Summer Vacation Reading Reviews
Aug. 21st, 2007 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So, I got some more reading finished up on my vacation (not hard when you spend 8 hours delayed in Chicago). I've also got a rare treat -- a music review!
For music on the long drive out and back to the family farm I got some CDs and among them was This is Somewhere by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Man, this is a great CD. The lead song "Ah Mary", is probably one of the most sizzling back-handed love songs to America since "American Woman". But I also really enjoyed "Stop the Bus", "Big White Gate" and "Mr. Columbus". The band is categorized as "Folk" or "Alt-Country", but when the songs pick up their tempo, you really want to get up and dance. Just great stuff all around and highly recommended.
Back to the books.
First up is Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. This isn't exactly a sequel to Revelation Space, but it's set in the same universe. You've got Tanner Mirabel, an ex-soldier working for a crime lord on the war-torn world of Sky's Edge. When his boss gets killed, Tanner sets off on an interplanetary quest to track down the killer. Hunter and Hunted both wind up fleeing to Yellowstone, the golden technological utopia of human space -- or at least it was when they left Sky's Edge. Because travel is slower-than-light (using cryo tubes), neither of them know that Yellowstone has been seriously damaged by the Melding Plague -- a disease that affects both biological and technological items. So Yellowstone is just a shell of it's former self and it's up to Tanner to track his man down through a vast, decaying city. There's really a lot of great stuff in here and we also get to see more of the social dynamics of long-haul, slower-than-light ships which is also really fun. It's basically transhuman noir and I think I liked it a bit better than Revelation Space itself.
Finally, since I finished Chasm City with hours left to wait, I went to the airport bookstore and picked up Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. This is the paperback edition which contained some additional material. It was interesting and funny, but a little dry, even for John Hodgman. I'm betting that the audiobook edition of this would be a lot better since with Hodgman, the humor really comes through in the delivery. Also, the audiobook has Jonathan Coulton doing backgorund music.
So that's what I read. Details about the trip itself will be forthcoming when I get a few pictures off the camera.
later
Tom
So, I got some more reading finished up on my vacation (not hard when you spend 8 hours delayed in Chicago). I've also got a rare treat -- a music review!
For music on the long drive out and back to the family farm I got some CDs and among them was This is Somewhere by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Man, this is a great CD. The lead song "Ah Mary", is probably one of the most sizzling back-handed love songs to America since "American Woman". But I also really enjoyed "Stop the Bus", "Big White Gate" and "Mr. Columbus". The band is categorized as "Folk" or "Alt-Country", but when the songs pick up their tempo, you really want to get up and dance. Just great stuff all around and highly recommended.
Back to the books.
First up is Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. This isn't exactly a sequel to Revelation Space, but it's set in the same universe. You've got Tanner Mirabel, an ex-soldier working for a crime lord on the war-torn world of Sky's Edge. When his boss gets killed, Tanner sets off on an interplanetary quest to track down the killer. Hunter and Hunted both wind up fleeing to Yellowstone, the golden technological utopia of human space -- or at least it was when they left Sky's Edge. Because travel is slower-than-light (using cryo tubes), neither of them know that Yellowstone has been seriously damaged by the Melding Plague -- a disease that affects both biological and technological items. So Yellowstone is just a shell of it's former self and it's up to Tanner to track his man down through a vast, decaying city. There's really a lot of great stuff in here and we also get to see more of the social dynamics of long-haul, slower-than-light ships which is also really fun. It's basically transhuman noir and I think I liked it a bit better than Revelation Space itself.
Finally, since I finished Chasm City with hours left to wait, I went to the airport bookstore and picked up Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. This is the paperback edition which contained some additional material. It was interesting and funny, but a little dry, even for John Hodgman. I'm betting that the audiobook edition of this would be a lot better since with Hodgman, the humor really comes through in the delivery. Also, the audiobook has Jonathan Coulton doing backgorund music.
So that's what I read. Details about the trip itself will be forthcoming when I get a few pictures off the camera.
later
Tom
