Saturday 21 May 2016

Recent Reading

After a short break from fiction, I recently finished off two novels in quick succession.

Mockingbird by Walter Tevis is an odd work. I suppose it could be described as either a distopian or post-apocolyptic tale. It has three main characters: a very old robot who seems to be the last 'person' left with any idea of how the world became the way it is, an 'ordinary guy' who accidentally rediscovers the lost skill of reading, and a woman who lives in a zoo with no real animals in it. It is a slow work, and threatened once or twice to become dull, but it always just managed to hold my interested. I'm glad it did as it really picks up near the end, and includes one of the most unexpected, and horrifically understated, admissions I've ever encountered in science-fiction. 

The Lost Stars - Shattered Spear by Jack Campbell, the fourth book in The Lost Stars series, and the 15th (!) book set in The Lost Fleet universe. Well, if you've enjoyed the previous books in the series you'll almost certainly enjoy this one. While this spin-off series never had quite the narrative drive of the original series, it has been an enjoyable enough ride. Although it is not clear, I wouldn't be surprised if The Lost Stars ended with this book (or at least took a break). If so, it will have ended well enough.  

*If you haven't encountered The Lost Fleet Series before, I can't recommend it highly enough. The best space adventure series I have ever read. Start with The Lost Fleet: Dauntless.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for intro to the lost fleet series, could you ever see yourself creating a Sci-fi themed game?

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  2. I've certainly thought about it, and would like to give it a try. I've still got some work to do in fantasy first though.

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  3. I didn't enjoyed The Lost Fleet :(
    But the Starship series from Mike Resnick is, maybe, the best "light" space opera I have read. Give it a chance.
    https://www.goodreads.com/series/49885-starship

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  4. Well, not everyone is going to! One of my friends doesn't care for it as the main character is too much of a 'white knight', but that's one of the reasons I like it. I'll check out the Mike Resnick series.

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  5. I don't know if Lost Fleet is the best sci-fi series I have ever ready but I know that I marathoned the hell out of it. I will have to check out that other book you mentioned.

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