Ten Books that stayed with me ..
In the past months I have been reading or (to be more precise) listening to the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. For the most part I rather enjoyed the books, not so much because of the story itself, but the characters are very interesting (I wouldn't call them heroes), and the writing which is fresh and entertaining.
So I am usually skeptical about book series (I am looking at you Wheel of Time), but upon a recommendation by a friend I started listening to the sequels, starting with Best Served Cold. I am about 1/4 into the book now, and I must say it's again another good read. And I appreciate the fact, that the author didn't continue the story from the original trilogy, but started a fresh one.
Content of the "Dangerous Woman" anthology (as per Wikipedia):
"Doing better next time. That's what life is." -- Logen Ninefingers (Before They Are Hanged)
"I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will ever tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you when he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on, I am your teacher." -- Mazer Rackham in Ender's Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card.Fan-tas-tic Military Science Fiction!
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." -- H.P. Lovecraft in "Supernatural horror in Literature" (1927)
I have finished John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" some time ago, and it was really nice, solid Science Fiction in my humble opinion. Although some compare it Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" I cannot say the same. While Heinlein's novel has kind of the same structure as Scalzi's work, it has more depth in terms of military background and a more philosophical approach. Scalzi's work on the other hand is more science orientated and the description of the alien societies is far more intriguing.
What's the story? Here's the back cover teaser from the book:
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce - and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So, we fight, to defend Earth and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea of what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine. And what he will become is far stranger.Would I recommend "Old Man's War"? That's a definitive yes, if you like Science Fiction in general and military SF in particular.
Currently I am reading all five volumes of the Belgariad epic by David Eddings. As of now I am in the middle of the second book ("Queen of Sorcery"), but as of now I am not too impressed by the books. I am not very fond of several aspects like:
"I was beginning to understand her, not just as a professional target and a potential victim of a Dark Magician, not just as the unwitting cause of catastrophe, but as a person. An introverted, bookish child, with a mass of complexes and her head full of crazy ideals and a childish faith in the beautiful prince who was searching for her and would surely find her. Work as a doctor, a few girlfriends, a few male friends, and a great deal of loneliness. Conscientious work almost in the spirit of a builder of communism, occasional visits to the café and occasional loves."Nightwatch" (p126) by Sergei Lukyanenko
And each evening like every one other, on the couch, with a book, with the phone lying besides her, with the television muttering something soapy and comforting. How many of you there still are, girls and boys of various ages, raised by naïve parents in the sixties. How many of you there are, so unhappy, not knowing how to be happy. How I long to take pity on you, how I long to help you. To touch you through the Twilight - gently, with no force at all. To give you just a little confidence in yourself, just a tiny bit of optimism, a gram of willpower, a crumb of irony. To help you, so that you could help other."
The last few years I have a hard time finding interesting, non-cliche-ridden Fantasy novels. The only exception was George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. But since the author takes his time to finish the individual books rather slow (I'll grant him that: "Throughness before speed" I say), I'll have to look elsewhere for new reading material.
A couple of months ago while checking the Hugo/Nebula/.. awards lists for interesting books, I stumbled across the works of Lois McMaster Bujold. And behold, not a triology/triad/something-with-3 series, but rather standalone novels. So I started reading her Fantasy books, and I was not disappointed. Currently there are three books set in the "Chalion"-world.
