Books I've read recently

[dagibbs]

Kiln People by David Brin. An interesting and well-done sf novel about a society where people can create short-term "duplicates" of themselves to handle unpleasant or uninteresting tasks. (2002)

The Viscount of Adrilankha by Steven Brust. Well, this was in three volumes: The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode. This is the third "book" in the trilogy started by The Phoenix Guards (and continued in 500 Years After). It tells of the ending of the interregnum, and fills in some interesting gaps in the back-history of the environment and people Vlad Taltos (Jhereg, etc) lives in and with. It is, of course, written in the expected style, the somewhat loquacious translation of Paarfi. A good and fun read. (2002-2004)

Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter. An interesting and enjoyable steampunk novel -- strange, bizarre, twisted, but fun. (1987)

Manhatten Transfer by John E. Stith. A very campbellian tale -- humans are faster/stronger/brighter/more dangerous/more clever or whatever than anyone else out there, and triumph cause of it. Yup, here the humans are kidnapped by advanced aliens, break out, and figure out within a few days how to fight with the aliens technology better than the aliens themselves could. Yeah right. Oh ya, there's a romance between the super-competent military-leader guy and the super-competent translator/anthropologist gal, but it's pretty poorly done too. Bleah. (1993)

[edit]Warning: Spoilers for Kiln People and Earth have appeared in the comments.[/edit]

Comments

[concordantnexus.livejournal.com]

are you coming to visit Montreal when you get back from Michigan & K-W?

[elizilla]

I just read Kiln People myself. I liked it a lot. Though the ending, where everything in the plot runs over a cliff, gets swirled around, and has a brush with deity, is awfully similar to the way he ended _Earth_. A little to deus ex machina for my taste, but it was neat having the same protagonist in all those different viewpoints. Very slick.

David Brin is really good at twisting his premises into something wholly unexpected, yet completely reasonable. I'm always reading his stuff and nodding my head, thinking, "Wow, yeah, if the technology he describes existed, that's exactly how people would react. But I never thought of that!"

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm already home -- see my Jan 5 post. :)

I've actually got another Michigan trip planned this month -- going back for Confusion. I'm getting over a cold now, so not likely to travel 'til then.

I would like to get up to Montreal sometime, though. It's looking likely for February -- depending on work travel.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the ending was my least favourite part of it. It seemed...over-the-top unneccessary for what had been, up to that point, a very nicely done technological-affects-sociological change type novel. I'm not sure I've read Earth, or at least, not read it recently enough to compare the endings.

Spoilet alert!

[elizilla]

In _Earth_, a micro black hole has fallen into the Earth's core and is slowly, inexorably, eating the planet from the inside out. Meanwhile on the surface there is a lot of intrigue, and there are a lot of major and minor environmental catastrophes going on. This book was written in 1985, but he's got an amazing picture of something that looks a lot like a combination of usenet and the web, that becomes less like a thing and more like a person as the story goes on.

In the end, the black hole orbiting the earth's core creates a circuit down there, like a big computer chip. The million babbling voices of the internet pour down a hole into the center of the Earth, giving it a conscious mind. The Earth wakes up, and two competing visions of the goddess vie for control.

This is a big thick book, chock full of little disjointed vignettes focusing on one aspect or another of what is happening on the planet. There are about a dozen main characters, and lots of well drawn and intereseting minor characters that only appear once. There are about a hundred different story fragments here. Many of them are these amazingly cool little gems, things that might not quite stand on their own, leaning into each other to construct something that's shaky but glittering and very nifty.

Highly recommended, and fun to read more than once.

Re: Spoilet alert!

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm going to have to read it... I wonder if I've got a copy around here somewhere... (scuttle...scuttle...scuttle...) yup... I do. On my shelves of "not read yet" books in my bedroom.

Maybe it'll be my next to read (once I'm done the current The Economist, and maybe this coming week's if it arrives before I'm done last week's).