First Family

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I finished this book on the bus into work this morning (I had a pretty distracted weekend, and didn't get much reading done). This is the second book in the Amtrak Wars series, and takes place immediately after Cloud Warrior. The book feels like it is only half a book -- there is plot development such as learning more about Roz, meeting the First Family, and the Iron Masters, but there isn't much action. Basically I look back on the book and wonder what happened in it -- it would have been better to combine this with the next book and have a complete story in one. [isbn: 0671655671;0722185170]

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The Spy Within

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LibraryThing, of which I am a member runs a program where members are shipped early copies of books for free, with the preference for them writing a review when they're done reading the book. The books are shipped by the publisher directly to the reviewers. This isn't that uncommon in the publishing industry -- both of my books have experienced a similar process, although less formal. (In fact, any very early review of a book on a site light amazon.com should be viewed with a little bit of caution I suppose. These people probably got their review copies for free from the publisher.) LibraryThing's implementation is a little different though, mainly because of the scale at which they hand out books, and the fact that the publishers don't appear to get any direct say in who gets the books. That means that there is less incentive to write a positive review, and that more people get access to early copies of new books. You can see a list of the books LibraryThing is currently handing out here. The Spy Within is the true story of a senior CIA agent who turned out to also be a Chinese spy. Its the…

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Pawn of Prophecy

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The Belgariad is a pretty formula fantasy epic, with striking similarities to things like stories of King Arthur. The series is written in a style which is very accessible to younger readers, which might explain why I loved these books as a kid. Its also a pretty "safe" story, in that nothing truly bad is allowed to happen to the main character, who is a child who grows up during the books. That might be why I loved these books so much as a child, and read them many times. As an adult, this is a pretty easy read, and quite entertaining. I imagine its a lot like the Harry Potter series in its accessibility, although I haven't actually read Harry Potter as its not my kind of thing. I quite like this book, and would recommend it to young readers interested in fantasy books. [isbn: 0552148075]

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Cloud Warrior

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I read this post-nuclear holocaust book as a kid and liked it, so I thought I'd give it a try again. Given most second hand science fiction books are $2, the barrier to entry is admittedly quite low as well. This book revolves around two groups -- the Amtrak Federation (a military society formed from survivors of those who crewed MX missile trains, a real system of roaming trains carrying nuclear missiles from the late 1980s and early 1990s -- the idea was that something which moved was harder for the Russians to find) and the "Mutes" (the civilan survivors of the holocaust, who are now mutated by radiation). Its a good book, although very different from the Asimov I've been reading recently. That's a good thing, because I think I need a bit of an Asimov break to be honest. [isbn: 0671559729;0722185162;1857235355]

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Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series

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I'm getting really into reading second hand science fiction from the 1950s onward. I read a few (but nowhere near all) of the Foundation series as a child, and I remember liking them a lot. Stolen from Wikipedia as well as other online sources, here is a list of the books in The Foundation series in Asimov's suggested reading order... The Robot Short Stories Recommendations: read The Complete Robot end to end, and then read the new stories only found in Robot Dreams and Robot Visions.   Year Title Notes 1992 The Positronic Man Robot novel based on Asimov's short story The Bicentennial Man, co-written by Robert Silverberg. 1954 The Caves of Steel Robot novel. 1957 The Naked Sun Robot novel. 1983 The Robots of Dawn Robot novel. 1985 Robots and Empire Robot novel. 1993 Isaac Asimov's Caliban Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they're no longer for sale. 1994 Isaac Asimov's Inferno Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they're no longer for sale. 1996 Isaac Asimov's Utopia Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they're no…

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Robot Dreams

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Robot Dreams is another of the robot short story books from Asimov. It is a bit deceptive though and frankly quite annoying because only one of the stories in the book is a robot story, and its not very long.I am of course ignoring the robot stories that already appear in I, Robot and The Complete Robot. The rest are unrelated short stories by Asimov that aren't about robots, and aren't even consistent with the universe that the Foundation books exist in. That's what makes it so annoying for Asimov to recommend that you read the book as part of the extended Foundation series. Grumble. Don't get me wrong, the other stories are fine, its just that they're not the robot stories that I was led to believe they would be. Wikipedia is a little more clear on the situation than I was: Robot Dreams (1986) is a collection of Isaac Asimov's short stories, intended largely to show a series of Asimov robot-inspired drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. All the stories except the title one, written specifically for the volume, can be found in various other Asimov collections. The companion book, which also showcases McQuarrie's drawings (and includes Asimov essays in…

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The Complete Robot

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This is another of Asimov's robot short story collections, and many of the stories appear in earlier works. In fact, I would recommend getting I, Robot and this book, and avoiding The Rest of the Robots if you're not interested in owning a complete collection of books, but do want to have all of the stories. I say you should get a copy of I, Robot mainly because it has linking matter between the stories that this book lacks. The Complete Robot is as good as Asimov's other short story books I have read, which means I thought it was fantastic. [isbn: 0586057242]

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Isaac Asimov’s Utopia

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Utopia is the third and final Asimov universe book from Allen. It centers around an attempt to accellerate the terraforming of a planet by drastic measures which drive third law robots wild... The measures are so drastic that they endanger humans, whilst protecting a large number of humans. Unfortunately three law robots have trouble seeing the difference between the two. I don't think this book is as well written as the earlier two Allen books (Caliban and Inferno) and therefore not as good as the Asimov books set in the universe. It was however reasonably engaging and I'm not offended that I spent time and money on it. An ok book, but nothing special basically.

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The Stainless Steel Rat Series

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I am increasingly becoming obsessed with science fiction from 1950s and 1960s. Again stolen from Wikipedia, here is a list of all the Stainless Steel Rat books: 1985: A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born 1987: The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted 1994: The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues 1961: The Stainless Steel Rat 1970: The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge 1972: The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World 1978: The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You 1982: The Stainless Steel Rat for President 1996: The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell 1999: The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus 1993: The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat (a short story in Stainless Steel Visions) 2011: The Stainless Steel Rat Returns Additionally, there is: 1993: Stainless Steel Visions 1998: You can be the Stainless Steel Rat -- a choose your own adventure book

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The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You

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I'm helping out with SciFoo for the third year running, which is a blast. Neal Stephenson is back again, which is fun. Anyway, there is always a bit of hurry up and wait at conferences, so I got a chance to finish off this book. Its an ok read, but suffers from the hard-to-believe time travel that The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World suffered from as well. It was ok though. I'd say 3 out of 5 stars if I had a star rating system. [isbn: 0553253956;0553227963;0553126253]

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