what are you reading?

[benedictw]

Just read Permanance - Karl Shroeder. If you like hard sf with long time frames - this ones for you. (Not dissimilar to Alastair Reynolds' Pushing Ice)

Just starting The Quantum Thief by Some guy I cant spell Hannu Rajaniemi.

[Jonesey]

Just read Permanance - Karl Shroeder. If you like hard sf with long time frames - this ones for you. (Not dissimilar to Alastair Reynolds' Pushing Ice)

Nice one, benedictw. I've just finished a second read through of Pushing Ice.
I've had to acquire Permanence via - ahem - file-share because although it's available from the Amazon.com Kindle store it's not available on .co.uk.

[Mat]

On a bit of a Cory Doctorow tip at the moment, as he shares a lot of themes with Charles Stross. I've read "Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom", "Eastern Standard Tribe" and am currently reading "Makers".

Down & Out was a lively read with an interesting take on post-humanism, social currency and uploading of consciousness, although I feel he didn't explore the philosophical conundrums associated with uploading enough for my tastes.
Social Currency just freaks me out, although I came out of this not knowing whether Cory's a proponent or opponent of the concept. Still, his concept of Social Currency wasn't quite as scary as Charles Stross' "Accelerando" and its vision of intelligent corporations and a life lived by legalese.

Eastern Standard Tribe was interesting, although not much more than a parable, and I found it fizzled out rather than ended. Again, it's mostly focused on social networking and its potential effects on business and culture. A lot less inventive, and I'm beginning to suspect this is Doctorow's main problem. He seems more to be a reporter of technology rather than a genuine sci-fi innovator. Some of his ideas sound good on the surface, but don't stand up under scrutiny.

Makers continues the flavour I'm beginning to associate with Doctorow, and it's an affable enough romp with some utopian ideals, but seems overly concerned with economics. I suspect he's over-glamourising the central lady journalist character too, trying to infer that he himself is some sort of net hero through his association with BoingBoing. It really does try to idealise the profession of Blogger.

I don't know, my opinion of Doctorow may have been unhealthily spun-out by the episode of Car Pool I watched him in. He came across as a bit of a Barley* to be totally honest. I mean, FLAT CAP for fuck's sake.

*Barley: A term we use in our Soho post production support office to refer to pretentious "Creative" wankers, directly referencing the titular character from the Channel 4 comedy "Nathan Barley".

Can anyone else recommend some decent near future or post-humanist sci-fi, dealing with themes such as uploading and fabbing? Preferably without the Twitter/Facebook obsession that Doctorow and to a lesser extent Stross are trying to shove down my throat in their recent books?

[BassHead]

I read Barefoot into Cyberspace: Adventures in search of techno-Utopia by Becky Hogge a few days ago. The page after the link explains i better than I could, but it's a take on the WikiLeaks saga, with a large scoop of Hippy counter culture and hackers of the Chaos Computer Club variety thrown in for good measure. It might be a bit light on details for some, but it was good enough to keep me awake at 2am with a one year old on my shoulder, which is when most of my reading gets done at the moment.

stuff...Cory Doctorow tip ...stuff

He makes an appearance in Barefoot into Cyberspace, with a bit about his background/childhood. It prompted me to read a couple of his short stories, which I've had on my to read list for a while:
Print Crime - Cory's views on Patents vs 3D printers wrapped in a dystopian setting. Short and not so sweet.
I, Robot - The three laws of it's well known namesake spliced with 1984.

I downloaded Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom yesterday, so that's probably my next read, though I might try a couple of Stross's shorts first for comparison. A Colder War sounds like it might be right up my street.

Can anyone else recommend some decent near future or post-humanist sci-fi, dealing with themes such as uploading and fabbing? Preferably without the Twitter/Facebook obsession that Doctorow and to a lesser extent Stross are trying to shove down my throat in their recent books?

Sorry, I don't know Stross (yet), but The Electric Church by Jeff Somers might be worth a look. I only got a few chapters in, but I'll finish it once a I find a non-dead tree version. Though, to put that recommendation in context, I probably enjoy my sci-fi lighter than most, mainly due to lack of spare time more than anything. I'd probably lump Electric Church into into a similar category as the Gibson's Sprawl or Bridge trilogies, just to pick on something well known. It's a category I'm very comfortable with and I'll leave you to make of that what you will

[Mat]

I can highly recommend Stross. He's a much more personable writer than Doctorow, and has a better feel for a story. Plus, he has a Pratchett-esque sense of humour.

I'll give Jeff Somers a shot, see if he fits the bill. Cheers BassHead

[the2bears]

Murakami's IQ84 just arrived, it's a tome! It's nearly A4 in size.

It won't be holiday reading though. =( I pre-ordered it before I got my Kindle and this book is too big to be carting around.

Glad to hear, pre-ordered this myself.

Bill

Downloaded the preview of this from Kobo and have finished the first chapter. Intriguing. I can see myself buying it but I'll finish with "Song of Fire and Ice" first.

I'm really enjoying it so far. Just enough of the Murakami surrealism that was missing from some of his recent work.

Bill

[supermario]

Middlemarch - it's more tedious than Moby Dick and I can't take much more and I'm only on page 70 !

[disciple]

12 days of Kindle : a bunch of high-selling £1-2 books.

Any recommendations?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=s9_hps_bw ... 1503253031

Current 12 Days of Kindle bestseller is "God is not Great : How Religion Poisons Everything". I'm sure some Yakyakers will enjoy that one.

"How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog" at 99p?

[merman]

Tennis Whites & Teacakes - a compilation of John Betjeman's articles on poems, organised into themes. It was a Christmas present from my brother.

[disciple]

Finally finished Crime and Punishment, really enjoyed it.

Currently reading :



Really engrossing, right from page 1, it's a bit disturbing so far.

[cj2003]

Gauntlegrym by RA Salvatore - actually that is re-reading, as I'm waiting for Neverwinter Woods sloooowly being sent from amazon.com. So I need to re-read the thing to remember where we are with Drizzt.

(yes, I know that I can check wikipedia, but it's not quite the same...)

[merman]

Extra Life - Coming of Age in Cyberspace by David Bennahum

Fascinating true stories of someone who grew up in New York with computers and electronic games, and how it affected his life.

[Viscount Charles]

Finished Brandon Sanderson's The Way Of Kings last week. Fantastic fantasy, really top notch, and a candidate for my hardback collection if volume 2 delivers in the same way (I have high hopes, given how he's reinvigorated the Wheel Of Time).

Just finished I Shall Wear Midnight. Not Pratchett's worst, by a long chalk, but I start to detect a hint of ghost writing.

Not sure what's next - more Battle of Britain stuff, or Sanderson's Mistborn series are the current front-runners. But since I lost the car just before Xmas, I'm getting to spend much more time on public transport, which means more reading. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that.

[Istar]

Now: Margaret Thatcher The Downing Street Years
Next: Iain M. Banks Surface Detail

[disciple]

Anyone use this site: http://www.goodreads.com/ Any good?