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| ====== Books I've Read ====== | ====== Books I've Read ====== | ||
| + | See also: [[Reading|Books I'm Reading]] and [[toread|Books I Want to Read]] | ||
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| + | ===== 2023 ===== | ||
| + | ==== October ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>The Boys]] by [[wp>Garth Ennis]] - I'm really enjoying this, taking me a while to get through (about 1800 pages for the 5 volume omnibus). Quite different from the show. Certainly graphic. It's inspiring me to read some of Ennis' other work (and also go back to Transmetropolitian). Great. | ||
| + | ==== July ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>The End of All Things (novel)|The End of All Things]] by [[wp>John Scalzi]] - I'm enjoying this, reminding me of the Bobiverse books so far. Finished: Aww, I was hoping for more of the main character (Rafe) but it changed in the last two thirds to be a mostly political drama. Not my cup of tea. It was interesting that the author showed the original draft (kinda) of the first part at the end of the book. It was interesting to see what parts were kept and which were 'excised'. | ||
| + | * [[wp>Absolution Gap]] by [[wp>Alastair Reynolds]] - This was decent. | ||
| + | ==== June ===== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Raw Spirit]] by [[wp>Iain Banks]] - Banks' first non-fiction book. It was on the shelf of the holiday home I was staying at this week. Not my usual thing (it was heavily focused on driving/cars etc) but the whisky trail was interesting (my favourite Highland Park was in the top three, makes me wanna visit some more distilleries). I'd also picked it up because it was the 10 year anniversary of Banks' death. Made me a little sad when he mentioned things he hadn't done/visited yet but said 'plenty of time'. It's inspired me to read his other non-SF work. | ||
| + | * [[wp>Forever Free]] by [[wp>Joe Haldeman]] - Quite interesting, it went a little all over the place. Not sure if I was a fan of the end, bit hand-wavey. | ||
| + | * [[wp>Forever Peace]] by [[wp>Joe Haldeman]] - Not related much to the first novel, but I did enjoy this story, and the world building. The idea was pretty unique, interesting. | ||
| + | * [[wp>Camoflauge]] by [[wp>Joe Haldeman]] - Got inspired by a discussion along the lines of "I really liked Forever War, why haven't I read more by this author?" to start reading a bunch of Haldeman. Working through recommendations. After: I enjoyed this, fascinating read. Reminded me of The Thing (the creature). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== May ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>The Accidental Time Machine]] by [[wp>Joe Haldeman]] - Reading this for the June sci-fi bookgroup, recommended by Munro. I enjoyed it. The AI characters were interesting. | ||
| + | ==== March ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Artifical Condition]] by [[wp>Martha Wells]] - This was decent. I'll read another. | ||
| + | ==== Feburary ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Agency]] by [[wp>William Gibson]] - Continuing the series while enjoying the TV show. I was captivated from the first chapter, enjoyed it. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===== 2022 ===== | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== October ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>The Saints of Salvation]] by [[wp>Peter F Hamilton]] - I enjoyed this, not my favourite of his, but some interesting ideas, and some cool scenes - which is what it's all about. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== September ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Schild's Ladder]] by [[wp>Greg Egan]] - This was one of the more interesting books I read this year. Some fascinating ideas and imagery. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== August ===== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Shards of Earth]] by [[wp>Adrian Tchaikovsky]] - Wanted to read his famous set of books (after being introduced to him by Children of Time). Finished: I enjoyed this. The characters were pretty interesting. I think I'll read the next one soon. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== June ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Quarantine]] by [[wp>Greg Egan]] - The synopsis just caught my attention, so I paused what I was reading to read this. Enjoying it so far, feels like an old school detective novel with a cool sci-fi background. Finished: I liked this lots. Putting aside the naive quantum mechanics (props to the author for a cool explanation and extension of the ideas on this website), I thought there were some cool ideas, particularly the loyalty chip and how it allowed them to create their own idea of what it meant to be loyal. | ||
| + | * [[wp>After Dark]] by [[wp>Jayne Cowi]] - Reading this for the 'matriarchy' topic of my book group. God, this book was annoying. I haven't read quite an 'I-have-an-agenda-to-get-across' book in quite a while. Men basically had no redeeming features. Looking forward to discussing it though. The general premise made little sense. | ||
| + | * [[wp>Off to be a Wizard]] by [[wp>Scott Meyer]] - I enjoyed this, it was a fun holiday book. Not sure I'll read the sequels but maybe on my next holiday. Some semi-interesting ideas, if all a bit handwavey.. I guess I have to read more to find out more about the world they are in.. | ||
| + | ==== May ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Ready Player Two]] by [[wp>Ernest Cline]] - I really enjoyed this, read it in three sittings, which is good for me at the moment. I'm not sure I could say it's a good book, or if I could recommend it to anyone, but it's embarassingly up my street :) | ||
| + | ==== April ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Lord of Light]] by [[wp>Roger Zelazny]] - Listening to this on audio book while I do stuff around the flat. It's interesting, the prose is quite flowery though. First audio book I've listened to in years. I think I'd have followed it more easily if I was reading it, there were a lot of names and aliases. Anyway, very interesting book. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== March ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Bear Head]] by [[wp>Adrian Tchaikovsky]] - Read this for my sci-fi bookgroup. Excellent book. I liked the characters, the technology and ideas were interesting. Not my favourite of Tchaikovsky, but he is yet to disappoint me. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===== 2021 ===== | ||
| + | ==== December ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Diaspora_(novel)|Diaspora]] by [[wp>Greg Egan]] - This was excellent, and spurred me on to read some more Greg Egan. Some fascinating ideas with the multidimensional beings (and cloned bodies each capable of further understanding the beings), biological analog computers and tau time. | ||
| + | ==== November ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Star Trek: Destiny|Star Trek: Destiny (Star Trek Seekers)]] by [[wp>David Mack]] - "The omnibus edition of an epic crossover trilogy uniting characters from every corner of the Star Trek universe, and revealing the shocking origin and final fate of the Federation's most dangerous enemy--the Borg". Sounds good. Finished: I enjoyed this. Took quite a while, basically three novels. It was all pretty satisfying. I wanted to understand/hear a little more about the 'gestalt', i.e. collective minds, but it was glossed over a little. | ||
| + | ==== August ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Permutation City]] by [[wp>Greg Egan]] - Stopped what I was doing and moved to this book once I read the synopsis. I thought I'd heard about it before but didn't quite realise what it was about. Right up my street so far. This is the only book I've had time to read in months. I enjoyed it. Wasn't a fan of the ending (I wanted to hear more). I just realised I read this already 17 years ago, in June 2004. Nothing struck me as particularly familiar - strange. I wonder what else I don't remember, book-wise, from 17+ years ago. | ||
| + | ==== March ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Ancillary Justice|Ancillary Justice]] by [[wp>Ann Leckie]] - Munro loaned this to me, said I'd enjoy it. The synopsis looks interesting. Finished: This was not bad. I thought I'd be more captivated by the two characters who had multiple bodies, but the idea wasn't focused on as much as I'd have liked. Nothing else stood out really. Meh, it was okay but not sure I'll bother reading the other two in the trilogy. | ||
| + | ==== February ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>The Expert System's Brother]] by [[wp>Adrian Tchaikovsky]] - This was interesting. | ||
| + | * [[wp>The Expert System's Champion]] by [[wp>Adrian Tchaikovsky]] - I was happy to read more of the original story, but didn't enjoy this one as much, story kinda petered out. | ||
| ===== 2020 ===== | ===== 2020 ===== | ||
| + | ==== August ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>Transcendent_(novel)|Transcendent]] by [[wp>Stephen Baxter]] - Third in the trilogy, enjoying this one slighty more so far than the second. Finished: Ugh, this was okay, I wish I hadn't bothered with the whole trilogy. He didn't really explore the FTL casuality ideas that I was interested in, and the whole thing was pretty uninteresting. Shame, I had high hopes. It took me a long time to get through. | ||
| ==== June ==== | ==== June ==== | ||
| * [[wp>Exultant (novel)|Exultant]] by [[wp>Stephen Baxter]] - I'm finding this pretty difficult to read, quite slow. I'm a big fan of some of Baxter's other work, so will slog through and finish this trilogy in the hopes that it pays off. | * [[wp>Exultant (novel)|Exultant]] by [[wp>Stephen Baxter]] - I'm finding this pretty difficult to read, quite slow. I'm a big fan of some of Baxter's other work, so will slog through and finish this trilogy in the hopes that it pays off. | ||
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| * [[wp>The Three Body Problem]] by [[wp>Cixin Liu]] - I enjoyed it, and the beginning got me pretty hooked. Generally this book was pretty out there (n dimensional single proton computers with its circuitry/gates composed of strong/weak forces), though that would make it super fast (like the machinery described in Dragon's Egg). Anyhoo, interesting, I might get around to reading the next book from Cixin Liu. | * [[wp>The Three Body Problem]] by [[wp>Cixin Liu]] - I enjoyed it, and the beginning got me pretty hooked. Generally this book was pretty out there (n dimensional single proton computers with its circuitry/gates composed of strong/weak forces), though that would make it super fast (like the machinery described in Dragon's Egg). Anyhoo, interesting, I might get around to reading the next book from Cixin Liu. | ||
| ==== January ==== | ==== January ==== | ||
| + | * [[wp>A Mortal Song]] by [[wp>Megan Crewe]] - Writing this much after the fact, forgot I read it. It was okay, read it for a fantasy book group, kept my interest, but not interested in more. | ||
| * [[wp>Rika Mechanized: A Rika Prequel (Aeon 14: Rika's Marauders Book 0)]] by [[wp>M.D. Cooper]] - This was interesting, I'm not sure I'm sold though. Rika and her tech is definitely interesting, but I've already read about much more advanced stuff. Apparently the future books focus more on the society/AI type stuff, so I might continue later. | * [[wp>Rika Mechanized: A Rika Prequel (Aeon 14: Rika's Marauders Book 0)]] by [[wp>M.D. Cooper]] - This was interesting, I'm not sure I'm sold though. Rika and her tech is definitely interesting, but I've already read about much more advanced stuff. Apparently the future books focus more on the society/AI type stuff, so I might continue later. | ||
| ===== 2018 ===== | ===== 2018 ===== | ||
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| ==== January ==== | ==== January ==== | ||
| * [[wp>The Hydrogen Sonata]] by [[wp>Iain M Banks]] - Last book in the series, enjoying it so far. Finished: Well, that's me done. I enjoyed the whole series, it's a shame it's over, no more Culture stories. I'll always remember Excession for introducing me to the world. Might go back and read the first 1-3 in a few years. | * [[wp>The Hydrogen Sonata]] by [[wp>Iain M Banks]] - Last book in the series, enjoying it so far. Finished: Well, that's me done. I enjoyed the whole series, it's a shame it's over, no more Culture stories. I'll always remember Excession for introducing me to the world. Might go back and read the first 1-3 in a few years. | ||
| + | * [[wp>Surface Detail]] by [[wp>Iain M Banks]] - One of my favourite of the Culture series - about a simulated war over whether societies should be allowed to have simulated hells. Fascinating ideas. | ||
| * [[wp>Matter]] by [[wp>Iain M Banks]] - Continuing the series. Finished: Excellent, enjoyed it. Last one to go, gonna be sorry when it's over. | * [[wp>Matter]] by [[wp>Iain M Banks]] - Continuing the series. Finished: Excellent, enjoyed it. Last one to go, gonna be sorry when it's over. | ||
| ===== 2017 ===== | ===== 2017 ===== | ||
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