A friend of mine asked during dinner the other night, “If you could live in any science fiction universe, which would it be, and why?” I struggled with this question for a lot of different reasons, mostly because I have read about a lot of different science fiction universes, but many of them do not completely flesh out what life is like for the common person. Continue reading What Sci-Fi Universe Would You Live In?
Category Archives: Books
First Lensman
I recently finished reading First Lensman by E. E. “Doc” Smith and I found that, as a sci-fi space opera, I really enjoyed it. I read Triplanetary last year, but wasn’t able to continue reading the series because, even after doing a used bookstore circuit, I couldn’t find a copy of First Lensman anywhere. When I was looking for stuff to read earlier this year, I decided I would check online, and I found a nice anthology containing all the Lensman novels I picked it up and added the rest of the series to my queue. Continue reading First Lensman
Ready Player One
I recently finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline as part of my normal reading routine. I heard about this first on the Machine Readable podcast some time ago, and Jessa even bought a copy, but it never made it to the top of my reading list until recently. Generally speaking, it was a worthwhile read, and I’m glad it finally made it to the top of my list. More specifically though, there were a couple of things that nagged at me throughout. Continue reading Ready Player One
Empires of EVE
While I missed the kickstarter, I picked up a hardbound copy of Empires of EVE: A History of the Great War of EVE Online via preorder as soon as I saw it come across, then eagerly waited for my copy to arrive. By the time I had ordered it, I had already heard/seen Andrew Groen talk about his research a couple of times, and I was excited by the prospect of a book written by someone who wanted to research and document this history of EVE with appropriate rigor (and then did it!) Continue reading Empires of EVE
Fire from the Wine Dark Sea
My reading material of choice lately has been Fire from the Wine Dark Sea by S. P. Somtow (then, Somtow Sucharitkul). As you may have heard from me before, S. P. Somtow is one of my favorite authors, so a collection of his short stories was right up my alley. I initially picked it up for The 13th Utopia, a short story that takes place in the Inquestor universe, that I had only ever gotten the chance to read in the bowels of the library from an old issue of Analog. I thought I’d never get the chance to read it again, until I saw this collection on Somtow’s publications page, and I knew I should pick it up. Continue reading Fire from the Wine Dark Sea
The Doomfarers of Coramonde
A friend of mine recently loaned me his copy of The Doomfarers of Coramonde by Brian Daley. This was relatively new ground for me as it was a book and author I had not heard anything about before, nor was it really on my to-read list. However, I was glad I gave it a shot, as it was a pretty enjoyable read and I wanted to share a few thoughts here on my blog. Continue reading The Doomfarers of Coramonde
The Darkling Wind
In reading the Chronicles of the High Inquest, I always end up looking up this image at various points during my read through. Continue reading The Darkling Wind
Chronicles of the High Inquest
I just recently finished one of my favorite book series – The Chronicles of the High Inquest by S. P. Somtow. The first time I read these was while I was in college, after pulling The Light on the Sound and Utopia Hunters from a box of books going to the goodwill. It took me a fair bit to find the other books in the series (I wasn’t able to find The Throne of Madness until I moved to Boulder, well after my first read through), but after getting myself new copies of the whole series and reading them start to finish again, I’m glad I did. Continue reading Chronicles of the High Inquest
The First 90 Days
In the interest of improving my management skills, I read the second half of The First 90 Days based on the recommendation from a coworker who recently moved into a management position. I only read the second half of the book, as I’ve been a supervisor for a while, and, according to the person who recommended it, the first half was more focused on the first 90 days of a transition, while the latter half was more general purpose. That being said, what follows is a high-level review of what I read – please keep in mind that when I critique the book below, I really mean the last five chapters, rather than the whole book (though I’ll be saying “the book” more often than not for shorthand). Continue reading The First 90 Days
The Three-Body Problem
I recently finished reading The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. While I mostly live under a rock when it comes to (social) media, this one popped up on my radar in a number of different places, and, when a co-worker loaned me his copy, I decided I would give it a shot. As a science-fiction novel containing aliens, strange cultures, and possible invasion plans, it’s pretty much in my wheelhouse, and curtails nicely with the game that I’m currently running. Continue reading The Three-Body Problem