2009 Bookpost #3
Third book post of the year. This list got a bit longer than #1 and #2. I hit 30 books in early June, then promptly got distracted by Concertino and the last minute mad rush to get through as much Hugo Award reading as I could before the voting deadline. The sprint is fairly obvious from the list: Books #32-#40 are all Hugo-nominated novels, graphic novels, or related books, with the exception of the one Jim Butcher Dresden novel.
22. The Future of Flight, Leik Myrabo and Dean Ing
23. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
24. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins (*)
25. The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
26. Cats in Space, Bill Fawcett
27. The Vorkosigan Companion, Lillian Stewart Carl & John Helfers, eds.
28. Dhalgren, Samuel Delany
29. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates (*)
30. A Sea of Troubles, Donna Leon
31. Fallen Angels, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle & Michael Flynn (reread)
32. Zoe’s Tale, John Scalzi
33. Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
34. Saturn’s Children, Charles Stross
35. Dead Beat, Jim Butcher
36. Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi
37. The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle, Jim Butcher
38. Fables: War and Pieces, Bill Willingham
39. Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic, Howard Tayler
40. Y: The Last Man, Volume 10: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan
I am somewhat amused (or bemused?) that the run of nine books from #22 to #30 managed to include three disappointments: Cats in Space, Dhalgren and Revolutionary Road. I'm usually fairly discerning in my book-buying. The fact that two books slipped through my personal filters--and got read in the same month--is unusual. (Revolutionary Road was a book club choice.) Of those two, Cats in Space was the more surprising. I love cats. I'm staff to a pair of cute-but-nutty felines. A collection of cat stories should have been a slam dunk. And it got off to a good start with Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon" and Frederic Brown's "Mouse". Unfortunately, with the exception of Heinlein's "Ordeal in Space" and A.E. Van Vogt's "Black Destroyer " I found most of the remaining stories rather dull. In one case, David Drake's "Bullhead", I'm not even sure where the cat figured into the story at all. Meanwhile, Dahlgren, which I discovered through an exhibit on cities utopian and dystopian at the Science Fiction Museum, looked to be the sort of city-as-a-character kind of story I enjoy. Instead I found it dull (especially after the first third), sometimes incomprehensible (particularly the last third, with the side-by-side storytelling) and ultimately pointless.
I don't usually re-read books, given the size of my to-be-read pile. But, for whatever reason, I put the hardcover re-release of Fallen Angels on the TBR bookcase instead of immediately shelving it with the rest of the Niven books. So, it got picked as part of the post-Revolutionary Road brain-cleansing. It was interesting to see how the book has aged--well in some places, less so in others. We are in many ways closing in on the environmentalists-run-the-world (or at least the USA) scenario pictured in the story. However, unlike the book, we're looking for technology to save the day, not going around banning it as evil. And given that we've elected our first Geek-in-Chief, I doubt anyone will be trying to enact a national ban on science fiction. (At least not for the next several of years.) OTOH, Niven and company are spot on in their portrayals of a decaying infrastructure.
For the Hugo novels, I liked Little Brother best, with Zoe’s Tale a close second, then Graveyard Book, then Saturn’s Children. (I ran out of time for Anathem.) I'm a sucker for anything set in San Francisco (or the Bay Area in general), plus Little Brother had timeliness going for it. It also gave me some food for thought related to my own stories. Like The Last Colony, I found Zoe’s Tale's entertaining, and an improvement over Old Man's War. Speaking of Scalzi, I really enjoyed the collection of columns from "Whatever". I may need to add his blog to my reading list. I'm also looking forward to seeing him at Confluence. (Hopefully for more than just his GOH speech, although as usual mrgoodwraith's excellent filk program has made that rather difficult.) Saturn's Children, despite some excellent world-building (including some very well-detailed city descriptions and other richly-detailed settings), managed to lose me on the plot.
I enjoyed all four of the graphic novels (those would be #37-#40, in case you didn't know). I definitely want to go back and read the rest of Fables now. I'm interested in Schlock Mercenary and Y: The Last Man also, but probably further down the priority list.
I have three books-in-progress on the night-table: Rosemary and Rue, Seanan McGuire; Bellweather, Connie Willis; and Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes. I'll give you one guess as to which of those three now holds the title of The Second Most Expensive Book In My Collection, thanks to the Concertino Interfilk auction. The first two guesses don't count (*grin*). (As a reminder, the Most Expensive Book In My Collection is Amphigorey, Again. That was also Interfilk's fault.)
(* denotes books read for $EMPLOYER’s book club)
22. The Future of Flight, Leik Myrabo and Dean Ing
23. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
24. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins (*)
25. The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
26. Cats in Space, Bill Fawcett
27. The Vorkosigan Companion, Lillian Stewart Carl & John Helfers, eds.
28. Dhalgren, Samuel Delany
29. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates (*)
30. A Sea of Troubles, Donna Leon
31. Fallen Angels, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle & Michael Flynn (reread)
32. Zoe’s Tale, John Scalzi
33. Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
34. Saturn’s Children, Charles Stross
35. Dead Beat, Jim Butcher
36. Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi
37. The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle, Jim Butcher
38. Fables: War and Pieces, Bill Willingham
39. Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic, Howard Tayler
40. Y: The Last Man, Volume 10: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan
I am somewhat amused (or bemused?) that the run of nine books from #22 to #30 managed to include three disappointments: Cats in Space, Dhalgren and Revolutionary Road. I'm usually fairly discerning in my book-buying. The fact that two books slipped through my personal filters--and got read in the same month--is unusual. (Revolutionary Road was a book club choice.) Of those two, Cats in Space was the more surprising. I love cats. I'm staff to a pair of cute-but-nutty felines. A collection of cat stories should have been a slam dunk. And it got off to a good start with Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon" and Frederic Brown's "Mouse". Unfortunately, with the exception of Heinlein's "Ordeal in Space" and A.E. Van Vogt's "Black Destroyer " I found most of the remaining stories rather dull. In one case, David Drake's "Bullhead", I'm not even sure where the cat figured into the story at all. Meanwhile, Dahlgren, which I discovered through an exhibit on cities utopian and dystopian at the Science Fiction Museum, looked to be the sort of city-as-a-character kind of story I enjoy. Instead I found it dull (especially after the first third), sometimes incomprehensible (particularly the last third, with the side-by-side storytelling) and ultimately pointless.
I don't usually re-read books, given the size of my to-be-read pile. But, for whatever reason, I put the hardcover re-release of Fallen Angels on the TBR bookcase instead of immediately shelving it with the rest of the Niven books. So, it got picked as part of the post-Revolutionary Road brain-cleansing. It was interesting to see how the book has aged--well in some places, less so in others. We are in many ways closing in on the environmentalists-run-the-world (or at least the USA) scenario pictured in the story. However, unlike the book, we're looking for technology to save the day, not going around banning it as evil. And given that we've elected our first Geek-in-Chief, I doubt anyone will be trying to enact a national ban on science fiction. (At least not for the next several of years.) OTOH, Niven and company are spot on in their portrayals of a decaying infrastructure.
For the Hugo novels, I liked Little Brother best, with Zoe’s Tale a close second, then Graveyard Book, then Saturn’s Children. (I ran out of time for Anathem.) I'm a sucker for anything set in San Francisco (or the Bay Area in general), plus Little Brother had timeliness going for it. It also gave me some food for thought related to my own stories. Like The Last Colony, I found Zoe’s Tale's entertaining, and an improvement over Old Man's War. Speaking of Scalzi, I really enjoyed the collection of columns from "Whatever". I may need to add his blog to my reading list. I'm also looking forward to seeing him at Confluence. (Hopefully for more than just his GOH speech, although as usual mrgoodwraith's excellent filk program has made that rather difficult.) Saturn's Children, despite some excellent world-building (including some very well-detailed city descriptions and other richly-detailed settings), managed to lose me on the plot.
I enjoyed all four of the graphic novels (those would be #37-#40, in case you didn't know). I definitely want to go back and read the rest of Fables now. I'm interested in Schlock Mercenary and Y: The Last Man also, but probably further down the priority list.
I have three books-in-progress on the night-table: Rosemary and Rue, Seanan McGuire; Bellweather, Connie Willis; and Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes. I'll give you one guess as to which of those three now holds the title of The Second Most Expensive Book In My Collection, thanks to the Concertino Interfilk auction. The first two guesses don't count (*grin*). (As a reminder, the Most Expensive Book In My Collection is Amphigorey, Again. That was also Interfilk's fault.)
(* denotes books read for $EMPLOYER’s book club)