1/14/2010

1. josh: ed. sumana harihareswara and leonard richardson. thoughtcrime experiments.
   
   
   1. verdict: meh
      
   2. review:
      
      the guy editor wrote a python library called beautiful soup that josh
      was a big fan of, and that's how he found this book. this is
      self-published book based on a personal ideology of the editors
      involving the quality of literature and its relation to the quality of
      editors. this goes on for a bit, but i can't keep up. anyway it's a
      tolerable collection of stories, he enjoyed a couple of them but would
      not really recommend it.
      
   
   
2. megan: defender. c j cherryh.
   
   
   1. verdict: +
      
   2. review:
      
      this is the sixth book in an older series, the foreigner series. there
      is a huge and incredibly complicated explanation of this series, she
      thought she wouldn't make it through the first book but she's read six
      so far. sounds like space opera of a sort with a couple of humanoid
      alien races. i can't try to sum up a series like this, but megan
      recommends them.
      
   
   
3. adam: neverwhere. neil gaiman.
   
   
   1. verdict: +
      
   2. review:
      
      feels like this has sort of a "first novel" feel to it. similar themes
      and tropes to the rest of his book, but not paced or written as well
      as his later novels. great characters, great story, but was sometimes
      distracted by the writing. (megan offers a counterpoint, she really
      likes this book.) he gives a summary but i shan't replicate it. he
      liked it and would recommend it, but it's not gaiman's best.
      
   
   
4. chad: infected. scott sigler.
   
   
   1. verdict: +
      
   2. review:
      
      supposedly has the "most popular science fiction podcast on the
      internet." chad's dad recommended this, and he does not have the very
      best records. nonetheless... we listen to a "killswitch engage" song
      and chad tells us that "that gives us the feel of this book."
      charming. the main character is a failed football player from ann
      arbor who injured his knee in the big game and now he's a network
      technician. seriously, wow. anyway it's about an alien infection, i
      guess, but i'm losing track. there are dead psychopaths infected with
      an alien virus, the cia gets involved, i dunno. there's a woman. a
      large part of this book involved the linebacker dude "talking to the
      triangles" and stabbing himself, and his dad beat and abused him so
      he's not gonna take any shit from the triangles. anyway as amazingly
      ridiculous as this sounds, it actually sounds like chad liked it a
      fair amount. i mean, maybe in an "ironic" way or whatever, but i think
      he enjoyed it. ("there was one on his testicles, one in his asscrack,
      ...", i'm just reporting here, folks.) this is amazing. "so, the next
      novel is called contagious, and... um... my dad also sent me that."
      
   
   
5. paul: before they are hanged. joe abercrombie.
   
   
   1. verdict: meh
      
   2. review:
      
      the same as book one in pretty much every way. he found the vast
      majority of the main quest painfully boring, it just went on and
      on. he did a good job for awhile cycling between the storylines, but
      he couldn't keep it up. he liked the dagoska and west storylines.
      
   
   
6. interlude.
   
   in which we discuss gene wolfe and whether josh is a fool for not
   having grasped the true significance of pirate freedom. we conclude
   that while josh is indeed a fool, it wouldn't necessarily follow from
   this.
   
   
7. chad: transition. iain (m?) banks.
   
   
   1. verdict: ++
      
   2. review:
      
      the new banks book, sci-fi in the us and lit fic in england, i
      guess. whatever. anyway, it takes place on earth ostensibly, "around
      now." anyway it seems like a direct rebuttal of anathem, in a
      sense. it sort of "takes the many worlds interpretation seriously,"
      and concludes that everything about neal stephenson's conclusions is
      evil and wrong. it's sort of a spy novel written from the view of a
      few main characters. they work for the concern, which has some agenda
      throughout the many worlds, which is of course very vague. it's
      supposed to be good, but of course there are insinuations that it's
      actually wrong and evil. it goes on, there's some power struggle and
      he doesn't want to give it away because i myself, the editor, plan to
      read it. (and i think you for that, sir.) anyway he liked it, he
      thought it was very good. recommended.
      
   
   
8. coda
   
   chris promises to review a book about mermen, and with this we
   adjourn.
   
   
9. that's all, folks.