books and books review

25 books in 25 days

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pile of books

You may know that apart from this blog, I also got a booklog. A while back I made a bet with myself, to review 25 books in 25 days. I did this because I had quite a backlog of unfinished and half finished reviews waiting to be completed and put on the site and the white spots on the booklog were getting embarassing… I started on May 20th and it is now June 13rd and I’ve just completed my 25th review, so I thought I’d present them to you, my adoring public, now:

There you go, 25 reviews of books of varying qualities and genres: “voor elck wat wils” and for you to exclaim about, praise or mock me over. It’s been fun, if somewhat wearing.

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Stiff – Mary Roach
303 pages
published in 2003

What happens to your body after you die? Mary Roach explores the options when you donate
your body to science. Nicely macaber and interesting without being too gross.

The Demon in the Freezer – Richard Preston
240 pages
published in 2002

Written shortly after the Anthrax attacks on Tom Daschle and other Democrats and several
“liberal” media figures, this is about a far more frightening prospect: smallpox. Richard Preston
traces the story of how smallpox got eradicated in nature, but still exists in storage in the US
and Russia and unfortunately, probably also elsewhere.

Dark Life – Michael Ray Taylor
287 pages
published in 1999

Sort of a weird counterpart to The Demon in the Freezer, this is a book written
by a caver/journalist who got involved in the search to socalled dark life; subterran life beyond
the boundaries of known life. It largely revolves around the discovery of fossilised nanobacteria
in a Martian meteorite and the discovery of terran equivalents

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Newton’s Wake – Ken Macleod
369 pages
published in 2004

I was a bit worried after finishing Engine City, as it wasn’t up to Ken Macleod’s usual standards; it read as if he had to force himself to finish it. Fortunately, Newton’s Wake is much better, basically a space opera trilogy complete in one book.

Singularity Sky – Charlie Stross
313 pages
published in 2003

Singularity Sky is a clever book masquerading as broad farce. Charlie Stross’
starting point seems to have been “what if 1905 Tsarist Russia had experienced a full Vingean
Singularity”. Don’t expect the same density of ideas as in his short stories; this is an almost
traditional space opera. Almost.

A Question of Blood – Ian Rankin
440 pages
published in 2003

Continuing the Scottish theme, this is the 14th Inspector Rebus series and one of the
better efforts. Rebus is a hardbitten, hard luck cop in Edinburgh, who this time gets called in to
investigate a school shooting. He’s also in trouble again, to great surprise, this time for possibly
being involved in the violent death of a small time crook who was harassing a friend.

Year’s Best SF 7 – David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (editors)
498 pages
published in 2002

The best short science fiction stories of 2001, according to the editors. Some good stories, but
their taste in science fiction is definately not mine. There’s a lot of chaff amongst the wheat.

The Great Siege: Malta 1565 – Ernle Bradford
256 pages, including notes and index
published in 1961

History written as if it was an adventure story, this tells about the siege of Malta by the great
Ottoman Emperor Soleyman. Ernle Bradford’s sympathies clearly lie with the besieged, the Knights of St. John, but he still manages to be objective. Worth a look if you can find it.

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Yendi – Steven Brust
209 pages, published in 1984

Entertaining if slight fantasy adventure, Vlad Taltos is a smartass. Recommended if you like first person smartass narration.

Zodiac – Neal Stephenson
308 pages, published in 1988

Why do I think of Stephenson of a science fiction writer when most of his novels, like this, are not science fiction? Zodiac is an ecological technothriller, starring a typical Stephenson protagonist, somewhat geeky, bit of a badass when cornered, not the brightest when it comes to women. Doesn’t feel dated at all though written in 1988. Recommended to anyone if only to show y’all he could write a complete novel in less than 500 pages, with an ending.

Damnation Alley – Roger Zelazny
157 pages, published in 1969

Some time after World War III, “Hell” Tanner is the last remaining Hell’s Angel in California and is drafted to deliver anti-Plague serum to Boston –straight through the most hellish, radioactive densely
populated with mutated monsters barren wasteland most of North America has become. Zelazny goes pulp. I have it on good authority that one should avoid the film that was made of this, but read the book. Later also turned into a Judge Dredd storyline…

Bones of the Earth – Michael Swanwick
383 pages, published in 2002

Couldn’t get into Swanwick’s early novels, but this combined two of my great interests, timetravel and dinosaurs, so I thought I’d give it a try. Glad I did. Best novel of the bunch I’ve reviewed here. Sometime in the 21st century, timetravel is invented, nobody quite knows when, and from 2010 on to about 2100 paleontologists are recruited, first in secret, later openly when the secret breaks, to go back to the Ages of Dinosaurs and study them. Swanwick clearly loves his dinosaurs as he
infodumps all these neat facts about them throughout the book. Costarring one of the more original theories for why the dinosaurs largely (apart from the birds!) died out.

Appleseed – John Clute
337 pages, published in 2001

This is either an incredible tour de force or an incredibly pretentious misheap. Possibly both. The story itself is bog standard space opera, but Clute has hidden it under a fecund compressed crust of baroque
vocabulary; never a decent Anglosaxon word where a compound noun borrowed from German will do. I like wordage, I do, but there is something vaguely irritating about Clute’s wordplay.

Recommended if you want your prejudices against critics confirmed.

More complete reviews are or will be published at my Booklog

Bruce Sterling

books and books review, science fiction
Published on Leave a comment on Bruce Sterling

I love him, as a writer that is. Always thought he was far better then that poseur, William Gibson. He is what Neal Stephenson wants to be when he grows up. Sterling’s a cool hip technodude, so of course he Has his own blog. Also has his own “megalomanic but it might just work and at least it’s interesting” project for world improvement.

All of which is just a preamble to say that I’ve just read two of his novels, Heavy Weather and Involution Ocean together with one of Tom Holt’s comedies, Wish you Were Here. Made the usual sort of comments at the usual place, do take a look.

After that, you could do worse then download his 1992 non-fiction book about what happened when the Secret Service went on a
Hacker Crackdown.