Space Opera Be Gone
It’s been a while since I’ve done a good old fashioned book-post. Here’s what’s sat on my bedside table recently.
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Iron Sunrise by Charles StrossYuck. After reading the astounding Accelerando!, I grabbed Iron Sunrise when I saw it at the bookstore. I didn’t realize it was the sequel to Singularity Sky, a book I really disliked. While far better than Singularity Sky, it’s still just stinky space-opera. Blah. Bah Humbug. |
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Rainbow’s End by Vernor VingeRainbow’s End is a mildly interesting cyber-punk novel about a man trying to reconstruct his life and identity after being given an experimental therapy to reverse his severe Alzheimer’s and restore his youth. It started with a really interesting premise but never really went anywhere. Not bad, but not all that good either. |
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Coalescent by Stephen BaxterI really enjoyed this novel. It was three-quarter’s historical fiction set during the Roman decline in Britain with a hint of Arthurian legend thrown in for good measure. The remainder was a present-day plot line peppered with some interesting speculative-evolution science fiction. I’ve just dipped into the sequel and so far I’m a little disappointed because it looks like book two is some pretty hard-core space opera, and I’m not enjoying it at all yet. |
Finally got around to reading “Flow” on your recommendation. T’was good.
As a return volley, i recommend “Stumbling on Happiness”. It explains why humans are so bad at groking stuff (like, how our brain is lying to us all the time). It won the science book of the year. Plus, he’s funny.
Weird. I picked up that book “Stumbling on Happiness” at Safeway the other day, but I have not looked at it yet.
-j.
I couldve easily judged those books by their covers.