\nI went on a bit of a sprint this month, reading some twenty books or so in an attempt to up my rate. For the first half of the month I actually managed a book a day, which slowed down a bit later on.\n<\/p>\n
\nA Civil Campaign<\/a><\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nThe Babylonians: An Introduction<\/cite> — Gwendolyn Leick \nEmpire of Bones<\/cite> — Liz Williams \nI Shall Wear Midnight<\/cite> — Terry Pratchett \nDiplomatic Immunity<\/a><\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nShards of Honor<\/a><\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nBarrayar<\/a><\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nSurface Detail<\/a><\/cite> — Iain M. Banks \nThe Warrior\u2019s Apprentice<\/a><\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nThe Vor Game<\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nBrothers in Arms<\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nBorders of Infinity<\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nEthan of Athos<\/a><\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nThe Pocket Essential Philip K. Dick<\/cite> — Andrew M. Butler \nMirror Dance<\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nMemory<\/cite> — Lois McMaster Bujold \nThe Quantum Thief<\/cite> — Hannu Rajaniemi
\nIs this a rom-com or the most hard science fiction story Bujold has ever told? Both. Brilliant, but rereading it you know that<\/em> dinner scene is coming, making it even more cringeworthy than the first time.\n<\/p>\n
\nA very short textbook introduction to the Babylonians. Good to get a basic overview, but nothing more.\n<\/p>\n
\nAn Indian outcast rebel queen is the sole contact for a highly advanced but even more stratified alien race.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe last Tiffany Aching novel is not quite as good as the previous ones.\n<\/p>\n
\nNot really a necessary book, to be honest, as everything build up during Komarr<\/cite> and A Civil Campaign<\/cite> is lost for just another fun Miles romp.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe first Barrayar novel, introducing Aral Vorkosigan to Cordelia Naismith.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhat happens when Cordelia went shopping during the Barrayarian civil war.\n<\/p>\n
\nBanks’ latest Culture novel has a very unpleasant, but worryingly plausible scenario at its heart. What if technology progresses so far that it becomes possible to recreate whatever hell your religion has thought up in virtual reality?\n<\/p>\n
\nThe first novel starring that little hyperactive git, Miles Vorkosigan. Failing his entrance exam for the Barrayarian army, Miles goes on holiday to Beta Colony and as one thing leads to another creates his own mercenary fleet and manages to end not just a foreign war, but also a complot against his own empire.\n<\/p>\n
\nOnce again Miles has gotten into trouble on Barrayar, hides into his alternate persona of Admiral Naismith and manages to thwart yet another plot against Barrayar.\n<\/p>\n
\nKept on Earth thanks to a failure in bureaucracy, Miles meets his clone brother Mark for the first time, as he is the target for another complex plot against the Barrayarian empire.\n<\/p>\n
\nA collection of three short stories, with some connective tissue.\n<\/p>\n
\nOn Athos there are only men, no women, and when new egg stock needs to be bought for their uterine replicators it’s the somewhat naive Ethan send out to get them, only to run into a galactic complot\n<\/p>\n
\nA literary cheatsheet for the master of paranoid science fiction — evidence of his arrival amongst the literati.\n<\/p>\n
\nMiles’ brother not his clone Mark returns, tries to borrow the Dendarii for his personal vendetta, fucks up royally and Miles has to save him — and then he’s killed and it’s Mark to the rescue…\n<\/p>\n
\nAnd we’re done with Miles Vorkosigan, ending with the novel in which his entire life and career is destroyed, leaving having to rebuild it from the ground up.\n<\/p>\n
\nCharlie Stross mentioned this guy to me two years ago as the writer to watch; this is his first novel. It didn’t quite live up to the hype, but if you like cyberpunk space opera in the vein of Stross, Egan or Sterling, Rajaniemi will be right up your street.\n<\/p>\n