Category Archives: Books
It has been more than two years since the last post for Mystery Monday — a series I introduced in 2019 with a post about the delicious Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout [see Nero and Archie]. Posts since have explored my other favorite genre: murder mysteries.
The gap is due to [A] reading much more SF than mystery these last two years and [2] my mystery reading was mostly of two authors I’ve already covered: Dame Agatha Christie and Patricia Wentworth (albeit the latter only in passing).
Now, circle closing, I’m back to reading the Nero Wolfe books again.
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9 Comments | tags: adaptations, Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout | posted in Books, Mystery Monday, TV
I’ve posted quite a few Sci-Fi Saturday posts devoted to specific works, but it has been almost exactly four years since the last post carrying the “Sci-Fi Saturday” title. Such posts usually cover a number of works and therefore need a generic title.
As mentioned last post, I’ve been in a bit of a blogging lull lately. One reason is that I’ve been reading and watching a fair amount this summer. Much of it, of course, is SF, so there is plenty to record here today (hence the generic title).
Starting with a seriously strange book.
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19 Comments | tags: Christopher Priest, Edward Ashton, John Scalzi, Martha Wells, Peter Watts, William Gibson | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
Neal Asher is one-third of the British triumvirate of science fiction authors who write stories that take place in a post-abundance distant future. The other two are Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds. While they aren’t collaborators, their future realities have notable similarities.
I generally like their work and have written about all three [tags: Asher, Banks, & Reynolds]. Coincidentally, my preference for their work follows the alphabetical order of their last names. I’ve even said, contra Banks and Reynolds, that Asher has never disappointed me.
Until I read his Rise of the Jain trilogy.
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10 Comments | tags: Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, Neal Asher, science fiction, science fiction books | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
This past week I read and very much enjoyed Project Hail Mary (2021), by phenom Andy Weir. This is his third novel, his third time with an award-winning bestseller, and the third time Hollywood has acquired the rights for a film adaptation.
All three of his books are what I call “diamond-hard” science fiction — projections of future technology with a bare minimum of gimmes (such as warp drive). Bonus points if there are none.
This story has a somewhat magical material that plays a key role, not to mention an exotic alien lifeform that’s the raison d’etre for the whole story.
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22 Comments | tags: alien contact, aliens, Andy Weir, Mars, Project Hail Mary, science fiction, science fiction books | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
There is a modern triumvirate of British far-future space adventure SF writers: Neal Asher, Iain M. Banks, and Alastair Reynolds. I listed them alphabetically, but that also happens to be my order of preference for their work. Make no mistake, I like all three, but I have found myself disengaged by a few of Reynolds’s books.
We started on a positive note [see this post], but I quickly ran into some issues with his writing [see this post and this post]. I was very disappointed by a couple of his books. That so far hasn’t happened with Banks or Asher.
Recently, though, I read Reynolds’s Halcyon Years (2025).
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9 Comments | tags: Alastair Reynolds, detective books, science fiction, science fiction books | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
My reaction to Scottish writer Iain (M.) Banks (1954-2013) is decidedly mixed. On multiple points. His middle initial (for Menzies) being one of the lesser ones. The 14 novels by Iain M. Banks are science fiction — most taking place in the Culture, his far-future backdrop. The 14 novels by Iain Banks, however, are mainstream, not science fiction.
Banks became notable after his first novel, The Wasp Factory (1984; mainstream). His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, came out in 1987. That was also the first book in his Culture series.
I recently read The Algebraist (2004), one of his few non-Culture science fiction novels. It reminded me of both what attracts and annoys me about his writing.
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4 Comments | tags: Iain M. Banks, science fiction books | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
In yesterday’s post, I wrote about Bruce Sterling, one of the founders of cyberpunk (along with William Gibson). I mentioned being underwhelmed. I enjoyed two of his novels, but the third one, The Caryatids (2009), is among the worst books I’ve read. I skimmed many, many info dump pages in search of a plot.
I make no pretensions of being a fiction writer, and my problems with the book may say more about me than the book. I may well have failed to appreciate some aspect that makes it great.
Regardless, I found it one of the most pointless science fiction novels I’ve read in recent memory. So, this post is a rant to vent my frustration.
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1 Comment | tags: Bruce Sterling, cyberpunk | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
Not quite a year ago I posted about watching the Chinese adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, a 2006 science fiction novel by Liu Cixin. At the time, I’d only seen the adaptation. Since then, I’ve read all three books of the trilogy, re-read the first, re-watched the Chinese adaptation, and now, holding my nose, am watching the Netflix adaptation.
Having read the book, especially having recently re-read it, I enjoyed the Chinese adaptation much more than I did the first time seeing it cold. It was a much richer experience, and that adaptation is very faithful to the book.
I thought for Sci-Fi Saturday, knowing much more now, I’d revisit the topic.
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2 Comments | tags: adaptations, Liu Cixin, three-body problem | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
I was raised by a book-loving dad who passed on to me both the love of reading and the love of books. (He also passed on a love of maps, but that’s a story for another post.)
One of my dad’s lifelong goals was to publish books, and by a round-about path he ultimately accomplished that goal. As an old TV commercial has it, “And I got to help!” He began with a printshop that eventually grew to a (very, very) small boutique book publishing shop. We did maybe half-a-dozen books.
So, a love and respect for books has long been with me.
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5 Comments | tags: Agatha Christie, ebooks, Lawrence Block, Libby, library, reading | posted in Books, Life
Recently, fellow WordPress blogger Anonymole mentioned in a comment here that he enjoyed Day Zero, a 2021 science fiction novel by C. Robert Cargill. I checked out the Wikipedia article about it, and thought it sounded interesting. Turned out my library had it, so I checked it out (in both senses of the word).
And I agree! It’s very good, and I’d recommend it for any science fiction fan, especially fans of hard SF. It’s the story of a robot uprising that kills most of the humans but as told from the first-person point of view of one of the robots.
It’s the story of his desperate attempt to save the child he was bought to nourish and protect as the world crumbles around them.
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5 Comments | tags: artificial intelligence, killer robots, robots, science fiction, science fiction books, SF Books, Technology | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
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