Year Title Notes Act one: Deverry 1986 Daggerspell 1987 Darkspell 1989 The Bristling Wood – US title; issued in the UK as Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood 1990 The Southern Sea – US title; issued in the UK as Dragonspell: The Southern Sea Act two: The Westlands 1991 A Time of Exile 1992 A Time of…
Author: mikal
Isaac Asimov’s Inferno
Inferno is the second Asimov universe book written by Roger MacBride Allen. Much like Asimov’s Robots and Empire and Caliban, its what I will call an “issue book”. In Robots and Empire the issue at hand was that having a long life results in risk adversity and therefore the stagnation of society as a whole….
Isaac Asimov’s Caliban
This is a “robot mystery” in the style of Asimov, but actually written by Roger MacBride Allen. Wikipedia assures me that Asimov approved the outline for this book, as well as the other two by Roger: “Shortly before his death in 1992, Asimov approved an outline for three novels (Caliban, Inferno, Utopia) by Roger MacBride…
Robots and Empire
I find the newer Asimovs harder to read for some reason — I think it might be because they are more inclined to introspection that the earlier ones, but that might not be all of it. Overall I enjoyed this book, although I did find that I lost enthusiasm briefly in the middle. Overall, worth…
Bill the Galactic Hero Series
This series is a set of parodies of militaristic science fiction, and is excellently bad. 1965: Bill The Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison 1989: Bill, the Galactic Hero On the Planet of Robot Slavesby Harry Harrison 1990: Bill the Galactic Hero On the Planet of Bottled Brains by Robert Sheckley and Harry Harrison 1991: Bill…
Books read in May 2008
A Stainless Steel Rat is born The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 1 The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 2 Bill the Galactic Hero I, Robot Caves of Steel Naked Sun Robots of Dawn
Robots of Dawn
This book is the third in the third in the Robot mystery series, and is once again set on a Spacer world. This one was written 30 years after the first two, and Asimov’s style has noticeably changed between the 1950s and 1980s. The book starts off slowly, with a lecturing tone which I found…
Coke cans are a weird shape in Japan
I give you the can bottle, which is clearly the best shape for a coke can, ever. Update: I noticed the image was broken on this post, so I found another.
Shibuya, Tokyo
Panos (a dude I work with) and I got to Tokyo ok last night. The flight left SFO at about 1pm and got into Narita airport at about 4pm. By the time we’d done immigration and collected our bags we only had about a ten minute wait for the limousine bus to the hotel. We’re…
Tokyo tomorrow
Tomorrow I’m jumping on a JAL flight to Tokyo. I will be in Tokyo for a week, mostly for work meetings. I’m hoping to fit some sightseeing in on the weekend. Let me know if you have any recommendations.