind of an interesting take on a Culture story. More involved and slightly more spoilery thoughts behind the cut.
The book is a Culture novel in which the word Culture or any of its tropes never appears, because it's from the point of view of the locals on a medieval-like planet they're lightly and covertly interfering with. But if you're familiar with the Culture, you get a good sense of what's going on, what's behind certain mysterious happenings. If you're not, it may be a little unsatisfying, not entirely being resolved or explained.
The book intertwines two stories, that of a female Doctor in service to the King, who's medical skill is beyond that of most others, and who's gained several enemies who wish her downfall, and the story of a bodyguard to another King-like figure in another country.
It's generally fairly pleasant reading, interesting enough, but feels a little light on the big ideas and in the end, with one exception, the stories don't really wrap up as much as drift off.
Not bad though.
Finished: Against a Dark Background, by Iain M. Banks
Started: The Yiddish Policeman's Union, by Michael Chabon
Short thoughts on AaDB: Okay, some interesting ideas and reasonably fun at times but in general not my style of books. Slightly more involved and lightly spoilery thoughts behind the cut.
The novel tells the story of a woman on a distant planet, who is being, legally, hunted-for-assassination by a religious cult that believes she must die within the next year. As part of their religious faith, they either have to kill her, or she has to return a lost, mythical piece of technology that an ancestor allegedly stole from them, one she doesn't know exists.
It's sort of an actiony novel, sort of like an action movie combined with a series of heist movies. Maybe like Mission Impossible, but with more SF. It's also one of those books in which there's a high body count, and nobody especially seems to care, even when innocents die for relatively little reason in the course of their business. It makes them feel a little unsympathetic, even if they otherwise do occasionally noble things. This generally isn't the kind of thing I like reading. But the ideas and the action are enough to carry me along despite that.
It does start to wear a little towards the end, and, like a lot of Banks works, I've noticed, it doesn't really end well, either in a sense of 'good things happen', or in the sense of being a satisfying conclusion. But it's a book that I'll possibly read again at some point.
Oh, and I don't think I mentioned yet, but I managed to track down and listen to Paul Cornell's radio play adaptation of the Banks story The State of the Art. And... well, not bad, I guess. Interesting to hear. Cut out a few of the parts I liked most.
