that no one can hear the whispers
they’ve lit the world so bright
that no one can see in the dark
they’ve told so many lies
that no one knows the truth now
they’ve ruined all of nature
and told us to play in the park
The Player of Games — Iain M. Banks
The Culture’s “Contact” section send The Culture’s greatest game player to an empire that is totally constructed around the playing of one game. Where everyone’s social standing, career, political involvement and status is determined by the results of their playing of the game.
The goal being to totally destabilise the empire from within.
Will it work?
A rather unusual sci-fi novel, but really, really good. I couldn’t put this one down.
Next up in The Culture series is The State of the Art.
Iain’s Page
#scifi #iainmbanks
Rapport — Martha Wells
This is a Perihelion story, not a Murderbot story. You may remember that Perihelion is ART’s real designation and most humans call him Peri.
I thought it was quite nice to have a get to know a little more about ART/Peri when Murderbot isn’t around.
A fun little short story, and really looking forward to more books in this most awesome series.
Martha’s Page
#scifi #marthawells
Consider Phlebas — Iain M. Banks
I finally dived into The Culture series, and what, you ask, did i think of the first book?
Well, to be honest, it was rather a long, long winded affair that seemed to sprawl on and on while bringing nothing much to the story.
We also had a huge pacing issue. Why, oh why, do writers suddenly get all descriptive and feel the need to waffle on about every nut and bolt holding doors on and stuff during fight/action/battle scenes? This is the sort of thing an editor should pull up and throw the manuscript back at the writer for. What should have been a great, final battle between our protagonists and the Idirans, flies by on the passages that would take ages in the real world while finding ourselves wading through pages of completely unnecessary waffle when all the action starts kicking off, taking ages to read through scenes that would last a minute or two, at most, in the real world.
Annoyingly, there does appear to be a very good story behind all the poor writing, and . . .
. . . so, having trudged through all that, i feel i’m losing myself to a sunk cost fallacy as i’ve started to read The Player of Games in the hope that it’ll somehow be much better written — we shall see.
Iain’s Page
#scifi #iainmbanks
In the Shadow of the Ship — Aliette de Bodard
A magistrate from the Empire returns to the old, worn-out mind-ship she grew up on for a funeral.
We slowly get to know why she left and what she’s going to do about it now that she’s back as a magistrate. Also at large is another mind-ship that the Empire has sent to fix things, can they work together, will things be fixed?
Another good Xuya novella for all you Xuya fans to get into.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
First Presentation — Aliette de Bodard
Another little Xuya story about one of the people who have access to the virtual overlays of all those on board one of the mind-stations. Imagine if you could look where you shouldn’t, but you wouldn’t, unless you let your guard down.
You can find this in the anthology, Chasing Shadows.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
A Game of Three Generals — Aliette de Bodard
What if everyone else gets killed and the habitat mind on the planet decides it’s going to keep you there and never let you go?
Another interesting little Xuya short for those of us who are totally into the universe. You can find it in the anthology, Extrasolar.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
The Coffeeworks — Cranberry & Pomegranate Kenya
I’m just beginning to get into pourover coffee and this is the first coffee that i’ve gotten good with.
I thought i knew what coffee tastes like, and then i tried light roast pourover coffee and it’s a whole different thing altogether.
I found this coffee to be a delightful blast of complex flavours on the taste buds. Really enjoyed it and will be buying another bag quite soon.
You can read all about it and buy a bag at Coffeeworks.
#coffee
The Phoenix Ballroom — Ruth Hogan
I got a little bit worried at first, like Ruth had written a book for teenagers, but the story slowly gets going and more grown up as we get into it.
While i enjoyed reading it, i don’t think it’s as good as previous books. I just didn’t connect with the characters as much. That might be down to me not being very well at the moment — i’m at home recovering from a rather serious time in hospital — and i’m finding a lot of things hard to focus my mind and thoughts on at the moment.
That said, i am looking forward to reading Ruth’s next book, The Light a Candle Society, which i think i will leave until i’m feeling a bit more myself.
Ruth’s Page
#ruthhogan
Altered Carbon — Richard Morgan
Yes, i went back and re-read this in 2005. Sadly, it really didn’t give one the thrill ride of something new and exciting that i got on the first read. Once you know the story, and how things turn out, it does diminish it somewhat.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still a good read, but nothing like it was the first time around.
I won’t be re-reading the other two books in the trilogy at this time as i didn’t enjoy them as much the first time around, so i don’t think they’ll have aged as well for a re-read at this time. Maybe in 20 years or so i’ll give the whole trilogy another run through, but i do think i need to well and truly forget most of it first to enjoy it fully on a re-read.
Richard’s Page
#scifi #cyberpunk #richardmorgan
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