Cheating a bit here as I'm actually done with this one, but I did technically finish it during the summer, so it counts! Regardless, it's been an interesting journey back to a childhood favorite. I've found that it mostly holds up across the decades), albeit with a surprise problem I wasn't old enough to pick up on at age 13.
I'm batting one-for-two with Bacigalupi, having loved The Drowned Cities while finding The Windup Girl to be a well-written but ultimately frustrating book. This one, about the social implications of water scarcity in a near-future American Southwest, certainly has buzz about it, and the cyberpunk aficionado in me is intrigued by the links to Gibson's Sprawl trilogy (e.g. arcologies).
Those following my 'Message Fiction' column for tor.com will have surely noticed a tilt toward military and war fiction. Though that will change over the coming months, this well-regarded, indie-published novel should allow for further explorations of themes developed in the first two (one, two) subjects of the column.
Have I ever mentioned that this is the best fantasy series EVER?! Possibly three or four times...but the fact is that it's true. Of course Sword of Destiny is not the awaited fourth installment in the Saga proper, but the second short story collection that sets the stage for the Saga. This should have been published years ago, and it's great to finally get the book in print (or e-ink, as it were).
Every year there is one book sent to me by the publisher that I'm committed to reading, but which somehow never makes it to the top of my to-read pile. Aurora is the 2015 iteration of that book. However, unlike previous years, I am committed to reading it! After all, it's about a generation starship, and that's pretty much my all-time favorite SF trope. Plus Robinson is just an excellent writer--perhaps the best working within the hard SF paradigm.
Another fantasy series that I really dig--this one of the "flintlock" variety. Wexler is a very careful writer, with strong prose, memorable characters and a distinctly historical approach to worldbuilding. I expect more of the same from book #3!
Some of you may be reading my serialized review of the serialized Old Man's War novel, The End of All Things (episodes one, two, three, four). What you may not know is that I'll also be re-reading the entire series this summer for tor.com, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the series' debut. I'm very curious to see what bubbles to the surface on the second go-around--something usually does when returning to a series you positively devoured the first time.
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POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator (2012).
