April IGMS book reviews up

May 1st 2008 at 5:05 pm

My April book selections can be found at the Intergalactic Medicine Show. Again, I laud Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams:

Implied Spaces has been the treat of the month for me. Flushed with a reader’s high just after finishing the last page I mentioned on my blog that it had been, so far, my favorite book of the year. I had to mull that over a bit for the column, and after looking over my reading list this year so far, I have to say I still think it’s my favorite book of the year so far.

Walter Jon Williams’ latest book is a semi post-singularity solar space adventure novel. It blends elements of the post-cyberpunk ethos one sees authors like Cory Doctorow and Charless Stross embody with the large structure space opera of Ian Banks, as well as a thread of high fantasy adventure. S.M. Stirling has a fun blurb on the back of the book that calls it a “Sword and Singularity” novel. It’s an apt description.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Chris Roberson’s The Dragon’s Nine Sons:

Imagine that the Chinese dynasties continued on, absorbing much of the rest of the world and establishing colonies in the Americas. Imagine that the Mexica (we know them as the Aztecs), although at first dominated by the Chinese, have rebelled to form their own sovereign state. It is quite clearly not a history, or world, like ours. But it is a fascinating one that Roberson has posited, nonetheless. And it is a great backdrop for a space adventure.

Both books were a total treat and a lot of fun to read.

I just finished Ian Bank’s latest book, Matter. I like it, but I need to dwell on whether it’s through momentum of my love for his other work and just being back in the Culture again, or if I enjoyed the book as it was. I think the ending didn’t work for me, but I still haven’t decided if that means the whole novel didn’t work. An odd spot, as I usually have a very strong opinion upon closing the book.

Oh, David Edelman, Matter has a big old glossary in the back, I don’t think it’s hurt Banks.

Filed in Journal. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for this entry to keep track of comments. You can also use to trackback.