Category: Reading

Unsurprise of Day: Review of Chuck Wendig Book Makes Me Want to Read It

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Writing3 Comments

Chuck Wendig’s recent novel Blackbirds was already on my to-read list, simply because Chuck Wendig wrote it and his blog is one of the best things in digital print.

(If you’re a writer, and you haven’t checked out Chuck’s blog yet, go and do that. From start to finish. I’ll wait.)

Tor.com had a review of Blackbirds this week, and now I want to read it now. Now now now. So thanks, Tor, for making me spend my hard-earned money that I should be saving up for when I quit the day job to be a struggling writer. Thanks.

Also, the cover. Omigod the cover.

Paid-for Amazon Reviews? Oh Dear

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Self-Publishing, Writing12 Comments

Both the New York Times and the Atlantic had articles on this disturbing phenomenon in the last few days. Definitely worth reading for anyone who uses Amazon, as a producer or consumer.

I completely agree with the Atlantic’s conclusion:

“Policing reviews could take time and alienate some customers, both self-published authors and reviewers, but to let reviews continue unregulated might alienate far more of them.”

Both authors and readers–but especially readers, of course–need to have faith in the honesty of the review system, for the simple fact that it’s often the prime driver behind making a purchase.

And to offer a non-literary equivalent, how happy would you be to find out that, say, Samsung had paid ten thousand people $15 each to write a five-star review of a new TV they’d brought out?

Not happy, I’d imagine.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Sci-Fi and FantasyLeave a comment

This is definitely on my to-read list, even though near-future SF always makes me feel slightly wistful and sad that I’ll be dead before the end of the 21st century.

“In this way, 2312 is able to be more than just a simple story. It’s a future history, a dream of all the complicated ways we might muddle through as a species, spreading out into space without ever really fixing all the old problems that have nearly extinguished us again and again.”

Review is at io9 here.

Be Optimistic! Hack Hawking’s Brain! Black Hole Destroys Gas Cloud! Muse!

On By Dan HarrisIn Random, Reading, Sci-Fi and FantasyLeave a comment

A few cool snippets today. The first is this video on how humanity, despite what you might think, is actually pretty awesome sometimes. (Via io9.)

 

In related (kind of) news, I also came across this article on redOrbit

“The iBrain device being developed by Philip Low, a professor at Stanford, is a brain scanner that measures electrical activity.

“We’d like to find a way to bypass his body, pretty much hack his brain,” Low said in a statement.”

Which would be awesome – the more precious science we can extract from Hawking’s magic brain the closer I am to having a jetpack or being able to teleport to Hawaii. And finally, back on io9:

“Scientists have determined that a giant gas cloud is on a collision course with the black hole in the center of our galaxy — and the two will be close enough by mid-2013 to provide a unique opportunity to observe how a super massive black hole sucks in material, in real time.”

Which is a perfect excuse to link to this:

 

Not that I really needed one.

The 101 Best SF Novels 1985-2010

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Sci-Fi and FantasyLeave a comment

I would really like a copy of this book, and also more time to read each and every one it lists – almost all of the spare time I used to spend reading is taken up by writing these days. Maybe I’ll have had time to read a few of them by the time the next edition comes out in 2035.

Review at Worlds Without End here.

“Reading the entries sequentially, then, we get an episodic history of the last quarter century of science fiction. If I were to try to come up with any general trends after reading the 101 entries, in comparison to the earlier era of Pringle’s book, it would be that stories of space travel migrated into the far future (the New Space Opera mentioned in the Wright entry), while stories of posthumanity came to the fore in medium-term futures. In looking for similarities, both books have their share of alternate histories (more prominent in later years), and dystopias, which never seem to go out of style. It’s also heartening to see the increasing appearance of women authors. Pringle included nine books by women (including two by Le Guin, and only one prior to 1969), compared to about one-third of the authors in the new survey.“

Reading Now: Imajica

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Sci-Fi and FantasyLeave a comment

Imagica – Clive Barker

I remember bringing this home from my local library when I was about twelve years old. My mum took one look at the blurb below, and refused to let me read it:

“A book of revelations. A seamless tapestry of erotic passion, thwarted ambition and mythic horror. Clive Barker takes us on a voyage to worlds beyond our knowledge, but within our grasp.”

I imagine it was the erotic passion she objected to. Mythic horror was probably fine.

Read more…

Why Magic Doesn’t Have To Make Sense

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Writing2 Comments

I found this article through Tor.com, but I’ll link to the original on N. K. Jemisin’s own site here. It’s a superb argument against the dogmatic need for a magic ‘system’ in fantasy worlds – well worth a read.

I couldn’t agree with her more. My favourite fantasy of all time is Steven Erikson’s Malazan books, and the magic in that is absolutely batshit insane – almost every race has their own particular kind of magic, and they clash in utterly unpredictable ways, any of which might end up destroying the surrounding area (or entire world in some cases). Which means when there’s a conflict every forty pages you can rarely guess how it’s going to pan out. Who wins in a fight between a Jaghut and a T’lan Imass? (No-one, basically, but that’s another story.)

I should really get around to reading Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms soon, as well. And how good is this cover?!