More reading on my travelling
Jun. 9th, 2007 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsI didn't take quite enough books with me this time -- but I've still got 4 more books read.
Book 19: Kingdom of Cages by Sarah Zettel. An interesting future society, looking at conflict between goods of the many and the few. Where does protecting one's own tribe at the cost of others become right or not? What if the others only need you because they've destroyed their worlds/environment? Is it your duty to rescue them from their only failure? While, also, being partially a coming-of-age story, too. On the whole, a good book -- but I'm not sure she quite achieves the goals the book tries for.
Book 20: Climbing Anchors by John Long. One of the climbing books lent to me by my brother-in-law, this one focuses on setting anchors. It helpfully talks about techniques with using existing protection, and setting your own protection, as well as a lot of discussion of the rigging that goes with it, for setting up belay points or belay anchors. While it explains a fair bit, it all felt quite theoretical in reading it -- I think it is a useful foundation, but as the book also says, I really should learn from someone experienced actually showing me how to do much of the stuff. I do think, though, it will help me in knowing what to learn, and how to evaluate what I'm learning.
Book 21: Flash by L. E. Modessitt, Jr. This is a sequel to (or, I think, actually a prequel to) Archform: Beauty, set in the same world though not (from what I could tell) sharing any characters, or if so, only at the edges. It has very similar themes, those of corrupt politicians and corporate leaders being prevented from doing what they do by honest people. This time, though it is a bit easier to follow as there are far fewer viewpoint characters -- mostly just one POV, with a few glimpses from others. Also, the good guys are quite so squeaky-clean, with the main character(s) slipping into vigilante roles, and the question of how right this is makes the book more interesting and stronger. Also, while set in the same world, this is also clearly a stand-alone work, that could be read independent of Archform: Beauty. Worth reading.
Book 22: Deus X and Other Stories by Norman Spinrad. I took this as my 3rd book for my Germany trip, but when I opened it up I went oops.. cause the print was bigger and more spaced out than I expected, so there was less in it. It contains only 3 stories, the title piece which is probably novella length, and two short stories. The title piece, though, is a strong work -- powerful, lyrical, stuffed full of allusion, and dealing with the question of the passing of the (Catholic/Christian) idea of the soul accross translation from flesh intelligence to a machine-running image of the same person's consciousness. Deus X was well worth the reading, the other two short stories were, unfortunately, far weaker and essentially forgettable.
Book 19: Kingdom of Cages by Sarah Zettel. An interesting future society, looking at conflict between goods of the many and the few. Where does protecting one's own tribe at the cost of others become right or not? What if the others only need you because they've destroyed their worlds/environment? Is it your duty to rescue them from their only failure? While, also, being partially a coming-of-age story, too. On the whole, a good book -- but I'm not sure she quite achieves the goals the book tries for.
Book 20: Climbing Anchors by John Long. One of the climbing books lent to me by my brother-in-law, this one focuses on setting anchors. It helpfully talks about techniques with using existing protection, and setting your own protection, as well as a lot of discussion of the rigging that goes with it, for setting up belay points or belay anchors. While it explains a fair bit, it all felt quite theoretical in reading it -- I think it is a useful foundation, but as the book also says, I really should learn from someone experienced actually showing me how to do much of the stuff. I do think, though, it will help me in knowing what to learn, and how to evaluate what I'm learning.
Book 21: Flash by L. E. Modessitt, Jr. This is a sequel to (or, I think, actually a prequel to) Archform: Beauty, set in the same world though not (from what I could tell) sharing any characters, or if so, only at the edges. It has very similar themes, those of corrupt politicians and corporate leaders being prevented from doing what they do by honest people. This time, though it is a bit easier to follow as there are far fewer viewpoint characters -- mostly just one POV, with a few glimpses from others. Also, the good guys are quite so squeaky-clean, with the main character(s) slipping into vigilante roles, and the question of how right this is makes the book more interesting and stronger. Also, while set in the same world, this is also clearly a stand-alone work, that could be read independent of Archform: Beauty. Worth reading.
Book 22: Deus X and Other Stories by Norman Spinrad. I took this as my 3rd book for my Germany trip, but when I opened it up I went oops.. cause the print was bigger and more spaced out than I expected, so there was less in it. It contains only 3 stories, the title piece which is probably novella length, and two short stories. The title piece, though, is a strong work -- powerful, lyrical, stuffed full of allusion, and dealing with the question of the passing of the (Catholic/Christian) idea of the soul accross translation from flesh intelligence to a machine-running image of the same person's consciousness. Deus X was well worth the reading, the other two short stories were, unfortunately, far weaker and essentially forgettable.
