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bluegargantuaHey,
So carpooling on long drives is great because it lets you get a lot of reading done. I finished up two books this weekend.
The first was A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. It was a Hugo winner in 2000 and clearly deserves the honor, it's really good. The basic gist is that Humanity has colonized this section of the galaxy via cryogenic hibernation and slower-than-light ramscoop ships. The Queng Ho are a trading family/organization that facilitates what commerce there is between systems. They also maintain a stream of radio transmissions designed to help local colonies upgrade their technologies and prepare for the arrival of the trading fleets. The biggest problem the Queng Ho face is that human civilizations hit some upper bound and then collapse so ensuring that there's some sort of market waiting for them when they arrive is paramount.
Currently, a fleet of Queng Ho ships is on its way to an unusual stellar formation. The interest is far from scientific -- radio transmissions from the sole world in the system suggest that an alien intelligence is arising and the Queng Ho want to be in on it. But the Queng Ho aren't the only star-faring humans around and a second fleet from a group known as the Emergency are also on the way to investigate things.
There's a bit of a dust-up when they meet.
Meanwhile, the story shifts to the planet's surface where the spider like aliens rush to rebuild their civilization and push it forward in the 30-year window allowed by the local star's peculiarities. Mostly we focus on Sherkaner Underhill, spider polymath who has a million great ideas to help spur development. Sherkaner is very progressive and a technology-booster and his efforts to help his people come into conflict with long-held traditions and long-standing conflicts with other spider polities.
Lots of great stuff going on here and the book easily pulls you along. The book meditates on technology and progress and freedom and maintains a pretty positive outlook while acknowledging the many possible pitfalls along the way.
The other book I read was a small-press affair called The Secrets of the Sands by Leona Wisoker. It's the first book in a series, but does seem to find a pretty stable stopping point so...hooray for that. This book really hits the "fantasy book bingo" card pretty hard. There's the Mysterious Orphan With A Great Destiny, there's Ancient Pre-Humans, and Forgotten History and Sins of the Father and Evil Christian Church Analog and Everything Is Connected stuff. There's not a huge amount that's super original except for the coded messages announced by bead patterns in bracelets worn by desert folk and that doesn't really play into things a huge amount.
Which doesn't sound like glowing praise, I'll admit. The book was certainly engaging enough -- sure I was trapped in a car on a long drive, but that's still not enough to keep me reading something awful. And I did stay up a bit too late just finishing off the last 20 pages or so. So in the moment it was pretty good, but it's not really a story that sticks with me. I think if you're looking for a fast read that holds your attention, this will fit the bill. Novel concepts or super memorable characters are better served with Deepness.
later
Tom
So carpooling on long drives is great because it lets you get a lot of reading done. I finished up two books this weekend.
The first was A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. It was a Hugo winner in 2000 and clearly deserves the honor, it's really good. The basic gist is that Humanity has colonized this section of the galaxy via cryogenic hibernation and slower-than-light ramscoop ships. The Queng Ho are a trading family/organization that facilitates what commerce there is between systems. They also maintain a stream of radio transmissions designed to help local colonies upgrade their technologies and prepare for the arrival of the trading fleets. The biggest problem the Queng Ho face is that human civilizations hit some upper bound and then collapse so ensuring that there's some sort of market waiting for them when they arrive is paramount.
Currently, a fleet of Queng Ho ships is on its way to an unusual stellar formation. The interest is far from scientific -- radio transmissions from the sole world in the system suggest that an alien intelligence is arising and the Queng Ho want to be in on it. But the Queng Ho aren't the only star-faring humans around and a second fleet from a group known as the Emergency are also on the way to investigate things.
There's a bit of a dust-up when they meet.
Meanwhile, the story shifts to the planet's surface where the spider like aliens rush to rebuild their civilization and push it forward in the 30-year window allowed by the local star's peculiarities. Mostly we focus on Sherkaner Underhill, spider polymath who has a million great ideas to help spur development. Sherkaner is very progressive and a technology-booster and his efforts to help his people come into conflict with long-held traditions and long-standing conflicts with other spider polities.
Lots of great stuff going on here and the book easily pulls you along. The book meditates on technology and progress and freedom and maintains a pretty positive outlook while acknowledging the many possible pitfalls along the way.
The other book I read was a small-press affair called The Secrets of the Sands by Leona Wisoker. It's the first book in a series, but does seem to find a pretty stable stopping point so...hooray for that. This book really hits the "fantasy book bingo" card pretty hard. There's the Mysterious Orphan With A Great Destiny, there's Ancient Pre-Humans, and Forgotten History and Sins of the Father and Evil Christian Church Analog and Everything Is Connected stuff. There's not a huge amount that's super original except for the coded messages announced by bead patterns in bracelets worn by desert folk and that doesn't really play into things a huge amount.
Which doesn't sound like glowing praise, I'll admit. The book was certainly engaging enough -- sure I was trapped in a car on a long drive, but that's still not enough to keep me reading something awful. And I did stay up a bit too late just finishing off the last 20 pages or so. So in the moment it was pretty good, but it's not really a story that sticks with me. I think if you're looking for a fast read that holds your attention, this will fit the bill. Novel concepts or super memorable characters are better served with Deepness.
later
Tom
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-26 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-26 06:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'm curious to try that now, but I do like the harder sci-fi core to Deepness.
later
Tom
no subject
Date: 2010-04-26 06:26 pm (UTC)