tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339863492009-10-13T22:48:53.671-05:00Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-82377306643492339342009-10-07T13:33:00.000-05:002009-10-07T13:33:33.895-05:00

by C.J. Cherryh Cyteen follows the history of Ariane Emory, a brilliant scientist, businesswoman, and politician who has herself cloned after she dies. Her clone is then part of a life-long experiment in which her childhood and development is closely controlled to mirror that of her predecessor, in homes of producing another multifaceted genius. This experiment happens with the backdrop of

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-79559731066826543942009-10-01T12:00:00.003-05:002009-10-01T12:27:44.258-05:00

by Nahoko Uehashi Guardian of the Spirit is the first book in a popular ten-book Moribito series of novels by Nahoko Uehashi. The fantasy stories are set in far-away lands long ago, with warriors, magicians, and magical creatures. The best reason to read these books, however, is for the main character. Balsa is a female body-guard who was forced to train at an early age after her father was

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-32904926981382400102009-09-16T11:36:00.000-05:002009-09-16T11:36:54.293-05:00

by Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde is easy to read and quite entertaining. This collection starts with The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is a fairly short novel. It's quite good, although rambling at times. I've only ever read Wilde's plays before, so it was strange to read his signature silly dialogue in a mostly serious novel. It was good, and worth the short read. This collection also included

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-60671477613147638382009-06-15T10:57:00.000-05:002009-06-15T10:57:56.031-05:00

edited by Christopher Cerf I have a deep fondness for short stories. I think they are the perfect length to present an idea, develop it, and draw a conclusion. They are also very readable. Even during law school, when I was up to my eyeballs in cases to read, I could always find time to read a good short story or two. So when I saw a dog-eared copy of The Vintage Anthology of Science Fantasy in

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-16443315356560338502009-04-14T16:45:00.000-05:002009-04-14T16:45:52.919-05:00

by Donald L. Miller and Henry Steele Commager I picked this book out from the library because I liked the cover and I wanted to know more about World War II. For that purpose it was perfect. The Story of World War II was accessible and rarely boring, with plenty of photographs and maps to make the narrative real to the reader. Much of the history is told in the words of soldiers or journalists

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-22790316813605735892009-03-16T10:24:00.000-05:002009-03-16T10:24:32.378-05:00

by Roald Dahl Roald Dahl has earned his place in the Pantheon of beloved authors for children and young adults. His whimsical books offer windows to fantastical worlds that appeal to adults just as much as they appeal to children. Dahl has been wildly popular during most of my lifetime, selling millions of copies and having several major feature films made from his novels, such as The Witches,

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-28656561016261750002009-03-12T15:56:00.000-05:002009-03-12T15:56:40.573-05:00

by Tony Horowitz This is one of those books that I happily discovered by accident. I was at my favorite used bookstore with my wife's uncle while he was selling some books back, and they wouldn't take this one. He had just been recommending Tony Horowitz to me, so he gave me to book to keep. Baghdad without a Map is Horowitz's autobiographical tale of his time as a free-lance report stationed in

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-25347027766118923272009-02-03T15:48:00.037-06:002009-02-03T16:14:16.913-06:00

by Charles Stross I have a hard time describing Accelerando. It is sort of a cyberpunk extension of Web 2.0 principles to a vision of the future, and it is mostly confusing. That isn't to say that the book is bad, but it sprawls across four generations of characters and gets too drawn out for my taste. Charles Stross imagines that humanity is on the verge of "singularity," where computers and

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-45290328828804560812009-01-13T10:04:00.002-06:002009-01-13T11:05:19.467-06:00

by Jasper Fforde Lost in a Good Book is the sequel to The Eyre Affair and part of the whimsical Thursday Next series. Jasper Fforde imagines a world time travel and pseudo-science are real, with plenty of fantastical characters and events. But the biggest fantasy of all is that in this world people actually care about literature. In this second book the main character, Thursday Next, is plunged

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-44400262808526111342008-12-11T08:12:00.000-06:002008-12-11T09:52:29.369-06:00

by Cory Doctorow I had previously read some of Cory Doctorow's short stories and blog posts (he runs BoingBoing.net), but I had never read any of his novels until now. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom first caught my attention when I read in an article that Doctorow released it online under a Creative Commons license. Since it was free to read and came in virtually every format imaginable, I

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-77400875012981738922008-11-25T11:44:00.000-06:002008-11-25T12:12:12.751-06:00

by Baroness Orczy Several years ago I saw the 1934 movie adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which was based on the play that was in turn based on the original novel by Baroness Emmuska Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orczi. Let's just call her Baroness Orczy for short. The movie was silly and didn't appeal much to the modern viewer, but the story itself had a lot of promise. It

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-85172878257086568472008-11-14T21:14:00.001-06:002008-11-14T21:33:02.415-06:00

by Neil Gaiman This is one of those books I have been meaning to read at some point, but I only just rememberd to check it out of the local library. Stardust was made into a film last year, which was fairly decent. The book, of course, is better, but I could appreciate some of the quirky elements the screenwriters imported from the book that gave the movie its signature Neil Gaiman feel. Gaiman

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-81539919394833602442008-05-19T08:36:00.004-05:002008-12-11T13:46:02.172-06:00

by Doris Kearns GoodwinI love history books that let the reader get to know some of the most fascinating characters in history. For that reason, I really enjoyed Team of Rivals. Not only does it explore the character and strategies of President Lincoln, it also explores the personalities and traits of some of the other great men of that generation.When Lincoln was running for the presidency, he

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-13786645711221858102008-03-02T07:46:00.004-06:002008-12-11T13:46:02.329-06:00

by Diana Wynne JonesI didn't even know about this book until Hayao Miyazaki made a movie version. The film was quite good in its own right, but now that I have read the book, I realize that he made quite a few changes that I can't exactly explain. And as is almost always the case in books adapted to movies, the book is better.Howl's Moving Castle follows the story of Sophie, a young woman who

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-37597086190161611982007-12-06T09:55:00.001-06:002008-12-11T13:46:02.539-06:00

by Jasper FfordeHaving previously read Jasper Fforde's whimsical novel The Eyre Affair, I knew a little of what to expect when I opened The Big Over Easy. Sure enough, I was once again immersed in an alternate history filled with fantastical characters, murderous plots, and continual literary references. Fforde likes to create a world in which literary knowledge is useful in the professional

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-48891546748720193602007-10-25T22:04:00.000-05:002008-12-11T13:46:02.675-06:00

by David FeintuchMidshipman's Hope is a military/sci-fi novel that does a good job creating a universe in which humans travel to and colonize other planets using spaceships the same way our ancestors used sailing vessels. Those ships carry cargo and passengers through the depths of space for months on end, and are manned by a crew of sailors and officers similar to the naval tradition. Feintuch

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-37135357776629463012007-09-07T08:36:00.000-05:002008-12-11T13:46:02.945-06:00

This is actually my first experience in Lilian Jackson Braun's popular The Cat Who series. I was familiar the titles, but The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell was the first time I actually read one of the series. Sadly, it may be the last one I read, because I thought it was poorly written and somewhat pointless.I gather that every Cat Who book follows the character of James Qwilleran, a writer who

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-30019798999220142302007-08-06T15:04:00.000-05:002008-12-11T13:46:03.083-06:00

The seventh and final installment in this worldwide phenomenon of young adult literature brings the Harry Potter series to a satisfying close. Having improved as a writer since Book 1, Rowling capably ties up almost all the loose ends in this magical tale of good versus evil. One thing with which I was impressed was how merciless Rowling was with the characters and conventions she had built up in

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-72667502652409994382007-07-16T12:18:00.000-05:002008-12-11T13:46:03.282-06:00

Lord of Light is an epic novel that blends elements of fantasy and science fiction into a sprawling narrative of deities, wars, and religion. Set on a faraway planet after the destruction of Earth, Lord of Light follows the rebellion of the Buddha, Sam, against the gods. In this book, the gods are merely the first colonists on that planet. In order to subdue the native inhabitants of that world (

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-41708272453638480032007-06-13T15:12:00.000-05:002008-12-11T13:46:03.481-06:00

I have previously only reviewed the first book in the Honor Harrington series, but I have continued to read the sequels to On Basilisk Station. In my opinion, the first few sequels are fairly decent, but number four in the series was absolutely abysmal. However, the following books were okay, so I kept reading. In my view, Weber can only tell one story -- that of the hero that triumphs against

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-69436595616162642722007-05-18T13:45:00.000-05:002008-12-11T13:46:03.612-06:00

The Eyre Affair, the first book in the Thursday Next series, is an imaginative mystery novel set in an alternate reality. Though many of the every day parts of this imagined world are the same as our, there are constant references to fantastical elements. For example, people still travel by zeppelin, time travel is possible, and people with literature degrees can actually get a job.In Fforde's

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-55170843137697121512007-04-01T07:57:00.000-05:002008-12-11T13:46:03.774-06:00

Despite my affinity for science fiction, I have never read much by one of the genre's more famous writers, Arthur C. Clarke. It may be that watching 2001: A Space Odyssey gave me a skewed view of what his books were like, or it may have been that I never found his books at the library. At any rate, my wife picked this book up at a used book store and recommended it to me, and I enjoyed it

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-46858198995441400122007-03-15T21:09:00.000-05:002007-03-15T21:15:05.813-05:00

I read the new English translation of this Babylonian mythology, which was very accessible and easy to read. Steven Mitchell's translation is very well done. It surprises me how little I know about the traditions of ancient civilizations other than the Greeks, Romans, and the Egyptians. The tale of Gilgamesh, who was two thirds god and one third man, has some very interesting mythological

Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845310999741739328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33986349.post-70288789937726418652006-09-30T12:59:00.001-05:002006-09-30T12:59:40.483-05:00