the to-read pile

[jwgh]

In a mildly distressing but all-too-predictable development, recently I've been accumulating reading material more quickly than I've been reading it. There are two things that I'm currently in the middle of reading:

1) The June 2007 issue of Asimov's. I just finished Jack Skillingstead's Scrawl Daddy story, which I didn't really get, and have left two short stories (including one by Neal Asher, who some of you may recall), plus a book review column and a poem by Greg Beatty.

2) The Diana Burgin/Katherine Tiernan O'Connor translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. This is the second translation of this book I've read; it is the more complete of the two, but the other one is a far more enjoyable translation. So it goes.

Those will keep me occupied for a little while, but once I'm done with them what should I read next?

[Poll #989080]

If you have questions or comments about any of these options, comment away!

Comments

[smashingstars.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about any of those books except Rainbow's End, which I heard a bit about through others on my friends list. Therefore, I can't vote. You didn't even include a "ticky box" option for slackers like me!

[jwgh]

You should never let lack of knowledge keep you from voting in a livejournal poll!

Is the ticky-box to let you vote (so you can see the results) without selecting any options? If so, I have noticed that you can vote without selecting any options even without a tickybox, and with the same result. (It took me at least three years to notice that this works.)

[jwgh]

Somewhat to my surprise, I find that I bought the Macleod by mistake; I had him confused with another writer altogether. This shouldn't keep anyone from voting for that book, of course.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I voted for Ken McLeod because I really enjoyed his high-politics SF series "The Fall Revolution" (3 books plus a 4th book represents a divergent reality from the course of the first three) as well as the dinosaurs/aliens/indians/gods that turned up in the "Engines of Light Trilogy" of which you have the first book. "Dark Light" and "Engine City" are the other two. Very pleasant easy reading those, but if you read the first, you really must read the following two-- and even have them on ready standby as you finish the first, so perhaps it's not your best choice as long as you're overwhelming yourself with books.

He can be fairly confused with Iain [M.] Banks, the other famous Scottish SF writer of the moment. Fortunately they're both good friends, so they'll overlook this sort of thing. (Banks' latest, "The Algabraist," is nothing short of amazing and spectacular and sometimes mindblowing.) Also, the two of them once roadtripped around Scotland seeking anyone who was, per the pre-licensing tradition, home-brewed their own scotch. Banks wrote about it in "Raw Spirit," which I have not yet obtained.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Oh, he also has a readable blog about Socialism and Scottish things and such:

http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/

He's a recovering Marxist, at least, possibly recovering from things farther left, but I need to re-research the guy before I invoke Stalin. (Engines of Light has subtle politics of its own, but Fall Revolution is as much about politics as it is about space travel, smart matter, nanotech, etc.) But he's still on the far left side of the European left, but despite that even I find him readable.

[jwgh]

I see that he keeps getting nominated for (and occasionally winning) the Promethius Award, which says something interesting about something, but I'm not sure what.

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

Ken MacLeod has the power to make ANY politics entertaining.

I mean, in the final part of Engines of Light he manages to use a polluted police state as a positive symbol for human spirit and progress.

[jwgh]

It sounds like this may have been a fortunate error I made. Phew!

[jwgh]

These are things I will keep in mind in future book shopping. Thanks!

I actually had Macloud confused with Charlie Stross (whose Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch release I liked). I am fairly embarassed about this.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I read (though never quite finished the last, oh, 30 pages of) Accelerando by Stross, and I found it amusing and also pleasantly in-jokey-- without a doubt he was on USENET in the 90s, as one of his characters actually killfiled another by saying "plonk"-- the killfiled person was actually blocked from the former's sensorium. That book was pretty good, I guess, but its accelerations of humanity went by too fast for one book; it performs roughly the same advances in humanity that the "Fall Revolution" series does, but much faster and with but a single plot in its content, instead of the 6-8 that Fall Revolution offers. Accelerando is available for free online. (http://www.accelerando.org/book/) He is, however, Singularity-obsessed, and that makes ronebofh cry. By "cry" I mean swing heavy things.

Anyway, I read good things about Stross as well, and I don't know why I haven't picked up, say, Iron Sunrise yet-- I just need to do the work to figure out if he's got any multiple-book universes, and if so , where to start.

Speaking of which, I just started (and hence am a third of the way into) Scalzi's "The Ghost Brigades," which is just as engaging as its predecessor, "Old Man's War." TGB stands alone just fine, but contains a character from OMW, and a few references to it. I love Scalzi's non-linear thinking when it comes to composing technical trickery for his characters' cloak-and-dagger activities. Some of the best character-obsessed military SF I've read since, oh, "Armor" by John Steakley.

[jwgh]

Yes, I read a pretty big chunk of Accelerando in various issues of Asimov's; it didn't entirely draw me in but it was amusing enough; I will keep an eye out for books of his (after I get done with the current crop, which might take ages) but will exercise a certain amount of caution, I think.

(I'm not particularly allergic to singularity stories.)

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

Luckily, apparently Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod are also friends of Charlie Stross, so they'll probably all forgive you!

[jwgh]

I'm just waiting for one or more of them to find this entry via Google.

Yay Michael Swanwick!

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

I still have never gotten around to finishing reading his Periodic Table. (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/periodictable.html)

Thank you (http://vardissakheli.livejournal.com/72505.html?thread=109113#t109113) very much, by the way! That Alec K. Redfearn music is definitely of great interest, per-ticularly in its perversely persistent use of percussion, and I'm happily working my way through Ribofunk over dinners at Wendy's before rehearsals.

Re: Yay Michael Swanwick!

[jwgh]

Great! I'm glad you're enjoying the CD and book. I think Operation Give Away Books was pretty successful!

Re: Yay Michael Swanwick!

[jwgh]

Finally finished the Asimov's today and wanted to note that Mr. Swanwick's story was really funny.

[katrinkles.livejournal.com]

i think instead you should read something happy about ponies and leprechauns.

[jwgh]

This is a good point.

[chaos-are-me.livejournal.com]

I picked the Kino one for reasons obvious to you and I.

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

I picked Kino for selfish reasons, namely that I want to know if it's any good, although I might actually have objectively recommended Cosmonaut Keep, because it is hilarious and highly entertaing. I think I liked the Fall Revolution series a little bit more than the Engines of Light series, but both have crazy crazy politics and good fun.

The Engines of Light series has spoofs of pop-culture iconography played completely straight-facedly (such as pot-smoking aliens in flying saucers, and Flintstones-like cavemen), though, which is a point in its favour.

[jwgh]

I finished reading the Connie Willis last night, so maybe I will tackle the Kino next. Maybe I will mail it to you when I'm done.

I read the first few pages while I was in the store, and it appears that the episodes are actually told in sequence. I'm not sure I approve!