Thursday, January 6, 2011
Fun with Books!
I haven't posted here in a bit...many reasons (many still apply). But, as an aspiring writer (admittedly with little ambition at the moment) I've always enjoyed reading. Except in recent years, I've barely done any reading at all. And while this isn't a new years resolution, it's something I've consciously tried to change. In the spirit of that, I've purchased quite a few books last month (mostly cheap) and I've started going through them slowly but surely.
At this point, I've read:
Flood, by Stephen Baxter
Hull Zero Three, by Greg Bear
and Consider Phelbas, by Iain M. Banks.
I might go into a little bit more about this a little later, but man all three of these books (each Sci-Fi, but each quite different from the other) are depressing as hell.
Of the three Consider Phelbas is by far the best, and perhaps the best well known (it's the first Culture novel). It's also the most action-packed of the bunch, telling the story of a single mission by a determined and drive main character in the midst of a galaxy-spanning war. Interestingly, considering this is the first Culture novel, the main character (whom I'd say is an anti-hero) is an enemy of the Culture itself and as such much of the setting is told through his view of things. Very good book, with some admittedly stupid sections, and a devistating dark ending where it becomes clear just how hopeless the main character's mission was all along, considering just how many people he killed in the process of completing it.
Hull Zero Three is a dark sci-fi book set on a mysterious generation-ship gone wrong. It reminded me very much of the movie Pandorum in places; but this is still more of a sci-fi story with some horror elements. The story itself gets dark and twisted, as the main character, Teacher, begins to understand (but never fully) who, and what, he is and what the implications of that are. Another book with a very dark ending, one that I didn't really like honestly.
Flood is a more technical oriented sci-fi book about the end of the Earth, after cracks in the Earth's crust cause a massive subcontinental ocean to spill to the surface in an event which will eventually raise the ocean levels by kilometers--effectively plunging the entire world into the water. It is a rather cold, clinical effort, where the characters are more witnesses to the horrific events as civilization collapses over a period of 50 years, leaving very little hope for humanity's by the end of the book. The book reminds me too much of 2012...without the nice glimmer of hope at the end.
Next up for me, is Ark, the sequel to Flood, which jumps back in the story a bit to tell about a different group of 'survivors' trying to survive the flood (by a effort to colonize another planet). After Flood, I'm not entirely sure how much I want to read it...but we'll see.
Oh, and I forgot about another book, David Weber's Out of the Dark. This one is a war story told about the invasion of Earth by an alien species bent on conquering the planet as part of various manipulations of a larger alien hegemony of worlds that believe humans are too dangerous to survive. The book is very much in the style of John Ringo, telling various tales of human inguinity as they try to fight off their attackers, who just can't understand human psychology and therefore cannot predict their actions. It's actually a very good book, until the end when Dracula and his vampires show up to save humanity in the last 20 pages of the book. Dracula. Vampires. Yeah, I couldn't believe it and it's so out of tone for the rest of the book that it completely ruined the otherwise good story for me.
At this point, I've read:
Flood, by Stephen Baxter
Hull Zero Three, by Greg Bear
and Consider Phelbas, by Iain M. Banks.
I might go into a little bit more about this a little later, but man all three of these books (each Sci-Fi, but each quite different from the other) are depressing as hell.
Of the three Consider Phelbas is by far the best, and perhaps the best well known (it's the first Culture novel). It's also the most action-packed of the bunch, telling the story of a single mission by a determined and drive main character in the midst of a galaxy-spanning war. Interestingly, considering this is the first Culture novel, the main character (whom I'd say is an anti-hero) is an enemy of the Culture itself and as such much of the setting is told through his view of things. Very good book, with some admittedly stupid sections, and a devistating dark ending where it becomes clear just how hopeless the main character's mission was all along, considering just how many people he killed in the process of completing it.
Hull Zero Three is a dark sci-fi book set on a mysterious generation-ship gone wrong. It reminded me very much of the movie Pandorum in places; but this is still more of a sci-fi story with some horror elements. The story itself gets dark and twisted, as the main character, Teacher, begins to understand (but never fully) who, and what, he is and what the implications of that are. Another book with a very dark ending, one that I didn't really like honestly.
Flood is a more technical oriented sci-fi book about the end of the Earth, after cracks in the Earth's crust cause a massive subcontinental ocean to spill to the surface in an event which will eventually raise the ocean levels by kilometers--effectively plunging the entire world into the water. It is a rather cold, clinical effort, where the characters are more witnesses to the horrific events as civilization collapses over a period of 50 years, leaving very little hope for humanity's by the end of the book. The book reminds me too much of 2012...without the nice glimmer of hope at the end.
Next up for me, is Ark, the sequel to Flood, which jumps back in the story a bit to tell about a different group of 'survivors' trying to survive the flood (by a effort to colonize another planet). After Flood, I'm not entirely sure how much I want to read it...but we'll see.
Oh, and I forgot about another book, David Weber's Out of the Dark. This one is a war story told about the invasion of Earth by an alien species bent on conquering the planet as part of various manipulations of a larger alien hegemony of worlds that believe humans are too dangerous to survive. The book is very much in the style of John Ringo, telling various tales of human inguinity as they try to fight off their attackers, who just can't understand human psychology and therefore cannot predict their actions. It's actually a very good book, until the end when Dracula and his vampires show up to save humanity in the last 20 pages of the book. Dracula. Vampires. Yeah, I couldn't believe it and it's so out of tone for the rest of the book that it completely ruined the otherwise good story for me.
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