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Books Read: 2007
Jul. 20th, 2007 09:43 am63. Ragamuffin, by Tobias Buckell. The follow-up to Crystal Rain (which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago) starts elsewhere in the future universe developed by Buckell, but eventually ties directly into the characters we met in the first book (and I highly recommend reading them in order). The first two-thirds of this novel are probably better than the first book, but the final third gets tied down in an overdrawn (and not overly engaging) space battle. Still, the characters and the world are both fleshed out nicely, and I've got no regrets about reading this one. Recommended.
64. Ranbows End, by Vernor Vinge. Earlier this week,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala commented on the need for books that are fun and not overly serious (without sacrificing things like plot, relevance and a sense of wonder). This is a book that meets those needs beautifully. I expected the great vision of the future, of course -- Vinge being Dr. Singularity, of course -- but I'm amazed at just how much of a rollicking adventure this book is. Hell, just look at some of the chapter titles: "How-to-Survive-the-Next-Thirty-Minutes.pdf," "You Can't Ask Alice Anymore," "So Much Technology, So Little Talent," and "The Myasthenic Spelunker Society." Throw in walking buildings, a future society in which everyone is as aware of Pratchett as they are of Tolkein today, mind control, poets, cyberpunk tropes, government conspiracies, and a talking cyberrabbit, and it's hard to find anything to dislike here.
Vinge gets bonus points for a moment of brilliance near the climax, on either page 286 or 288 of the hardcover (I'm writing this from work). One character finally delivers on a joke that had been hanging over the plot since the first few pages (although it's impossible to tell if the characters themselves get the joke), and everyone pauses, just as in a sitcom, to let the audience get the punchline and laugh. It's something that could have flopped miserably (and thrown the reader out of the book -- for all the humor, this is very much a plot-driven book), but Vinge manages to pull it off wonderfully. Highly recommended.
65. Everything is Miscellaneous, by David Weinberger. I've been a fan of Weinberger since The Cluetrain Manifesto, and I've seen him speak a handful of times. So I'm not surprised that I enjoyed this book, or that it dealt with issues that are just up my alley. The argument that organization, in the traditional sense, is no longer relevant, is well presented, perhaps best in his comparison of the outdated and increasingly-silly Dewey Decimal System to the flexible and useful style employed by Amazon. This is a quick but brilliant read, and dovetails quite nicely with the ideas in Vinge's book. Highly recommended.
65.5 Usagi Yojimbo #21: The Mother of Mountains.. I haven't been recording graphic novels (because few of them take that long to read), but this is just too damned good to not recommend. Sakai just keeps getting better, and follows a string of very Usagi-centric volumes (focusing on Usagi's relationship with his son) to a volume that features Tomoe and fleshes out her history and family. A damned fine read (even if it once again relies on the excessive coincidence of Usagi happening across Tomoe in a battle -- there are times when I suspect that Usagi, Tomoe, Gen, and Kitsune are the only four people in feudal Japan). Wonderful stuff. Highly recommended.
64. Ranbows End, by Vernor Vinge. Earlier this week,
matociquala commented on the need for books that are fun and not overly serious (without sacrificing things like plot, relevance and a sense of wonder). This is a book that meets those needs beautifully. I expected the great vision of the future, of course -- Vinge being Dr. Singularity, of course -- but I'm amazed at just how much of a rollicking adventure this book is. Hell, just look at some of the chapter titles: "How-to-Survive-the-Next-Thirty-Minutes.pdf," "You Can't Ask Alice Anymore," "So Much Technology, So Little Talent," and "The Myasthenic Spelunker Society." Throw in walking buildings, a future society in which everyone is as aware of Pratchett as they are of Tolkein today, mind control, poets, cyberpunk tropes, government conspiracies, and a talking cyberrabbit, and it's hard to find anything to dislike here.Vinge gets bonus points for a moment of brilliance near the climax, on either page 286 or 288 of the hardcover (I'm writing this from work). One character finally delivers on a joke that had been hanging over the plot since the first few pages (although it's impossible to tell if the characters themselves get the joke), and everyone pauses, just as in a sitcom, to let the audience get the punchline and laugh. It's something that could have flopped miserably (and thrown the reader out of the book -- for all the humor, this is very much a plot-driven book), but Vinge manages to pull it off wonderfully. Highly recommended.
65. Everything is Miscellaneous, by David Weinberger. I've been a fan of Weinberger since The Cluetrain Manifesto, and I've seen him speak a handful of times. So I'm not surprised that I enjoyed this book, or that it dealt with issues that are just up my alley. The argument that organization, in the traditional sense, is no longer relevant, is well presented, perhaps best in his comparison of the outdated and increasingly-silly Dewey Decimal System to the flexible and useful style employed by Amazon. This is a quick but brilliant read, and dovetails quite nicely with the ideas in Vinge's book. Highly recommended.
65.5 Usagi Yojimbo #21: The Mother of Mountains.. I haven't been recording graphic novels (because few of them take that long to read), but this is just too damned good to not recommend. Sakai just keeps getting better, and follows a string of very Usagi-centric volumes (focusing on Usagi's relationship with his son) to a volume that features Tomoe and fleshes out her history and family. A damned fine read (even if it once again relies on the excessive coincidence of Usagi happening across Tomoe in a battle -- there are times when I suspect that Usagi, Tomoe, Gen, and Kitsune are the only four people in feudal Japan). Wonderful stuff. Highly recommended.