<insert crazy ramblings here>

Ooh, apparently the British Science Fiction Association's survey of authors is winging it's way to me. Covering the results of two surveys, twenty years apart, and covering over 120 writers.

Didn't even have to ask for it, it's just a bonus to members :)

Sample survey response here.

Okay, I may have failed to keep updating what I read in 2009, but I still have most of the books on one shelf, so will try and do a catch up post soon.

Meanwhile, I'd better start this year's list while I can still remember them.

1) Matter by Ian M. Banks.

Bought this ages ago, and took on Christmas holiday to France with me. On the basis that it would save me having to take 3 smaller books :)

The main "problem" with the Culture universe is that the Culture are at the top of the pecking order. Creating conflict within this utopia is tricky, so most of the novels are set at the edges. This is book that set largely outside their sphere of influence. This novel is largely centred around characters from a relatively primitive culture who are fully aware that they are several levels down from the movers and shakers of the galaxy.

Personally, this was a downside for me. The bits of this novel I enjoyed the most were the massive scale epic space opera moments. I just wasn't terribly interested as to what was happening to the these people's culture.

2) The Brentford Triangle by Robert Rankin

2nd in the The Brentford Trilogy

Hanging around with jamesb made me realise I'd been ignoring Rankin's books too long. Having bounced off The Da-da-de-da-da Code, when I won a review copy at the BSFA raffle, I eventually read The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of The Apocalypse and loved it, so went back to the start (pauseing briefly for Radio 7's broadcast of The Brightonomicon).

I felt this book flowed better than the The Antipope. Massively chaotic and surreal fun. Loved it. Glad I picked up the 4th book in the trilogy (with a Josh Kirby cover) for a song at the Novacon auction.

3) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

"Not Science-Fiction" my arse. I preferred ( cut for very minor structural spoilers. No plot spoiler. )

{ETA: Ooh! "what makes this [edition] unique is that the ending was rewritten for the Corgi edition, so dedicated fans will want to track this one down, to find out what happened in the original ending."}

4) Generation X by Douglas Coupland

I'd describe the protagonists of this as the 90's equivalent of "turn on, tune in, and drop out". The book follows three twenty somethings, who have chosen not to Be All They Can Be, but instead to work low paid, low responsibility jobs, until they've saved enough cash go backing round some far odd part of the world searching for themselves. The book is largely made up of series of stories which the characters tell each other, and serve as vignettes of the attitudes young adults in the late 80s.

I picked this up because I red a couple of his later novels last year. Personally, I preferred them, as they had a less fractured narrative.

The neologisms presented throughout in the footnote meet the "ignoble" test for me. First they make you laugh. Then they make you think.

Last night I went to Forbidden Planet for the launch of Cory Doctorow's latest novel: Makers.

I was intending to buy the book and leave it pristine. Only rereading it once the serialisation on tor.com had finished. That plan lasted all of about 5 minutes. There's some good bits come up, some lovely character development, and at least one WTF? moment.

Speaking of WTF, that has to be the quietest book launch I've ever been to. I was shocked. I got there about 15 minutes into the hour, and there was only one person there. I spent a good few minutes fanboying (Cory recognised me from a previous signing! Eeh!) and SMOFing (Looks like he probably can't make it to Eastercon). And it was only as I was leaving that another person arrived.

The perils of being a science fiction author.

Charles Stross's tentative sequel to Halting State has had to be scrapped once again due to reality preceding art. Another major financial scam has come to pass.

Still I guess it's better than being pre-empted by Dilbert.

Ooh, neat!

Penguin Classics are running a scheme where you get a 'free book if you blog about it'.

I've just been told I'll get Dr No. I read a couple of the bond novels when I was a teenager but haven't read one for years. It'll be interesting to see how mad the Villain is in the book version.

Having completely failed my new years resolution to blog about every book I read this year, I'm quite excited by this. Maybe I should pick that up, and start from now.

Thanks to the_magician for posting originally, and watervole for reminding me.

Amnesty are hosting another £1 book sale

30th August 2007
11am - 7.30pm

Conway Hall
25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

I'm currently reading one of the books I picked up there last time, for £1. The whole Bourne trilogy.

Cross posted to uk_book_news

Stone by Adam Roberts.

( Disclaimer )

Plot:
A criminal (a one in a billion throwback) is helped to escape from a very ingenious jail in a star. A condition is he must kill every human on a planet somewhere, or he will be turned over to the police. This is even harder than it sounds as all humans (except him as his punishment) have nanotechnology keeping them healthy. The only contact he has with his "employers" is via an AI grown in his skull.

He visits a few of planets, and cosmological phenomena, before, well, the resolution of the book.

A series of incoherent thoughts:

Quantum Mechanics is weird:
The main conceits are Nanotechnology and Quantum mechanics. It's used a few times to explain how things work in this universe, that don't currently in ours (such as FTL travel, and Intelligence). It's internally consistent, if not completely in accord with what I understand about the real world. That makes this Space Opera, but not Hard SF. Not that that's a bad thing. I do think the explanations of technology were at a good level. We get given some theory, but don't get bogged down in it. Then again, maybe I'm not the best judge of that, I like lots of infodump ;)

Characterisation:
This story is told out loud, by a Sociopath, about his earlier solo mission. It's pretty clear this story isn't going to be about relationships. The other characters who he does run across are all quite distinct, not cut from cookie cutters, and enjoyable. Ae himself though is quite likeable for someone who's trying to murder a planet.

Language:

One aspect of the world building is a language. There's lots of foot notes on the translation of the language into English. This language is supposedly derived from English, but has drifted over the years. This adds some sense realism as it really does feel like the sort of issues that translators come across. However, I found it quite jarring.

I felt the language drift was conveyed much better in the "Wellhello", which everyone says a greating. It's a nice bit of slang that: shouldn't become dated, is easy to decipher, and never appears in the middle of paragraphs, so doesn't give you a jolt. Plus I tend to associate "Well, hello" with the start of a Cory Doctorow's podcast, so it already feels futuristic ;)