This is the second last book in the Baroque Cycle and its good to see so many diverse plot elements being wrapped up. It does feel like Neal is going to have to work pretty hard to get them all wrapped up in just one more book — especially at the pace that these books…
The World According to Jeremy Clarkson
Like On Cars, this book is a collection of Clarkson’s newspaper articles. These articles are relatively recent though (post 2001), and cover a much smaller span. This book focuses on things other than cars, and Clarkson’s opinions range from sensible and thoughtful to outright weird. I read this book during a series of take offs…
The Diamond Age
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…
Books read in August 2010
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
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…
Their Finest Hour
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…
Solomon’s Gold
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…
Asimov’s Aurora
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…
Mona Lisa Overdrive
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…
Longitude
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]