[ f e c k l e s s ] : [ b o o k l i s t ]

A Series of Unfortunate Events: A Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket
Oh, this really is very good. The voice is perfect.

(6.21.2002)

Schismatrix Plus - Bruce Sterling
As I noted somewhere else recently, 20 Evocations is one of the finest short stories I've ever read . . . if you read it after Schismatriz and all the related stories. Maybe it's a coda, not a story.

Islands in the Net - Bruce Sterling
Eeesh. This dates fast, in much of the tech. The politics less so, in some ways. It's harder to read about the terrorism as well--but I don't think Sterling meant it lightly at the time. And he does, truly, seem to believe (hope?) that the banal, hokey, irritating globalists are the best hope for humanity in the end. I find it hard to disagree.

(6.18.2002)

All Tomorrow's Parties - William Gibson
I really, really, really wish the bridge existed. It'd make San Francisco even more San Francisco than it is.

Idoru - William Gibson
He's repeating himself--just a little--here, but we'll forgive him that for giving us the toecutter and the fans.

Virtual Light - William Gibson
Seeing more of Delany's influence this time around, in the discussion of crime, sex, and drugs being the interface between classes and the aside about AIDS studies.

Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson
Probably the best book. But what does it mean that he takes us right back to where he left us at the end of Neuromancer? I've never been able to figure that out, whether it was planning or him writing himself out of a corner and back into room for a few sequels.

(6.11.2002)

Count Zero - William Gibson
See now, when he ends it back on Rudy's farm, I figure that's his idea of home.

(6.8.2002)

Neuromancer - William Gibson
I'm prepping to see No Maps for These Territories. Man, can Mr. Gibson write. Neuromancer was released in 1984. When's the next real shot across the bow going to come?

(6.6.2002)

Icehenge - Kim Stanley Robinson
In some ways this works (now) as a counterpoint to the Mars series--instead of Mars becoming the center of humanistic revolution in the solar system, it becomes the epitome of repression. But it's really more about history (although he shows how political repression can use history rather effectively) and memory, two of his favorite subjects.

(6.5.2002)

Cyteen : The Vindication - C.J. Cherryh
Boy, I'll bet this would have made more sense if I'd read the first two parts of the trilogy first.

(6.4.2002)