posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
purplecthulhu at 10:44pm on 27/02/2008
purplecthulhu at 10:44pm on 27/02/2008The Merchants' War Charles Stross
Cowboy Angels Paul McAuley
End of the World Blues Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Nice evocation of Japan, pretty good modern or near future plot and characters, but the SFnal elements seemed largely bolted on for no apparent reason. The last 3 Grimwoods have been like this and I really am beginning to get annoyed.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Mark Haddon
I thought it was going to be a mystery but it wasn't. Instead it was a much more interesting trip inside an Asberger's mind. The more I read the more Asbergerous I felt.
Severed Simon Kernick
A train station bestseller thriller, read as research to see what appears to be selling big. Writing crap, characterization crap, but it did have a driving all-action plot. It really was like film script as book with cliff hangers or twists at the end of each chapter. Very commercial, not high art.
Cowboy Angels Paul McAuley
End of the World Blues Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Nice evocation of Japan, pretty good modern or near future plot and characters, but the SFnal elements seemed largely bolted on for no apparent reason. The last 3 Grimwoods have been like this and I really am beginning to get annoyed.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Mark Haddon
I thought it was going to be a mystery but it wasn't. Instead it was a much more interesting trip inside an Asberger's mind. The more I read the more Asbergerous I felt.
Severed Simon Kernick
A train station bestseller thriller, read as research to see what appears to be selling big. Writing crap, characterization crap, but it did have a driving all-action plot. It really was like film script as book with cliff hangers or twists at the end of each chapter. Very commercial, not high art.
(no subject)
End of the World Blues... I got bored, and stopped reading. What a disappointment after the Arabesk. It'll need a lot of favourable reviews before I ever pick up anything by Jon Courtenay Grimwood again.
Cowboy Angels... Readable. Quite good. But someone wrote it for Paul McAuley, and he paid them by the hour. Where's the ideas? Where's the sense of place, and the striking knowledge that we ain't in Kansas anymore?
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)