Content here is by Michael Still, mikal@stillhq.com.
I loved this book. I think its going on my list of all time favorites. The first half of the book is better than the second, but I think that might be because young Nell resonated much more strongly with me than older Nell. I read this book because it came up at a scientific…
Bonanza The Juncto The Confusion (Bonanza and The Juncto combined) Some Girls: My life in a Harem The Coming Space Soldiers Longitude Mona Lisa Overdrive Asimov’s Aurora Solomon’s Gold The Finest Hour (no new content) Old Twentieth
This is actually a relatively simple story, but padded out with a series of historical interludes. These are presented as when the main character is exploring a VR world, but most of them don’t directly further the plot. However, they also don’t make the story drag along, and are some of the most entertaining parts…
This book is a disappointment. I was excited about another Bolo book, but this one is all republished stories I’d previously read: Combat Unit (Keith Laumer): appeared in The Compleat Bolo. Lost Legion (S. M. Stirling): appeared in Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment. A Time to Kill (David Weber): appeared in Bolos 4: Last…
This is book six of the Baroque Cycle, following on from Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds, Odalisque, Bonanza, and The Juncto (the last two of which are referred to as The Confusion when read together as a single volume). I’m glad that I accidentally read Longitude before this book, as in this work Daniel is…
This is the third and final book in the iBook Asimov Robots spinoff series. The first two were Asimov’s Mirage and Asimov’s Chimera. Like the second one, this is better than the first and has a nice flow to the plot line. The story also is easier to believe than those used in previous spinoffs…
This is the book which wraps up the Sprawl series (Burning Chrome, Neuromancer and Count Zero). Its a great book, with several separate story lines which are beautifully molded together by the end of the book. It also wraps up the confusing elements of the various other stories nicely. I really enjoyed it. Title: Mona…
This is the story of John Harrison, the inventor of modern accurate clocks. Its an interesting read, and very engaging for a non-fiction book. I think this is helped by the conversational style of the book, and the fact that its not terribly long. A good read. [isbn: 1857025717]
This is a collection of short stories about soldiers in space. Its not the strongest such collection I have read — Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow, Body Armor 2002 and Dogs of War are all better. The Gardens of Saturn (Paul J McAuley): veterans with jacked up nervous systems encounter genetically engineered people in deep space. Soldiers…
This book wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be — some of Joe’s other work has been excellent (The Forever War, Forever Peace and Marsbound being examples). However, some of his other books are very weak, such as Forever Free and There Is No Darkness. This book is an interesting experiment in story…