purplecthulhu

Another year another forest...

Anathem Neil Stephenson

Vast book (probably counts as three in its own right) but wonderful and enthralling. He even seems to have included a proper ending that's relevant to the plot. In many ways this book is a fictional equivalent of Godel, Escher, Bach and it should reach the same exalted classic status. Probably my favourite Stepheson to day, which is saying a lot, and likely to win major awards this year - possibly all of them. Highly recommended, if you've got the time.

Pirate Sun Karl Schroeder

More diesel punk air piracy in the post singularity world of Virga. Probably not quite as good as the first two volumes as there's a need to wrap up to trilogy's story arc so characters need to be brought back on track, but still highly enjoyable and highly recommended. You could get all 3 Virga books and read them in less time than Anathem...

The Quiet War Paul McAuley

This book is about culture clash and war as Earth's influence reaches out to take control of colonies in the outer solar system. The universe is very well imagined and the story raises interesting questions, but in many ways it's almost too serious. The writing is quote ponderous at times, with run on sentences and an excess of technical detail and jargon that is unnecessary. The reader doesn't really need to know the latin names for the base organisms used to produce ecologies on Titan. The Mars trilogy suffered from this to an extent, but KSR knew when to stop, possibly because he isn't a biologist, while McAuley just layers on the detail too much. There are also a disappointingly large number of copy editing errors in this edition. There is a good story here trying to get out, but it's rather stifled by the overburden of detail and writing style, which is annoying because I know McAuley can do better.

So - 3 months in and only 3 novels read. I must be slacking.