(Originally posted on November 9, 2010) To a new reader, it may not seem like Gibson is a science fiction writer. Starting with Pattern Recognition, Gibson’s writing has been less in the future, closer and closer to the present. Zero History, you might say, takes place at time that is only 17 minutes from now. I need to go back and re-read both Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. I wouldn’t call these three books a trilogy, exactly, but they are all tied, and together, I’m hoping, they will provide the base for future Gibson writing. But be warned, soon he’ll be writing only seven seconds ahead.

(Originally posted in three parts October 25-27, 2010) I don’t know if I could define speculative fiction if you asked me to. I’ll leave that to the critics. What I can recognize is good fiction, no matter what you call it. Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors, so its not surprising that I liked Anathem, but its a very different book than what you would expect from the author of Snow Crash. Take a first contact story and wrap it in a philosophical discussion and you have the basic idea, though Stephenson is too gifted a story teller for that description to do the novel justice. Stephenson takes…

(Originally posted in three parts September 28 – October 1, 2010) I read reviews of Never Let Me Go when it first came out and thought it sounded fascinating, though I’ve never been a fan of “literary” fiction. Still the concepts behind the story interested me. If you’ve never read the book, don’t read the rest of this post. The story is about children who are clones created for medical purposes. Their sole reason for existence is to serve as organ donors for “real” people once they reach adulthood. The children know this from the beginning and are raised to believe that being a donor is the highest calling in…

(Originally posted on September 16, 2010) All those reasons I gave for liking to read YA fiction- I like to read Charles deLint for the exact opposite reasons. I read a deLint novel every couple of years. His character arcs are complex and in depth. There’s a depth to everything. It may be hard to put the book down, but you don’t fly through it. Mulengro is a dark urban fantasy. There are multiple point of view characters, including almost everyone who dies, making the senseless violence feel that much more potent, and putting everyone in danger. The ending is not surprising, but is still powerful.

(Originally posted in four parts September 4-7, 2010) I enjoyed the Song of the Lioness quartet quite a bit. If I had read the books when I was at the target age, they probably would have been among my favorites. As an adult, and a writer, I find them good, but not great. Alanna is a likeable hero. She is not perfect, but she tries and is (mostly) able to admit her mistakes. Pierce is most at home when writing action scenes. When in the midst of a fight, the reader is right there in the middle of the action, feeling every punch and clash of the swords. Pierce’s biggest…

(Originally posted on August 19, 2010) With a title like The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange, a Memoir, its not a surprise the book appealed to me on the library shelf. But so far, not so good. The author seems to think that he’d have been better off had he not been obsessed with D&D- D&D being the problem. I’m pretty certain he’d have been better off not being obsessed. Maybe the book will get funnier, or maybe I should know better than to try and read a book about D&D that has a quote from the Christian Science Monitor on the cover.

(Originally posted on July 13, 2010) I loved the Amber series, especially the Corwin books, but my favorite Zelazny novel is A Night in the Lonesome October. When the story is being told by Jack the Ripper’s dog, Snuff, what’s not to love? Jack and Snuff are players in a game. All the players begin to congregate into one neighborhood at the start of October. Snuff spends his time meeting other animal companions and trying to figure out who is in the game and who is not. But he doesn’t know what side anyone is on. And come the night of the event, anything can happen.

(Originally posted July 3, 2010) Let me be honest, this is not a good book. As someone who has taken numerous writing classes, there are flaws– many, many flaws. But try telling that to my twelve year old self. I loved The Silver Sun. I loved the characters. I loved the dichotomy of one being the end times king and one being the beginning times king. I had no idea leaving the mainland to go to an island with the elves was derivative. I still love the book because it helps me remember me at the time it was the best thing I’d ever read.

(Originally posted June 23, 2010) Gaiman is an incredibly talented writer, but he made a name for himself by writing about the dark side of a world disturbingly similar to ours. Read American Gods and you will know why. The characters are incredibly well drawn and three dimensional. You care about the main character and root for him throughout, but most writers can pull that off. What sets Gaiman apart is the richness of all the other characters- not just the secondary characters but everyone in the background. His real coupe, though, is to end the book with creepiness tempered by a touch of hope.   (Review after a second…

(Originally posted June 21, 2010) Back when I was an undergrad, I took a combo English/History class that focused on memoir and autobiography. One of the books we read as memoir was The Color of Water by James McBride. I love this book. I have loaned it out and given it as a gift multiple times. The sub-title is “A Black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother” and it is a lovely story of generations and finding a place in a world where you may not belong. The title comes from the answer the mother gives when the children ask her “What color is God?”