I’m American, but I’ve heard in a lot of countries they hate how we start talking to someone who is still kind of far away. Like when your friend is approaching from the other direction and you say “Hey, how’s it going?” but you have to talk more loudly because he’s several paces away.

Gateway is one of my all time favorite books

I’ll for sure continue, I’ve just had other books on my list that I was more interested in.

Yeah, apparently Island is his response both to his earlier book and to 1984. I haven’t read it yet but probably will.

I haven’t read any Lee, but I’ve read a number of books by Anderson (just not since I’ve been keeping the log). Thanks for the recommendation.

Awesome, that’s really why I post it. Let us know if you like whatever you end up reading.

I really liked the whole series (both trilogies).

Ah, okay, I don’t follow the stuff much.

Nice. I’ve tried some audio books, but I really prefer reading print.

I just have them in a Google docs, then post here yearly. I’ll take a look at yours, thanks.

Zero History, Gibson

• Final book of the Blue Ant trilogy. The chapters alternate between the point of view of Hollis Henry and Milgram, both from the second book. Hollis is pulled back in to work for Bigend, trying to find the designer of some interesting clothing with a stealthy brand, but it takes her and Milgram to dangerous territory. I enjoyed this book quite well as a novel. There’s an interesting selection of characters, and the pacing kept me well engaged. As SF, I didn’t like it as well; it’s basically set in present day with almost no tech that isn’t actually available, so I’m not sure what makes people classify it as SF other than the author.

The Name Of The Wind, Rothfuss

• A man of popular legends, currently in hiding as a tavern owner, tells his story to a scribe. It’s firmly fantasy, yet there’s a fair amount of science in it. The main character goes to a university where at least somewhat magical topics are taught alongside chemistry, medicine, and the like. The writing is really strong, and the characters interesting. The story doesn’t really conclude, it just pauses for the next book in the series, which always leaves me a bit unsatisfied. I’ll likely read that next one though.

The Tainted Cup, Bennett

• A man has been murdered in a very strange way: with a giant plant erupting from his chest. The investigator assigned avoids leaving her home, and relies on Dinos Kol (our main character), an “engraver" augmented to have a perfect memory, to investigate the scene. I’m not certain why this is classified as fantasy - there’s no magic and all the fantastical elements are the results of biological augmentation - but it certainly wouldn’t be hard SF in any case. It’s basically a detective novel set in an interesting world with interesting rules and interesting characters. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Man Who Saw Seconds, Boldizar

• Preble Jefferson can see the future, but only five seconds into it. That doesn’t sound like it would be much help, but Boldizar makes a good case for it being a significant ability. A small mistake sends Preble down a path that pits him (and his wife and child) against the government, with the stakes constantly escalating. This is an action thriller with a lot of commentary on morality, duty, and authoritarianism. Action-packed and interesting.

The Mercy Of Gods, Corey

• Book 1 of The Captive’s War series by the author of The Expanse. Set on a planet settled by humans long ago, the inhabitants are unaware of their origins due to a planetary catastrophe thousands of years prior. A team of research biologists is among those captured and taken away when warlike aliens conquer their planet. The take on the aliens is pretty interesting, and it’s very engaging. The scope of characters seems smaller than in The Expanse, which I actually appreciate. Good book and I’ll look forward to the next in the series.

Death Of The Author, Okorafor

• Zelu is a stubborn, paraplegic author, whose father is Igbo and whose mother is Yoruba (two ethnic groups in Nigeria), who writes an SF novel while at a personal low point, and it becomes wildly popular. The story follows her through fame, love, and family conflict, told third person and through interviews with the characters. There are a lot of interesting things in this one, including the way the story is told, but it didn’t work well for me. The writing style is odd, with lots of short sentences like it’s written for children, but it’s clearly not. Zelu’s family includes siblings who are so unsupportive and unemphatic that they seem cartoonish. There are long and frequent descriptions of food and autonomous car rides that are inconsequential. It doesn’t feel well planned out; there are lots of things that are brought up for the first time when they come into play (for one minor example, Zelu is attacked at one point and says that she knows one of the attackers, but it’s someone who hasn’t been mentioned previously). Plus we get to read much of the SF story she writes, the one that takes the world by storm, and it’s just okay. Most of the reviews I’ve read use words like “masterwork" and "genius,” so your mileage may vary.

Zoe’s Tale, Scalzi

• It turns out, The Last Colony was not the final book in the Old Man’s War series, as Scalzi had said it would likely be. This is an odd one though: is the same storyline and timeline as TLC, but told from the point of view of Zoe, the daughter. This works better than I thought it would as the details of Zoe’s mission in the prior book were largely glossed over, and Scalzi has added some other story elements that weren’t known to the parents in that book. It’s an enjoyable book with a lot of heart, but I think I’m glad I read quite a number of books between TLC and this one because it made the overlap feel less pronounced. There really are no surprises here because the major plot elements are in that book.

Schismatrix Plus, Sterling

• Thousands of years in the future, humanity is split into two factions: Mechanists, who believe in enhancing themselves through technology, and Shapers who believe in enhancing themselves through gene manipulation. Each faction thinks the other is an abomination, and the two are at war. The story follows the long life of Abelard Lindsey, born on a Mechanist world, but who was given a Shaper treatment. Really interesting story with a huge scope of time. It starts a bit slowly, but really evolves, as does the main character. The “Plus" part of the title was added for the version I read that includes five short stories set in the same universe. These are appended to the end of the book, though the stories were written prior to Schismatrix. The stories are good, though some are somewhat dour. Side note: one of the stories, named Spider Rose, was made into an episode of the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots, which I had seen but didn’t realize was based on a Bruce Sterling story.

Shroud, Tchaikovsky

• A ship tasked with prepping solar systems for resource stripping to support human expansion in the galaxy encounters a moon putting out tremendous radio signals and goes to investigate. Tchaikovsky shows again why he’s becoming my favorite author. Really interesting life forms mixed with really interesting human interactions. Great book.

The Mimicking of Known Successes, Older

• A novela. In the aftermath of the ecological destruction of earth (and similar later on Mars), humanity lives on floating platforms in Jupiter’s atmosphere, each connected to the others by a series of rail cars. A man has disappeared from one of these platforms and the investigator assigned enlists the help of her old college flame, now a successful scholar. Good story well told. Interesting setting.

The Rosewater Insurrection, Thompson

• Book two of the Wormwood trilogy. Possible spoilers to the first book below, so skip if you haven’t read it. Kaaro from the first book is an instrumental character, but Aminat is now central. The first woman who has become more alien plant than human has been identified, and Aminat is tasked with finding and studying her. Mayor Jack Jacques declares independence of the city, and there is war between humans, but Wormwood is also at war. As with the first book, there’s a lot going on, but this one is a little more linear. Very good and enjoyable; I’ll look forward to the third book.

Brave New Would, Huxley

• Published in 1932, set in the 2500s, a future in which people are made on assembly lines, test tube fashion by the world state. A number of castes are artificially created, with the lower ones artificially made dumber, and everyone is conditioned to be happy they’re in the caste they are, but also to believe that everyone is valuable. There are no families, broad promiscuity is encouraged, and attachment to anyone in particular is discouraged. In this setting, a high caste but lonely man takes a popular woman to a “savage reservation" where native Americans live in traditional fashion, including families and births, which are considered obscene. There they find a world state woman who was left behind many years prior, along with her teenage son, both whom they bring back. I was surprised at how well the book holds up after over 90 years, though some of the prejudices of the time leak through. Huxley’s commentary on a utopian/dystopian government is still biting.

City of Last Chances, Tchaikovsky

• Set in a city named Ilmar, a few years after it was taken over by an occupation force. The locals are a mix of factions, many of whom use a sort of pragmatic magic, but the occupiers’ only use for magic is to "decant” it into a kind of battery that they use to power their weapons. The story is told from the point of view of many different characters. I enjoyed this book a fair amount, but it didn’t get as invested as I have with most of Tchaikovsky’s books. Many of the main characters are pretty selfish, and the story is told in a way that felt pretty dispassionate. I didn’t dislike it - I’ll probably read the other books in the series - but it’s a least favorite book from a most favorite author.

A Sorceress Comes To Call, Kingfisher

• Cordelia is a fourteen-year-old girl, raised by her mother who is an abusive evil sorceress. They go to the home of a wealthy man, who the mother intends to trick into marrying her. The man and the family treat Cordelia with utter kindness, and she fears her mother will kill them. This is apparently a reimagining of “The Goose Girl," which is one of Grimm’s fairytales (one I’m not familiar with). I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The characters are engaging and it manages to go to dark places in a mostly light-hearted way.

The Last Colony, Scalzi

• Third (and tacitly final) of the Old Man’s War series. This one shifts the focus back to John Perry, the main character of the first one. John, his wife, and adopted daughter (none of whom are in the military any longer), are talked into leading the formation of a seed colony on a new planet. The colony ends up becoming a pawn in multiple games, and the family struggles to keep everyone alive, and to keep the human race from being exterminated. I enjoyed this book. It’s slightly less military than the prior two (which suits me fine), though there is still that aspect to it. In some ways, it’s maybe less gripping, but not excessively so. Lots of Scalzi-type witty banter. Wraps up the trilogy nicely.

The Ministry of Time, Bradley

• The near future British government has attained time travel, but don’t know how safe it is. To test it, they pull five people from history just before their deaths (to avoid changing the past) to monitor and study. Each is assigned a “bridge" - someone to monitor their charge, but also ease their transition to our time. Told from the point of view of the woman assigned as the bridge for Graham Gore, a real-life figure who died on the ill-fated Franklin expedition to find the northwest passage in the mid 1800s. This one really sucked me in. The story moves along well, but it’s also thoughtful. It’s a bit of a romance story, but not in a cliche way. It has a lot to say about good intentions vs actual goodness.

The Swarm, Schätzing

• Sea life has turned against mankind across the globe, and multiple scientists are trying to figure out what’s going on before we’re wiped out. This is a big book (translated from its original German) with a big scope. There’s a lot to love here: Schätzing has drawn some interesting characters, clearly did a lot of research into the various sciences involved, created some pretty imaginative ideas, and manages to keep the big book moving along for the most part. There are a few things that didn’t work as well for me. There are some computer simulations that seem too advanced for the time, there are a couple characters that seem more like caricatures, and there are some long sections where characters debate philosophy and religion in a way that’s clearly the author trying to spoon feed us. Still, it’s a book with a lot to say and I think it’s pretty successful.

The Long War, Pratchett and Baxter

• Sequel to The Long Earth. A couple decades after the prior book, where the ability for anyone to move to parallel earths was made available, the effects of that are being felt. The original earth (called Datum now) is suffering from a labor shortage, and the government is trying to tax communities on the same footprint on other earths. Meanwhile, all the trolls are disappearing. I was worried, based on the title, that the story would mostly be about a battle, but it’s not like that. Lots of people trying to do the right thing, with a few who aren’t. Enjoyable.

Matter, Banks

• Another in the Culture series. Set mostly on a “shellworld,” which is an artificially created planet constructed of nested spheres, with people (or aliens) living on the surface of between the layers of each sphere. This shellworld is largely inhabited by people at about Victorian-era technology, with a power struggle and other developments that may warrant the involvement of the powerful alien races that populate the galaxy. Banks still has a penchant for characters that are well drawn, but who almost all seem emotionally isolated in some way. I liked the book, but somehow never felt too invested in the drama.

Rose/House, Martine

• A novella. Set 100 to 200 years in the future, an eccentric architect built an AI-controlled mansion out in the California desert. After his death, he willed that all his works should be stored there, that the only person who can enter is an estranged former student, and that she can only be inside for seven days a year. The local police get a call from the house AI saying that there is a dead body inside, while the former student is abroad, making a challenging case for the local police. I’m a bit lukewarm on this one. The writing is good, the characters are engaging, and the premise is interesting, but it feels like it just never gets in gear. Some books are a bit too long for the story they have to tell, but this one feels like it could have used more flesh on its bones.

Surface Detail, Banks

• Another in the Culture universe, though in this one the Culture and Special Circumstances have bit parts. Since people can be scanned and put into new bodies or virtual environments, some cultures have created virtual hells where people can be endlessly tortured in an afterlife as a way of keeping them good in real life. There is a war being held in virtual space between the factions that want these hells and those that are against them. The book has various story lines, some of which seem unrelated, including an indentured servant who is murdered by the rich and powerful man who owns her, two people who go into hell so they can report back on the atrocities, a soldier in the virtual war who is repeatedly reincarnated, and various others. I think I liked this one most of those I’ve read. It tackles some interesting philosophical questions, and many of the characters don’t fit cleanly into good/bad buckets. I was bugged by the fact that he never addressed who decides which people go to hell or why, and some of the characters seemed so inconsequential that I wonder why they’re there, but it’s a good story.

Vurt, Noon

• Set in a future Manchester, England. Sucking on color-coded vurt feathers puts people into shared virtual realities, and some people are hooked on them, including the small group of friends (gang?) who are the focus of the story. Told from the viewpoint of Scribble, desperately trying to find the feather that will allow him to find his sister, who went into a vurt with him and never came out. Very unusual story, with a very punk feel. Recommended if you like weird and gritty.

The Sparrow, Russell

• Set starting in the very near future and spanning 40+ years, a Jesuit priest is sent as a linguist as part of an expedition to a planet from which radio signals have been discovered. The expedition goes very badly, and the story is told in two timelines: from the beginning, and from the inquiry into what happened after the priest, now a broken man, is the only one to return. I stayed up late finishing this book, it really pulled me in. It’s about a lot of things - love, family, morality - but a large focus is on the existence and nature of god, if one exists. As an atheist, I found myself hyper sensitive to whether the author was making a case for theism or atheism, and while I think eventually she may have (I won’t spoil where it leads), she certainly voices the reasons for debate. For sure worth reading regardless of your beliefs.

The Stage Case of Jane O., Thompson Walker

• A woman sees a psychiatrist after being found passed out in a park with a full day missing from her memory. It becomes apparent that she’s suffering from strange hallucinations. This is an odd little book. The chapters alternate between being the notes of the psychiatrist, who writes like a scientist from the early 1900s, and of letters written from the woman to her son as a kind of journal. The story unfolds very slowly, and though the strangeness is apparent early on, the SF-ness of it isn’t apparent until very late. Because of the way the story is told - by notes and letters as opposed to a first person point of view - there’s a strange detachment to the story, but it still manages to be pretty engaging. I liked it, but if you want a book that hurries up to get at the action, this isn’t it.

Daemon, Suarez

• After the death of a brilliant and wealthy game developer, distributed programs he wrote (collectively called a “daemon") become active, with the first actions being the murder of key people in his company. The story follows the government and non-government people trying to stop it as it becomes more powerful, and people who are manipulated into helping it as its grander purpose unfolds. This is an action-packed techno thriller with characters that seem a little thin. The ending was a little unsatisfying, but apparently that’s because there’s a sequel that concludes the story. The technology seems generally feasible, though it’s worth noting that it was written in 2006 and seems to take place around the then present day, so some of it is dated. I’ll likely read the sequel.

Red Rising, Brown

• On a future Mars, Darrow is a miner for helium, used in the terraforming process that will eventually allow humans to live on the surface. Like all miners, he is a “red," the lowest of the color-coded castes that make up the planet’s residents. But Darrow finds out that everything he knew about the planet and its society is a lie, and he sets out to change things. An interesting book some have described as “The Hunger Games mixed with Game of Thrones," and that’s not far off. The pacing is excellent and the story is twisty, but I find myself not liking the main character, who seems unreasonably good at everything and understandably arrogant. The ending wasn’t satisfying, but likely because there are sequels.

(Continued)

Broken Angels, Morgan

• Sequel to Altered Carbon, taking place 30 years later. The defining technology in the book’s universe is the ability to put a person in a new body (“sleeve"), sometimes after broadcasting their mind from one place/planet to another. It’s also a time when many artifacts and cities from a long gone Martian civilization have been found on various planets. Kovacs is fighting in a mercenary outfit when he’s talked into joining an expedition to lay claim to a recently found martian portal, still operational, that leads to a Martian spaceship. This would probably be classified as military SF, and it’s pretty brutal and graphic. Still, it’s an interesting story with interesting characters.

Binti, Okorafor

• A novella you can read in a sitting. Binti is the first from her tribe of people on earth to get accepted to a galactic University on another planet. On the trip there (her first off earth), events happen that will forever change who she is. I really enjoyed this story and wished it had continued. It has a lot to say about racism, home, and honor.

Service Model, Tchaikovsky

• Charles, a high-end robot valet, finds that he has murdered his master, though he doesn’t know why. To find the answer, he heads to Diagnostics, leaving the grounds for the first time. He finds civilization has collapsed, with robots like himself at various levels of functionality. He also meets The Wonk, who believes Charles has become sentient. This book is a treasure. Fans of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams will find something to love here.

Red Shirts, Scalzi

• A parody of Star Trek, from the viewpoint of the “red shirts:" away team members whose lives are cheap, especially compared to the main characters. I was going to skip this one, even though it won a lot of SF awards. I figured that the awards were probably given because so many SF folks geek out over anything Trek. I shouldn’t have been so cynical, this is a good book that manages to find depth from a silly concept. I got very curious about where it was going to take me when I realized it seemed close to wrapping up but I was only 60% through. Very enjoyable.

Use of Weapons, Banks

• Third of the Culture series, and so far the best of them. The story follows a mercenary, who the Culture repeatedly hires to do things they can’t be seen doing, as he struggles with his assignments and his own past. It has an interesting structure, with chapters going forward in time alternating with chapters going backwards in time. I mentioned in my notes on the prior two books that the romantic relationships in Banks’ novels seem strangely subdued, and that’s true here as well, though possibly because of the very broken main character.

The Deep Sky, Kitasei

• On Earth’s first mission attempting to reach a habitable planet in another solar system, after ten years spent in hibernation, a bomb kills three of the 80 crew, and sends the ship off course. Asuka must figure out who is responsible, and help figure out how to get back on track. The chapters alternate between that story line and the period starting ten years before the launch as hundreds of adolescents compete and train to be members of the international crew. The book has its flaws, including the strange requirement that all of the crew get pregnant and have babies during the trip (so many of the characters are near-term pregnant), and an AI that feels simultaneously too capable and too limited. But the story is good, the characters rich, and I found myself plowing through it pretty quickly.

The Book of Phoenix, Okorafor

• Phoenix is an “Accelerated Biological Organism,” just two years old but with the body of a 40-year-old woman. She was engineered to be a weapon, though she has abilities that even those who created her didn’t realize. She is confined to a tower with other ABOs, all from the African continent. She has just suffered a trauma and decided she must escape. The book is categorized as “science fantasy," which I didn’t initially realize, and I was bothered early on by aspects that were written like science fiction but were scientifically implausible. As fantasy, it felt more acceptable. It’s a moving story, with some aspects at the end that are disappointing, not because of poor storytelling, but because of what the story has to say.

Iron Sunrise, Stross

• Sequel to Singularity Sky. Same two main characters, plus a couple new ones. A planet has been destroyed by the intentional destruction of its sun. Another planet is in danger of being destroyed by a misplaced retaliatory action. A young girl from a station far out in the system of the destroyed planet has discovered something related and is being pursued by killers. Marion and Rachel are pulled in to prevent further planetary destruction and find out who is responsible. I think it’s a better book than the first in the series, and will certainly read the third.

Rosewater, Thompson

• No few sentences of summary are going to do this book justice. It takes place in near future Nigeria. Some decades prior, complex alien life has landed (impacted) on earth; now there’s an alien dome in Nigeria, and a town has grown around it. The main character is one of the “sensitives" that have become more prevalent - people who can access and interact with the thoughts of others. He’s not a great guy, initially using his abilities to steal, later getting pulled into a secret government organization. The story is told through three different timelines, which are creatively woven together. I really enjoyed the new ideas and interesting storytelling of this book. Will read the sequel.

Accelerando, Stross

• You might have noticed that I’ve read a lot of Charles Stross books; I like his writing a fair amount. This book won or was nominated for a number of very prestigious awards. That being said, I didn’t love it. Partly, maybe more of a quibble, the rate of technological advancement it depicts seems preposterous. I’ve read that it was originally a bunch of short stories turned into a novel, and that might explain why the flow didn’t seem great to me. And, critically, I didn’t find myself caring about most of the characters; some of the relationships the characters have don’t even seem true to those characters. Still, there are some intriguing concepts. The story covers three generations of a family before, during, and after the technological singularity that leads to (most) humans becoming post-human digital beings, and the ramifications of that for humanity. If you consume a lot of books, it’s worth reading, but if you only have time for a smaller number of books, I would skip it (though clearly many people disagree with me).

When The Moon Hits Your Eye, Scalzi

• In an instant, the moon is replaced with an equal mass of cheese. If you’re thinking that this is a ridiculous setup for a book, you are correct. If you’re thinking that a book with that setup would be silly, throw-away fluff (which is what I thought), you’re as incorrect as I was. Scalzi takes the ridiculous setup and approaches it seriously: how would the world react if this happened? What would the government do? What would individuals do? What would actually happen to a lump of cheese with the mass of the moon, orbiting the earth? Would it matter? Many of the chapters are told from the point of view of nonrecurring characters; we get their stories as vignettes, but each feeds the overall arc of the novel. As I mentioned, I thought this would be throw-away fluff, and chose it because I could use a little throw-away fluff. It wasn’t that, but it was better. A lot of it really is funny, not because the story itself is funny but because many of the characters are funny/witty. It also has depth and heart, and it made a much bigger impact on me than a book about the moon turning to cheese has any business doing.

Fuzzy Nation, Scalzi

• A prospector contracted by a large corporation to look for valuable minerals on a planet finds an immensely valuable seam of gems. He also finds some very cute little creatures that may or may not be more than they seem. “Little Fuzzy" is an SF story written in 1962 by H. Beam Piper (one that I haven’t read). Fuzzy Nation is Scalzi’s reboot, telling Piper’s ‘62 story with modern sensibilities. I’m putting Little Fuzzy on my list because I’m very curious how it compares, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I ripped through it in a day (it’s not long, and the pacing is excellent). Very enjoyable.

Little Fuzzy, Piper

• As mentioned in the prior entry, this one was written in 1962, and I hadn’t read it before. General plot is the same: a prospector with a claim on a planet finds some valuable gems (this time, not excessively unusually so), and also some very cute little mammals. Most of the story is taken up with the question of whether the creatures are sentient or not. It’s understandable why Scalzi wanted to redo it with modern sensibilities; there are some elements in the original that haven’t aged well, besides just the gender stereotypes and excessive smoking. One of the most problematic to me was the logic behind the sapience arguments, and I’m betting Piper never had a pet dog. Another is how even the characters who fully believe that the creatures are sapient want to treat the whole race like orphaned children who can be adopted as little better than pets. But the story is good, and it’s a good example of that era of SF when the focus of many stories shifted from tech to psychology and social sciences.

(Continued)

I’ve always liked this one

Or shoes, or maybe the carrying a fucking mirror on a motorcycle…

Pretty sure there are some safety violations happening here

Like most things, I believe it’s on a spectrum, with some people being very much who they seem, and some people being completely disingenuous. We all do things that we know others would frown upon (to one degree or another), so it’s always tempting to hide those things, sometimes to the extent that we hide the whole part of ourselves that would do then.

Looks really good! What was your process?

I started working at a company in the mid 80s, and stayed there for 40 years. They did Christmas parties until the f early 2000s or so. Honestly, I was kind of glad they stopped. There were always idiots getting drunk and doing/saying really stupid stuff.

Ugh, my kids were vegan for a while, so I did my best to make vegan alternatives for the things they loved. They were pretty happy with the vegan carob chip cookies, but they tasted like sadness to me. Like “Oh! This is vaguely like something wonderful… Too bad it misses the mark.”