Recently read...

[dagibbs]

Year's Best SF 8 edit by David G. Hartwell. This covers the year 2002. A bunch of good stories, including a few I'd already read in Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction, 20th annual collection. Both are good collections, the Dozois one is far weightier than the Hartwell.

Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro. I think she's a relatively new author, and I'd been hearing good things about her here and there, so I thought I'd pick this one up and give it a try. (Actually, went back and looked at the cover... this is billed as, "An impressive first novel...", but was published in 1995. So, I guess she's been around about a decade -- for me that's a relatively new author in this field.) It was a good book, I wasn't always sure I agreed with where she was taking the story, and while it does end, it also feels likely that there'll be a sequel (or there may already be a sequel) from the ending. There's lots of stuff left unresolved. I'm willing to read more stuff by her.

Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris. This is the first non-SF/F fiction I've read in a while. A long while. (Yes, I consider Harris' vampire novels, and the Laurell K. Hamilton Romance/Horror stuff to be within the bounds of the fantasy genre.) And it is all mycrazyhair's fault that I read it. Still, I did enjoy it, though it felt a bit light/short. On examination, it is 230 pages vs 369 for the Asaro (which didn't look like a particularly large book by the size of current F/SF novel sizes), and is also clearly in larger print (31 lines per page, vs 36 lines/page in the Asaro and probably more words/line, too). I enjoyed it, and would read more if they fell into my hands, though I don't think I'll seek them out.

Comments

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Interesting. I definitely would not have classified Shakespeare's Landlord as "light". Shorter than many SF books, maybe, but not "light". Glad you liked it well enough that you won't actively avoid Harris's other non-SF stuff. *g*

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Well, it does weigh less. Also, I'd guess probably about 1/2 the total word count, meant it covered less, was finished faster. Wouldn't neccessarily call the content light, I would agree.

Do you have other Lily Bard stories hanging around that could fall into my hands, then?

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

I do indeed. They're packed, but I should be able to dig them out before Ad Astra. Remind me closer to the convention, and I'll be sure to bring them along.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I did figure everything was probably still boxed. I'll try to remember to remind you, and I'll try to remember to bring the current one with me. Hopefully one of the two remembers will happen and jog the other one.

[foms.livejournal.com]

A side note. Asaro is the current president of SFWA.