ixoy's reading log

ixoy

Finished 'The Temporal Void' by Peter F. Hamilton, Book 2 of 'The Void' trilogy.
It continues the interesting concept of telling two stories - one set in the Commonwealth universe in about the 32nd century, where a large void in the galaxy's centre is slowly expanding outwards and how they're trying to cope.
The other appears as a pure fantasy novel, detailing the exploits of a powerful young psychic, Edeard, and his rise to power.

The two stories are connected but you could almost read them independently. I really like both stories - they had interesting plots, but ones that were often handled in quite a realistic way. Edeard's attempts to overthrow crime were plotted out well and how he ultimately chose to fix them, as revealed in the closing chapters, and the result of that put a lovely twist in the tale. The main sci-fi strand, taking up about 35% of the book, is similarly well handled and has all the touches of grand space opera that I love from Hamilton. The writing is always crisp and Hamilton has a great eye for description.

I almost thought I'd have had a bad word to say when a certain event occurred towards the end of the book.. but then Hamilton neatly flipped my understanding of that and left me with nothing bad to say. A great book and I'll be definitely reading the sequel.

ixoy

Finished 'Swords Against Wizardry' by Fritz Leiber, the fourth collection of his Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series. The vast bulk of this is taken up by two novellas - 'Stardock' and 'The Lords of Quarmall'.

The first novella starts off well, and the mountain (the eponymous Stardock) is beautifully described. However, the inhabitants of the mountain are relatively unexciting and the finale is quite weak.

'The Lords of Quarmall' is a stronger affair. The setting is interesting, telling the tale of two warring brothers inside a large mountain. Splitting up the duo, it effectively uses their personalities as each is on an opposing aside, unaware of the other's presence. It builds up well, and there's some beautiful descriptions, and the finale is very satisfying.

A pretty decent collection of stories over all.

ixoy

Finished 'Abarat - Days of Magic, Nights of War' by Clive Barker, Book 2 in his Abarat sequence.

There's two versions of this book - the regular paperback and a beautifully illustrated glossy hardback which is the version I read. The illustrations are drawn by Barker himself and indeed inspired a lot of the story itself, a story which is akin to a dark fairy tale aimed at young adults - lots of wonder, but also some dark moments.

Telling the continuing adventures of Candy as she wanders the islands of Abarat, Barker's vivacious vivid imagination really shines here as Candy encounters fabulous characters, places and scenarios - animated creatures spun from ship's rigging or talking islands or a series of creatures eating one another or... I could go on. At times it does seem a little that Candy is wandering around the islands almost as a tourist, as if to showcase Barker's creations rather than out of a plot-driven necessity, but it's not what I'd consider a fault of any great proportion.

It's a recommended series, but I'd definitely tell people to plump for the illustrated edition to really enhance the feeling of travelling the bizarre Abarat lands.

ixoy

Finished 'Dune: The Butlerian Jihad' by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, Book 1 in the 'Legends of Dune' trilogy.

Well this was a bad one - I expected it to be poor, but it defied those expectations by being worse than I'd feared. Reviews over on amazon.co.uk, more eloquently describe the many flaws than I can - suffice to say the word "cash in" was never more aptly applied. The prose is lacklusture, the characters laughable, the dialogue insipid, the clichés rampant, but even worse it barely feels like the Dune universe - it's as if the two writers are so intent on trying to show how the Dune universe came to be, that they ignore Frank Herbert's thoughtful and philosophical insights into humanity and ecology, that made up his original series.

On a positive note, I've no more Anderson or Brian Herbert books on my shelf to read and nor will I ever have them again. Avoid.

ixoy

Finished 'The Shadow Road', the 3rd part in Sean Russell's "Swan's War" trilogy.

This was a bit of a dull read - never particularly exciting, never terribly bad. The story suffered from having too many characters crammed into about 3 parties with none of them being particularly distinguishable - in fact characterisation is quite weak in this book (it was stronger in previous installments).
The plot also suffers too much from feeling as if characters are going from A to B to C - there's no real sense of the story gently guiding them. The world they're going through is done very sketchily - I'll give Russell the benefit of the doubt and say that's a deliberate tactic to invoke the sense of mystery and weirdness of this world but it's not ultimately a successful move.

It's not a particularly bad series, but it's not a good one either - there's lots more that I believe I could have enjoyed more with my time.

ixoy

Finished 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss - "Day One" of the Kingkiller Chronicles.

When discussing this book with a friend, I jokingly accused Rothfuss of being a pseudynom for another writer because, if that's not true, then this is one of the best debut fantasy novels I've read (an honour shared with Scott Lynch's "The Lies of Locke Lamora"). It's the tale of an inn keeper whose previous life, as a historic figure, is recounted to the scribe who tracked him down. This being the memories of the inn-keeper, Kvothe, it's written primarily in the first-person and this works very well: Kvothe is smart (very smart) but also quite human and filled with curiosity and humour. The characters are all well fleshed out - it's not that any are particularly original but what's there is done very well.
Indeed much the same could be said for the plot - it's the manner of execution that stands out. Many tales talk of some poor orphan rising to power, but partially what stands out here is how Kvothe doesn't get lucky breaks, or find some convenient amulet, but uses his skills to get by.

The chapters are short generally and it brings a nice brisk, page turning pace to the novel. I got through the bulk of the novel in about five days.

For those who care, there's also an interesting system of magic in the book which draws vaguely upon some scientific principles (e.g. conservation of energy).

After a couple of disappointing reads, I really enjoyed this one and unreservedly will recommend it to friends.

ixoy

Finished 'Velocity' by Dean Koontz. Koontz is to my mind a perfect "airport" book - easy to get into with a simple premise, moves at a cracking pace, relatively enjoyable without ever taxing your brain.

This novel features a fairly stock character type for Koontz - a young man who retreats from the world at large with a loved one he can't interact with (pretty much the same as Odd Thomas). The characterisation is perfunctory as he gets caught up in a killer who forces him to make tough decisions about the killer's next victims. The moral aspect of this could have been dealt with at a deeper level and I don't think Koontz ever got really into the complexity but, to be honest, I didn't expect him to either.

The book as a whole would adapt quite well to a Hollywood thriller. Now it wouldn't be a particularly great one and it'd mostly star actors who you'd recognise off TV. It'd keep you satisfied but, shortly after, it'd fade from your mind. Neither classic nor bad, it's another harmless release from Koontz.

ixoy

Finished "Forever Peace" by Joe Haldeman. This is a thematic companion piece to "Forever War", exploring many of the same themes but from a different angle. It's about a long-running war in the near future where humans remotely pilot mechanised robots through a neural interface - that in itself is hardly new but Haldeman is interested not in the technology so much as the human effect it has and how it changes (or does not) attitudes to war and killing.

What I liked in this novel was that Haldeman spent some time to describe the daily lives of the inhabitants and fleshed out some decent characters - many science fiction writers are big on ideas but weak when it comes to the people. Like a lot of good sci-fi he uses the technology and discoveries to ask bigger questions about people rather than just for a pyrotechnic display - in this one it's a quest to find peace for humanity.

In places the novel is a little jarring as it switches between first- and third-person perspective but it's not unduly so. The ending is a little hurried but the pacing otherwise is pretty good and the plotting is pretty tight. It's a good read for its exploration of war and a look at the alienation and damage it can bring to people.

ixoy

Finished "Antrax" by Terry Brooks, Book 2 in his "The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" series.

I'd pretty much echo a lot of what I said about the first one - slim, but adequate, characterisation and a writing style that moves fluidly enough without ever grabbing you.
This novel, being a "middle" novel does suffer a little from the usual middle curse whereby the pace can stagnate a little and there's a feeling of holding things off until the third book. This is offset a little by introducing a nice dash of sci-fi into the novel as the old world of Shannara comes back in the form of an AI. The sci-fi element doesn't dominate but it's still something not that common in the genre.

I'm sure I'll read the third book at some point but I'm not in a massive rush to either. Grand fare but nothing outstanding.

ixoy

Finished "The Toyminator" by Robert Rankin. Straight out: Did not care for this. The plot was fine, up to a point, but halfway through it makes a big change in direction and turns into a poor pastiche. The plot is then riddled with convenient setups (which the author tries to mockingly joke away), characterisation stagnates, and the denouement is weak.

The first book - "The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" - was at least very creative in places but there's no such spark here as we don't expand on the original Toy City premise and spend too much time in an old Hollywood era.

Additionally Rankin's writing style really began to... rankle. He has a habit of repeating things over and over, over and over repeating them and it's irritating. The humour was also absent for a large part and relied too much on pop culture references to even wring a smile from me.

By the end of this, I was just almost in a state of apathetic page turning. Given my less than stellar enjoyment of the first instalment, I think I can safely say that I won't be perusing any of Rankin's other books.

ixoy

Finished "Glasshouse" by Charles Stross. It's set in the future of "Accelerando" but it's quite different. It's basically the story of some 27th century people, damaged psychologically after a war that agree to engage in a psychological experiment. This experiment is like a fusion of 'Big Brother' by way of 'Mad Men' as they're dumped into a re-created (at times amusing unfaithful) 1950s environment and struggle to comprehend the arcane rituals and way of life.

So on one hand we've got characters trying to view our 20th century mores through the life of a post-Singularity civilisation and that leads to some amusement as they puzzle over concepts like marriage and natural birth in these "dark ages". On the other hand, it's a good exploration of society as the "Big Brother" element ensures people can score points by rigidly forcing to the society's rules, all in an effort to make the experiment seem real.

Of course it's science fiction too and there's some great stuff there on identity as well as the universe they're in is one in which you can't even trust memory of self as they can be edited. Who one person is - are they their memories, is their past real or created - are all interestingly explored through the narrator. This strong characterisation is something not quite evidenced in Stross' previous works and it now shows he can blend the crazy inventive ideas with a more thoughtful character examination.

The climax of the book is a tad rushed but emotionally satisfying and with a narrative conclusion that's fitting. I found it all-in-all a great book, doing what science fiction can do best - using the future and science to explore more of what we are.

ixoy

Finished "Evil for Evil" by K.J. Parker, Book 2 of 'The Engineer' trilogy.

It's an interesting concept here - the lead is a brilliant engineer who can coldly create massive systems to achieve goals. He sees people and situations as cogs in a machine that are ultimately used (to their death even) in the cause of love. An unusual dichotomy but it makes sense as the concept of love, and its link with pain and hurt, are explored throughout as people's various relationships fall back to haunt them.
It's a bleak book but Parker's refreshing style means there's a vein of very dark, dry self-deprecating humour to it. Characters are given almost conversational inner voices, although at times it means some characters are less distinguishable. I was also glad that Parker's propensity for showing their detailed knowledge of engineering/forging/etc. was held in check this time.

It doesn't suffer too much from "middle book" syndrome and it sets itself up nicely for a finale but due to a game-changing piece, it may not map out the way originally intended. That means I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next but I won't rush to it as it was in a sense a tough read with its cynical bleak outlook.

ixoy

Finished "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson.

It's quite a short book (minuscule next to his Baroque cycle) about an eco-terrorist fighting against corporations dumping toxic waste in the Greater Boston area. The protagonist is quite cynical which means any "green friendly" message isn't too heavy. The science here seems a little bit dodgy, but I'm no real expert as Stephenson tries to create a new form of highly toxic waste.

The book is... okay. It's told through the first person and Taylor (the leading man) is never really developed - we know little of what motivates him. Indeed the same could be said for most of the characters who are thinly sketched.
I also found the writing a bit disjointed at times - scenes weren't always clearly described, particularly ones with heavier action. Now it's one of his earlier works and he's certainly improved on this but it does show here. Also, and this is no fault of the author, but there was annoyingly large number of typos in this edition.

Overall, it's the weakest Stephenson book I've read and the poorest quality. Read all his other stuff first, and then read some other author's works. Passable.

ixoy

Finished "Second Variety" by Philip K. Dick (a couple of weeks ago). It's the second book collecting his short stories and, although none made it into movie format, there's plenty there that have some great ideas. The titular tale stands out, but there's also the likes of "Adjustment Team" (think "Dark City") or the mysterious "The Commuter".

As with all short stories, there's a fair few duds ("Martians Come in Clouds" did nothing for me) but I was generally quite surprised at how he seemed to have his pulse on sci-fi concepts that would only generally enter the mainstream (in tvs/movies) decades later.

As to his literary skills, his prose can be a little staid and I found some of his characters a little stiff, although that may reflect the '50s when they were written. There's also an amusing amount of unintentional sexism and some of the futures envisaged seem already amusing fifty years on. Nonetheless I enjoyed this collection and will be getting the third volume.

ixoy

Finished "The City and the City" by China Miéville.
I'm a big fan of this guy, in particular his "Bas Lag" series of novels. He's described (not by himself) as the inventor of "new weird", with his previous books fusing a mix of science, steampunk and crazy inventiveness with some of the most beautiful prose I've come across in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. It was this admiration that made me buy this book before the book shop even had a chance to place it on their shelves.

"The City and the City" is grounded on our earth (somewhat like his first work "King Rat") and initially appears to be a murder mystery with the traditional detective investigating it, in a city-state somewhere near Turkey called Beszel. So far, so normal.
The wonderful twist in the tale is that Beszel shares its space with another city - Ul Qoma. The exact relationship is never stated outright - some streets in one city are not part of the other, other cities share the same street. People of one city don't acknowledge the other and differentiate themselves by their mannerisms and clothes. You don't even see these neighbours in the other city - you must "unsee" them or invoke Breach - a third-party who monitors all to ensure the two cities stay apart.

The political and cultural differences between the city are done well, but what's most interesting is entering the mindset that could allow this and how it (cleverly) weaves into the tale. It's like a tale of a cop working outside his jurisdiction taken into insanely inventive levels.

The characters in this book are thinly sketched (as is his style) but Mieveille's genius is in creating the world around them. The prose may be less like the poetry of his previous works, but that's fitting when trying to ground this tale in our world.

It all wraps up well and, like his other stuff, I'd highly recommend it with the caveat that you'll need to subvert your expectations of how a murder mystery tale can operate.

ixoy

Finished "Black Man" by Richard Morgan ("Thirteen" in the racially-sensitive U.S.).

I was disappointed with this one. It's not bad as such, it's just not very good either. It's the story of a genetically-modified human in 2107 (called a variant "thirteen") who was designed as an alpha-male soldier with a psychology harbouring back to cut-throat savagery. He's hired to help investigate a string of murders perpetrated by a fellow thirteen and, from this, a mystery unfolds.

It's the unfolding of the mystery that is, I believe, one of the novel's flaws. It seems to ramble a lot with the lead, Carl, stumbling along from one intuitive hunch to another. Eventually the pieces all get connected up, and it makes sense, but the path to it all is disjointed and the explanation at the end is in a rather heavy-handed expository manner.
Along the way I was treated to a bit too much social commentary. I'm all for sci-fi being used to explore the human condition but here the sci-fi trappings seemed minimal at best and I felt that they were almost redundant. Morgan wants to explore concepts like racism, the feminisation of society, etc. but the characters he's doing it through and the prism of technology he's using to focus (genetics) didn't really work for me - what was here, including the mystery, could very easily have been transposed to a modern setting without much shift.

The characters in the book are okay - the lead is well 'ard and yet he still resembles a more one-dimensional version of Morgan's Kovacs. There's a bit of depth to him but I don't feel we ever got under his skin in the way the author intended.

The writing was quite good in this, and Morgan shows more descriptive agility than most sci-fi writers, but I just wished he had tightened the plotting a lot more and maybe fleshed out the future setting to make a more interesting book. Not bad but he's still yet to reach the heights he established with "Altered Carbon".

On an aside - I think this just about gets me in for the 50-book challenge...

ixoy

Finished "Into a Dark Realm" by Raymond E. Feist, Book 2 of his Darkwar series.

Found this was a pretty solid instalment in his Midkemia series and, despite this (or because of) being my 21st Feist novel I'm still liking the world and the various characters who've appeared over the course of the series (including Pug). The novel's story is pretty deeply inter-twined with not just the first instalment but many of the other series he's written previously, going right back to 'Magician' itself so it's pleasing to a long-term fan but not one for jumping in with.
I was pleasantly surprised that he's still able to build on the lore, by introducing a "second plane" of reality and a new culture - the Dasati - that are suitably alien to what he's done before. There's some interesting ideas here, more than enough to keep me wondering what's going to happen in the next book (and, I'm sure, the subsequent trilogy).

Of course Feist's usual flaws are here - he's not always the best with prose (if I see the word "suddenly" any more ...) and sometimes he's too quick to gloss over events (something though that many other fantasy writers get wrong in the opposite direction). Some of the humour is weak but yet, I can't help but enjoy it and it's definitely a cut above the weak Krondor series and more interesting than the Conclave of Shadows trilogy.

Recommended for Feist fans who've read the twenty prior books...

ixoy

Finished "Line War" by Neal Asher, the fifth and final book in his Agent Cormac series.

At this point, it's a series for fans only building on the previous four books. The plot is reasonably intricate but at its basic is about how a rogue AI attacks the Polity (the future Earth society) using a highly dangerous and virulent form of alien biotechnology. He's up against Agent Cormac and a number of others from the series.

For fans of big space opera, and the Polity universe itself, this is a great read. We've got the multiple plans, the big guns, the huge AIs. We've also got what I found as a very interesting alien antagonist (if a non-sentient bio-virus can be an antagonist). The characers they're up against aren't very deep but they work for the novel and I found Cormac to be quite likable rather than the "hard-as-nails" bastards that say Richard Morgan employs.

There's plenty of big revelations here and all the main plots conclude in a very satisfying bar the almost coda piece at the end, which seems a bit rushed.

Sure the prose isn't exactly Wilde but that's not important when you've got a good bit of creativity, a cracking pace, and lots of galaxy-spanning mayhem. A highly recommended series for me.

ixoy

Finished "Crown of Stars" by Kate Elliott, Book 7 (and final one) of her "Crown of Stars" series.

It's been a good few years since I read Book 6 (which is, in reality, one half of this volume which had to be split into two books due to the sheer size). As a result I had a bit of difficulty recalling all the various plot lines and the positions of the different players for a large chunk of the novel. It's not necessarily a fault of the author, but I think these large epic series should have some form of recap or, at least, a list of characters at the end as is common with many other series.

I disgress - the book itself is mostly about tying up the various plot lines. For the most part this is achieved quite satisfyingly but I think a couple were wrapped up too neatly - the Aishoi in particular seemed far too quickly ended after the threat of them for the last few thousand pages. Other elements, such as the religious shift that had been unveiled over the course, worked very well especially with the cultural shift they created.

Elliott is good at creating a realistic medieval world with a good interpretation of fealty and piety. Her characters can range from interesting and complex (Stronghand) to somewhat flatter (Liath). I'd have liked more focus on the more alien aspects in her world - the dark merman, the Eika - and less on the more mundane shifting alliances that sought control of a kingdom left in a power vacuum following the previous novels. She showed some talent for this whereas the various religious figures and players tended to blend into one another at times.

As a conclusion to a series, it was satisfying. It's not outstanding or revelatory but it's no insult either. It'd certainly encourage me to read her next septology (which is as well given I've already got the first two books standing on my bookshelf).

ixoy

Finished "The Prefect" by Alastair Reynolds, a book set in his "Revelation Space" universe (before the events of the initial trilogy).

I got through most of this book in two days, which is testament to how much I enjoyed it. It's a detective novel with science fiction flavouring - that concept is a little reminescent of Richard Morgan's Kovacs' series but I think the RS universe is far more interesting. This time we're in the Glittering Band - 10,000 individual habitats orbiting a central seat of power (a band which is very dead by the time of the original trilogy). The slaughter of the inhabitants of one habitat leads to a chain of events that, naturally, take a wider scope.

I imagine this is a pretty good novel for new-comers to his universe. It's more rewarding though for long-term fans as it enriches a certain portion of time, just as "Galactic North"'s stories did. The revelations come along at a good pace and Reynolds does a great job of giving us a glimpse at the diversity and potential of our future, as well as the tragedies to come. There's also some nice action sequences, albeit not as much as in previous (which is fine, as it's not strictly space opera as the others were).

There are flaws - Reynold's again has difficulty tying things up conclusively and there are some important scenes that transpire "off screen". One main character pretty much drops off screen for the last third of the book. His characterisation is tighter than before but he often struggles with dialogue, making some of it sound quite clunky. It's quite common in sci-fi however, and it didn't really detract from the novel.

Very enjoyable overall and I'd like to see a further instalment in this era of the universe - and that in itself shows how I rate this novel.

ixoy

Finished "Renegade's Magic" by Robin Hobb, the final book in her "Soldier's Son" trilogy.

A lot of people didn't like this series and, to be fair, it's nowhere near the quality of the previously trilogies she's written under her Hobb pseudynom. Nonetheless I still enjoyed this because Hobb is one of the best writers of prose working in fantasy as well as one of the best character writers. The novel is written in the first person and she excels at getting into a character's head and making them rounded, so much so that here Navarre is quite flawed, at times very frustrating - just like most people are.

There's a unique aspect to this first person narrative in that there's a large section where our narrator is trapped inside his own body, only able to observe the actions of the "other" half of his soul which is in command. It leads itself to some interesting questions about what makes up a person and showing both sides of an argument (the primary theme of the book being the conflict between being progressive and the need to conserve our planet at the same time).

However, the book is probably a bit too padded - there's not really enough story to merit the 2k pages of the trilogy. I was never bored, but I felt that the thoughts of the character, and situations they encountered, went around in circles at time rather than progressing (although I suppose there was a slow degeneration of circumstances).

The ending appears a tad convenient but it's not out-of-place as Hobb ably sets up elements before hand. As I actually empathised with the lead, I was happy with how circumstances unfolded but felt that Hobb could have got there by a shorter route.

By no means a bad novel and, from many other fantasy writers, it would be considered a good one. It's just a shame she set her own bar so high with her Fitz/Liveship series.

ixoy

Finished "Quantine" by Greg Egan - a rare stand-alone novel for me!

This book started off as a relatively decent but unoriginal cyberpunk storyline with a wet-wired detective tracking down a retarded girl who escaped from a treatment centre. So far, so good but nothing spectacular... and then it takes a right-turn into quantum physics territory that's really quite mind bending. It's Schroedinger's Cat on acid as the book delves into the collapsing of eigenstates and other topics.
The story is told in first person and he seems quite cold (something that's explained quite well and ties in with the novel) but even concepts of identity become blurred once the quantum physics kicks in.

It was Greg Egan's first novel and it's not without its flaws - there's a bit too much repetition of his core concept and the ending is a little too neat (although in keeping with the premise). Still though it works grandly as a work of speculative science fiction and is fiercely imaginative - not in a "flurry of ideas" that Charles Stross excels in, but in a grand imagining of the potential of science fiction.

Incidentally, I wonder if the makers of the spellchecker here are fans since it recognised "eigenstate" which even the Chambers.co.uk site or Dictionary.com don't!

ixoy

Finished "Before They are Hanged" by Joe Abercrombie, the second book in his "First Law" trilogy.

I enjoyed the first instalment but I really enjoyed this one. The plot itself is nothing outstanding - there's barbarian hordes, Eastern empires, a long quest, ancient feuding demi-gods, etc. It's the black bitter humour and the broken, twisted characters populating it that make the novel. There's a broken - in every sense - torturer (Glokta) who is particularly interesting as we only see the bare hint of the man he wants to be rather than the man he feels he is. There's the young colonel who, in other novels, would be struggling valiantly in the odds but here succumbs to a very dark side. The barbarians have real heart, etc.
Narratively he also makes use of short chapters, and doesn't use chapter numbers. It drives the book with a real "ah just one more" feel. He even adapts his writing style often to who the current chapter is focusing on. Another skill is his ability to describe the sheer bloody nastiness of battles - he doesn't make fighting noble, but describes it in its pure visceral reality.

Don't approach this series expecting the epic scope of the Malazan series but instead a character-driven tale, twisted and punctured with some bleak humour. Definitely will be catching his next books.

ixoy

Finished "The Skinner" by Neal Asher, Book 1 in his Spatterjay sequence, set in the same Polity-universe as most of his other works.

Like the rest of his works, I enjoyed this one although it's quite a different beast to his Agent Cormac series. Indeed beast is a suitable description - the world of Spatterjay that he describes is as nasty and violent a world as any I've ever come across. It's a twisted ecology where nearly everyone is immortal due to a virus, meaning an almost endless cycle of predatory violence. Asher's fierce imagination for alien life is on top form here as he describes a sea life that's like Disney's Undersea Kingdom if it was plunged into Hell.

Of course there's a plot weaving through this world - vendettas, rogue AIs (an enjoyable staple of his work), other alien life (great to see more of the Prador that we only saw glimpses of before) and more. It's less epic than the Cormac series and for those who loved the high-tech nature of that series will find it missing here, replaced with other goodness. As always it moves at a crisp pace and even if characterisation isn't always strong, or the worlds aren't the most majestic or literary they could be, it doesn't matter because it's just damned enjoyable.

ixoy

Finished "Dust of Dreams" by Steven Erikson, the ninth book in his "Malazan Book of the Fallen" decalogy.

This book pushed many events along - it went at a much better pace than "Toll the Hounds" and started weaving together many plot threads. There's a sense of the series converging towards a finale, although I'm quite sure there'll still be questions left hanging both for subsequent series and just because it can't be finished neatly. Long-term fans will be pleased by some of the revelations and by the new insights into areas we had before only glimpsed.

Style wise, I found that Erikson could still do with an editor for some of the more philosophical ponderings of his character. However, he has more events to talk about here and I found it less distracting than in the previous instalment. He also writes some fantastic scenes - the last fifty pages of the book are as epic and brilliant as anything in the 7k odd pages of the series so far.

If anyone has made it to this point in the series, they're there to the end. Unlike with other large-volume series though I'm still immensely enjoying the ride. There's flaws of course including characters being too obtuse (making "Lost" seem an exercise in clarity) and at times it's almost too demanding to keep up all the threads, inferences, and cryptic hints (I'd benefit from a massive re-read). There's an argument for snippage, one to delineate the minor characters more clearly and so forth. End of the day though the sheer epic scale of it is more present than ever and I was swept along by the book towards its cliff-hanger ending, eagerly looking forward to the conclusion.

ixoy

Finished 'Un Lun Dun' by China Miéville. It's one of those novels that's written for children but can be enjoyed by all ages.

It's an illustrated novel (the drawings by China himself) telling the tale of two girls - Zanna and Deeba - who are called to save UnLunDun, a bizarre version of modern London where houses can be built from old washing machines and drawers, ghosts roam about, and forests live inside four walls. Like much of his work, it's fiercely imaginative and, though for a younger audience, China is not afraid to tinge it with darkness as well. The characters are well drawn and unique, with the lead quite believable.
In many ways it reminded of Clive Barker's 'Abarat' sequence (indeed Barker gets an acknowledgement by Miéville). This is probably more tightly plotted, although perhaps lacking the ethereal beauty of Barker's lavishly illustrated book.

With short snappy chapters, plenty of humour, and that fecund creative prowess, I genuinely do believe it's a great book for anyone who wants a trip to the fantastical.

sxt

Hi

Great reading list you have. I hope you don't mind me asking these questions. I loved " Perdition street station" by China mielville for the most part, Have you read "the Scar " by the same author? Would it be on the same level?

Is the trilogy by Richard Scott Bakker a very good read? I was tempted by the Erikson series but the length and the scope is just six books too intimidating for my likes !

Thanks:)

ixoy

Finished "Axiomatic" by Greg Bear. It's a collection of short stories dealing with a number of themes: is a virtual copy of someone as worthy as the original? How can you truly deny solipsism unless you know the other person's mind on a fundamental level? Would you create a simulacra of a child if you couldn't have your own?

There's a few weak stories in here - "Chimera" for example - where the endings and concept are a bit flat. Others though not only have a fascinating concept explored through sci-fi, but touch a real emotional core: "Cutie" is an excellent example of this.
Egan favours the first person (they're nearly all written in this style) when writing. He doesn't lay on the science very heavily so it makes the collection quite approachable and each story borders on the same length of 19-22 pages which is a good digestible size.

There's more than enough fascinating insights here to mark it as one of the best short story sci-fi collections that I've had the good fortune to read. I'll be seeking more of the same.

ixoy

Finished "House of Suns" by Alastair Reynolds.

It's a marked departure in many ways from his Revelation Space universe - that space opera series was set against a relatively small scale in a decaying, Gothic-fused culture. This series is set in the far far future (6 million years on) following the story of two space-farers of an ancient Line as they go to a meeting of other members of their Line (a collective group of 1000).

I don't want to give much of the plot away but suffice to say that the span of time plays an important part here. The Line, by virtue of their near immortality, have watched many cultures rise and fall in the eons and Reynold does a good job of having them casually drop the names of the various empires and seeding their histories. Central to this back-drop is a Reynolds favourite - the concept of causality and sub-luminal travel which accounts for the great span of time as the travellers cross solar systems. This feeling of time is important and Reynolds does a good time of conveying characters who have seen many events and yet are not wearied by them - a sense of wonder.

The writing here is probably Reynold's best yet - it's crisp, clean, and rarely meanders. Various elements that may seem to have no significance, all have some part to play. Importantly the finale, which has never been Reynold's strong point, works well and the plot progression is very satisfying as mysteries become understood. It's his most professional piece as a result and - to me - his best work because of this. It lacks the more frenetic energy and horror of his earlier works and is a far more thoughtful, and indeed cerebral, piece but more earnest as a result. Well recommended.

ixoy

Finished "Lyra's Oxford" by Philip Pullman.

This short story (novellete at best!) is set two years after "His Dark Material's" trilogy and tells a short story about Lyra in err... Oxford. It's a bit of a novelty piece - the story is naturally thin but it's accompanied by some beautiful extras in the form of a pull-out map, illustrations, a postcard and more. They're embellishments and nice ones at that.

This is a sort of the "cherry on top" to the trilogy and, despite its slim nature, I'd still recommend it to the series' fans.