It's been a long dry spell for insanely great books and I figured I should at least catalog the blobs of paper I've slogged through in the last 2 or three months... read on if you can't stop reading books (the first thing you have to do is admit you have a problem).
First a bright spot. I reread Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky." He is good. It's basically the story of a civilization that lives life briskly while the sun shines and then hides deep underground and hibernates when the sun suddenly turns off (every 200 years). Its also about 2 warring space civilizations that decide to visit this odd star and exploit the poor natives. The best part about the whole book (and it is a really good book) is Vinge's take on how to build a galaxy spanning civilization (hint governments would fail or become degenerate but he's got an alternative that just might work).
Vernor Vinge's new book, "Rainbow's End" held such promise. First if you've never read his books, read them all. Find his short stories, essays, anything he's written is worth reading. He hasn't had a book out in a while so I bought this one with glee (yes actual glee... though it was sugar free). I'm not saying its bad, in fact the first chapter is worth buying the book for, but it just left me wanting (if you're a newbie to really good futuretelling you'll probably love it).
Set in the near future, it extrapolates in some not so obvious (well obvious once he does it) ways the tech trends of today into a believable world (his "True Names" is a classic in this sense). An old timer gets gene therapy and enters a second childhood. All the books of the world are being fed into shredders (to better scan them and put them online for those poor children who don't understand paper), people routinely shadow others via augmented reality and most social networks detect outbreaks and cures far sooner than the slow and structured government organizations that used to protect us (of course the converse is true as well... the world is full of asymetric threats). Trouble ensues and the old timer gets involved, maybe the world almost ends or becomes sentient... I won't say.
I get the sense that the book might have gone an entirely different way or that it was laying the groundwork for a sequel that would knock our socks off (and given his track record I'll give him the benefit of the doubt).
"Fluke" by Christopher Moore is a little gem. Never heard of this guy before but he writes a good book. Nothing groundbreaking just a little story about the real reason whales sing. Mildly sci-fi (and he knows his marine biology).
Fluffy mindless sci-fi body shifting detective fun. Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon" is a pretty gripping run through the classic "who-done-it" (which in this case is complicated by the fact that the victim seems to have committed suicide, isn't actually dead due to spinal backup archives and is a rich bastard who can't imagine why he'd kill himself and so ends up being the person that hired the detective in the first place). A bit brutal, but fun.
"Broken Angels" is a sequel of sorts to "Altered Carbon" though not on earth and with a far different tone. This time the main character (a detective in the first one but now a mercenary fighting an unwinnable war... remember I said people can have themselves backed up... so he gets to die alot and come back...) has been contracted to track down an alien artifact. Another fun read with little substance.
"Market Forces" is one more by Richard Morgan (ok I was on a run). This time it is the near future and pimping and racing cars ala fast and furious has emerged as the best way to get ahead in the corporate world. Deathcarmatch meets mergers and acquisitions meets global corporations that run wars for despots. I didn't really get into this one but if you like dystopia.... well... uh...
"Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell (he wrote "Cloud Atlas" which was kinda trippy but a bit overwrought) is the best book he's done so far. It feels autobiographical or at least very lovingly detailed (maybe it's just that I remember the era that he writes about well). Each chapter is another month in the life of a 13 year old english kid in the 1980's. A compelling portrait of a painful age (thatcher is PM and the falklands are under siege... which I can't recall being a big deal here but it was clearly a blow to the empire over there).
"The Pleasure of My Company" by Steve Martin (the comedian) is a little book in the mode of "the curious incident of the dog in the night time." A man who's mentally challenged (augsbergers? autism? low IQ? OCD? or maybe some combination... you can't tell until the story gets rolling) tells of his adventures trying to cross the street, meet girls, stay out of a murder investigation, join Mensa, and learn about life and love. A sweet and amusing set piece.
Oh yeah, I read one more by Salman Rushdie called "The Ground Beneath Her Feet." Not a little book, nor the kind that you just slip through in a moment. If you like to read though it's a fun ride. He's got a way with words and ideas and legends and musical lyrics and slightly alternate worlds and tragedy and love and the brutality of life. It's the story of a girl (kinda like Madonna) who meets a boy (who's sorta like a cross between John Lennon and Elvis), they fall in love and become mega super rock stars. Rushdie sets it in many locales as the pop stars explode upon the world but the main characters grow up in Bombay (later Mumbai) in the 50s and 60s and Bombay alone is quite a story all by itself (and feels like a character in its own right). There are murders, families explode, Carly Simon and Genevere Garfunkel sing about a bridge over some water and there is a touch of sci-fi/magical realism throughout his words.
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