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.
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.
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]
This is a collection of William Gibson short stories. They're gritty and real, and make more sense now that I've been to both the US and Japan. I read these stories as a kid and loved them, although their vision for the future isn't a happy one. Its good to see I still like them as an adult. Stories in this collection: Johnny Mnemonic The Gernsback Continuum Fragments of a Hologram Rose The Belonging Kind Hinterlands Red Star, Winter Orbit New Rose Hotel The Winter Market Dogfight Burning Chrome [isbn: 0441089348] [award: nominee nebula_short_story 1981 (Johnny Mnemonic); nominee nebula_novelette 1982 (Burning Chrome); nominee nebula_novelette 1985 (Dogfight); nominee nebula_novelette 1986 (The Winter Market)]
This is another book I read as a child, except in this case I didn't really remember much of it -- the only bit I remembered was the punishment of Madouc's mother, but that might have been because I was a teenaged boy at the time. Overall this is a very good book. It took me a while to read because of being distracted with other projects, but the ongoing oppression of Princess Suldrun didn't really help either -- it was interesting at first, but got depressing after a while. Its also disturbing how many times sexual assault is used as a plot element in this book... [award: nominee nebula_novel 1983] [isbn: 0441505309]
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. [isbn: 0345297687] [award: nominee nebula 1969]
This a very different book to The Forever War, and not really a sequel. It covers some similar territory, but there are no characters in common, and the overall plots are unrelated (and conflicting). However, this book is as well written as The Forever War, and I enjoyed it.
I read this book mainly because multiple sites recommended it as a response to Starship Troopers. I'd actually read the start of this book already in the form of the short story "Hero", which is included in Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow. At the time, I would have described it as an ok short story, but not the best in the book. That's interesting, because the extended version in the novel is amazing. Its one of those books I had trouble putting down, and its gripping to the end. The book has a very different perspective on war from Starship Troopers and is more like some of David Drake's writing (they're both Vietnam veterans). There is also a little bit of Bill the Galactic Hero mixed in as well, without being so over the top. I strongly recommend this book.
This is the first book in the Dragons of Pern series, which I read a small part of as a child. Given that they're still being written, its not surprising that I'm pretty out of date on this series. This book is excellent for a few reasons -- the idea is unique and well implemented; its an amazing mix of fantasy with science fiction style justifications for the way things are; and its well written. The underlying premise is that a planet named Pern as a nearly neighbor on an eccentric orbit. When that neighbor comes near to Pern, spores from the other planet try to land on Pern. These spores breed by eating organic life, so they need to be neutralized or life on Pern will cease. There are however a few patches I had to re-read to make full sense of. I really liked this book. [isbn: 0345335465] [award: winner nebula 1968; nominee nebula 1967]
This is the first Heinlein book I have read in a long time -- since High School in fact. I read this one simply on an impulse, as the back cover description made it sound interesting. Heinlein isn't on the list of authors that I am pursuing at the moment, although I might consider changing that. This book covers a more complicated Earth than the one we have right now, although in some ways its more simple. The main character Friday doesn't ever seem to have trouble making friends, and portions of the book are just a series of her romantic entanglements. Most of the complexities are political. The story is mostly about a journey, both physical as well as emotional, and interestingly there isn't a consistent opposing force. I suspect that might be unusual, at least for the stuff I read. This book was good, even if the constant romantic entanglements seemed extraneous. [award: winner nebula 1982; winner hugo 1982; winner locus 1983; winner prometheus 1983] [isbn: 034530988x]