Science Fiction Book Haul #2

While my mind is crammed with other things, let's talk about books. Some scrappy-looking books picked up during sorties into the real world.

Starting at the bottom with Roger Levy's The Rig, without looking it up on t'internets I think this has something to do with water worlds, suspended animation, and a lottery/game show. I do have some hopes for this chonker as his Icarus is an unsung gem of 21st century sf. At least I remember liking it 15 or so years ago. Up next is the celebrated China Mieville and The City and The City. While everyone raves about Perdido Street Station, I thought its successors - The Scar and Iron Council - were more compelling. I know City is very well thought of and was in the running for several awards. so expectations are high for this one. And the last of the B formats is JG Ballard's The Drowned World, one of the four acclaimed catastrophe novels. I really rate The Drought and The Wind from Nowhere, so this is unlikely to disappoint.

Now onto the proper sized paperbacks. FlashForward is the novel the one-season-wonder TV series was based on. Simultaneously, everyone the world over blacks out and experiences visions of the future. Millions die, like those riding in planes or driving cars or are on the operating table, and this is about the consequences of a universal trauma. Sounds diverting. Isaac Asimov's Second Foundation is, aha!, the third book in his Foundation novels. It's Asimov! You either like him or you don't. Jody Scott's Passing for Human is one from the sought-after Women's Press sf range, and will join my copy of Woman on the Edge of Time on the old shelf. It has dolphin-alien human impersonators, vampires, and feminist critique. What's not to like? Quest for the Future is a lame dial-it-in title for an sf novel, so is this van Vogt any good? It's a time travel story that divides internet opinion, so it's another wait-and-see. And coming in last is Robert L Forward's Rocheworld, the story of a laser-powered expedition to Barnard's Star. This one's hard sf, but hopefully he'll go light on the incomprehensible mathematical games and clever clever quantum mechanics digressions.

And there we have the haul. Have you picked up anything interesting recently?