award – Page 2 – Made by Mikal

The System of the World

Post author:mikal
Post published:October 25, 2010
Post category:Book

The final book of the Baroque Cycle, and it feels like a real achievement to have gone through them all. They have their slow spots, but also excellent action and characters I love. Best of all, this book focuses on the latter two, with only one section of long theoretical dialog (about the nature of God in this case), which was so common in the other books and somethings so hard to follow. This story line was well worth the 2,500 or so pages it took, and the last book was a pleasure to read. It feels like there should be more books in this universe, but I'm not aware of any -- perhaps later? [award: winner prometheus 2005] [isbn: 0060750863;0060750863]

The Accidental Time Machine

Post author:mikal
Post published:October 16, 2010
Post category:Book

Joe Haldeman does good work, and in general I have really liked his books. They're easy to read, fun, and interesting. Better than that, they're all quite different in the topics they cover, so he's not in a rut. The only exceptions have been There Is No Darkness, which wasn't very good and Forever Free, which I thought was lazily plotted. This book is no exception to the rule, and I really enjoyed it. One theme to Joe's work that I am noticing is that the "sex scenes" are always anti-climatic, which is interesting to note. I'd like to have heard more about the One Year War, but there is scope for that to be another separate book. I don't think this book suffers from the lack of coverage, and its mostly tangentially interesting because I'd like to see how a society transforms itself in that way.

The Diamond Age

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 16, 2010
Post category:Book

I loved this book. I think its going on my list of all time favorites. The first half of the book is better than the second, but I think that might be because young Nell resonated much more strongly with me than older Nell. I read this book because it came up at a scientific conference where I went to a presentation about 3D fabrication, and its now entirely clear why the presenter thought this was relevant, given 3D nanotech fabrication plays a strong part in this book. Excellent read.

Mona Lisa Overdrive

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 17, 2010
Post category:Book

This is the book which wraps up the Sprawl series (Burning Chrome, Neuromancer and Count Zero). Its a great book, with several separate story lines which are beautifully molded together by the end of the book. It also wraps up the confusing elements of the various other stories nicely. I really enjoyed it.

Count Zero

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 20, 2010
Post category:Book

The voodoo aspect of this book is a bit odd, but its a very readable story set about eight years after Neuromancer. I like that it is not a "me too" story, and has its own unique and interesting plot arc. Overall a good read.

Cyteen: The Vindication

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 3, 2010
Post category:Book

This is the final book in the Cyteen trilogy (proceeded by Cyteen: The Betrayal and Cyteen: The Rebirth). This book is good in that it avoids much of the politics that mired the first book. Additionally, its nice to see Ari2 and Justin resolve some of their differences, even if its from a position of mutual distrust. The series doesn't really resolve the problem of Ari's research, but I assume that theme is covered more in later books. [isbn: 0445204303] [award: winner hugo 1989]

Cyteen: The Rebirth

Post author:mikal
Post published:June 23, 2010
Post category:Book

This book is a follow up to Cyteen: The Betrayal, and was originally published in the same volume as it. The book would make little sense without having read Cyteen: The Betrayal first. Apart from that its a good book, and much more readable than the first. I think that's mostly because all the important scene setting is done and we can finally get on with things. That was my impression with the first book too -- the second half was better than the first. [award: nominee hugo 1989] [isbn: 0445204540]

All The Weyrs of Pern

Post author:mikal
Post published:June 16, 2010
Post category:Book

This is the science fiction that I thought the Pern stories should have been all along. Its fair enough that there is a build up to this point, although it took a long time and involved a lot more light weight fiction than I would have liked. This was a good book, and I enjoyed it. [award: nominee hugo 1992] [isbn: 0345368932]

Neuromancer

Post author:mikal
Post published:June 1, 2010
Post category:Book

This book is a classic, and I first read it a long time ago. Its pretty clear in retrospect why it kicked off the cyberpunk movement, and I'm glad that the future it proposed hasn't come to pass (yet). Despite being written in the 1980s the book isn't dated, although it does make more sense if you've spent some time in Japan. [isbn: 0586066454] [award: winner nebula_novel 1984; winner hugo 1985]

Cyteen: The Betrayal

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 25, 2010
Post category:Book

I read this book at the recommendation of my father. Its an interesting concept -- artificially produced humans have been created to fill gaps in a society far out on the edges of occupied space. However, how are these artificial humans different from "real" humans? How are they different from slaves given they are programmed to perform certain duties with joy and without question? However, despite the interesting concept, the first two thirds of the book are very slow, and took me ages to read. The last third was much better and I think I'll read the sequels because of that. If the book had stopped after the boring bit, there would be no way I'd read the next book. I think part of the problem is that this book was originally in one volume, instead of the three volume set I own. [isbn: 0445204524] [award: winner hugo 1989]