There's a certain amount of scorn out there for science fiction. A few years ago, I gave my mother The Sparrow. A while later, we were discussing it, and suggested to my sister that she read it. She said she was not interested in science fiction, and my mother replied, "It's not really science fiction -- you'll like it!"

Whatever The Sparrow is, it is certainly science fiction. The bulk of the story takes place on an alien world, or in the space craft traveling to it. What my mother meant, however, was that it was good, that it was well-written literature, though-provoking and challenging. Those, in her mind and my sister's, are not attributes of science fiction; The Sparrow, therefore, is literature, not genre fiction.

Their viewpoint is hardly unique. In fact, among readers of a certain sophistication, similar opinions seem to be very common. And it is hard to claim that they are very wrong -- after all, most science fiction is escapist, poorly written, and features lurid covers that give a poor impression to non-fans.

Plus, genres are defined by more than their surface content. Orwell's masterpiece, 1984, could be science fiction in the same way that Jane Austen's works are romance novels. Merely being centrally concerned with love and relationship does not a romance novel make; perhaps being set on another world or in the future is not enough to condemn a novel to the ghetto of science fiction.

On a similar note, many works in literature feature the supernatural, yet never would be defined as fantasy: Beloved, by Toni Morrison, features the ghost of a dead baby; Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez both feature magic and other fantastic elements. Márquez once said, "My most important problem was destroying the lines of demarcation that separates what seems real from what seems fantastic." Yet no science fiction fan would claim that these were genre novels.

So what is it that makes a science fiction novel? There have been many attempts to define it; this may be my favorite, from Damon Knight:

What we get from science fiction---what keeps us reading it, in spite of our doubts and occasional disgust---is not different from the thing that makes mainstream stories rewarding, but only expressed differently. We live on a minute island of known things. Our undiminished wonder at the mystery which surrounds us is what makes us human. In science fiction we can approach that mystery, not in small, everyday symbols, but in bigger ones of space and time.

All great literature is concerned with human nature, with human relationships, and with the mysteries that permeate human beings and the world around us. Science fiction is no different; it only uses different tools.

Here is a partial list of works that are great fiction as well as being great science fiction. These are the sorts of things you might give a skeptic of the quality of science fiction, or an English teacher. I quite enjoyed all of these as well.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. This is a fascinating study of a world without gender differences. Le Guin explores themes of love and sexuality and identity in a nuanced, insightful way that may not have been possible without being science fiction.

Declare, by Tim Powers. If reading The Left Hand of Darkness is like reading Great American Literature, reading Declare is like reading John Le Carré.

The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick. This is like 1984, or Brave New World, except set in an alternate history instead of a dystopian future. Somehow, Philip Roth's uninspired The Plot Against America was met with high praise despite a clumsy final act and a certain lack of depth in the first acts -- The Man in the High Castle, in contrast, hits all of the right notes, and is the far superior World War II-era alternate history in America, despite being classified as science fiction where The Plot Against America was not.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Dystopia seems to be the only genre in which science fiction receives universal acclaim. That must say something about the literary establishment.

Drat, I am out of time. Here's a list upon which I may expand in the future: Dune, Neuromancer, the Foundation novels, Stranger in a Strange Land, Cryptonomicon, Slaughterhouse 5, A Wrinkle in Time, The Time Traveler's Wife.

It should be clear from the forgoing that science fiction, whatever it may be, is certainly not defined by lack of quality or by shallowness. Anyone who proclaims, "I don't like science fiction" either does not like reading, or does not know how to find the gems among the admittedly large amount of dross.

The penultimate booklog! So exciting. This was apparently short story month for me.

The Postman by David Brin (reread)

A classic. Still excellent, way way better than the silly movie.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

This is a short story collection featuring years of his work. Some of it is passable (or maybe I just don't appreciate fantasy poetry), some of it is good, and a few stories are just great, really fabulous. He's at his best writing short stories, I think -- I have never loved his novels the way many people seem to, but nobody writes short fantasy as well as he does.

The Machine's Child by Kage Baker

This is the latest in the continuing story of the Zeus Company. Time travel, immortality, conspiracies spanning centuries, pretty much everything you want in a science fiction series. Except for resolution. This series is long enough now that I just want her to get on with it already. There's been plenty of setup, there are interesting characters and plots, but it is dragging on a bit.

Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition edited by Rich Horton

More short stories. These were very high quality, though one of the best was also in the Neil Gaiman collection. In particular, stories by matociquala (Elizabeth Bear), Pat Cadigan, and someone named Steve Rasnic Tem, of whom I'd never heard, were outstanding. I liked this collection more than I thought I would -- even the stories I liked less I still enjoyed.

Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition edited by Rich Horton

Despite the fact that I like science fiction as a genre more than fantasy, I didn't enjoy this as much as the fantasy collection. I think it may be that this doesn't compare well to the Year's Best Science Fiction anthology, and I hadn't read a comparable outstanding fantasy anthology. They had two stories in common, a good one by Mary Rosenblum (I have loved every one of her novels), and the excellent Triceratops Summer by Michael Swanwick, an author whose short fiction I have always loved, and whose novels I have never read. Maybe I should do something about that. I also liked stories by Susan Palwick (never heard of her) and Daniel Kayson (never heard of him either).

Futures: Four Novellas by Peter F. Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Paul McAuley, and Ian McDonald

Four stories by four british writers. I am always a little disappointed by Baxter works, and this was no exception: sweeping ideas, mediocre characterization. Hamilton is always fun, and this was no exception -- it was elegant and, by the end, disquieting. McAuley's story featured an untrustworthy protagonist, which is tricky to do well, but he pulls it off here. Solid but not brilliant. McDonald, on the other hand, wrote an amazing tale of an alien life form altering Africa from the viewpoint of a displaced Kenyan child. It's perfectly paced, exciting and intriguing and very well-written. I'd actually read that story before somewhere (some year's best collection, maybe?), but it was well worth a second perusal.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

You have to admire the courage of his convictions; however -- and this was surprising to me -- I felt his position was a little unsophisticated. He argues very convincingly that there is no evidence for God, and no reason to believe in religion. But he spends quite a bit of time enumerating the ills that religion has caused, and there I think he misses the boat. Not all wars that featured religion are actually about religion; not every ill that happens in a church happens because it's in a church. He argues that religion is a barrier to science, which has often been true, but neglects that nearly every major scientific advance has been discovered by someone who believes in God. Similarly, it's easy to point out all the death caused by religious wars, but the worst horrors of the 20th century (Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc) were perpetrated by atheists, so it's not like religion has a monopoly on evil. He does a disservice to his own cause by writing something so argumentative and one-sided that nobody who does not already agree with him will read the whole thing. On the other hand, he does make the Sagans and Goulds of the world look even more moderate and reasonable, which may have some value.

Edit: Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe by Sam Walker

The author is a sports columnist, and decides to take up fantasy baseball by joining the most competitive fantasy league in the country. He then hires two assistants, interviews every GM and player he can find, and fails to win. But the characters and stories are entertaining, as his his hubris. I just finished my second season of fantasy baseball, though mostly I'm the sweater and mjlewis is the player, so it had some relevance.

Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
I love Tim Powers -- his books range from good (Earthquake Weather) to absolutely tremendous (Declare or Last Call). This one falls on the low end of the range, but is still pretty good. It lacks the sweep and global range of his best works, but parts of it still shine -- ghosts moving backwards in time, a fun maguffin, and the trademark slow revealing of the rules of the world that make his novels so much fun.

Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini
There's a movie coming out, so I thought I'd see what the excitement was all about. Eragon is pretty typical fantasy -- and by typical, I mean highly derivative. It takes elements from the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and the influences are not subtle. They are direct. The writing starts out a little shaky, but does improve by the second book. The second book feels more like an original work, but several parts of it felt just like the Belgariad. It had some amusement value, but I can't really recommend the books with so many good fantasy sagas out there.

House by Tracy Kidder
In 1983, a couple built a house in Massachusetts. This is the story of that house, and the stories of the clients, the architects, and the builders who built it. It reads like a novel, with the house itself as a character. The whole thing evolves and changes as conflicts rise and settle. It was fascinating reading, and not only because we're at the beginning of the process ourselves. It certainly made me increase my estimation of the importance of the builders relative to the architects in how the house comes out.

Air: Or, Have Not Have by Goeff Ryman
This may be the best novel I've read this year; it's certainly the best genre novel I've read this year. He explores the impact of future technology on a tiny village in central asia, with unpredictable consequences. The novel is complex and deeply symbolic, working on multiple levels. If you ever need to recommend a science fiction novel to someone who prefers literature, add this to the very short list of novels to suggest.

Beguilement: The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold
I love Bujold, whether she's writing fantasy or science fiction. I'd read anything she wrote. I hope, though, that books in the future are less like this one and more like her other works. The voice is completely the same -- pure Bujold, with the insights and characters that are her signature. This time, though, the story needs a good bit of help. It felt like the beginning of a novel rather than an entire book. It's the first in a trilogy, which probably is why it felt this way, but if you're going to publish a novel, you might bother to have it have at least some semblance of being self-contained rather than feeling like it just stops rather than ends. Plus it was shorter than her usual, which just makes me feel like she's milking for money rather than keeping up the good work. I hope her next books don't suffer from this problem.

Infoquake by David Louis Edelman
Infoquake was unusual. It's a first effort, and it shows with uneven writing and weak characterization -- many of the characters, including the main one, seem almost more like caricatures. In contrast, the world is detailed and vivid and the scope of the novel is sweeping and ambitious. He doesn't quite pull it off, but with some practice he might be worth paying attention to. This first book, though, does not quite escape mediocrity.

The World Before by karentraviss
The third book in a series, this explores the intersection between 3 races, all of whom have highly different values. The themes of environmentalism and intentions and consequences are fresh and applicable, and the action is entertaining. The main character is unusual in that she crossed over from human to alien over the course of the first two books, and her viewpoint and opinions followed. The nevol is a tad bit preachy at times, but overall solid -- I'll continue reading the series.

One way of rating an author might be whether she is good enough so that I will go read franchise novels written by her. I read Star Wars novels by Barbara Hambly and Walter Jon Williams because of the authors, knowing that even though they would be likely to be worse than original works they still would be readable. Karen Traviss has written several Star Wars books, and I find I have no desire to seek them out. Points for having an LJ account, though.

I've clearly gotten a bit bored with the booklog thing given how sloppy my record keeping has been. I'll finish out the year, though.

Amusingly, matociquala (Elizabeth Bear) noticed my last booklog post which featured a lukewarm review of a couple of her books. Unfortunate that my comments on her novels contained a grammatical error....

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
I really want to like his novels, since I love BoingBoing and his short stories, but I keep not liking the main character much, and that makes it really hard to like the books. This one featured lots of really interesting ideas that didn't really go together for me. For instance, I really liked the whole free internet subplot -- interesting characters and ideas. I also thought the neighbors were interesting. But it doesn't make sense to me that the hero would be so absorbed in those things when his brothers are being stalked and murdered, and he's being directly threatened as well. It's like he has no sense of priorities, except that it didn't seem like a developed character trait but rather author oversight.

Dzur by Stephen Brust
More in the Vlad Taltos series. The first few books were so good that I keep reading them hoping that he'll get back to that early magic. This had flashes of goodness, but mostly was kind of boring. The dialogue is still witty, and I like the characters, but I wish something more relevant would happen one of these books.

Collapse by Jared Diamond
This wasn't as amazing as Guns, Germs, and Steel, but it was fascinating and incredibly well researched. He looks at why societies failed in the past, which mostly involves overpopulation leading to overgrazing or overfishing leading to environmental collapse. The most interesting details to me revolved around the reasons that the societies continued down the path of self-destruction even when it became apparent that it was coming. He also makes the argument that we are headed down the same path now. If you think that there's no danger, read this book -- it's very convincing.

Sewer, Gas, and Electric by matt_ruff (reread)
Environmentalism, slapstick, objectivism, and conspiracy collide in this bizarre and wonderful, exuberant joyride of a novel. This is the fourth time I've read it, and it's still awesome.

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
This is a very highly acclaimed fantasy short story collection. Maybe it suffered from high expectations, but it wasn't everything I had hoped for. The stories ranged from small and odd to quirky and humorous, but were never quite brilliant. They did feature lots of zombies, though, which has to be worth something. The title story really was quite good, actually; I'm certain that I had unfair expectations.

No Limit Hold'em: Theory and Practice by Sklansky and Miller
Some good insights, particularly with regard to manipulating the size of the pot, but mostly I wondered why they bothered creating all those tables and strategies having to do with approximations of optimal heads up jam-or-fold play when you could just work it out. Then they could skip the long sections of caveats about which direction their approximations were wrong. I'm sure Sklansky knows how to find the correct solution (hint: it's been published), so I have no idea why he created this other less useful metric to memorize instead.

The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross
I don't really know what to do with this series. The story and characters are interesting, and the conflicts and scope are pleasantly large. But the books themselves are relatively short, and aren't at all self-contained -- more just chapters than real novels. Somehow paying hardcover price for that doesn't really seem worth it, even though I certainly am anjoying the series and am not really price sensitive. Maybe I should just wait for the paperbacks. I'm glad his science fiction doesn't suffer from this problem.

I am pretty sure I'm missing one of the books this month. We went to Italy in the middle, and I didn't record what I read right before we left, and then I couldn't remember. Bah.

Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams

I love Williams, but this was only decent. It's out of print and somewhat hard to find, so I was pleased to run across it in Book Buyers, Mountain View's great used book store. Too bad it was a bit of a disappointment after all that buildup.

The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick and William L. Simon

This was pretty dumb. It's a book about social engineering, which is an interesting topic. It is actually a collection of anecdotes and purported case studies of social engineering attacks. All that would be ok, except that it was very proud of how well it documented everything and verified all of the accounts, and then credulously reprinted an implausible example based only on the bragging of the protagonist because it was too good not to print.

Anyway, the parts of the book which recount the stories are at least mildly entertaining. The advice for corporations on avoiding attacks were obvious, not very insightful, and (I would hope) useless to anyone who is professionally interested in security.

Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko

A novel about vampires and the underworld set in Moscow, this book is a uniquely Russian look at dark fantasy cold war between the forces of Good and Evil -- except that you can't always trust the Good guys, even if you are one. It is cynical and wondrous, and reminded me a bit of Harry Potter from a dark adult slant, or perhaps Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. At times the writing is a little clunky; perhaps it's the translation. Still, this was wonderful.

Worldwired and Scardown by Elizabeth Bear

These sequels to Hammered were more of the same -- pretty good 21st century cyberpunk featuring a super bad-ass heroine who takes shit from nobody. Nothing about them were incredibly original, but the scope is broad and they were well done. Perfectly readable.

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone

This biographical novel of Michaelangelo I read because we were going to Florence, and everyone else on the trip was reading it. It was much better than I expected. This was a portrait not just of one incredible man, but the center of the Renaissance. The material is bountiful -- Michaelangelo was an incredible polymath with groundbreaking contributions in every type of art that existed, from frescoes to architecture, and of course sculpture. The man is completely amazing, and it was great fun to read about his struggles and the politics and wars and then actually see the works he left behind.

Considering that he left behind the most famous sculpture and the second most famous painting in western civilization, not to mention the design for St. Peter's Dome, you can't help but be impressed by his genius. Props to Irving Stone for bringing him to life.

Fiasco by Thomas Ricks

At some point I'll get around to writing a separate entry on this book. It's a tightly researched investigation of the descent into chaos that is the war in Iraq. He examines the underpinnings to the war, and then the repeated failures at every level that turned the successful simple invasion into a quagmire of suicide bombers, ethnic conflict, and an ever rising tide of chaos and destruction.

I've followed the Iraq war fairly closely, and certainly had strong opinions going into this book. Some of those opinions were reinforced, but many were changed. His observations on the underlying problems that make the US military structurally unsuited to fight this kind of occupational conflict are fascinating and incisive. This is highly recommended for anyone interested in the Iraq war or future consequences for the region.

The Exile Kiss by George Alec Effinger

A little backstory: he wrote a trilogy in the early 90's. The first one was When Gravity Fails, and it was one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade. The second one, A Fire in the Sun was also good, though not to the level of the first one. The Exile Kiss is the third, except that I somehow didn't know that it existed at all until the trilogy got reprinted this year.

It's the weakest of the three, but still worthwhile. These all take place in a rundown futuristic Arab city, and a big part of the fun is the clash between the cyberpunk and Muslim worldviews. A fourth novel in this world will sadly remain unfinished, since Effinger died in 2002.

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon

The trilogy was recently reprinted into a this single tome. This was something of a departure for Moon -- she generally writes character-drive hard sf, whereas this is pure fantasy. I liked it quite a bit, though -- it's gritty and the fantasy elements start off very low-key. The heroine really does start at the bottom with low ambitions, and slowly turns into an epic hero in a way that was much more convincing than the usual fantasy fare. Kudos to Moon for writing a character who is unambiguously good (she's a paladin, eventually) and yet is still interesting and conflicted. What should be a pretty basic feat from a decent writer is surprisingly hard to come by in fantasy.

I'm definitely glad I read this trilogy all at once, since the middle book ends in what would probably feel like a nasty cliffhanger. I was engrossed for much of a weekend by this work.

Already Dead by Charlie Huston

Noir fiction with vampires. It's well done, with a classic hardboiled hero who happens to be a vampire. Everything about it was just what it should have been, from the smart-ass hero whose mouth constantly gets him into trouble, to the gradually revealed conspiracy that forms the backbone of noir plots. Somehow, though, I didn't end up liking it as much as I wanted to. It lost points for being almost brilliant, but not quite getting there. Still well worth reading, though.

Spin State (reread) and Spin Control by Chris Moriarty

Spin State was a great read -- an impressive look at a posthuman future based on quantum technology, complete with byzantine plots by AI's, cyberpunk runs, a femme fatale, and an alien intelligence, all wrapped up in a murder mystery. I quite liked it when it came out a few years ago, so I decided to reread it before I picked up the sequel. It reminds me a bit of Altered Carbon, another excellent (better, actually) scifi debut novel.

Spin Control tries for suspense instead of mystery, and Moriarty doesn't pull it off as well. The central themes are, if anything, more interesting than in the first novel -- altruistic diseases, complexity theory, and the ethics of a cold war are even more interesting than the cloning, genetic engineering, and AI rights themes of the first novel. The writing itself is better too, as Moriarty gets more practice at her craft. However, the plot makes much less sense, and doesn't wrap up so much as peter out. Plus the main character is less interesting than in the first novel. Still a fine sophomore effort, and I hope she keeps at it.

Hammered by Elizabeth Bear

I've noticed that many of the hot new science fiction authors in this decade are women. Is the field more welcoming now to women or something? Anyway, this was a solid first novel, starring a 50-year-old ex soldier whose cybernetic combat gear is starting to break down. She deals with that, her murderous sister, a gang war, and her ornery cat, just to discover that there is someone pulling strings behind the scenes, and that nothing is as simple as she'd like it to be.

This is about on par with Moon's better science fiction, or maybe the Honor Harrington books. Not brilliant, but enjoyable. I'll definitely read the others.

Glasshouse by Charlie Stross

An excellent, far future look at what a 27th century posthuman might think about 50's america. Stross writes well, and this is probably his best work yet. He's also astonishingly prolific.

Anyway, I can't think of a brief description that remotely does this book justice. A post-apocalyptic post-human archeology experiment gone horribly wrong? Anyway, it was the best novel I read this month. However, the next item surpassed it.

The Year's Best Science Fiction, 23rd Annual Edition edited by Gardner Dozois

This is invariably the best science fiction I read in a year. Every story is impressive, and some are mind-blowing. There's a reason that Dozois wins the best editor hugo every second year. I don't read much short fiction, in part because I'm spoiled by this collection -- I've read 21/23 of them, and I've yet to be disappointed.

Plus it's good for airplanes because it's so damn long.

Hm, falling a bit behind.

Superluminal by Tony Daniel (reread)

This is a sequel to Metaplanetary. I actually had read this first without realizing that it was a sequel -- it was extremely unclear from the cover, which didn't mention Metaplanetary at all. Annoying. Anyway, it is excellent hard science fiction about the collapse during civil war of an extremely advanced civilization. Daniel clearly put some serious though into what a war that relied heavily and nanotech might look like.

Pretender by C.J. Cherryh

Cherryh is an amazingly prolific writer who has won awards in each of the last 4 decades. Her works are generally not full of action, but rather politics and journeys. The characters are generally desperate and exhausted and at the end of their rope, but also determined and smart. Pretender is the 7th book in this universe, and every one is well-written and high quality, which is an amazing feat. I read everything she puts out, and I've only been disappointed twice. This was not one of those times.

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

Vinge is amazingly nonprolific, but his novels are fantastic. This isn't quite at the level of A Fire Upon the Deep, but that is probably on my top 10 science fiction novels list. Rainbows End takes place right before the singularity, and is a fascinating and entertaining picture of culture shock and the future the internet might be leading us to.

Side notes: it's really hard for me to type Rainbows End without an apostrophe in there some place. Also, I once heard Vinge give a talk. It was really weird to hear that he pronounced his name "vin-gee" rather than the obvious "vinj" or the french pronunciation.

Harrington on Holdem, Volume III by Dan Harrington

This is just a set of hands with quizzes. Not as useful as the first two books, and annoyingly despite having point scores for various answers, no section that suggests how you did based on an aggregate score or anything like that. Not that I bothered to keep track of points or anything, but still.

I don't mind having this in my poker library, but it's pretty far down the list of poker books I'd recommend, unlike his first two volumes which were excellent.

A Secret Atlas and Cartomancy by Michael Stackpole

I've read a decent amount of Stackpole's short fiction over the years, which was generally excellent. On the other hand, it's always been in the Year's Best Science Fiction collection, in which all the stories are fabulous, so I don't have any opinion of his average quality.

After reading these two books, I would say... average. These are complicated high fantasy novels in an interesting world with politics and adventure and whatnot, but nothing in the writing or worldbuilding or characters really amazed me. I don't regret having read them, but I'm not sure I'll bother to read the third one when it comes out, even though I would have read it if it were already out. I can easily think of 5+ epic fantasy trilogies that are better than this.

Mockingbird by Sean Stewart

Stewart writes in a challenging space that's sort of fantastic fiction and sort of mainstream literature. I see similar books sometimes filed in SF and sometimes in fiction. I bet this hurts his sales numbers, which is really too bad because he is a really talented writer.

This is a funny and moving look at a woman's journey towards motherhood, starting from the mixed love and hatred she feels for her own mother, who just died. Oh, and who, on her way to the grave, drugged the heroine so that she is vulnerable to possession by voodoo gods who definitely have their own agenda. Yet another excellent work from Stewart.

Metropolitan, by Walter Jon Williams (reread)

He's an excellent and under-rated author. This is yet another somewhat obscure but very good novel set in a far future somewhat dystopian earth that looks very little like ours. The main character is a minor bureaucrat with trickster aspirations who winds up creating a revolution.

Maybe my favorite part is the extremely random quote on the front: "When you live forever, the object of desire is possession." This makes no sense whatsoever, and furthermore is a misquote from the book: "What is the worst thing in the world? To live forever with the object of desire and not possess it."

Engaging the Enemy, by Elizabeth Moon

The third book in the Ky Vatta series. These are also not keeping quite up with the promise of the first one. Readable, enjoyable, not really amazing.

Remnant Population, by Elizabeth Moon

This, on the other hand, was very good. My favorite of her books so far. Perhaps she should avoid series work and just stick to stand alone novels.

The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, by Vicki Iovine

Amusing and surprisingly informative. She's a little too obsessed with her weight and appearances, but since she was a playboy playmate, this maybe should be too surprising. Too bad there's no real reason I needed to read it after all, though. Presumably it will still be relevant for the next try.

Change of Command, by Elizabeth Moon

More Familias. I'm tired of these, I really should stop reading them.

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

This alternate history novel, about how a nazi-sympathizing Charles Lindberg gets elected instead of FDR, was disappointing to me. He writes (extremely) well, but the characters and the story were not brilliant, and the last third of the book was frankly unbelievable. Somehow history gets right back on track in a year or two after the Nazis decide they don't like having their man in the White House after all, and FDR gets elected again instead.

I heard such good things about this that it really was a letdown.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun, by Christopher Moore

This is one of my father's favorite books, go fig. A hapless pilot gets blackmailed into flying a jet for a cult on a polynesian island, and shenanigans ensue. It was pretty funny; I actually laughed a time or two. Other than that, no redeeming virtues.

Metaplanetary, by Tony Daniel

This sweeping story about a far future society collapsing into war is a good example of the reason to read science fiction. His universe is well developed and stunning, and full of ideas I've never seen before. It's gloriously weird, and the action is gripping and intense. Very well done. If there's a problem with it, it's that it just stops rather than coming to a conclusion. Obviously there's a sequel.

The Hugo Awards ballot is up, and I noticed that I've somehow only read two of the 5 nominations (one of which, A Feast for Crows, is clearly not worth even a nomination, much less a Hugo).

So I went to the bookstore last night, at which point I discovered that they carried none of the nominated novels, with the exception of the aforementioned unworthy title.

In general I much prefer real world bookstores to amazon, simply because I get pleasure out of browsing. But it's really annoying when you can't trust them to have a decent selection of what are clearly not obscure books. So amazon, here I come.

Winning Colors, by Elizabeth Moon

More of the Familias series. They're definitely starting to go downhill.

The Search, by John Battelle

This is the book about the search industry. When he gave a talk at Yahoo!, he explained that his publisher wanted to call the book "Google", but he put his foot down, as the book was about search in general, not just Google. I wonder what he said in his talk at Google.

Apex Hides the Hurt, by Colson Whitehead

I really liked his earlier book, The Intuitionist, about a woman who could tell what was wrong with an elevator by a sort of sixth sense. This was not quite as clever, but still enjoyable, about a man whose job it was to come up with product names. He was the best that ever was, and his palpable joy in the names of things is wonderful. The book suffers from a weak ending, but is still worth reading.

The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

This was amazing. It's a love story in which the man in the relationship is temporally unstable -- he involuntarily travels in time, generally to the recent past. The novel was intricate, well written, moving... everything you want in fiction. The best thing I've read this month, and second this year to only The Blind Assassin.

Once a Hero, by Elizabeth Moon

Will I get bored of this series before I read them all? We'll see!

Actually, I thought this one was better than the last, so it's possible things are minorly looking up.

The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross

Cthulhu mythos meets bofh. Fun and silly, this has everything, from Nazis to Lovecraftian horrors to terrorists to office politics. Computers are hacked, damsels are rescued, minds are broken, beings from beyond are summoned, a good time is had by all.

This was fun and light, but in the afterword he compares it to Declare, which I think was a mistake. Declare was much better written, darker, and more compelling. 'Twould be better to not mention books which so outclass yours, Mr. Stross, lest the reader draw an unflattering comparison.

The Art of Intrusion, by Kevin D. Mitnick and William L. Simon

The actual stories of the attacks were interesting. The constant comments about what a hero Mitnick is to the hacker 3l33t were less so. The obvious urban legend included at the end revealed the credulity and poor judgment of the authors, despite the fact that they repeated at length how careful they were at only looking at the evidence, and how they wouldn't print anything they didn't have first hand knowledge was true. That the urban legend was somewhat disclaimed did not make up for this mistake.

Moving Mars, by Greg Bear

I had thought that I had read all of the Nebula and Hugo award winning novels. It turns out I've read nearly all of the Hugo winners (I'm missing some from the early 60s), but not the Nebula winners. So I'll pick up the ones I missed, like this one.

This was quite well written, and an interesting story. I'm pretty sure I skipped it because I was Mars'ed out from the Kim Stanley Robinson trilogy which came out around the same time. This is thematically and stylistically quite different, though.

For some reason I'm often reluctant to pick up a Bear book. I'm always happy when I did (in particular, Slant was quite the pleasant surprise), so I really need to learn that I like him. I'm sure next time I'm in the bookstore I'll pick up Quantico, look at it, and decide to get something else, of course.