First off, congratulations to David J. Schwartz, aka snurri, whose first published novel, Superpowers, was nominated for a Nebula award. Whoot! Now I can say I knew him when.

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Meanwhile, I've been ripping though Nero Wolfes.

( The Little Matter of Arnold Zeck... )

Huh. I just mentioned both Philip Jose Farmer and Riverworld in the last post. This morning he died. R.I.P.

He had a very varied career. As I mentioned in the comments of the last post, he famously wrote Venus of the Half Shell under the name of Kilgore Trout, basing the novel on the Kurt Vonnegut's descriptions of the previously fictional novel. ( Read more... )

It has not been a good couple of days. For one thing, my back has been killing me, and for no reason I can discern. The pain comes and goes, and doesn't really affect my strength, i.e., I can lift stuff without the pain getting worse. On top of that, yesterday, when I was supposed to go down to Jersey for my cousin's 50th birthday bash, I got hit ( Read more... )

I often complain about not being able to find enough decent panels to attend, or that there are too many scheduled concurrently when I'm at a con, but this year's Boskone was just right. There was something to pique my interest pretty much every session, and I rarely had to choose between two equally appealing panels. The con was held in a ( Read more... )

( The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge )

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx

( A book a week plus one... )

The last books of the year.

The Children of Húrin - J. R. R. Tolkien
( A curse is a curse, of course, of course... )

( Inherit the Stars - James P. Hogan )

So far behind. Three books with similar settings, i.e., all the trappings of modern space opera: utopian universes full of enhanced humans, virtual reality, AIs, and big, dumb objects.

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( Lady of Mazes - Karl Schroeder )

Wow, it's been awhile. Six books read, three of which tread similar ground. I'll get to them later. Here are the three that have nothing at all to do with each other.

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And Be a Villain - Rex StoutContinuing along the Wolfe canon, we finally meet Arnold Zeck, Wolfe's Moriarty. The mystery here is kind of a mess, relying on some unlikely events, ( Read more... )