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?
5 comments:
Ah, you encounter the work of Robert Sawyer. I haven't read everything by him, but I think Flashforward may be his best stand-alone work.
I think that's probably post-Scientology Van Vogt, so likely to be clunky and dull.
"City and the city" gave me some insights into the different worlds inhabited by (say) office cleaners and forex traders.
Laser powered expedtion reminds me of the "mote in God's eye" Niven/ Pournelle so somewhat reactionary, but intersting hard SF around disaster recovery civilisations.
I think Asimov's foundation trilogy started out as a sort of Marxist historical inevitability idea, but he got bored with that in the second book and tried to reinject interest by having it all go wrong. A bit elite conspiracy theory for my taste. I'm sure you'll enjoy them, and I look forward to your reviews.
The City and the City is probably my favorite Mieville, for what that's worth
I wish you luck with Flashforward, because I gave up on the TV version as it was increasingly dull and couldn't make the premise work.
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