recommendations!
I LIED. A better reading mood is constructed of liberal doses not only of Cordwainer Smith, but also of Harry Harrison.
Cordwainer Smith is pretty much amazing. His name is the penname of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (also a cool name), and in his real life, he was a China scholar and an expert in psychological warfare and blind in one eye and knew a ton of languages and was in the CIA and SUN YAT-SEN WAS HIS GODFATHER. Here's his wiki. He's an amazingly fascinating guy, and the kind of person I'd love to just sit down and listen to, because I'm certain he'd've had fascinating things to say about everything. Because, yes, he really does write about drugs taken from giant sheep, and cat-and-human partners who kill giant space creatures telepathically. Yes, he does.
Those of you on my flist who like vitnage SF (ahem) will probably like Harry Harrison, author of the Stainless Steel Rat books. The SSR is a con-man, thief, show-off, smartass, and all-around heist guy who - oh, just let TvTropes do the work. He's a little too wiseacre for me to like him fully as a character, but in the one I'm reading right now (The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted), he's eighteen and thus a great deal more sympathetic than the Mr Worldly who narrates the first book.
Cordwainer Smith is pretty much amazing. His name is the penname of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (also a cool name), and in his real life, he was a China scholar and an expert in psychological warfare and blind in one eye and knew a ton of languages and was in the CIA and SUN YAT-SEN WAS HIS GODFATHER. Here's his wiki. He's an amazingly fascinating guy, and the kind of person I'd love to just sit down and listen to, because I'm certain he'd've had fascinating things to say about everything. Because, yes, he really does write about drugs taken from giant sheep, and cat-and-human partners who kill giant space creatures telepathically. Yes, he does.
Those of you on my flist who like vitnage SF (ahem) will probably like Harry Harrison, author of the Stainless Steel Rat books. The SSR is a con-man, thief, show-off, smartass, and all-around heist guy who - oh, just let TvTropes do the work. He's a little too wiseacre for me to like him fully as a character, but in the one I'm reading right now (The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted), he's eighteen and thus a great deal more sympathetic than the Mr Worldly who narrates the first book.