One of the few examples where the movie is better than the book ( Read more... )

Finished Scholars and Soldiers, a short-story collection by Mary Gentle.

Before I get to the stories themselves, I need to rant a bit about short story collections: all but 3 of the stories in this one are also in Cartomany, which I already had. That's 3 out of 9 new (to me) stories. I hate it when they do that. It's just the ultimate rip-off, ( Read more... )

Finished Grunts! by Mary Gentle ( Read more... )

Finally got a copy of The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, and pretty much devoured it right through.

Sometime in the far far future, the thief and conman Jean Le Flambeur is recued from a dilemma prison (a huge construct of crystalline cells floating in space, where prisoners are forced to fight eachother over and over for dominion of the prison) ( Read more... )

Finished A Hawk in Silver by Mary Gentle ( Read more... )

Finished volume 7 of Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky; Heirs of the Blade.

(slghtly spoilery!)

In terms of plot, the first part of the book follows Tynisa, who fled Collegium after Achaeos' death, and is now wandering through the Commonweal, hunting some idealistic spark of an ideal society that she caught from her friend Salma.

Later, Che and ( Read more... )

The Devil's Graveyard is the third of the "Bourbon Kid" books by some Anonymous guy. (would be interesting to find out who he is. How many contemporary anonymous authors of fiction are there nowadays ( Read more... )

Finished the collection The New Space Opera 2, edited by Gardner Dozois.

All these stories are set in the far future, with very advanced tech, and often a rather loose definition of human. Most of them are OK, although, unfortunately, there are few WOW moments, and some stories that don't make all that much sense.

Detailed review:

ꉿ Robert Charles ( Read more... )

Finished the audiobook of Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente.

The plot is based on the Russian folktale of Koschei the Deathless, a powerful magician, famous for having hidden his death, and thus having become immortal.

In St.. Petersburg, on a long, thing street, in a long, thin house, in a long, thin window, Marya Morevna is waiting for a bird to ( Read more... )

Finished Blood Engines by T.A. (Tim) Pratt, the first of the Marla Mason books ( Read more... )