Number6's Journal

Before we dip into the books, some TV stuff to talk about because I keep saying I might do it in another post and forgetting...
Superhero TV:
I'm enjoying Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl more or less. Not perfect, but solidly enjoyable. Legends of Tomorrow I'm more mixed on. I like the characters and their interactions but on a plot level it's just not working for me, time travel plots are hard to make work long term, and Vandal Savage is not enough of a "mission" especially when they keep making dumb mistakes (I remember recently reading someone say that it's a problem with chaining your ongoing TV show a movie-style single-mission plot... if you're not careful all your heroes have to fail every single week). And, fundamentally... I'd rather see certain characters like Captain Cold on the OTHER DC shows, even if only occasionally, rather than used here. Lucifer's not really a superhero show but it was based on a comic, but typically they ruined it by making it a procedural.

Upcoming:Daredevil season 2 starts soon.

Book-inspired TV:
The Expanse: Enjoyed it for the most part, although I'm a bit confused at where they stopped, cause I don't think there's enough story left in Book 1 to make a 13 ep second season, so are they going to wrap up book 1 in the first few episodes then jump to book 2? IDK. But I'm looking forward to it regardless.

The Magicians: Never read the books, but I tried the series on a whim, and am surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. For those who don't know, it's a bit of a cross between Harry Potter and Narnia for adults... college students learn they're magicians and go to a magical college (and one of them has a connection to another world). Not perfect and the characters are occasionally rather unlikable, but they're likably unlikable, if that makes sense. Mostly enjoying the story of Julia, who takes the entrance exam for the school and told that no, she's not magical enough.

The Man In The High Castle: Was actually quite impressed with this series overall, looking forward to next season.

The 100: Technically based on a book series but IIRC was created before the book even came out (which I've never read), but what the hell, I'll call it here. Still, for a show based on a YA series on the most "teen-centric" of the networks, it's remarkably deep and daring, and I look forward to it. Also, even though it took a while to make that clear, yay for having a bisexual lead protagonist.

Upcoming: 11/23/63, an adaptation of Stephen King's time travel "save Kennedy" story, starts on Hulu or something in a few days with James Franco as the lead. King's stories are usually ones where the journey is fun but the endings suck (although this novel wasn't TOO bad in that regard), so it works for a series. Probably a few others in the long term, but nothing particularly soon that I can remember.

Other Shows: Watching Colony, fairly basic "living under and occupation, only the occupiers are aliens!" type story, but I think it's well done so far. And I'm still annoyed that Doctor Who is taking a year off (except for the Christmas ep) for the stupid Olympics, but on the other hand pleased Moffat's going to be leaving after the next full season, but on the gripping hand, not all that impressed by Chris Chibnall so far. So, overall, meh on that.

Now, onto January (and early February) books!

Finished: Planetfall by Emma Newman

Renata maintains the 3D printers on a new colony on an alien world, one that was half-religious pilgrimage, lead by her ex-lover and settled at the edge of an alien city that is nearly incomprehensible. For decades the Pathfinder has been gone, and the colony believes she's communing with God inside the city, but there are dark secrets surrounding the Planetfall and when a newcomer arrives to the colony, they threaten to tear Renata apart.( Read more... )

All in all, I was ready to give it four stars... up until the ending. Without spoiling, ( Read more... )Still, what came before that was done well enough that the author's on my radar for the future.

Finished: Stars: Stories Inspired by the Songs of Janis Ian (short story collection)

As the title indicates, this is a set of stories inspired by the songs of singer-songwriter Janis Ian. ( Read more... )The collection might do particularly well with somebody who's a bigger fan of her than I am, but otherwise, it's solid.

Finished: Aliens: Recent Encounters (short story collection)
Recently, I read an anthology, Alien Contact, and found myself somewhat disappointed... while there were a couple good stories, not only were a lot of the contacts not first contacts, but also, many of the aliens seemed to either go to extremes of "even if ridiculous things happen that's just because aliens are completely incomprehensible, so why bother trying" to "humans in funny suits with a few cultural differences". I found it hard to understand how an anthology pulling the best first contact stories from all of SF history could wind up so uninspiring.

But I still had that itch that needed to be scratched, stories of the alien, but with a sense that there was a real something behind them, something that may be hard for the the human mind to grasp, but not impossible to at least approach. So I tried again, with Aliens: Recent Encounters. The Recent is because these stories were all pulled from the year 2000 or later, which should make it less likely to get great stories, but somehow the opposite happened.( Read more... )Most importantly, it successfully scratched that particular itch, for stories of the alien... for a while, at least.

Finished: City by Clifford D. Simak

Long after Mankind has left Earth behind, the planet has gone to the dogs... literally. They have risen to intelligence and created their own society, aided by robots, and been on their own so long that many have come to doubt the stories about Man were mere legends. But they study the stories anyway.

Sounds like Pixar's next great movie!

Of course, it's not quite so commercial. ( Read more... ) Note: All the cheap dog puns in this review are my own, not in the book itself.

Finished: Vast by Linda Nagata
Third book in a trilogy, so the synopsis is cut.
( Read more... )I enjoyed the book, maybe on the low end of the scale because I think the ideas may have ran away with her, a little, at the expense of compelling story and characters this time around, but it really makes me crave her return to more farther future speculation. If she could somehow blend this talent for far out SF ideas with the more personal character work she displayed in her Red trilogy, I think she'd easily generate a book I don't just enjoy, but consider a favorite.

Finished: Central Station by Lavie Tidhar

I recieved an electronic advance review copy from NetGalley. Since I technically said I'd only post my review on Goodreads until closer to the publication date, instead of copy/pasting it, I'll just link directly to that one for now. But in short, I quite liked it and would like to see more in that universe.

Finished: Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield
Tomorrow and Tomorrow tells of Drake Merlin, a composer who discovers his wife, and love of his life, Ana, is dying of an incurable disease. Unwilling to lose her, he has her froze in the hopes that later there will be a cure... and then soon after, freezes himself, so that he can be around to take care of her and make sure she's brought back. But things may be more difficult than he anticipated, and he must go further and further into the future in the slim hope that he and Ana might be reunited.

This is my first experience with Sheffield, at least in novel form, but I don't think it'll be my last. ( Read more... )All in all, I think it's a three, but a very high three, and enough tickled my sense of wonder that I'm interested in checking out what else the author's done.

Still Reading (or finished but haven't put up reviews: The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, Murasaki (early 90s shared world project by 6 Nebula-winning authors), Trident's Forge by Patrick S. Tomlinson (eARC from Netgalley, sequel to The Ark), Faith by John Love

Only 4 days from the day that shall not be named and the associated rubbing-the-face-in-unhappiness. :P At least it's on a Sunday so I have to go to sleep early that day anyway.

So, let's see, what else is new?
Let's start with TV.

Fear The Walking Dead's over for the year and.. well, it's not great, there were plenty of stupid things, plotwise, and stupid people, but on the whole I'm still enjoying it, I just question some of the decisions. It's not as good as the Walking Dead, but if it comes back, I'll still watch it. And I'll say something that's probably controversial, at least among reactions I've read elsewhere on the net: I actually like most of the main cast, even the teens. Well, the youngest one's kind of an annoying snot at times, and they all have their stupid moments, but I think the family has good chemistry.

Doctor Who's back. So far it's... well, it's Doctor Who. I still would like to see Moffat go and be replaced with somebody who know how to craft a compelling coherent story rather than stringing together good moments that don't make any sense when you think about it (and often relying on the same old tropes over and over again). But it's enjoyable enough that I'll keep watching, and there's the sense of wonder that'll never completely go away.

Heroes Reborn? Meh. I watched the premiere. I have the third ep (1st ep after the 2 hours), but I haven't watched it yet. That says something, doesn't it? I was kind of hoping they'd go all out reboot with an explicit alternate universe. Instead, they seem to have just continued, and worse, they've not learned the lessons from last time, throwing too much stuff in it and not really considering how it all fits together or how consequences of what you include might mean down the road. And the video game nonsense just makes me want to shut it off.

That's alot of mixed reactions. Is there anything good?

Well, it's not quite TV, but I've gotten quite fond of Critical Role over the last several weeks, on Geek & Sundry. It might be the closest thing to a new TV-ish obsession. It's a bunch of somewhat famous voice actors from cartoons and video games playing a tabletop campaign of Dungeons and Dragons. It's actually a continuation of a campaign they did privately for fun for something like 2 years before, and they just decided to put it online, so if you start on the first ep you're actually starting in the middle of the adventure (which also means that you can pretty much start anywhere). It's turned out to be a big hit and is probably the biggest thing on G&S's twitch channel, live every Thursday night for something like 3 hours (occasionally more). It's just fun seeing a bunch of friends enjoying the game and, since they're all actors, they use voices and such for their characters (and the DM has a big assortment of voices himself), making me nostalgic for my own days of gaming and almost wanting to try and pick it up again, and sometimes they have fun guest stars (Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day have both guested for two weeks, but not at the same time... also, although it wasn't officially Critical Role, Vin Diesel just played a game with the DM and some of the members and really enjoyed it and supposedly there's talk of him playing a guest role too). I don't know how well it would translate to people unfamiliar with D&D tabletop, but it's a bit like a radio play with a lot of dice rolls determining things. So I'll recommend it anyway.

As for other new or returning shows, nothing's really started yet that I've gotten into. I checked out Blindspot because one of the secondary-character regulars is actually one of the players on Critical Role (she had to leave as a regular when she started working on the series, but she's open to returning for guest spots or hiatuses), but really, it doesn't do much for me. Castle, meh, the relationship tension/conspiracy of this year's just not working for me... the only thing that is, is Castle and his daughter's kind of doing a Veronica Mars vibe - but they need to at least acknowledge that with some kind of reference! Flash and Arrow restart this week, as does iZombie and Agents of SHIELD returned last week, which is solid but not exciting.

Speaking of Marvel, I finally watched Avengers: Age of Ultron. It wasn't as good as the first movie, but it was fun. I do have some complaints, which are a bit spoilery if I'm not the only one who hadn't seen it until recently. ( Read more... )So I guess you could say all the new Avengers were poorly handled.

Anyway, on to the Book Foo. Blah blah blah copied from my Goodreads blah blah blah mostly non-spoilery beyond back-of-the-book type stuff unless I warn.

Finished: The Red/First Light by Linda Nagata
In "The Red: First Light" (variously called solely by the part either before or after the colon, depending on edition and publisher... mine is simply The Red) tells of Lieutenant James Shelly, who leads a squadron of soldiers on a near future mission that he cynically believes is more about making money for defense contractors than it is about any actual purpose. But while he scoffs at the leadership decisions, he believes in the people and the brotherhood, even while knowing that some of that is manipulated by hi-tech equipment. Still, he does his best to keep his people alive using his skills and wits... and one thing extra. Somebody has been giving him warning when things aren't quite right, warnings that have saved the lives of his squad several times, warnings his leadership can't seem to stop. And it may be that an emergent, globe-spanning artificial intelligence exists, and has taken an interest in Shelly... but probably just as a tool to its own ends, to be discarded at its whim.

This may be my favorite Earthbound military SF ever.( Read more... )Overall, I really enjoyed this and will definitely be picking up the sequels. One final note that has nothing to do with the story, but I loved nonetheless. The publisher is releasing these books simultaneously, not just in hardcover and ebook form, but also in paperback (and not even the oversized trade paperback format, but the mass market kind that can fit into a large pocket). I love paperbacks, and having this choice right from the publication date, instead of having to wait six months to a year, makes me so happy that I just had to mention it. I've always wanted books to go this way, only to be told by those I trust to be more knowledgeable, that this wasn't feasible or profitable. I don't know if the people telling me these things were wrong, or things changed, or this publisher's making a crazy gamble that will lead them to ruin, but I love them for it all the same and it's making me more eager to get the second and third book.

Finished: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
A SF take on Cinderella, in which Linh Cinder is a cyborg living in New Beijing, and because cyborgs have limited rights, is technically the property of her stepmother. But she's also an extremely skilled mechanic, and in this capacity she meets the prince, who doesn't realize she's a cyborg and takes a liking to her. ( Read more... )It's not the kind of book that I'd make a regular habit of reading, but for once-in-a-while it does hit the spot, and it was skilled enough with its particular approach that I was impressed enough that I'm probably going to check out the rest of the series (where the author recasts other fairy tales in the same SF universe). I'd say it's almost certainly worth checking out if this is the kind of thing that already interests you, and if you're iffy on it... it still might be worth a try.

Finished: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Erasmus lives a simple existence, owning few possessions by vow, and living in a monastic environment which only opens its doors to the outside world every ten years (other orders only open on longer periods). Inside, in addition to the usual interpersonal dramas with the rest of his order, he gets involved in logical debates and philosophical discussions. But there are things going on in the outside world, and member of his order are getting called by the government outside, a government his order is separate from but beholden too. For this is not a religious order (although individual members may believe in God), this is how scientists live, on a world that is not Earth. ( Read more... )I was almost always engaged and excited about what would happen next, despite the fact that not a lot was happening at any given part. Truly this is one of those books where the journey is more important than the destination, and, as stated before, a master class in building an alternate world.

Finished: The Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu
(synopsis behind cut because it's the second book in a series)( Read more... )The last one I scored a three, and despite liking it less, numerically, this one I think I'd give the same... but it's a much lower three, possibly rounded up from a very high two. It does gets a bonus point for an obscure Alpha Flight reference, which would bring would theoretically bring it up to a four (see disclaimer).

Disclaimer: Said bonus point normally exists in a idyllic seeming alternate dimension and will only appear when the normal review is threatened... at all other times, the rating will be a plain unassuming-looking three.

Continued next post because apparently the post is too large for LJ.

So, I guess life continues. Not much has changed for me personally, except for one piece that has gone firmly in the negative column: My job. Oh, it still exists, and objectively I can't complain compared to other people, but, they changed all the times around. So now instead of, on work days, waking up and going in early, then coming home and having the rest of the day (and not to mention hitting the grocery stores on the way home), I have one in the middle of the afternoon and the others are at night, which means having to go to work hangs over me the whole day, I usually can't do much grocery shopping on the way home, and, sometimes, I feel messed up the next day (whereas before sometimes I feel a bit messed up the day I work, but it's gone by the next day). And of course, it means any family events I have to schedule around, instead of being pretty much available any time anyone else is. Bleh. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to change much, due to everything from cost-cutting at the head office, our new mayor's parking laws, and some stupid sports games all colliding into a perfect storm.

I guess there is one other piece of mild news, I went to Wonderland for the first time in years (Canada's, not Alice's). My brother got me a season's pass for my birthday, and one for himself as well, so we went down to ride some of the roller coasters, and probably will go one or two times more during the summer (and possibly on some other trip with my dad, who separately got a pass with his wife, so he can take the step-grandkids). It was fun, especially the Leviathan, which had a huge drop.

Adventures in Food... still doing most of the cooking, and have gotten a bit more adventurous. I've done some baking experiments that have mostly turned out well... I've made peanut butter cookies a few times, and oatmeal peanut butter cookies once, and last week I did a cheesecake for the first time, including home-made graham cracker peanut butter crust (and topped with sliced fresh strawberries which were on sale the day I made it). The cheesecake wasn't as dense as I was hoping, I think I need more cheese in the mix, but I think the flavors were good. And I cooked ribs for the first time, which turned out awesome, fall off the bone tender (and, since I have a bag full of oatmeal from when I made the cookies, I tried something I read online and made a savory oatmeal side dish with onions and mushrooms that turned out really well and I'll probably be making again tonight). Not sure what I'll try next (that I haven't already done, I mean, tonight I'm making meatloaf).

TV stuffs:

I'm not going to try to recap most of TV. I will say that the new shows for the networks are dull dull dull. A few looked like they might be kind of interesting, SF concepts, except they tagged on "And helps the police solve crimes!" at the end and I lost all my interest. I'll probably watch Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl, and, perhaps surprisingly, I'm more excited about the latter (LoT has a lot of cast members I like, but I'm not sure how they're going to make it work and I think it's going to mess up some stuff I liked about Arrow and Flash).

I did watch a couple Binge-Watch shows. There's Netflix's Daredevil, which turned out to be pretty good. I mean, yeah, there were a few issues, but overall I liked it and the cast was well done (especially Foggy, who was perfect).

And I checked out Sony's Playstation-network-exclusive series Powers, based on the Bendis comic. There are... good parts and bad parts.
( Read more... )

There are a couple SF Netflix or Cable Channel series starting soon (or already started) that I plan on checking out, though: Sense8, Dark Matters, Killjoys, and The Expanse (though that's probably not for a few months).

And since the last one is based on a book series, that segues us nicely into Book Foo.

First, a word about the Hugo awards: Bleh.

Bleh's a word, right? Yeah, many words have been written about it already, but I am not happy, the Puppies campaigns were, in my mind, cheating, even if they were technically allowed by the rules (last year, they were a little closer to the line of "I think the choices are despicable but they went about it fairly"). I almost feel like I wasted the money to get a Worldcon membership so I could nominate and vote because of this stupid campaign. *I* played fairly, reading and choosing stories that made ME passionate, but most of the categories get dominated by people gaming the system. I will mostly be voting No Award against the slate-nominated works, because it's the only way to discourage such tactics (although I'll try to give the nominees a fair chance to impress me as "independently worthy of winning one").

But on to the books I HAVE read since my last post. As usual, reviews taken from my goodreads account, and spoilers should be generally minor and limited to back-of-the-book type descriptions (or I'll try to warn if anything greater), but I can't promise.

Finished: Recursion, by Tony Ballantyne
Recursion interweaves three stories set at different time periods in the future. ( Read more... )I'm willing to write off the problems as either a personal experience (I was reading them during the winter blues!) or the traditional first novel problems where authors hopefully improve, and I'm still interested in trying the second book in the series.

Finished: Behemoth, by Peter Watts (Rifters, #3)

( Read more... )

Finished: Light, by M. John Harrison
Light tells three stories... a serial killer in the modern day and, in the far future, a woman bonded to a starship and a man who's addicted to virtual reality scenarios. They wander about doing a variety of things more or less on whims but there are connections between them that supposedly makes it all something more than a pointless exercise.

I'm being a little harsh on this book, and it's unfair, especially because I only have myself to blame. I have a rule of thumb... if a book is described as being "literary," either in the synopsis, the blurbs they put there, or even recommendations from people I know, I usually take this as a big black and red sign saying "This Book Is Not For You!" But once in a while I choose to ignore that sign. Occasionally, it works out. But mostly, it's like this case. ( Read more... )I'm sure there will be plenty of fans of the sort of thing he does, but I am not one of them.

Finished: The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks
The Gzilt, a galactic civilization that was very nearly one of the founding members of the utopian Culture, is about to move on, to Sublime, to ascend, as an entire civilization, to another plane of existence, along with most of its population. But, as the days wind down before the big event, an ancient secret is discovered, and, fearing that it might cause some percentage of the population to have second thoughts about subliming, there's an attempt to cover it up, and other attempts to learn of it. One citizen is caught up in events because she once knew somebody who was alive when the events were unfolding, thousands of years earlier, a man who is still alive but in hiding. Meanwhile, members of the Culture learn about the secret and decide they should find out the truth, even if they're not sure whether it's a good idea to reveal that truth once they learn it. Wackiness ensues.

This is (sadly) the final book set in the Culture, the author himself having passed on. ( Read more... )And perhaps that is a good legacy for Banks... he wrote stories that shouldn't have worked, and he made them work. It's almost like he's been performing a Hydrogen Sonata of his own, with one key difference... even thought it have might be clunky at times, it's been a pleasure to experience it.

And I'm sad as hell that the last note has been played.

Finished: Collected Stories, by Hannu Rajaniemi (short story collection, received for free)

I received an ebook of this book for free through NetGalley. I don't think it affected my review.

This collects short stories by Hannu Rajaniemi, perhaps best known for the hard SF post-singularity series that starts with The Quantum Thief. ( Read more... ) I actually would buy this collection with my own money... at least if it gets released in paperback. The original print run is a hardcover and apparently limited only to 2000 copies... and, aside from preferring the paperback format in general, I'd rather somebody else get to enjoy the stories than get a separate copy for my own later rereading.

Finished: Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
Perdido Street Station tells of a city of humans, insect-headed women, cactus people, toad people, and more. One of them is Isaac, a scientist, involved in a secret cross-species relationship, and hired to restore flight to a bird-man who was punished by his people with the removal of his wings. In the course of this assignment, something is accidentally unleashed that threatens the entire city.

Obviously, this is a fantasy novel, with elements of steampunk (although I personally wouldn't consider it pure steampunk). And I should probably start out by saying that I'm not a big fan of either genre, in terms of novel-reading (movies or TV, fine, and I like the steampunk aesthetic, I just typically don't enjoy reading either genre). However, Mieville has impressed me with some of his other work that I've read, so I decided I'd stretch outside of my comfort zone and give it a try, since it is, perhaps, his most famous work.

I'm glad I did, because this really is something interesting.( Read more... )Definitely worth a try, at least, even if you're like me, a science fiction reader who doesn't generally enjoy fantasy.

Finished: Apex, by Ramez Naam (Nexus #3, received for free)
I received an advanced review ebook of this for free through NetGalley. I don't think it affected my review. What may have affected the review was my enjoyment for the previous books, which is why I signed up to get the early look... I just couldn't wait until it came out in stores. ( Read more... )I still have the ebook, but I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to buy a physical copy, so the series will look nice together on my shelves, and, if our technological civilization ever totally collapses, I can read by candlelight and imagine a world that might have been.

Finished: A Song Called Youth, by John Shirley
War is gripping the world, but that's not the real danger. The real danger is that it's being used by secretive powers to promote a new wave of racist fascism, where 'undesirables' can be accused of being enemy agents, terrorist sympathizers, or security risk, and systematically eliminated from power... and, eventually, just eliminated. However, there are forces working for freedom, the New Resistance, often struggling just to stay alive and to expose the villains for who they are. But it's harder than ever, especially in a world where, if you fall into enemy hands, their machines can extract every secret and even turn them to their side.

A Song Called Youth is actually a collection of three late-80s, early-90s cyberpunk novels: Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona, collected in an omnibus under a new title for the 21st century. ( Read more... )I'm rating it three stars, which means "I liked it", while the truth is I'd probably describe it as "ok"... it gets the extra star because it's one of those rare books that I'm glad I read despite it being a slog, despite not enjoying it on a pure pleasure, because I think it has some important ideas that'll stick with me.

Finished: The Lives of Tao, by Wesley Chu
An alien race has been with humanity, guiding us, since the beginning. They can only survive inside bodies and provide advice and insight to the people they're bonded to, until that person dies and they must quickly find a new body. They've guided some of the most well-known people in history. And they're at war with each other, two factions, one who want to provoke humanity into war and conflict, and another who want to guide them to being better. Tao is on the latter side, but when his last partner dies on a mission, he's forced to find another quickly or die, and the only choice available is Roen Tan, an out-of-shape computer geek going nowhere in life. Not agent material, but Tao has to make the best of it and train him for the conflicts ahead.

I don't really have a lot to say about this book. I enjoyed it, but it felt a little on the lightweight side. ( Read more... )it's the kind of middle-of-the-road SF book that is good enough that I can enjoy it, but not so good that I despair in my own ambitions because I'd never be able to write anything even close to as good... and that's an important niche in my reading life too. It's the kind of book where I'll probably decide to try the author again with another book if it had a good premise. And in this case, this is only the first book in a series (although you can read it as a stand-alone without problems), and I liked the world and premise and characters enough that I'm willing to commit to reading the next book in it, The Deaths of Tao, at least eventually... I'm not rushing out to buy it, but if I spot it on a book run and have some spare cash and space in my bookbag/order, I'll probably grab it.

Finished: Capacity, by Tony Ballantyne

In the future, humanity is watched over, arguably controlled by AIs, and only a small fraction of people live in what we think of as the "real" world... many citizens are digital copies, living in simulations of reality, albeit with a human lifespan. An agent of the government rescues one of these digital copies from an illegal simulation used for torture fantasies, and the two go on a quest to find the creator of the sim and bring him to justice. And in deep space, a human is sent to investigate a planet where super-intelligent AIs seem to be effectively killing themselves by reducing themselves to below human intelligence.

This is set in the same world as Recursion, although it's hard to call it a sequel, as really the only character in common seems to be the Watcher, an AI that guides humanity. I liked Recursion, although it had flaws. This one... I'm a lot more mixed on. ( Read more... )I rated it a three, but it's on the edge between two and three. I was hoping to like it more. There is a third book in the series/universe, and, right now, I'm not sure I'll follow through to it. Maybe if I'm browsing a used bookstore and see it I might try it, but I don't have a drive to seek it out.

Finished: Untaken, by J.E. Anckorn (ebook received for free)
Aliens ships appear in the sky, and, at first do nothing but wait, leading people to wonder what their goal is. But suddenly, they strike, and soon most of the population is gone, killed or taken up in one of their ships, which might amount to the same thing. Two teenagers are among those left behind, though, and they must struggle to survive and take care of a young child who was also left behind.

I was able to read this book free through NetGalley. It had a premise just intriguing enough to request it... it is, of course, a YA book, and while I enjoy these kinds of books when they've got a good plot, I've not yet read a YA alien invasion story, which is a staple of SF in general. (short version: enjoyed it a lot until a certain thing happened, tiny bit spoilery)( Read more... )As it is, I think I have to stick with my overall rating of a two, and maybe guess that, were I a YA, I'd have bumped it up to a three at least.

Finished: City of Savages, by Lee Kelly
In the future, all of New York City is a POW camp, although most of the survivors cluster near Central Park. Two sisters, Skye and Phee, are among the minority who spend only the cold months there, because their mother doesn't like to be under the rule of the camp leader, Rolladin any more than she has to. As the time comes to move back, the sisters share a special bond as they discover their mother's hidden journal, which dates back to the start of the war, a time she never talks about it, and secretly begin to read it. But also, forces from outside the city make a startling appearance that threatens Rolladin's power. Both of these events will cause the sisters to question everything they thought they knew about the city, their family, and world.

City of Savages is a YA book, but the premise really drew me. I mean, look at the first few words of my summary... all of New York City as a POW camp. It's immediately interesting. And the author does a good job of bringing you into that world right away. ( Read more... )I'll stick with 3 stars as my official rating. I'd still recommend it to teenagers who like adventure stories along the lines of the Hunger Games (but different).

Finished: Galactic North, by Alastair Reynolds
Galactic North is a series of short stories all set in the author's Revelation Space universe, spanning a time period from less than two hundred years in the future, to thousands and thousands of years beyond (and arranged in roughly chronological order). ( Read more... )To somebody who isn't familiar at all with the universe, I don't know how well these will land, but I think they're pretty accessible (to somebody who enjoys space opera with a lot of hard SF elements). If you're a fan of the novels, though (regardless of your thoughts on the ending) it's absolutely worth picking up.

Currently Reading (or finished but haven't put up reviews): Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Judd Trichter, The Blondes by Emily Schultz (received for free), The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Shelter by Susan Palwick, River of Gods by Ian McDonald.

I'm considering reviving my Unreachable Star site, that I used to do comic reviews on, and remaking it as a general SF review site, since I'm doing these book reviews anyway. Even if they're just mirroring my Goodreads reviews, at the very least, it might get me more free review copies of upcoming SF novels. Anyway, not today, I'm lazy.

Hope everything's been good with y'all.

I'll start with TV so you can more easily skip the book reviews. I've been falling a bit behind on TV watching. Doctor Who is in a few days though, won't be falling behind on that. But of the shows I've been watching, bearing in mind that I'm probably only halfway through the aired episodes:

Falling Skies: Got pretty bad real fast. The show was never GREAT, but it was decent fun with a sense of progression in the storylines... until this year when they decided to just abandon a bunch of plots so they could do riffs on prison camps, Hitler Youth, hippies, and the old Guerilla war plot they started with and did to death. I can barely care anymore. But it's not nearly as bad as what happened to...

Under the Dome:
One of the initial executive producers of UtD, season 1, was Brian K. Vaughan, author of Runaways, and a number of excellent comics. He left for season 2. If how season 1 turned out was disappointing (and it was), it is at least somewhat of a relief to know that the moment he left, it turned to complete and utter crap instantly. I mean, it's pretty much laughably bad.

The Last Ship: Watching this mainly because Adam Baldwin's in it playing the first officer. It's okay.

Defiance: Something of a surprise, they actually seem to be taking some risks here, and it has the sense of a show that somebody actually cares about. Sure, there's still a lot of problematic stuff, and it's still more than a little cheesy, but on the whole I'm enjoying what I'm seeing more than the first year.

Orphan Black: Only seen the S2 premiere, watching it as it airs on TV here. Enjoying it, though.

Continuum: Haven't even dipped into the third season yet.

Penny Dreadful: Watched and liked the first episode, but I haven't gone beyond that yet.

I think that's all of it. There are some other TV shows I've heard that might appeal to my interests (The Strain comes to mind), but I haven't dipped into yet.

So, now, onto books. Before I move onto reviews, I thought I'd mention two things. First, the Hugo Awards were this past weekend, and the Best Novel winner was Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, which also won the Nebula, Locus, and Clarke award. It is also a book that I received free through a Goodreads giveaway before publication. So I have a signed ARC of a Hugo and Nebula award winning novel, so, yay me. :). And I think it's quite worthy of the honors. If you're interested, my review is here.

Second, I went to the used bookstore yesterday and picked up 6 books, including the final Culture book, The Hydrogen Sonata (sniff... RIP Iain M. Banks), Un Lun Dun by China Mieville (sort of a similar premise as Neverwhere which I always enjoyed), and Grass by Sheri S. Teper, which I've heard some good things about.

Anyway, onto reviews. As usual, usually snipped from my Goodreads reviews.

Finished: The Apex Book of World SF (short story collection)
A collection of short stories from authors from or in different parts of the world than the traditional sources of western SF. Some are science fiction, some fantasy, some horror. ( Read more... )

Although I was left a little disappointed, I still would read future volumes of this if I stumble upon them... although I would really like an all science-fiction collection of foreign SF.

Finished: The Fenris Device, by Brian Stableford (Hooded Swan #5, reread)
( Read more... )

Finished: Swan Song, by Brian Stableford (Hooded Swan #6, reread)
The last of Stableford's Hooded Swan novels, about an abrasive pilot and expert in alien environments and the occasionally unwelcome mind-symbiot that shares his brain, starts with him free, at least as somebody in his position can be. ( Read more... )Still, revisiting the universe provided me with a lot of enjoyment, and I'm sure I'll come back to it somewhere down the line once again.

Finished: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
Detective Hank Palace is investigating a man found hanging in a restroom, that he thinks may be a murder. Nobody believes him, and many think he's crazy or stupid, he should just let it go, mark it down as a suicide, and move on. It's not a grand conspiracy of silence, it's simply a matter of fact: everybody in the world knows that there's a civilization-ending asteroid on it's way to Earth, hitting with one-hundred percent probability, and impact's only months away. Suicides are way up. Of course that also means that if you wanted to get away with murder, the easiest thing to do would be to make it look like just another suicide. ( Read more... ) Quite recommended, probably even for non-science fiction fans.

Finished: Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Book Two of the Last Policeman series so I'll cut the whole description. Short version: Better than the first.

( Read more... )

Finished: Ventus, by Karl Schroeder (reread)

On the planet Ventus, where humans are prohibited from all but the most limited pieces of technology, Jordan Mason lives what he believes is an ordinary life, expecting to eventually inherit his father's stoneworking business. But that all changes when he begins having visions of a distant warrior named Armiger whose army is destroyed for defying the powerful Winds that control and moderate the planet's ground, seas, and atmosphere. Soon, Jordan learns he's also key to finding Armiger, who is the agent of a malevolent and nearly godlike entity known as 3340, recently defeated in a centuries-long war against the galaxy-spanning human civilization Jordan has never heard of. Worse Armiger may not simply be an agent, he may be a means for 3340 to recreate itself from scratch and take over all of Ventus and the rest of the galaxy. ( Read more... )I think this is my third or fourth reread, and, although it's not my favorite of Schroeder's books (that honor belongs to Lady of Mazes, which is set in the same universe but centuries earlier and far from the planet of Ventus), but I'm sure I'll be rereading it many times over the years.

Finished: World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters
Conclusion of the Last Policeman series, so I'll cut completely. Short version: Weakest of the three, but worth reading. ( Read more... )I still highly recommend the series as a whole.

Finished: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (reread)
Marcus Yallow is skipping school with his friends to play a game on the streets of his hometown, San Francisco... when terrorists blow up a nearby bridge. In the ensuing chaos, all four are detained by the government, interrogate, and threatened... and only three make it out. They have no idea what happened to their friend Darryl, but they've been warned against talking about what happened, and the country is growing even more paranoid, mass surveillance and monitoring of everyday citizens and civil rights are being quashed in the name of fighting terror, and Marcus realizes that he has to do something. ( Read more... )I rate it 4 stars for me personally, it's really enjoyable even to me as an adult, but I think as a YA book, it rates 5.

Finished: Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
Toby McGonigal has been lost in space, hibernating for 14,000 years, and then is found, to find his younger siblings rule an empire. For them, only 40 years have passed, thanks to an innovative society they started on worlds between the stars and far from home. These societies are built on the Lockstep method, which involves whole societies freezing themselves on a schedule, living for very short periods in inhospitable worlds, then hibernating for years while their bots gather resources. This allows not only survival on these marginal worlds, but trade, for the light speed limit might be insurmountable, but if you time your journeys correctly, travel to other worlds can happen in one night's sleep from the perspective of not only you, but both worlds. However, Toby's return threatens his own family's rule, and they want him out of the picture. Short version: disappointing, the mix between hard SF and YA doesn't work too well, but stunning ideas.( Read more... )Despite all this, I did enjoy it, and I absolutely loved the basic ideas and the universe he set up. I'd love to read more stories in this setting, particularly ones where it's just "business as usual" for the universe (albeit with big stakes for the characters) rather than a character who's quest threatens the upheaval of the system entirely.

Finished: The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi

The conclusion of the series that started in The Quantum Thief, The Causal Angel deals with posthuman gentleman thief Jean le Flambeur ( Read more... )Highly recommend this series for fans of post-singularity fiction.

Started: Blindsight by Peter Watts (reread)
Started: Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
Started: Zero Echo Schadow Prime by Peter Samet (received for free)

So, yeah, see title. No excuses, I've been reading my flist, just, didn't really feel like I had enough to say to be worth an entry, and when I did, I just didn't feel up to it.

There was my Birthday last month. Thanks to those of you who gave well-wishes or gifts if I haven't responded to you personally (or hey, even if I had, thanks again!). Birthdays don't really mean much to me anymore, but it's still nice to hear.

And Easter (which includes my half-birthday, Good Friday) wasn't bad, turned out to be a lot of Greek Food. Weather's warmed up, which I guess is good, although I prefer ultra cold to the heat of summer, which is coming. Maybe this year I'll try to get a window air conditioner... I can afford it, my main worry is whether my room (or apartment as a whole)'s electrical system can handle it. It's already a bit iffy. But maybe I'll give it a try.

There was some news I was going to write on the 'social interactions with other human beings' front, but it sort of took an unexpected turn, but I guess it's still sort of worth mentioning and who knows, might still work out okay:

I am/was developing a work friend. I'm friendly enough with most of the people there, but it's on a very superficial level, but there's a guy that's there one of the days I work who's about my age, so we have a lot of the same cultural milestones: remembering the same old TV shows, etc, and, as it turns out, a number of the same tastes, both past and present, in media, and it's been fun talking to him on those days about stupid stuff like our crackmayor or the finer points of zombie survival, enough that I actually looked forward to showing up to work. He's a bit more of the 'party dude' type where a lot of his stories involve getting drunk, whereas I'm a more sedate homebody type, so it might not grow beyond just having enjoyable, easygoing, conversations at work, but it's more than I've had in a long time outside of family.

And, apparently, he had to go to the hospital last week. I don't know what the issue is, exactly, apparently he's okay but one of the bosses at work mentioned it's some kind of ongoing issue and they might have to switch his hours, in a way where I'd probably not encounter him again. Maybe that's only temporary, and regardless of where his schedule winds up being, I hope he recovers.

I also had a few weeks where one of the cashiers at one of the grocery stores I went to seemed to take a spontaneous interest me and asking me random questions, but that petered out, so I was probably imagining that.

Anyway... do I really want to walk about TV or movies? Well, movies I think are definitely out, I don't think I've even watched any since last time. Oh, I did watch the Veronica Mars movie of course, which I liked, but I don't have a lot to say for it except that it felt like the pilot to a new series and I kind of wish it was.

TV? Walking Dead, GoT are both good. Arrow's also doing well and SHIELD finally has started kicking into high gear. The 100 is a little cheesy, and definitely teen-y, but I kind of like it so far... they have at least taken some daring moves that I didn't see coming, where I was too used to expecting the safe choice. Beyond that, there's not much going on... networks will be announcing their new shows for next year soon (some already have announced potentials, but I haven't spotted anything really exciting yet).

Online TV, I've been enjoying Tabletop with Wil Wheaton lately (it's like pretending I have friends!), and apparently they're going the crowdfunding route for season 3. I donated, because I'm a fan of the show and I'm a fan of the "crowdfund and give away free after" business model. It's already pretty well successful, but I'm rooting for them to hit $1 million for the RPG spinoff campaign show they've been talking about it. If anyone here's interested, the fundraising page is here (and Tabletop itself can be watched on Geek and Sundry's Youtube channel).

So let's finish this up with the usual roundup of books:

Finished: Coyote, by Allen Steele

Coyote tells the story of a small group of colonists who land on a distant, livable planet (actually a moon of a gas giant), and try to make a go of starting a new life there.

This book kind of surprised me in a couple of different ways. ( Read more... )I put the book at three stars, but it's on the high end of three stars. If it told a more satisfying overall story, it might have made four

Finished: Limit of Vision, by Linda Nagata
Limit of Vision imagines a game-changing invention of artificial life forms, called LOVs because they're small enough that they exist at the Limit of Vision, tiny sparks of light that organize into neural networks, and where it's possible to implant them in a human to enhance their intelligence (and allow them collaborate and share emotions even more easily than ideas). (More behind cut: Short version, I quite liked this, it has flaws but I think it went undeservedly under-the-radar)( Read more... )

Finished: Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross (reread)
Freya is a human-form android... more specifically, a sexbot, designed to provide companionship to humanity. One problem? Humanity has been extinct for nearly a century before she woke up. For the sixty years since then, she and her siblings (constructed from the same model) have done what they can in a solar system where robots have replaced their masters. ( Read more... )Worth reading if you're a Heinlein fan, a Stross fan, like robots, or a good adventure, as long as you don't mind a lot of sex. I'll probably be picking up Neptune's Brood soon enough, which is set in the same universe.

Finished: The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks (reread)
Gurgeh lives in the Culture, a galaxy-spanning utopia, where lives are long and anybody can do almost anything they want, and almost nobody suffers from anything more than occasional boredom. He is a skilled and well-respected game expert. But the whole universe is not the Culture, and Gurgeh is manipulated into helping the Culture's "Special Circumstances" branch in dealing with another culture they've encountered, a violent and imperial group, with a curious twist. Their society is based around a complex game called Azad, to the extent that success in the game determines your posts in government, and whoever wins the regular Azad tournament becomes Emperor. (more behind the cut, and obviously if it's a reread I like it)( Read more... )

Finished: The Troop, by Nick Cutter
A small troop of Boy Scouts and their leader are stranded on a deserted Canadian island, when a sick man with an unnatural hunger comes seeking help. But what he's got is infectious and will change what is supposed to be a wilderness adventure into a real struggle for survival against the natural world, and each other.

I received this book for free as part of a Goodreads giveaway, in exchange for an honest review. And that review is that I liked it. But I wanted to like it more.

The book is regularly described as Lord of the Flies meets 28 Days Later. As a description of plot, that's a decent label. As a description of quality? Well, it falls a little short.( Read more... )I did like it... the plot's pretty good (although I think one boy's fate was a little too unbelievably over the top), and the book gets intense at time, and the "horror element" is genuinely creepy. I just wanted to like it more. There was a little something missing. Not enough that it should stop people from reading it, but in a field saturated with books that tread on this territory (the 'not quite zombies but a plague that has similarity with them' territory), it doesn't stand far enough from the pack in terms of quality, and I suspect in a few years it'll wind up being considered just "yet another plague book."

Finished: Among Others, by Jo Walton
This is the story of a 15-year-old girl from Wales in 1979 who, after a series of events including the death of her twin sister, is sent to boarding school by the father she only recently met. There, she struggles with her wounded leg and making friends in a system she doesn't understand or care for, and indulging her love for science fiction books. Also, she sees faeries, does magic, and her mother's possibly an actual witch.

This is one of those books where you could almost read it as a completely conventional novel. ( Read more... ) But I liked it more than I expected to, and I might not have read it otherwise, so I can't really complain.

Finished: Great North Road, by Peter F. Hamilton
The North family largely consists of exact clones of their progenitor, and many are filthy rich thanks to their domination of the bio oil markets. When one of them is found murdered, the investigation is bound to get a lot of attention... but when it turns out they've been murdered by the same means as another prominent North was, decades earlier, along with all of his household, everybody starts freaking out. Because the lone survivor of the first murder, the one who was charged and convicted for the crime, insisted that an alien monster was responsible. No one believed her, until the monster apparently has come back. Now, while local police do their best to solve the murder their way, an expedition is launched to the planet of St. Libra, in search of a potential alien threat to humanity. ( Read more... )I was planning on giving it a two, but the ending kicking in was just enough to bump it up to three. Like I said, Hamilton's an author I like JUST enough to keep me buying his books, and he did the same thing here.

Finished: War & Space: Recent Combat, (short story collection)
A collection of stories all focusing on, surprisingly enough, war, and space. Usually both in the same story, although a few take place entirely on Earth and deal with those left behind, or those on the fringes of war, or the aftermath. Still, it's safe to say that this is a fairly well-titled analogy (the subtitle "Recent Combat" is a little iffy, considering it all takes place in the future, but why quibble?).

As an anthology, it's, by nature, a mixed bag. ( Read more... )

Started: The Living Dead 2 (short story collection)
Started: Voice of the Whirlwind, by Walter Jon Williams

I haven't posted anything substantive in a while. Just... meh. Nothing to say. Ever get the feeling you're the extra in a movie, and disappear the moment you're off-screen? And it's not even an exciting movie, it's like some romantic comedy or something, which is fine if you're center stage, but just disappointing if you're on of the extras.

Anyway. Christmas coming up. Done most of my shopping, because most of my shopping is gift cards. Yay for thoughtless presents! Not all of it is giftcards, though. And I bought a turkey for a needy family. Not directly, but at the grocery story they were having a 'donate a turkey' thing. The charity played dirty, though, they had kids run up to people who were in that area of the grocery store and ask if I wanted to buy a turkey for a needy family. A few of them were even dressed as turkeys. How could I say no to kids dressed as turkeys for charity? Totally not fair. But I don't mind.

Had a freaky scare with one of the cats. (cut cause perhaps TMI and disgusting details). ( Read more... ) But yeah, it was freaky for a while there.

TV... not much has been going on. Still watching SHIELD, although it's been a disappointment. Arrow's enjoyable. Enjoyed the Doctor Who 50th, for the most part... had a few issues, but mostly it made me smile.

I think the only new show to speak of since last time is Almost Human. Where we learn a lot about the future (minor spoiler ahoy). In the future... ( Read more... )

Many other examples of rather inconsistently-thought out advances in technology... but... I kid, mostly, rather than rant. I mean, these are all pretty ridiculous, but I find myself enjoying the show nonetheless.

Continuum, another show that depicts Cops in the future probably makes similar mistakes, but they're not as bad because we don't focus on that world 24/7 in every ep (since they time-travelled to modern-day Vancouver). I did catch up on S2 of that finally, and enjoyed it enough that I'll keep watching.

Walking Dead was... well, it had a good start, and then dropped the ball again with the Governor. The finale wasn't too bad, but we REALLY didn't need the two episodes before that. Still, zombies are a guilty pleasure so I'm not dropping it even if it gets really bad (and there are plenty of ridiculous bits there too).

I've also caught up a bit on watching movies that I've been overdue for. Dredd was actually rather fun. Total Recall had nice visuals but was pretty dumb. Man of Steel, meh, dragged on an I didn't like the ending. Pacific Rim turned out to be a lot better than I thought it was, particularly for the genre. Dark Knight Rises overrated. Couple other that were okay but forgettable.

Finally, books... read a lot of them. In fact, as of this writing, I've completed my goal of 50 books in 2013. Still a chance I might get another 1 or 2 (I think I got a reasonable shot at 51, 52... maybe if the weather cooperates). But I usually write my reviews, and I have been slacking off, so, here we go, all in a rush at the end of the post, if you usually skip these, you can just stop reading here. As usual, I'm mostly copy/pasting from my Goodreads reviews... minor spoilers many be behind most cuts, but I don't think there's anything that would ruin a person's enjoyment... if there's anything major I'll try to single it out for a special warning.

Finished: The World's Best SF 4, (short story collection)

The Year's Best SF books are a reliable source for entertaining and thought-provoking short stories. This edition holds stories published in 1998.

Although you can always find something to enjoy, they're usually something of a mixed bag... ( Read more... )

Finished: Defining Diana, by Hayden Trenholm (received for free!)

Full disclosure, I received this book free through the Goodreads First Reads program.

2043, Calgary, Canada, Frank Steele leads a group of police officers who tackle the cases that are too big or too weird for anybody else. But when they discover the body of a young girl who doesn't exist in any of the usual databases, with apparently nothing wrong with her that might cause her death, they get a mystery that may connect with some of their other open cases... and have worldwide consequences. ( Read more... ) All in all, I'd recommend it to fans of police procedurals, or those who find the back-of-the-book blurb interesting on their own, but it's not the kind of book I'm liable to call a favorite myself. Certainly enjoyable, but not particularly memorable.

Finished: Backwards, by Todd Mitchell (received for free!)

Full disclosure: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads program.

The story follows a disembodied spirit with no memory, who witnesses the suicide of a teenager named Dan, and finds himself drawn inside... only to wake up inside Dan's body and everything's fine. Soon he realizes that every day he lives through takes him one day further back in time, and through watching his host's actions, and the actions of his family, former friends, schoolmates, as well as the girl he seems obsessed with, the mysteries of the people around him gradually become unveiled and The Rider becomes convinced he has a purpose. He has to gain control of this body and change what happened, somehow.( Read more... )I do think this is one of those teen novels that can be enjoyed by adults and teens alike (as long as those adults don't mind reading about the lives of teens).

Finished: The Star Fraction, by Ken Macleod

In the near future, the UK is divided into microstates, each with their own laws, and many independent groups vying for the future of humanity. Some are struggling to bring their vision of a communist revolution to fruition, while others fear that unregulated computer science may be bringing about the creation of an uncontrollable artificial intelligence that could threaten the world. There's also a possibility that it's already happened.

What can I say about this book? I really, really, wanted to like it. There were some great ideas, and, at times, I was engaged with the characters. But the world they inhabited didn't entirely ring true to me, and even when it did... I just didn't care about it. ( Read more... )

Finished: Embassytown, by China Mieville
Avice Cho lives in Embassytown, a small human outpost on an alien world. She doesn't talk to the alien Hosts who are born to the world.. because they don't understand humans, except for specially trained Ambassadors. Because of a quirk of evolutionary history, the Hosts only perceive language that is spoken with two mouths, speaking different words, at the same time, with the same mind. As such, Ambassadors are specially-created clones, bred and trained from birth specifically to communicate with the Hosts, effectively being one person in two bodies. Avice isn't an Ambassador.. but she does occupy a special place in the Host's language, she's a living similie, something the Hosts compare things to. The Hosts' language is changing thanks to contact with humans, and that is changing them and their society. But when a new team of Ambassadors arrives, their use of the Language throws the world into turmoil. Short version of review: liked it, high quality, but I appreciated the quality more than I actually enjoyed it. ( Read more... )

Finished: Postsingular, by Rudy Rucker
In Postsingular, tiny machines devour the Earth and copy everybody they eat into a simulation... luckily, one of the machine's developers also created a backdoor, and with the help of his autisitc son, they're able to reverse the situation, restoring everybody.

Soon after, another set of tiny self-replicating machines are released, which don't devour, merely reproduce until they cover every inch of the Earth, sharing information with each other and the people they're on, changing society forever as everyone can instantly access information about virtually anything.

That's all in the first fifty pages. And after that, the story starts to get REALLY weird. ( Read more... ) If he hadn't included the Hibrane subplot, I probably would have given it four stars. As it is, three, but a high three.

Finished: Wormholes: A Novel, by Dennis Meredith (received for free!)
Full disclosure: I received a copy of this book free through Goodreads "First Reads" program.

Weird events have been happening all over the world, either matter is disappearing, or appearing, and often with disastrous results for those nearby. One scientist figures out what's happening (psst, the answer's in the title), and then works to harness this power.

I'm afraid I never really got into this book. The premise is an interesting one, from a distance, but, there are just too many issues with the plot. In short, it never felt real, which is especially a shame considering how it mostly tried to stick to an Earth-based plot with scientists investigating a new phenomenon, rather than explore the wilder frontiers of SF. (slightly more spoilery than usual)( Read more... )

Finished: Hylozoic, by Rudy Rucker

Putting the description behind the cut too, because it kind of spoils Postsingular's ending. Short version: some decent ideas, and enjoyed it, but didn't like it as much as Postsingular.
( Read more... )

Finished: He is Legend, (short story collection)

A collection of short stories honoring Richard Matheson, legend of horror, by some other famous and not-so-famous authors. Each story is either a sequel, prequel, alternate point of view, or otherwise inspired by something in Matheson's work.

( Read more... )

Finished: A book that shall not be named that I got for free
I did not like this book, and I don't want to name it for fear the author might google himself and find my LJ (though he read my review and was polite about it)... and also I don't want to further bash it connected to the name. But since I'm not naming it, I will, here, completely spoil it and one of the big issues with it: ( Read more... )

Finished: The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

A teenage boy awakens without memory, having arrived in a location called the Glade, filled with other boys who were all in the same predicament, having arrived once a month, also remembering little more than their names. Thomas, like those before him, learns that the Glade is surrounded by a maze, filled every night with monsters. By day, everyone has jobs to keep their little community going... but the elite of the group, the Maze Runners, run out and try their best to solve the mystery of the shifting walls and look for a way out so they can go home and find out who they really are. But Thomas is different from the others, he develops a growing feeling that he's been there before, and a certainty that he must become a Maze Runner. And everything changes when, shortly after he arrives, for the first time, a girl arrives in the Glade.

It's a YA novel, and, as you might expect, marketed as being a good book for fans of The Hunger Games, so it's only natural to compare them. Well, it's not nearly as good as that, but it's a solidly enjoyable read.( Read more... )

Otherwise, it's an appealing book, not great, but I enjoyed it, and I might check out the movie when it comes out next year. As for the sequels? Unlike The Hunger Games, I'm not immediately eager to track down the next book and see where it goes, but I'm at least curious enough that I might pick it up down the line, especially if I see it in a used bookstore for a decent price.

Finished: Pump Six and other stories, by Paulo Bacigalupi (Short story collection)
This is a series of short stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, best known for his novel The Windup Girl. Two of the stories are set in the world of that novel.

Short story collections are usually a mixed bag of quality, themes, and styles... but when they're all by one author, they can be less varied than even a collection centered around a theme, and certainly more than a "Best Of" collection. In this case, we have a set of stories that I'd describe as well-written, and individually, I might enjoy, but when you take the collection as a whole... it gets to be too one note.( Read more... ) I just don't really connect to his characters and I'm starting to think that his writing in general may not work for me.

Finished: Outcasts of Heaven's Belt, by Joan D. Vinge
A starship arrives in the Heaven system, hoping to trade, only to discover that in their years of transit, the system has suffered a severe civil war... and now their own spaceship is a prize every faction feels they need in order to survive. Short version: Bit flat and dry, some interest for fans of Vernor Vinge's "Zones of Thought" universe. ( Read more... )

Started: The Chronoliths, by Robert Charles Wilson (reread)
Started: The Bohr Maker, by Linda Naginata (reread, but I only read it once probably 15 years ago so I barely remember it)

That's it until next post. Merry Christmas to all that celebrate it. I'll try to post before the New Year if only to post my complete reading list, but if not, Happy New Year too.

And not any good reason, just been sort of meh and not had much to say that felt worthy of a post on its own. But there have been a few things building up that, maybe collectively, work.

First, OMG Heat Wave of death these last couple days, but it's finally over. Not as cool as I might like, but at least it's reasonably comfortable. I suppose in the end it wasn't all that bad, I'd suffered through worse and longer (as have others), but it was at the point where I couldn't do much beyond lie back and blerg.

Secondly, I got my first smartphone! Which also happens to be my first cell phone. Except, aside from receiving a couple spam text messages, I haven't yet used as a cell phone, despite having to buy 3 months service to get the phone (it was discounted a fair bit though so, in the end, I came out ahead). Heck, nobody even asked for my number. But really, all I wanted it for was so that I could be out and about and access free wifi, and for the 13mp camera that I can use when going to Toronto Fan Expo. I'll get to that in a moment, but for the record, it's a Sony Xperia T, that they're selling as the James Bond phone because apparently he used it in Skyfall. So therefore I assume it can also be made to explode or let out a smokescreen or shoot tranquilizer darts, but I haven't pressed all the buttons yet. Otherwise, it's nice, takes a little getting used to the interface, and typing can be an annoying chore, but I'm getting better at it. I've already loaded a few free SF books on it so I have something to read on hand whenever I carry it, and a few free games and a police scanner so I can figure out if they're closing in on me! Well, actually, every time I've tried the scanner in my area, it doesn't seem to get anything (the transit police and fire department ones work), and I don't believe the police want me for anything, so I'm good. Actually, I haven't really taken it 'out in the wild' yet, since I first set it up, the farthest I've gone with it is the laundry room. That's because I want to ensure it survives, unwet and undamaged by the rigors of work, and unstolen, at least until the end of August. I'll take it out on baby steps (once I get some kind of waterproof container in case of rain), maybe when I visit my grandmother this week, but I'm taking it slow. I also plan to root my phone (for many reasons, but not the least of it is to delete the annoying bloatware apps I never plan to use but are by default undeleteable), but again, not until after August. Why then?

Toronto Fan Expo, of course. Yeah, I'm planning on going this year. After all, Nathan Fillion AND Gina Torres will be there. How could I not? (Morena Baccarin will also be there but I already have her signature on my Firefly boxed set, so, she's not enough, on her own, to go). A number of other cool people too, but I doubt I'll be collecting any other signatures... they cost so much these days, so I save it for the ones I really like. I do also hope to hook up with Adrian Alphona (err, not in the romantic sense, although I DO like his art an awful lot and it might be hard to say no if he asked! ;)), and see if I can get a commission done, because he's one of the few artists I would be willing to pay for. But I think the only way it'll work is if I can contact him in advance and just pick it up at the con.

I will not be wearing a costume (aside from my usual Blue Sun shirt)... still haven't thought of any I could pull off, much less assembled one. But I will enjoy seeing all the other costumes and, with my phone, hopefully will have a camera better able to capture some of them!

That's about all the big personal news I have (lame as it is), so let's move on to the 'discussing other media' portion of my post! This time I'll leave the Book Foo to the end. First, since it's relatively fresh news, let's talk Veronica Mars. At the SDCC, they released the first look at the movie footage! You can see it here! It's pretty much finished filming already, and really, I'm astounded not just at the fact that they managed to get it kickstarted, but also how many people from the original series they got back to make appearances. I mean, virtually everybody I wanted to see (who was still alive when the series ended), they got, with maybe one exception (and he was, though not dead, written out pretty definitively, and, with these people, might even still be coming as a surprise). And a lot of the actors seem super eager to be back, and have been recording thank you messages. The best of all of them, was indubitably Ryan Hansen (Dick Casablancas)'s awesome video where he clearly spent a lot of time and effort in it (and pulled in guest stars!). Seriously, you gotta watch. Well, you don't gotta, but it's fun.

Other news? Game of Thrones is over, good season... Falling Skies is ongoing, enjoying it, but not wowed. Defiance got a little better... also not wowed, but it was watchable, at least. Still waiting on Korra season 2, and beyond that, it's pretty much just the fall season I have to look forward to (well, I still gotta watch S2 of Continuum but I've been slacking). Oh, and Under the Dome, which was... disappointing. Not for the changes, I actually like MOST of them, but... I dunno, it feels too episodic (like 'ZOMG PLAGUE!' episode that gets comes up and gets resolved in that episode) and at times doesn't really treat the premise with the seriousness it deserves (for the most part everybody seems to be just going about their business as normal... and as I read somewhere else... they've been Domed for how many days now and they haven't had a big town meeting to discuss the issue and the possibilities?). It just makes for a big lack of tension. I'm still watching, but it hasn't met my hopes, and my hopes weren't all that high.

Movies? Nothing really new, though I did watch the Evil Dead remake (okay, bit too gory for my tastes, but even there I appreciate the effort that went into making that look good), Oz The Great and Powerful (reasonably cute), Superman Unbound (decent but kind of forgettable, except for one awesome Lois scene... really needed Nathan Fillion though, since it had two other Castle stars!), Jack the Giant Slayer (also decent-but-forgettable), John Dies at the End (funny at times, decent plot ideas, didn't think it came together completely, but I'd be willing to see a sequel). Oh, and Justice League, New Frontier... which I liked mostly (and I'm kinda surprised how occasionally explicit DC's willing to be in these animated movies... maybe not compared to other action movies, but at least far more than in TV cartoons. But I approve.)

And I guess that leaves us with books. As usual, mostly just cut and pasting my reviews from Goodreads.

Finished: The Living Dead, (short story collection)

A collection of zombie tales, with a variety of tones and even a variety of types of zombies. ( Read more... )

Finished: A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge (reread)

( Read more... )

Finished: A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge (reread)
( Read more... )

Finished: Vortex, by Robert Charles Wilson

Vortex is the third book in the series that started with Spin. Spin was a great work of science fiction, seamlessly weaving incredible science fiction concepts with believable human drama, and it ended with a tease for wonder-inspiring stories to come. (More behind the cut, spoiler-free version: Okay, disappointing as a followup to Spin, but less so than the previous sequel)
( Read more... )

Finished: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge, by Vernor Vinge

Short version: A few great stories, but the collection as a whole is probably worth it only for superfans.
( Read more... )

Finished: Crypto-Punk, by George Traikovich (received free!
A sinister force is changing some of the kids at Bixby Elementary school, but as a new fad called "Crypto-Punk" takes hold at the same time, only a few ten-year-olds notice any problem, and have to act to stop it.

Full disclosure: I received this book for free through Goodreads' First Reads program. When I signed up to receive the book, it wasn't entirely clear what age-group it was targeted towards... the fact that it was set at an Elementary school suggested it skewed young, but not every book about kids is geared towards them, and Elementary school covers a wide range of ages. But upon reading it, it's pretty clear this is targeted towards preteens and early teens, at about the same level as the first Harry Potter book. ( Read more... )

Finished: All You Need is Kill, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
This is an acclaimed Japanese SF novel (read in translation), about a common soldier fighting on the front lines against alien invaders who've ravaged much of the Earth. It's his very first battle, and despite the technological Jacket he wears and the weaponry he carries, he dies... only to wake up 30 hours earlier, before the battle starts. And then it happens again.

It's basically a "Groundhog Day" plot, grafted on to an action SF plot about fighting a swarm of aggressive aliens with no personality. He uses his loops to get better but somehow can't avoid dying and returning back to the start. ( Read more... )
So, on the whole, I'm pleased. I have a feeling it's probably going to be more enjoyable than the inevitable Tom Cruise movie adaptation (that's not a random slam, there literally is one on the way).

Finished: Children of the Sky, by Vernor Vinge (reread)
This is the long-awaited sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep, set about a dozen years later, with Ravna Bergsndot and what were once the children of a science lab that caused a galactic disaster, trapped on the world of the Tines, a species based on small hive-minds made up of four or more dog-like creatures that, only collectively, make up people. Ravna's doing her best to advance the world's technology level, for she fears that a monstrous evil is still on its way to destroy them all, decades in the future... only she discovers that the greatest threats might be closer to home.

The first time I read this, I was probably too excited about finally having it to really evaluate it objectively. On this, my second read through... I'm probably still too excited, but it's easier to notice and admit the flaws.( Read more... )

Started: The Rapture of the Nerds, by Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow
Started: Hyperion, by Dan Simmons (reread)

Okay, 6 out!

Just a roundup of some recent-ish TV-related thoughts I've been saving up.

Walking Dead ended... it was pretty good, but (major spoilers ahoy if you haven't seen it) ( Read more... )

Game of Thrones started... not much to say on it, but still really enjoying it.

Supernatural's still in the hack writing mockworthy stage, but I have to especially mock something in the latest new episode (spoilers... it's the Sam's second "trial" one) ( Read more... )

Doctor Who... I don't know. I like Clara so far, although I wish we got one of the other versions we saw rather than the one we did. First episode was okay, second started great but they blew the ending (more later), and third episode I mostly liked.

My main problem right now is with the writing for the character itself. And it's not a new problem, it's been going for a long time, it's just starting to grate on me more and more the more they continue it.

1) The Doctor as know-it-all tour guide.
I love that he's a smart character.

But a thousand years old is not enough to see a whole universe, particularly when you've got not just all of time, but time and space. Which means that for him to know everything about every race he comes across... he's gotta be revisiting the places he knows well a lot. And that bears it up, I looked up past episodes, and was hard pressed to find one where the Doctor and his companions visit somewhere he's never been, just for the hell of it. There were a few times where circumstances, accidents or distress calls have dragged them to places they've never been before (but usually with a familiar threat), but most of the time, they're trying to get to places he knows. There might have been two-three cases in the entire New Who era where he's got a goal other than that. They're always visiting places he's either been at some other time, or heard a lot about, and so the Doctor can point out all the alien races and know their particular quirks. And of course, Earth, but that's part of the show and you're never going to get rid of that, but I'd like the episodes where they're away from Earth to break that mold. That's my problem, the doctor is no longer an EXPLORER. He's a tour guide.

I want a companion, when asked where they want to go, to say, "I want to go someplace you've never been, a place you've barely even heard of, where you don't already know everything about what's going on." But mostly I want the Doctor to WANT to go to new places. Because as it is, he doesn't so much have to rely on being clever, he has to rely on already knowing the right thing. He doesn't have to figure out what an alien creature's motives and desires are, he just has to know that particular alien race so he can point it out to the audience and companion and explain what they want. And that's easier to write, because it's the LAZY way to do it.

This attitude seems to creep into writing in other ways, a sort of laziness I noticed, which brings me to Episode 2 of the new half-series, the Rings of Akhenaten. It started out okay, except of course, Doctor was playing know-it-all tour guide AGAIN, but the ending combined two of my least favorite and laziest endings. Spoilers, ahoy, both for it and "The Cold War", which I use to contrast. ( Read more... )

Anyway, that's enough of that, let's move on...

And the newest of the SF series to debut is "Defiance", created by Rockne S. O'Bannon, who was behind Farscape. And you can see some Farscape influences here... made-up swear words, a set of well-designed alien races, as humanoid ones go, anyway, (except the white haired ones look a little too much like bad costumes), a female heroine who isn't particularly "nice" and "approachable".. it's almost like they were trying to catch lightning in a bottle and create "Farscape set on a future Earth". And I do like the alien races (and the alien Doctor is kind of my favorite character so far, despite only having a handful of lines). But the whole thing feels a little... the word that keeps jumping to mind is "stilted". Awkward, artificial... it doesn't feel like a real world, like Farscape usually managed, it feel like... well, it feels like a video game world brought to life, which in some ways it is. Too many plot points I called in advance and dialogue that I too often cringed at. But, pilots are sometimes pretty weak, often the weakest outings of the series, and I'll give it a little time to find its legs. Right now, though, I'm not confident.

Syfy did announce recently a slate of new SF series, some of which sound like they have potential, but, with that channel, I don't have my expectations that high. (They also announced minis based on Ringworld and Childhood's End, which I'd love to see but have little confidence in)

Cartoons... now that Young Justice is cancelled, nothing really to look forward to until Korra S2 premieres, I guess. Are there any other good cartoons on that I'm missing?

Oh, and Continuum S2 starts this Sunday, so I guess that's worth a look.

So... I just got some books in the mail, finally using up my Xmas gift card (I got Impulse, by Steven Gould, the third book in the Jumper series, one of my favorites, The Fractal Prince by Hannu RajaIdon'twannalookuphisnameagainrightnow, and an anthology of zombie stories because it was in the Bargain Books list), and I realized it had been a while since I'd done a post like this. So, let's get caught up on the books I've been reading lately.

Finished: Gridlinked, by Neal Asher
Finished: The Line of Polity, by Neal Asher

I'm going to treat these more or less as one. I bought The Line of Polity first, accidentally thinking it was stand-alone (or perhaps the first book in the series). Once I realized my mistake, I went back and found the first book.

This series didn't particularly do anything for me. It's sort of a combination of secret agent tales and space opera, and I suppose it's fine for all that, but none of the characters really connected to me and I saw many of the events coming, and, for the most part, I read just to get through it. I did notice that one of the main personality characteristics of the main character, from the first book, seemed to have been completely brushed aside in the second... and while I didn't much like him then, I don't think the best approach was to make him even blander.

It's kind of a sad commentary on the series that my favorite character in it is an artificially intelligent shuriken that never communicates to others or indicates its thoughts to the reader or anybody else in anything but the most limited ways.

Maybe I'll give the series another chance somewhere down the line, but I don't think I'm going to be reading the rest anytime soon.

Finished: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card (reread)
One of my all time favorite books (and yes, I know, many of the author's political views are abominable, but the book rises above it... I can hold it against the author, but not against the book), and I just felt like reading it again, especially because the movie'll be coming out this year.

Finished: The Lady of Mazes, by Karl Schroder (reread)

I've read this before, but I still really enjoy this. I'll do a bit longer here, behind the cut, because I just reviewed it on Goodreads, too and I might as well copy and paste. ( Read more... )

Started: Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card (reread)
Started: Rainbows End, by Vernor Vinge (reread)

Also, last book foo, in a short story collection (Year's Best SF 15), there was one thing that I wanted to quote, just because I liked it, but I forgot to. Well, now I'm remembering. It's from the story Collision, by Gwyneth Jones:
"Down all the millenia, people like you have said science is 'challenging the Throne of God.' The funny thing is, your 'God' doesn't seem to mind. Your 'God' keeps saying to us, Hey, wonderful! You noticed! Follow me, I've got some other great stuff to show you--"

Okay, off books, and onto TV... I don't have a lot to talk about. Walking Dead starts again this Sunday, which is cool. I've also been lately getting into Leverage in reruns... it turns out to be a lot of fun (and a lot of SF people in it). And I've been watching Tabletop online. Oh, Wil Wheaton, if someone had told me years ago you'd become my favorite TNG cast member (okay, maybe just behind Patrick Stewart), I would have thought they were crazy. It's a lot of fun, but I especially like the games where there is some roleplaying involved, and indeed think they should do a spinoff that is just RPGs (I never watched Being Human, either version, but Sam Witwer from the US version is clearly not just a gamer, he's apparently also a GM so I like him now, too.)

But the main show that I think we need to talk about is Fringe.

Fringe... what happened to you, man? You used to be cool.

(major spoilers for the series will be behind the cut... spoiling pretty much the whole last season... no, wait, the WRITERS spoiled the last season).

In the end, I'm so disappointed in Fringe that I wish it was cancelled, not LAST season, but the season before. Yes, they screwed the pooch so much that I wish we could undo that last two seasons. And maybe a few minutes or seconds before the end of the finale before that (just to better wrap it up rather than leaving on a surprise dangler).

( Read more... )

On a similar vein, and moving from TV onto movies, we have the movie Looper.

Looper has a silly premise. I'm sorry, it does... "Time Travel gets invented... but it's only used by the mob... to dispose of bodies! Because there's nothing else that can be done with it!"
is silly on the face of it. But you look past it... and some of the silliness that comes with stylistic choices... and it's actually pretty enjoyable. Well acted, tense, and even introduces a few plot elements out of left field that don't automatically fit in with a time travel movie, but made things a little cooler. And they went to some very dark places, with a lot of ambiguity. And then... that ending (major total spoiling spoilers behind cut)...
( Read more... )

Also watched The Dark Knight Returns Part 2. Still don't get why this was two movies. Put the runtime of both together, no special features, and you get an hour and a half of movie. But it was enjoyable, and I liked it a lot more than reading the comic (I didn't like the art). I know it's heresy, but I actually think they should make a sequel... The Dark Knight Strikes Back, in animated form. Except... don't do the sequel Frank Millar actually wrote. Just take the best ideas in it and write the sequel it SHOULD have been.

I think that's about it. I've got a few other recent new (on DVD) movies but I never get around to actually watching them.

So, lots of stuff on a lot of different fronts, that... well, I don't know that I have a whole lot to say, but sometimes you just gotta talk even if it's just to say nothing. So, TV, comics, a bit of overdue book foo, and even a bit of life (not that I really have one).

Normally I start with Book foo, but let's change it up a little and end with it. Because I am "wacky" like that.

So, comics. I've been... drifting away from comics. Like I'm on a inflatable raft and the tide's dragging me away. Except, a lot of it is the comic companies pushing me away. I mean, what with DC rebooting everything, into crap, and removing my favorite characters/concepts in favor of "iconic" crap, and Marvel... just not being very good. Not 'drive me away' bad, but not 'getting me into the store' good, with no concepts or characters that make me want to pick up the book. The last ongoing I had been reading (New Mutants), just pretty well turned to crap when they shifted creative team and removed a bunch of cast members I liked and replaced them with ones I don't care about or dislike (not to mention some pretty bad art and a few stories that I just do not care for at all). So I dropped it, and haven't been in a comic store in months. In fact, this month, I actually LOST more comics than I gained - I decided to toss a few of the more forgettable issues of X-Men Unlimited, dropping them off on the 'free to take' table on the Laundry Room, maybe some kid will like them.


However, one recent development makes me just the teensiest bit excited about Marvel again... not right now, perhaps, but for the future (unfortunately, it's paired with another development that will quite possibly drive me further away). Spoilers for comics in the last 2-3 weeks I think, behind cut, and ones that are announced but not yet appearing.

So, at the end of the latest AvX (Avengers vs X-Men) event, one that seemed generally dumb and from what I've seen of most of the aftermath, not much better, but that have done ONE thing that I've wanted for a while. ( Read more... )

But at least there's some hope for the future... except, one of the stupid upcoming miniseries is "Avengers Arena", where Arcade abducts a bunch of super-powered teens and forces them to fight to the death, Battle Royale style (and they knocked-off Battle Royale's logo, too, so it's very deliberate). Normally, I'd think it's a dumb, bad idea, but I could ignore it, except for one thing. Two of the characters drafted into it are from Runaways, one of my favorite teams from the last decade of comics... Chase and Nico are abducted and presumably will be forced to kill or be killed.

Marvel, if you permanently kill off either of them in a stupid knockoff mini, I will mostly likely drop you. 90% of the reason I dropped DC was because they removed Oracle to make room for Batgirl, so don't think I won't do it. I already imagine my own stories to replace the horrible last runs of Runaways, if you make me imagine around the deaths of two of my favorite characters, I'll just stick to the Marvel Universe in my imagination.


On to TV, and sticking to comics theme, I checked out Arrow and... I'm whelmed. I'm not sold, it seems a little... heartless (not cruel, but just that it doesn't have the zing of a movie that the people in it really enjoy doing). The main character especially is a bit flat and his action moves a bit over-the-top. But, it was a pilot, so I'll give it a few episodes to get going before I make a final decision.

Also watched Doctor Horrible again, on TV when it aired on the CW on Tuesday... enjoyed it of course, but adding commercials really messes with the pacing. Between the act breaks is fine, but there's one more commercial per act and it just doesn't... flow right. Anyway, still was fun to catch up, although, with a few exceptions, my memory had faded on many of the lyrics.

Other shows, new, old, and upcoming...

WALKING DEAD THIS WEEK. That is all I have to say on that subject, but I hope my caps lock has conveyed my excitement properly.

Supernatural: I'm not sure if it gets worse every year these days, or if it's about the same level of badness, only I get used to it and then in the summer months off I lose my resistance, but it starts feeling stupid again. Watching on pure inertia (and a little, to mock).

Fringe: Oh, what has happened to you show? Although I wasn't quite as into it as other shows, or other people, but there were moments of brilliance and at least a real spark. But this season with your shift into the Observer plotline, it's just not the same show anymore.

And I'm okay with a show changing dramatically... heck, I always used to think that the West Wing should have, in its final year, gone all out and dealt with a alien first contact, or 24 deal with a zombie apocalypse in its last year. But it should at least be as good as what it was before. Instead, we're treated to the billionth iteration of "fighting against an evil dictatorship" when there were so many cooler stories dealing with multiple universes. I'll keep watching because I have an sbsurd loyalty to shows I used to enjoy (see above re: Supernatural), but I don't really care much anymore.

Last Resort: Giving it a try. Interesting premise, not entirely sure it works as a series, but I'm interested, at least.

Revolution: Started out okay. Not great, and with flaws in the premise (electricity doesn't work, fine, but if guns work, then at least some kind of steam-run technology should be possible... not steam powered electronics, but just simple "expanding hot air/water vapour moving things", and even some very simple vehicles). The main problem, in the latest episode (spoilers) ( Read more... )

Doctor Who: A bit weak this season, and with a lot more plotholes than I'd like. And I think... hey, I like Moffat. And in my world, he'd always be welcome to write an episode. But I think I'm ready for him to move on as a showrunner and get somebody else. Somebody who can write without plots either full of insanely complicated twisting time-branches, or hopelessly plot-hole-riddled things that look like he wrote in an afternoon. Just stories of average complexity that hold together well past a moment's though. And someone who can think of the consequences of what he puts together. Still, I'm interested in seeing how the show changes with the Christmas special and beyond.

Once Upon a Time: I haven't talked about this much because I was never that into it in the first year. A bit silly, and too much dillydallying, where you knew they were stretching out the plot and so
any time you THOUGHT there would be development, it would all be undone by a "surprise" revelation that the person you thought was getting their comeuppance was actually aware of what was going on all the time, stuff like that. I had a bad feeling that they were going to follow that pattern for the whole five years (or more) of the show. It just barely held my attention, mostly because there's just nothing else on Sunday nights (that doesn't come on another channel were I have to download it later).

But I've gotta give them credit. They made a big move in the season finale, a big change, and it's improved the prospects of the show dramatically, and the first couple episodes have actually got me more interested than I had been anywhere in the last year.

Grimm: Another show on the 'I don't love it, but I watch it' bubble. They made one big good change this year (letting the partner in on the secret), and one big bad change this year (the whole Juliet plot... just... just let her go, write her out. It's stupid and painful to watch (and not in a good way), and worst of all... you teased a DREAM SEQUENCE of her problem this year being resolved. Amnesia wasn't hacky enough, you have to pull the ultra-hacky "look, plot development... nope, dream!" in a teaser. If there's one person handling that plot, they should be gently let go.

I think that's it for TV... there are a few other shows I watch but they're usually more episodic formula and so, although there are a few ongoing plotlines, you could miss bunches of episodes and it not really matter much and so they're kind of immune to my being particularly disappointed by or excited by them, and as such, don't feel the need to talk about them.

So I think that's it for TV and comics... any movies? Well, I did watch the Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. That's the animated adaptation of the classic story. I enjoyed it for the most part. I always though the general ideas were good but I didn't much like Millar's presentation of it, but as an actual movie it looks and feels a lot better. Voices are good except Weller's a little flat as Batman. Don't know that it needed to be two parts, considering part one's only 45 minutes of actual runtime (and another half hour or so of Making-Of features it looks like), they could have put it together into one.

So I guess now it's time for Book Foo.

Finished: Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds

The third part in a space opera involving machines dedicated to wiping out all sentient life, this one much of the action centers on a small icy moon of a gas giant that has a religion sprung up around it, because the gas giant, occasionally, vanishes for a few split seconds. And the people from the last books continue on and stuff. Trying to be vaguey and non spoilery here, but there will be fairly big spoilers after the cut.

It was okay, except the ending really left me with a sense of "wait, that's IT?", and in the worst possible way.( Read more... )

Finished: Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan (Kovacs trilogy, #2) (reread)

Not much to say here, read it a couple times before and commented on it then.

Finished: 7th Sigma by Steven Gould
This novel centers on a teen living on his own in the Territory: an area of the southwestern US running on low technology... because of a race of self-reproducing robotic bugs that seek out all metal/electronics and devour it to make more of themselves (even if that means digging into your body to grab your pacemaker). The novel isn't really about the bugs, they're just an ever-present background (and it's sort of set up for a sequel where they take a bigger role), it's mostly just an excuse for a series of low-tech adventures, a little like a western. The series is highly inspired by the story Kim by Rudyard Kipling, and like that (supposedly) it's a bit of a picaresque... loosely connected series of events as the hero grows up. He also gets involved in undercover work for the law.

Now, the teen is uber-competent, which is okay I guess because this really kind of does feel like teen fiction, but it's a little grating after a while. The book didn't grab me like some of the author's other work, but I'd read a sequel if it came out.

In other news from this author, in a few months the third book in the Jumper series is due to be released, and I'm very excited, since I love that series.

Finished: Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan (Kovacs trilogy, #3) (reread)

Again, reread, nothing especially new to say.

Finished: Little Fuzzy by John Scalzi

A sort of "reboot"/reimagining of the Fuzzy books by H. Beam Piper. I've never read them, though I always had them on my 'look for' list in used bookstores. I probably will check out the original too. Anyway, the story concerns a prospector on an alien planet who strikes it rich with a discovery, and then makes another discovery... a race of primitive animals nobody's discovered there yet, which is interesting but nothing special... until he lets his ex-GF know and she starts to believe that they may actually be an intelligent species. That means the planet belongs to them and all commercial exploitation of the planet has to stop. And since people stand to make hundreds of billions of credits off the planet, it's in a lot of people's best interests, including the main character's, to not see them as people.

It's competently done, I guess. It feels more like a short story padded out rather than a novel, by which I mean a little simplistic and lean, but not in a bad way, just kind of a feelgood tale (with some decidedly not feelgood parts to get you there) tightly focused on exploring one particular idea and everything else being in service to that. Enjoyable without being particularly deep (even if some of the issues explored kind of call out for a little more deepness).

Started: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (reread)
Started: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

And with books out of the way, what's left? Well, I guess I can do a life update, such as it is. Well, last weekend was Thanksgiving (in Canada)... just had a small one with my dad, stepmom, and grandmother (and of course, brother and sister-in-law who I live with anyway). Instead of the traditional turkey, they decided to do something different and have steak and spare ribs. Very good meal of course, though I felt a little disconnected from everything. Today we're actually having turkey, since I bought a small one in the pre-Thanksgiving sales just for me and the roommates because we figured, why miss out?

Otherwise... my life continues. That's about all I can say. I guess I'm depressed. I say I guess, because I feel rather numb about it all, disconnected as I mentioned above... I don't actually feel (or consciously feel) any 'oh my god I'm so sad' feelings, at least no more than I usually do, but there's other evidence. I've been sleeping more, with longer naps during the day. I haven't been doing much of what normally I enjoy, like writing... been about a week since I wrote more than a few words at a time. Don't think I'll be doing my "100 Words of Horror" thing this year, nothing's coming to me, and very few others ever took up the challenge anyway, so I doubt it'd be missed.

And as you can see I've been a bit blah on TV and books lately, which may be them, but also may be me. And I tend to wind up either doing nothing (or napping) instead because I'm just not interested enough to do anything, and I have nothing really to replace it with, either. Not like I really have friends to go out with or anything.

Other possible evidence... I don't know if this is related or not, since my eyes have always been a bit funky, but I've noticed a sort of... weirdness to my vision. Like, things are too bright and a little... off. And the thing is, it only happens when I'm somewhere other than home/work. Sometimes on the walk to/from work, but mostly on the rare times I deviate from the routine. It's a little uncomfortable and distracting, but hard to describe... the best I can come with is... there's a certain thing like it in dreams, where it's almost like my view is moving slightly independently from my eyes. Like, there's a screen projected right in front of my eyes, and normally I don't notice that it's a screen because everything moves like it's supposed to and reacts to my movements instantly, but every once in a while, it's a little laggy, and my eyes move more than my view and it's jarring. It's a little like that. Or maybe like my eyes have figured out that everything I'm seeing is fake and is trying to move a little too fast on purpose in order to catch the lag, which, even if it doesn't actually do that (and if it does, I can only hope it'd let me wake up), is still disorienting.

Or maybe I'm just going crazy(er). Regardless. It's not ever present, it's just every once in a while and just the possible evidence of depression. So yeah, I'm comfortable in declaring that I'm a lot more depressed than usual, even if I'm not actually feeling it much. I've been trying to combat it, trying to force myself into writing hoping that it'll just work over the bump, and limiting the unnecessary sleep (which I know can be corrosive) and even by deliberately making an effort to check Facebook regularly instead of only every few weeks. I'm honestly not sure if that last one's helping or hurting. But it's doing something.

And to leave it on random moments of happiness and things that make me smile, right now I'm watching The Incredible Hulk on TV, and they just had the scene where Bruce dumps all Betty's stuff on the bed and tells her "Basically we can't use any of this stuff without being tracked." And then she says "What about my lip gloss can we use that?" And then points out her glasses. And then he realizes, yes, most of the stuff THEY can use (including CASH), just a few things that they can't. It's such a little scene but it's probably my favorite one in the movie (which I feel is a little underrated overall).