Holiday reading....
Discussion
I'm reading Iain M. Banks' Algebraist. Been at it for the last few weeks. Stunning SciFi book, and well readable without touching any of his other works.
Definately worth a read.
9/10
best
Ex
more here: www.majid.info/mylos/weblog/2004/12/21-1.html
The chief protagonist is a "seer", a xeno-ethnologist specializing in contact with Dwellers, an alien species almost as old as the Universe. The anarchistic and hedonistic Dwellers colonized gas giant planets across the entire galaxy, their life spans extends in the millions of years, and they take obvious delight in baffling the short-lived "Quick" species that presume to ferret out their secrets. At the same time, the byzantine and quasi-feudal society the seer belongs to (shades of Dune here, including a full-blown Butlerian Jihad) invests him with the mission to discover a secret inter-galactic transport network supposedly developed by the Dwellers. This secret could alter the galactic balance of power and the seer finds himself caught in a deadly three-way web of intrigue.
Definately worth a read.
9/10
best
Ex
more here: www.majid.info/mylos/weblog/2004/12/21-1.html
The chief protagonist is a "seer", a xeno-ethnologist specializing in contact with Dwellers, an alien species almost as old as the Universe. The anarchistic and hedonistic Dwellers colonized gas giant planets across the entire galaxy, their life spans extends in the millions of years, and they take obvious delight in baffling the short-lived "Quick" species that presume to ferret out their secrets. At the same time, the byzantine and quasi-feudal society the seer belongs to (shades of Dune here, including a full-blown Butlerian Jihad) invests him with the mission to discover a secret inter-galactic transport network supposedly developed by the Dwellers. This secret could alter the galactic balance of power and the seer finds himself caught in a deadly three-way web of intrigue.
How about a Dan Brown?
But don't buy The Sign of the Four - I bought it the other week as I was bored in an airport and magazines in English cost about £12 - and it is a very weak Da Vinci-a-like with characters about whom I couldn't give a toss.
Or there's the new Tom Wolfe, and some book in the top 10 about a natural disaster - apparently more gripping than a particularly gripping thing.
But don't buy The Sign of the Four - I bought it the other week as I was bored in an airport and magazines in English cost about £12 - and it is a very weak Da Vinci-a-like with characters about whom I couldn't give a toss.
Or there's the new Tom Wolfe, and some book in the top 10 about a natural disaster - apparently more gripping than a particularly gripping thing.
Well if you're off to the far East and have 12 hours to spare where you don't plan on sleeping, can I recommend Kazuo Ishiguro - either When We Were Orphans or An Artist Of The Floating World. This guy's descriptions are so florid and engrossing you find yourself just wanting to read more and more. He really is like an artist - layering up the story yet involving you right from the outset. It's superb. When you consider that English is his second language you'll be even more amazed. And when you get there (OK, so Ishiguro writes about China, Hong Kong and Japan) you'll find yourself looking for things he describes - even if it's just the weather.
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