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Emissaries From the Dead, Adam-Troy Castro. Basically a mystery with a fairly complex character as the detective. Solid but not great. A few too many named characters eventually wasted for my taste. Plus there’s nary a sympathetic one in the bunch.
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Spin, Robert Charles Wilson. Essentially a finely crafted character and relationship study with some SF embedded as the driver. Very good. Surprisingly compelling at a human scale, given the interplanetary and interstellar events.
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The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Le Guin. A great book. An elegant parable of man’s dreams and hubris. Le Guin also demonstrates an amazing facility with language.
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Blue Light, Walter Mosely. Freakishly distasteful transforming into goofy mysticism. Didn’t enjoy this one. Mosely is probably saying something interesting about race, but I never felt any of the characters as “black”, except maybe for Horace LaFontaine. Not to mention Blue Light is more fantastic horror then science fiction.
So that’s 18 done for the year, and I’m rolling into August with 3/4 of a book done. Gaining on that target goal of 35.
Complete book roster for the year, and some comments, after the break:
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War Surf, M. M. Buckner
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The Execution Channel, Ken MacLeod
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Disapora, Greg Egan
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Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
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The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross
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The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
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The Black Swan, Nassim Nicohlas Taleb
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Daemon, Daniel Suarez
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The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner
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Brasyl, Ian MacDonald
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Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks
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The Cassini Division, Ken MacLeod
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Kop, Warren Hammond
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The Road, Cormac McCarthy
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Emissaries From the Dead, Adam-Troy Castro.
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Spin, Robert Charles Wilson.
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The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Le Guin
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Blue Light, Walter Mosely
While I liked most of what I read, the last five books have been somewhat downers. Unsympathetic characters, apocalyptic scenarios, and distasteful violence abounded.
I’m declaring August “Happy, Happy” reading month though. Lighter works with a more humorous or satirical touch will be targeted. I’m also going to throw in a couple of graphic novels.