6 posts tagged “book”

Dailylit. Get a little bit of that book you've always wanted to read once a day by email.

You select a book from the list. Then you set up how you want it (daily? weekly? What time of day?). Then you get sent according to your schedule an easy to digest chunk of your selected book by email. The list is mostly public domain classics, but lets face it that copy of Ulysses is just taking up room on your shelf, but there are a few modern novels by less uptight authors who have released their books on Creative Commons licences.

I'm currently reading Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (yes I'm a Cory fanboy) but have something more ambitious up my sleeve for next time like Crime and Punishment or heck even Ulysses.

That copy is taking up room on my shelf. Looks good but. Wonderful conversation starter. Or a doorstop.

From http://www.clarkeaward.com/news.html

Shortlist 2007 Announced

Jon Courtenay Grimwood, M. John Harrison, Lydia Millet, Jan Morris, Adam Roberts and Brian Stableford are the six authors shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award 2007.

The shortlist was announced on 20th January as part of an event held in Soho, London, to thank supporters and friends of the award.

The six shortlisted books are:
End of the World Blues: Jon Courtenay Grimwood – Gollancz
Nova Swing: M. John Harrison – Gollancz
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart: Lydia Millet – William Heinemann
Hav: Jan Morris – Faber & Faber
Gradisil: Adam Roberts – Gollancz
Streaking: Brian Stableford – P.S. Publishing

Tom Hunter, administrator for the Arthur C Clarke Award commented:

“This year’s shortlist stands as a snapshot of the best of the UK’s science fictional literature: it’s a list that makes clear our ongoing fascination with future possibilities and the power of the human imagination, and it echoes the rich heritage that the Arthur C Clarke Award has created since its inception in 1986."

A prize of £2007 will be awarded to the winner along with a commemorative engraved bookend.

Wintersmith

Terry Pratchett

I've just finished Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett. I feel a little nonplussed because, well, it's a  Discworld novel on the witches branch (see one of these excellent reading order guides if you're a little lost with your Discworld novels).

It was good. It wasn't great. I loved the two previous novels in this little arc, Wee Free Men and A Hatful of Sky. The central character is Tiffany Aching, a young sheperdess and future witch. Her supporting cast is a horde of little blue 'pictsies' called the Nac Mac Feegles, who are fond of a drink, a fight and not a hell of a lot of thinking. They were good fun and very good fairy stories which is where Pratchett excels himself. They are aimed at younger readers, sure, but that doesn't stop them working on so many levels.

The problem with Wintersmith is that I think the story was nicely tapped out by the end of A Hatful of Sky. Tiffany was complete as a character with only one or two minor arcs left unexplored. Wintersmith explores those arcs and I kind of feel that they were best left alone. Pratchett fans will love it (like I did) but don't expect anything as good as the first two in this arc.

Interestingly all of my very smart friends at work are reading Pratchett at the moment becasue we need a little antidote to our restructure of the restructure of the restructure stupidity.

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

This beautiful steampunk adventure serial from Penguin, The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters is limited to 5,000 copies on a subscription basis. 10 issues, one a week for 10 weeks. The cost is prohibitive once postage to Australia is considered but it will be available from Penguin Australia in hard and soft cover as a single volume.

Shards of Honor

Oh I thought the cover of the book I had was bad. This looks like a cheap and tacky romance novel rather than the wonderful piece of space opera I just read. US book cover design leaves a lot to be desired. Vox give us access to Amazon UK please!

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books are a great rollicking read, mostly focused around Miles Vorkosigan a Flashmanesque character set in a distant future of limited space travel, nascent space empires and old corrupt power. Miles himself is dwarfish, brittle boned and ugly. He's also brilliant, resourceful, cunning and solves his problems with his wit and measured luck than brawn. The books are written with a cracking pace and an economical but evocative language. You don't need to know what Miles ate for breakfast today and Bujold doesn't tell you over three pages. She will pause on the awful destructiveness of the nerve disruptor weapon, or on the convoluted workings of Miles' heart and mind, but that is what you're there for.

Shards of Honor is set before Miles' birth and features the events surrounding the meeting of his parents Commander Cordelia Naismith of the Betan Survey Corps and Lord Admiral Aral Vorkosigan, Butcher of Komarr, strategic genius and on the out with the Barrayan Imperial Court. Cordelia gets swept up in the bitter and dark world of Barryan Imperial politics and swept off her feet by Aral. This is a love story, but set against an exciting and fun future universe and its at times poisonous politics. These precursors to the Miles novels provide just enough links to the future continuity to tantalise without seeming gratutious like a Star Wars prequel or confusing like a Trek series.

Love the book. Hate that cover.