And so I start my reading of this year's Hugo nominees (and am also now nearly finished Brasyl). I really enjoyed it a lot, though admittedly not every reader's experience will be enhanced as mine was by discussing bits of background for the sequel with the author over the weekend. It's a melding of genres, police procedural and cyberpunk, set in the Edinburgh of an independent Scotland in a few years' time. The narrative voice is striking - three different viewpoint characters, but all told in the second person, as (quite deliberately) in a computer game. There are nods to all kinds of sf taproot texts, and an unnerving background theme of questioning reality. And Charlie's prose seems somehow more under control than I can remember from any of his other books. My Hugo reading is off to a good start.
March Books 43) Halting State
And so I start my reading of this year's Hugo nominees (and am also now nearly finished Brasyl). I really enjoyed it a lot, though admittedly not every reader's experience will be enhanced as mine was by discussing bits of background for the sequel with the author over the weekend. It's a melding of genres, police procedural and cyberpunk, set in the Edinburgh of an independent Scotland in a few years' time. The narrative voice is striking - three different viewpoint characters, but all told in the second person, as (quite deliberately) in a computer game. There are nods to all kinds of sf taproot texts, and an unnerving background theme of questioning reality. And Charlie's prose seems somehow more under control than I can remember from any of his other books. My Hugo reading is off to a good start.
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Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships, by Camilla Pang
Second paragraph of third chapter: Who hasn't argued with their mother at some point about tidying their room, and had differing interpretations…
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Ormeshadow, by Priya Sharma
Second paragraph of third chapter: Gideon stood beside his father. The sun made a fuss of setting, bleeding red and orange into the sea. Gideon could…
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Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, by Rana Mitter
Second paragraph of third chapter: Decades after the deaths of Mao and Chiang, it is possible not only to look at those two major figures with some…
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