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A Quiet Weekend
Sep. 10th, 2012 10:36 amAfter the four-day-long party that was Worldcon, having a quiet weekend at home was really refreshing. During said weekend, I read two books (shocking, I know - an author who reads!). Since I have nothing else to talk about, herewith are my thoughts.
Book The First
The first book was the brand-new hot off of the presses David Brin novel Existence. It was Brin's shot at answering the age-old question "where are the aliens?" It was a bit long, and had some of Brin's patented talking dolphins, but interesting. Brin's key conceit was that aliens, when trying to communicate, wouldn't waste their time with radio beams, but rather would send small (football-sized) probes out to be found. It led to some neat happenings.
Book The Second
At Duckon, Jeffrey Liss recommended that military SF folks read the novel Wasp by Eric Frank Russell. I'd never heard of either novel or author, but when I saw that NESFA Press had a best of Russell book out, I took a flyer on it. I'm really glad I did so. The first novel, Wasp is that of a man sent behind enemy lines to cause chaos during a war. It was gripping and a quick read. Russell, it turns out, worked in the same "dirty tricks" office as another guy you may have heard of - Ian Fleming. The tricks played in Wasp were originally conceived to be tried on the Japanese during WWII. This makes the novel a bit dated technologically, but still interesting.
Book The First
The first book was the brand-new hot off of the presses David Brin novel Existence. It was Brin's shot at answering the age-old question "where are the aliens?" It was a bit long, and had some of Brin's patented talking dolphins, but interesting. Brin's key conceit was that aliens, when trying to communicate, wouldn't waste their time with radio beams, but rather would send small (football-sized) probes out to be found. It led to some neat happenings.
Book The Second
At Duckon, Jeffrey Liss recommended that military SF folks read the novel Wasp by Eric Frank Russell. I'd never heard of either novel or author, but when I saw that NESFA Press had a best of Russell book out, I took a flyer on it. I'm really glad I did so. The first novel, Wasp is that of a man sent behind enemy lines to cause chaos during a war. It was gripping and a quick read. Russell, it turns out, worked in the same "dirty tricks" office as another guy you may have heard of - Ian Fleming. The tricks played in Wasp were originally conceived to be tried on the Japanese during WWII. This makes the novel a bit dated technologically, but still interesting.
