Reading Update
Digging into Karl Schroeder’s Queen of Candesce right now. I love the guy’s world-building, and Virga is a memorable locale. It’s the last of the trio of books I bought at Uncle Hugo’s a few weeks ago, and turning into the best of the three.
The others were Edelman’s Infoquake and Morgan’s Altered Carbon. The former is the first book in the Jump 225 trilogy, and the last one that I’ll read. I really disliked this book a great deal. I won’t delve into the why, however. Morgan’s work was much better, and enjoyable. It felt a little long, but at the same time, I really enjoyed the noir feel of the plotting and writing, and will be picking up Broken Angels in the near future.
Also upcoming is my purchase of S.M. Stirling’s By Heresies Distressed — third book in the Safehold trilogy. Book one was awesome, book two was setting the stage for this one. I expect fireworks.
Also, slow-going, I’m reading The Paterek Manual, which is the mother-lode of framebuilding information.
On the writing side of the house, my re-write of Bubble is going well, and I have a short story (“In the Name of Love”) that I’m getting ready to ship off to Strange Horizons.
Infoquake was horrible.
I’m really glad I’m not the only one who thought so. Given all the remarks I’d heard about it, I forced myself through to the end, hoping for some sort of payoff.
I was disappointed.
If the pages were just a little softer, I’d use it as a travel pack of toilet paper on my next hike.
Oh, come on, you can’t leave a wildly curious author in suspense now. You gotta delve into the why, just a little bit.
Wow, now I feel like a complete ass. And maybe the “toilet paper” remark was a little over the top. Since you’re calling me out, I think it’s only fair that I respond. Let me pull one together — and do bear in mind that any criticism I put forth I will intend as constructive.
After all, you are a few steps ahead of me in the writing game — you’ve not only finished a few novels, but you’ve gotten a few published. Which can be construed one of two ways:
1. You have more discipline than I do.
2. You know more about writing/publishing than I do.
Either way, I promise I’ll give you a formal response soon.
Didn’t mean to give you a heart attack.
There seems to be a vocal minority of people who hate hate HATE the book. Dislike it or be bored by it, I can understand — your prerogative — but some people seem morally offended by it, and I’m always curious why…
Loved Infoquake, Multireal and now reading Geosynchron. Good new take on the Cyberpunk Genre.
Altered Carbon is awesome, too – but if you expect the same feeling from Broken Angels you will be disappointed. It is much more traditional sci-fi than the near-future, noire atmosphere that perpetrates Altered Carbon.
So I’d heard, re: Broken Angels. I think I’m going to hold off on buying it for a bit, though. My plan is to snag the Stirling and Stross books tonight, as I’m almost finished with Queen of Candesce.