Bibliophile File
I noticed I haven't written down which books I've been reading for quite a while. Time to remedy this.
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Enjoyable riff on the Trickster myth, set in present day. Most people are embarrassed by their parents as children - what if your father was the Trickster god?
Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
I always read these things in paperback. I enjoy them, but not to the tune of $40. Snape's got a lot of explaining to do.
Agent to the Stars - John Scalzi
This is a freebie on his website. I started to read, just to get a taste of his work because Amazon's been waving his books in front of me for a while now. Half a day later it's 3am and I have to go to bed! His writing goes down smooth. Heinlein without the blatant political ranting. Good fun stuff.
Glasshouse - Charles Stross
I enjoyed this, but I think to get the best understand of the backdrop to this novel it helps to have read Accelerando. After a very nasty civil war (when you can edit minds and bodies, war gets even nastier) a group of scientists set up an attempt to model the 20th century because most of the data was lost. Not just because of the war, but because of the many incompatible, fast-decaying, and/or encrypted methods of electronic info storage of current times.
Baudolino - Umberto Eco
This was good for the most part. The main character is a scholar and charlatan. Indeed, Eco seems to imply that the two were hard to tell apart in 13th century Europe. When the book deals with the politics, cons, and shenanigans of the Roman/Italian scene it is very clever and entertaining. When the characters go off seeking the mythical Prester John the book bogs down a bit in all the theological differences between the strange creatures they meet. But they end up coming back to Constantinople, and it ends well.
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Enjoyable riff on the Trickster myth, set in present day. Most people are embarrassed by their parents as children - what if your father was the Trickster god?
Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
I always read these things in paperback. I enjoy them, but not to the tune of $40. Snape's got a lot of explaining to do.
Agent to the Stars - John Scalzi
This is a freebie on his website. I started to read, just to get a taste of his work because Amazon's been waving his books in front of me for a while now. Half a day later it's 3am and I have to go to bed! His writing goes down smooth. Heinlein without the blatant political ranting. Good fun stuff.
Glasshouse - Charles Stross
I enjoyed this, but I think to get the best understand of the backdrop to this novel it helps to have read Accelerando. After a very nasty civil war (when you can edit minds and bodies, war gets even nastier) a group of scientists set up an attempt to model the 20th century because most of the data was lost. Not just because of the war, but because of the many incompatible, fast-decaying, and/or encrypted methods of electronic info storage of current times.
Baudolino - Umberto Eco
This was good for the most part. The main character is a scholar and charlatan. Indeed, Eco seems to imply that the two were hard to tell apart in 13th century Europe. When the book deals with the politics, cons, and shenanigans of the Roman/Italian scene it is very clever and entertaining. When the characters go off seeking the mythical Prester John the book bogs down a bit in all the theological differences between the strange creatures they meet. But they end up coming back to Constantinople, and it ends well.