Some current and recent reading
Jan. 14th, 2012 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinasphinxBellwether, by Connie Willis
Lighthearted novella, in the same sort of vein as To Say Nothing of the Dog, but with a contemporary setting. Lots of historical trivia about scientific discovery and fads. (The protagonist is a female sociology researcher whose specialty is fads.)
Lincoln's Dreams, by Connie Willis
So far, my least favorite by Willis. I'm maybe 75 pages in, and the comedy of manners structure is already annoying. Usually I can shrug it off because that's just how Willis structures all her stories, but in this one the plot is driven by a male history researcher's immediate overprotective reaction to an emotionally vulnerable young woman.
Metatropolis, edited by John Scalzi
Fun shared-world anthology. I didn't care for the first story (not a fan of Jay Lake's writing style) but there's some good stories in here. Elizabeth Bear and Tobas Buckell's stories are particularly good, and Scalzi's is workmanlike as always. The theme is cities redefined. For example, Cascadiopolis looks just like the forest. But there are subtle markings on rocks for paths, and the guards at the gate are hidden up in the trees, like nanotech-wearing elves. Across the country in Detroit, unused buildings are being adapted to new uses. Karl Schroeder's story closes out the book by introducing a virtual city.
Slices, by Michael Montoure
Another good short-story anthology by Michael. Horror isn't my genre, but the story about the rabbits haunts me.
Lighthearted novella, in the same sort of vein as To Say Nothing of the Dog, but with a contemporary setting. Lots of historical trivia about scientific discovery and fads. (The protagonist is a female sociology researcher whose specialty is fads.)
Lincoln's Dreams, by Connie Willis
So far, my least favorite by Willis. I'm maybe 75 pages in, and the comedy of manners structure is already annoying. Usually I can shrug it off because that's just how Willis structures all her stories, but in this one the plot is driven by a male history researcher's immediate overprotective reaction to an emotionally vulnerable young woman.
Metatropolis, edited by John Scalzi
Fun shared-world anthology. I didn't care for the first story (not a fan of Jay Lake's writing style) but there's some good stories in here. Elizabeth Bear and Tobas Buckell's stories are particularly good, and Scalzi's is workmanlike as always. The theme is cities redefined. For example, Cascadiopolis looks just like the forest. But there are subtle markings on rocks for paths, and the guards at the gate are hidden up in the trees, like nanotech-wearing elves. Across the country in Detroit, unused buildings are being adapted to new uses. Karl Schroeder's story closes out the book by introducing a virtual city.
Slices, by Michael Montoure
Another good short-story anthology by Michael. Horror isn't my genre, but the story about the rabbits haunts me.
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Date: 2012-01-15 09:01 pm (UTC)(For a follow up, if you haven't read it, I would highly recommend Richard Adam's Traveller. Yup, you heard it, the Civil War through the eyes of General Lee's horse. By the man who wrote Watership Down. I cried at the end. Damn, but that man can write.
And I'd actually read it again, unlike The Girl in the Swing - which is marvellously done, well written, and... no, not again. Dear gods.)