I finally joined the library this month, so getting through a lot of new authors I would not have usually read.
- Battlestar Galactica, Jeffrey Carver. Another free pdf from Tor, this was good as I’ve never seen the mini-series/pilot for the re-imaged series. That said, the book was a little too much like a transcription of a TV story, Ok written, but not a brilliant read. I did quickly get through it though, as I wanted to find out how they got to various places.
- Friendly Fire, Patrick Gale. I got this from the 4th Estate Book tombola at the Innocent Village Fete and I finished it in less than 24 hours. I loved it, the story of a girl and 2 boys at school, growing up in the 70s. and learning about wh they are. Brilliant story and writing.
- Soul, Tobsha Learner,. This is another book from Tor. It confused me slightly as I was expecting more fantasy, but this is a straightforward novel, telling the stories of 2 women and how they deal with disappointing men in their life. Solidly plotted and well told, I really enjoyed this.
- Halting State Charles Stross. Love this, all about a connected world, augmented realities and a murder mystery,
- Learning the World. Ken Macleod. Liked it, liked the world he portrayed. A good starting point about what we would do if we were contacted.
- A Sudden Wild Magic, Diana Wynne Jones. OK, a little muddled for me and left too opened ended.
- Sphere of Influence, Kyle Miles. A great thriller that kept me reading. Although some of the main characters choices required a little bit of belief suspension
- Lots of John Scalzi stuff, I worked my way through his list of online short stories
- Charles Stross, Iron Sunrise. Loved it, once I’d put all the bits together. The chopping between all the character’s story lines was a little disconcerting at first, but it eventually made sense
- The Risen Empire, Scott Westerfeld. I got this as I’d read so much about Westerfeld’s YA books and they weren’t in the library! A long, long read, but enjoyable story, well characterised, even if slightly predictable.
- Singularity Sky, Charles StrossIron Sunrise is a sequal to this, so I was reading it knowing what happened to some of the characters. Again a world and story I loved, this one was a far more straight forward story than the other book
- Longitude Dava Sobel A quick romp (it’s a short book) about how John Harrison spent his life on developing a chronometer to take to sea, so that longitude could be measured, whilst battling against the ‘establishment’ who preferred a lunar method.
I read a lot more SciFi this month than I have done for a long time, I usually prefer the fantasy end of the genre. I found at one point getting confused across stories and worlds, as they were using a lot of the same principles, eg for FTL travel.
