The Year in Review

Well its been quite a year. I started a blogger account to be able to comment on other blogs. Then I figured as long as I had it I might as well make some use of it and thought. I'd start writing up a brief review of the books I read. Even though its still a relatively small readership, I never imagined that I'd have hundreds of people all over the world checking this out. Its really amazing.

We did lose some great authors this year. John M. Ford, Octavia Butler, David Gemmell, Peter Benchley, Mickey Spillane all passed this year.

There were also some tremendous debuts this year. The best of which in my opinion was the Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

I didn't get as many books read as I wanted to this year. The final count was 31. Just past the minimum goal of 30 I'd set for myself. I'm shooting for 40 in 2007

Here is a recap of what I read in 2006

The Warrior-Prophet by RS Bakker 9.5
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson 6.5
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold 8.0
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford 9.0
The Thousandfold Thought by RS Bakker 9.0
Dune by Frank Herbert 8.5
Supreme Power by JM Stryzinzki 9.0
Shadow Twin by Martin, Doziois, & Abraham 7.0
A Shadow in Summer by Danial Abraham
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 9.0
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny 8.5
Dying of the Light by GRR Martin 8.0
The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross 7.5
The Man in the High Castle by PK Dick 9.0
The Forever War by Joe Haleman 9.5
Paladin of Souls by Lois M Bujold 7.0
Neuromancer by William Gibson 8.0
Lamb by Christopher Moore 9.0
River of Gods by Ian MacDonald 8.5
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch 9.5
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link 8.0
Fevre Dream by GRRM 7.5
The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes 7.5
Ultimate Iron Man by OS Card 8.0
One More For the Road by Ray Bradbury 5.0
Tripping to Somewhere by Kristopher Reisz 6.0
Dragon Champion by E.E. Knight 7.5
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan 9.0
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay 8.0
Starship Troopers 9.0
Blindsight by Peter Watts 8.5


My book of the year would have to be The Lies of Locke Lamora, and the Best book I read this year would be The Warrior Prophet by R. Scott Bakker.

I'm looking forward to a lot of new books in 2007. Red Seas under Read Skies by Lynch, Thirteen by Morgan, A Sword from Red Ice by JV Jones, Brasyl by MacDonald, as well as hopefully A Dance with Dragons by GRRM.

In additions I still have a huge backlog of genre classics to get to as well as a lot of newer releases by authors I've been meaning to get to such as John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, and Jo Walton. It seems lie there is never enough time to read everything I'd like.

Thanks to all of my readers, and hopefully I'll have a lot more to bring you in 2007!

LibraryThing

I signed up for a lifetime account with LibraryThing recently and ordered the :cuecat scanner which arrived yesterday. So I spent the evening scanning in my collection. So far I got my hard covers and trades scanned in. I'll probably get to the mmpbs this weekend.

Its a pretty nice inventory system, and is customizable. I really like it. Its free to try $10/yr or $25 for life. That's cheaper than many other software based applications I've seen. Out of over 200 books I only had trouble finding a couple, mainly with non US editions.

Here are the links.

my profile
my catalog

Blindsight

Blindsight by Peter Watts is a hard sci-fi novel set near the end of the 21st century. Humankind has just experienced Firefall, when 65,536 objects simultaneously enter earth's atmosphere. In response man sends a manned mission to investigate the source of this phenomenon.

The spaceship Theseus is a wonder of engineering, beyond the cutting edge of science. The crew is an eclectic group selected for their unique abilities and skill sets. First there is Siri Keaton, the synthesist. He is there to observe and report. The story is told through Siri's viewpoint and is interspersed with flashbacks from his past life, which give us a view of what Watt's future Earth is like.

Next is Jukka Sarasti, the mission commander. Sarasti is a vampire, and as such his reasoning and logic skill far outstrip what any homo sapien could hope to achieve, even with cybernetic enhancements.

The rest of the crew consist of Amanda Bates, the pacifist military officer in charge of security. Next is Susan James, AKA the Gang of Four. James is a linguist who has split her brain into 4 unique personalities. Finally there is Isaac Szpindel, a biologist so heavily interfaced with equipment he can see xrays but at the cost of most of his normal senses.

These five are sent in suspended animation to make first contact. What they encounter is beyond their wildest nightmares.

Blindsight has a definite horror element to it. Conceptually its a brilliant take on first contact. The science is highly plausible, and the alienness of what the crew of the Theseus encounter is unlike pretty much anything I've seen before. There is an appendix at the end up the book in which Watts explains certain concepts, and while the technology factor is pretty high, the story doesn't get bogged down in jargon.

Hard sci fi isn't my normal sub genre of choice, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A lot of the early buzz surrounding Blightsight has speculated that it could win the Hugo. While its not my first choice, it definitely belongs on the short list and I wouldn't be upset if it did win. Any fan of hard sci fi should certainly pick this book up.

8.5 out of 10

Buy this book at
Clarkesworld
or
Amazon

If you would like to try before you by Watts has even made this book available under the creative commons licence. It can be downloaded here.

Starship Troopers

"I always get the shakes before a drop."

Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein is a seminal novel of military Science Fiction. It won the Hugo for best novel in 1960 and has been sited or at least suggested as an influence on such award winning novels as The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

It novel is the first person narrative of Johnnie Rico, a young man from the not to distant future, and details his experience in the Mobile Infantry. It follows him from recruitment, to boot camp, to action. From raw recruit to non-com to officer. Interspersed in the scenes of training, and a few sparse battle scenes are a number of philosophical arguments on subjects such as the nature of war, the rights and duties of citizenship, and the merits of various forms of government.

Its these philosophical arguments that have made this book so controversial over the years. Heinlein was widely criticized for his belief in a meritocracy and what many see to be his anti communist views.


This is a great book. Its strength lies in the storyline and the development of Rico as a soldier. The world building is rather limited, but the Heinlein does do a pretty good job in portraying both a future Earth society , as well as developing the alien society of the Bugs.

I greatly enjoyed this book. Many of course criticize Starship Troopers as a propaganda vehicle for for Heinlein's personal views on society, and while that certainly is a relevant argument. I don't think it needs to detract from the reader's enjoyment of the book. I found it to be a quick read, and while its not a light read, and is filled with philosophical questions, one doesn't get bogged down in them as you can with other books. The influence of this book can't be denied. In fact the themes have been repeated so much in other works I almost felt like I'd read this book before.

9 out of 10

You can purchase the book at

Amazon

or

Clarkesworld

Tigana

"In the autumn season of the wine, word went forth from among the cypresses and olives and the laden vines of his country estate that Sandre, Duke of Astibar, once ruler of that city and its province, had drawn the last bitter breath of his exile and age and died."

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, is a beautifully written example of high fantasy. It tells the story of the people of the Palm, nine provinces located on a peninsula and surrounded by greater powers. Eight of the provinces have by conquered by two separate tyrants Brandin, King of Ygrath hold sway in the west, and Alberico of Barbadior rules in the East.

The driving point of the story is the fate of the province of Tigana, and its remaining survivors, for it was the Prince of Tigana who had slain the son of the Tyrant Brandin. In revenge the King of Ygrath not only scourged the land itself but cast a sorcery over the rest of the palm wiping the very memory of Tigana of anyone not born there. This is why Alessan the Heir of Tigana has gathered his company together. To take down the Tyrants and restore freedom to the people of the Palm.

Kay is a true wordsmith. His prose is beautiful and moving. His world building is not very deep, but where most high fantasy seems to have evolved into epic multi volume series, the economy here is welcome. The characters are interesting, and deep, even the antagonists receive enough attention so they are more than just a mysterious dark lord. If the story falls short anywhere its in plotting. It is a fairly standard story line, a group of heroes struggling against an oppressor. Perhaps I've become a bit cynical, but by and large there seem to be a lot of times where the heroes make it out of impossible situations nearly unscathed due to fortunate coincidences or twists of fate. Despite this the ending is rather bittersweet, Kay doesn't totally cop out with an entirely happy finish to the story.

Tigana was a good read. I liked it quite a bit. When starting a new book with unfamiliar characters, it tends to take me a while to find my footing, and feel out who is who. I reached this point about 100 pages in, and from there everything rolled by very smoothly. Its a very traditional story, and the ending left me very satisfied. This is probably a must read for fans of high fantasy.

8 out of 10

You can purchase this book at

Amazon

Book Sale!

Neil at Clarkesworld is having in inventory reduction sale
Click here for details.

over 1500 titles have had their priced slashed!

Quote of the Day

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
- Robertson Davies

Quote of the Day

I found the google quote of the day to be quite apropos, so I thought I'd share it.

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel

Altered Carbon

"Coming back from the dead can be rough."

Altered Carbon is Richard K. Morgan's debut novel but you'd never guess if you didn't know. Its a Sci -Fi Thriller set on 25th century earth, and Buck Rogers it is not.

Man has colonized the galaxy under the guidance of the UN Protectorate, and The UN has created the Envoys to deal with special problems. Technology has changed the definition of life itself. Peoples consciousnesses can be downloaded in to a cortical stack, so that a person's body is no more part of their being than their car, or home. Something that they make be attached to, but can be changed, upgraded, or even sold. For those with the means death merely becomes a minor inconvenience.

Takeshi Kovacs is on the stack doing a 120 year sentence, when he is freighted to Earth via needlecast to go to work for Laurens Bancroft. Bancroft is a meth, a Methuselah, one of the privileged who have extended their lives for centuries. Bancroft had his head, and his stack blown off, the police have ruled it a suicide, Bancroft doesn't buy it. That's why he has brought in Kovacs. The investigation throws Kovacs into the middle of a far reaching conspiracy. He must find a way to solve the puzzle, while saving his skin and those of his friends.

Morgan weaves a complex tale of mystery, adventure, and betrayal. His world building isn't extensive, but as the story takes place mostly on the San Francisco, he doesn't need much. He does create a very interesting back story of colonization and the UN Envoys. Characterization is strong. Kovacs is a very memorable complex character, the supporting cast is strong as well.

Fans of sci-fi or detective stories should enjoy this book. It evokes comparisons to the work of Phillip K. Dick. I loved this book and highly recommend it. Broken Angels has moved to near the top of my to be read pile.

9 out of 10

Buy this book at
Clarkesworld
or
Amazon

Dragon Champion

Dragon Champion by E.E. Knight is the first book in the Age of Fire sequence. I'd seen Knight by an author I'm a fan of so I decided to give him a read. Knight is more known for his pulpy Vampire Earth books, but as I'm a fan of high fantasy I went with his new series instead.

Dragon Champion has all the staples of High Fantasy going for it. It has elves, dwarves, and of course dragons. It even has a dragon on the cover. ( Beautifully drawn by Paul Youll.) The protagonist is an orphan. Sounds cliche right? Well it certainly could be, but Knight take the cliche and turns it around. Perhaps not 180 degrees, but at least a sharp 90.

The orphan protagonist is Auron, a rare scaleless gray dragon, and the story is told entirely from his viewpoint. It follows his life from an emerging hatchling to a full fledged dragon. Along the way he experiences loss, finds new friends, makes new enemies, and discovers what it is to truly be a dragon.

The world building is very good. Knight sets sown several varied histories of the world, differing of course on which race is recording them. The creation mythologies are well layed out. He also does a fine job with characterization. For the most part his characters are very believable. The book sets a strong pace, but also gives the reader time to rest and reflect.

All in all Knight does very well in this endeavor. He takes what could be a tired concept and injects it with new life. I very much enjoyed Dragon Champion and will be looking to pick up the soon to be released follow up Dragon Avenger.

7.5 out of 10

you can purchase this book at
Clarkesworld
or
Amazon.com