Book – Page 27 – Made by Mikal

The Robot City Series

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 26, 2009
Post category:Book

These are books written in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Universe by other authors. They don't progress the overall plot of the Foundation series, they just use some of the concepts and characters to tell similar stories. The books in the series are: 1987: Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Odyssey by Michael P Kube-McDowell 1987: Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Suspicion by Mike McQuay 1987: Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Cyborg by William F. Wu 1988: Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Prodigy by Arthur Byron Cover 1988: Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Refuge by Rob Chilson 1988: Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Perihelion by William F. Wu To be honest these books aren't fantastic and I wouldn't recommend them unless you're trying to get exhaustive coverage of Asimov's Foundation universe.

Foundation’s Friends

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 26, 2009
Post category:Book

I was excited when I found Foundation's Friends the other day, because I thought I'd read all the Foundation books and did not know that this one existed. It is an anthology which celebrates Asimov's 50 years as a science fiction author, and each author takes their own approach to the Foundation universe. The stories are: The Nonmetallic Isaac or It's a Wonderful Life (Ben Bova): not really a short story, more of an inspection of the impact that Asimov's non-fiction writing has had on the world. Strip-Runner (Pamela Sargent): set after The Naked Sun, a young female strip runner meets Elijah Bailey. The Asenion Solution (Robert Silverberg): a pretty standard science fiction short story. Murder in the Urth Degree (Edward Wellen): I haven't read any of the Doctor Urth mysteries, so to be honest this story seemed pretty weird. Trantor Falls (Harry Turtledove): covers the fall and sack of Trantor at the end of the first Galactic Empire. This one is pretty good, and in keeping with the overall Foundation universe. Dilemma (Connie Willis): Asimov deals with some three law robots. Maureen Birnbaum After Dark (George Alec Effinger): I find Maureen's character to be superficial and annoying. This story…

Saturn’s Children

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 16, 2009
Post category:Book

I had trouble getting really into this book, although the story was interesting. I guess its mostly the Gibson-esque descriptions of a future world with plenty of assumed knowledge. However, I found the descriptions of the failed Mars missions deeply satisfying, and would love to see those covered in more detail. However, the story gets better as you go along, and I found the second two thirds of the book to be really good. It probably helped that I have an engineering background, because some of the descriptions are quite technical.

Bolo!

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This book is a return to the short story collection style of Bolo book, with all of these short stories being written by David Webber. Unfortunately, most of these stories are not new: "Miles to Go" and "A brief technical history of the Bolo" appeared in Bolos 3: The Triumphant, and "The Traitor" and "A Time To Kill" appeared in Bolos 4: Last Stand. Only "With Your Shield" is new to me in this book. That one new story is a good one, although I think it helped that the Melconians had already been introduced in other short stories. I enjoyed it, even though there was only about 90 pages of new content in this book.

Last Human

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This is Doug Naylor's first solo book, after the breakup of his Red Dwarf partnership with Rob Grant. This book deviates pretty wildly from the plot line developed by the TV series, although it does use some of the ideas from the series. Often these ideas are used in such a different way that it would be annoying if you were expecting a novelization of the series. This book also has more characters die than is normal for Red Dwarf, and I felt that often the deaths were unneeded. Apart from that this was a good quick read.

The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 9, 2009
Post category:Book

I bought and read this book for the short story "the impression", which is ok but not fantastic. Overall the book isn't really my thing -- its mostly a potted history of Pern and a nearly exhaustive coverage of the various weyrs, holds and craft halls that inhabit the planet. To be honest, I'd rather learn that stuff as I read the series, instead of reading a summary. Overall I think this book isn't particularly great, although its nice to have read the short story at the right time in the sequence. Having just read Dragonsdawn, there are also some inconsistencies which grated a little (the use of HNO3 for example, and how much knowledge of the Oort cloud the survey team had string to mind as examples).

Dragonsdawn

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 8, 2009
Post category:Book

This book was similar to the other McCaffrey books I've read in that it felt like it lost its way in the middle for a bit. I'd been looking forward to this book for a while, because I really wanted to see the science fiction aspects of colonizing a new planet and developing a genetically engineered dragon explored. While this book did that, I don't think it focused on the elements I wanted to -- there was little discussion of the mechanics of either of these things, and instead a big sub plot about a jewel thief which was irrelevant and annoying. Overall, this book was ok, but not fantastic.

Bolo Strike

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 4, 2009
Post category:Book

There is a planet populated by humans which has been isolated for many years. In that time, aliens have come to rule the planet and treat the humans as slaves. Its pretty clear that they need liberating, right? What if you trash the planet in the process? What if they actually have the ability to defend themselves (something you didn't adequately prepare for)? Pretty standard bolo fare, and fun for all the same reasons as the others. I enjoyed this book, even if I am not a better person for having read it.

Books read in November 2009

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 4, 2009
Post category:Book

On Cars The Forever War Forever Peace Bolo Rising The Ship Who Sang

The Ship Who Sang

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 27, 2009
Post category:Book

This book is good science fiction, in the sense that it explores something which we are not ready to address as a society -- in this case, would profoundly disabled people prefer that we could replace their disabled bodies? What if the replacement wasn't humanoid? The book is pretty old though, and that shows in some of the elements of the story. I don't feel it detracts though. The book is also composed of a series of independantish by related short stories, which was a common publishing technique for science fiction in the 1960s. One story -- "Dramatic Mission" -- did throw me a little. Its just too out there conceptually, and actually kind of dull until about the last three pages, where the controller poses some interesting questions of Helva. I feel that perhaps the lead up could have been better though.