After finishing The Cipher one week ago, I’ve finished 3 more books (it helps that I’ve had the last 3 days off from work). Here are the next books I need to review and some short impressions of them: The Cipher by Diana Pharoah Francis (of course) – This one started off somewhat good (although never that great) but by the end, I really didn’t like it very much at all. I won’t be continuing with the Crosspointe series. Archangel […]

Part two of the Q & A with Iain Banks is up on his site. Readers emailed him questions about the books, writing quirks, video games, and what kind of tattoo based on his books he’d get. Part one, which was put up in July, is available here. This one has more questions related to the books but if you ever wanted to know what places to visit in Scotland, this is the one to read.

I signed up for a Catherine Asaro mailing list a while ago when I was desperately trying to find a copy of The Radiant Seas. Yesterday Catherine sent an email to the group to let us know that a revised version of her first novel Primary Inversion is now available at the Baen Free Library. Here is what she had to say about the new revisions: This is a rewritten version of my first published book. I’m a better writer […]

Before They Are Hangedby Joe Abercrombie539pp (Paperback)My Rating: 7/10Amazon Rating: 4.5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4.24/5Goodreads Rating: 4.34/5 Joe Abercrombie’s Before They Are Hanged is the middle book in his First Law trilogy, following The Blade Itself and preceding Last Argument of Kings (which has an official US launch date of Sept. 23, but is already available from some outlets). Much like The Blade Itself, Hanged is a book that I enjoyed reading for reasons I don’t entirely understand. When viewed separately its […]

Use of Weaponsby Iain M. Banks512pp (Trade Paperback)My Rating: 8.5/10Amazon Rating: 4.5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4.1/5Good Reads Rating: 4.23/5 The Culture novels by Scottish science fiction writer Iain M. Banks are stand alone stories taking place within the titular universe, an egalitarian interplanetary utopia in which capitalism, disease, and (to an extent) even death no longer pose a problem to humanity. Although each book has a different storyline with a separate set of characters, it is often recommended that The Player of […]

Crystal Rainby Tobias Buckell384pp (Paperback)My Rating: 4/10Amazon Rating: 4/5LibraryThing Rating: 3.86/5Good Reads Rating: 3.62/5 Crystal Rain, Tobias Buckell’s debut novel, is the first book in a series of stand-alone space operas set in the same universe (if it has a series name, I can’t find it on Buckell’s site or Amazon). It is followed by Ragamuffin, which was nominated for a Nebula Award in 2007, and Sly Mongoose, which just came out a few days ago. These books seem to […]