This is a novel that I would never have known about if not for the recommendation in What Makes This Book So Great. It was successful enough to spawn sequels but author George Alec Effinger died before a fourth book could be completed and the series never seemed to have won any major awards. Apparently a supplement for this setting was made for the pencil and paper role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020 which I do own.
After being overwhelmed by the sophistication of Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, I approached this earlier novel by Samuel Delany with some trepidation. In retrospect, I needn’t have worried as it is a much shorter and simpler work. Though it is thematically rich with plentiful references to mythology, contemporary events at the time of the novel’s writing, art and much more, I think the plot is a little too straightforward and I’m not sure that its central theory on the relationship between people and the work they holds up well.
When I wrote my post about The Fifth Season I said I would be onboard for the next book and so here I am. Even so I am a little miffed that both books won Hugo Awards and the third book is similarly on track to do so. The rest of the nominees are no better, being novels that are part of a series by the same authors who win year after year. It’s honestly rather boring so it’s no wonder why Liu Cixin’s win in 2015 was such a breath of fresh air even if I didn’t like the book very much.
So Iain Banks has been dead for a few years now and I’ve only now gotten around to reading this, considered the first book of his Culture series. I’ve read short stories set in this universe before but never any of the novels. I always knew I was going to have to read this one day and perhaps it is appropriate to do so now as this novel is apparently going to be adapted for television.
I’ve been reading this as it was sold in an omnibus volume together with Merchanter’s Luck. This is course another novel by C.J. Cherryh that is set in her Alliance-Union universe. The two novels are however extremely different in tone, scope and complexity. Here the narrative spans hundreds of years and a score of characters. Considering how I disliked how the earlier novel focused almost exclusively on the PTSD of a single character, it’s no surprise that I like this a whole lot more.
Samuel R. Delany is of course one of the giants of science-fiction and I am once again embarrassed to admit that before this I have never read any of his works. I thought it was high time I rectified this hole in my knowledge base with this pick from Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great. The experience however left me torn. On the other hand, I have absolutely no doubt that Delany’s in an incredible writer and this is an amazing novel. On the other hand, what he does here is so far above my reading level that I can only grasp the merest fraction of what he’s going for and so I found it impossible to truly enjoy this book.
This is a novel originally published in 1982 so it’s another pick from Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great. C.J. Cherryh is a well known name in science-fiction but I don’t believe I’ve ever read any book of hers before this. This novel is part of her Alliance-Union universe but I think it was a mistake to venture into it with this title. There’s very little exposition of the world in here and I believe I would have been better off starting with her best known novel Downbelow Station.