Books, March 2012
**** Christopher Priest - The Separation. An interesting alternate-history novel. It’s often unclear which of several parallel workings-out of WWII we’re in, and the various threads weave together and apart throughout, such that the overall impression is of a gestalt of possiblities and secrets than of a specific point about plot or identity. I really enjoyed it.
*** Ted Chiang - The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate. This was really more of a short story than a novel - it was nice, but basically more a tossed-off idea than a fully-realized story.