Summer reading
Today is the first day of summer vacation *hooray* and one of the things I plan to do is a lot of reading. Here are some of the books I hope to consume the next 10 weeks:
• Three Complete Novels, by John Brunner; I need some light reading for the nine-hour plane flight to Italy tomorrow, as well as for traveling between cities, so this collection of his late-career space operas Children of the Thunder, The Crucible of Time, The Tides of Time should be just right;
• Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds; if his novels are half as good as his short fiction, this should be a very good series indeed;
• Ilium and Olympos, by Dan Simmons; I must not think of his Hyperion series when I read these books, or else I will surely be in for some disappointment;
∙ Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson; my only experience with this author was with the somewhat disappointing Darwinia, so my expectations are lower for this novel than for Reynolds’ and Simmons’; of course, it was one of the most acclaimed books of 2005;
∙ Best Short Novels 2006, by Jonathan Strahan, which, in spite of its title, contains novellas from 2005, but what the heck does a title matter anyway? I love novellas and Strahan usually has good taste in sf;
∙ Forbidden Planets, edited by Marvin Kaye, the latest collection of original novellas published by the Science Fiction Book Club; since two of the others (Between Worlds, One Million A.D.) were superb, and Down These Dark Spaceways was better than average, I do not expect any disappointment in this book.
Expect some reviews in July and August after I return from Italy and actually do all the reading.
• Three Complete Novels, by John Brunner; I need some light reading for the nine-hour plane flight to Italy tomorrow, as well as for traveling between cities, so this collection of his late-career space operas Children of the Thunder, The Crucible of Time, The Tides of Time should be just right;
• Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds; if his novels are half as good as his short fiction, this should be a very good series indeed;
• Ilium and Olympos, by Dan Simmons; I must not think of his Hyperion series when I read these books, or else I will surely be in for some disappointment;
∙ Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson; my only experience with this author was with the somewhat disappointing Darwinia, so my expectations are lower for this novel than for Reynolds’ and Simmons’; of course, it was one of the most acclaimed books of 2005;
∙ Best Short Novels 2006, by Jonathan Strahan, which, in spite of its title, contains novellas from 2005, but what the heck does a title matter anyway? I love novellas and Strahan usually has good taste in sf;
∙ Forbidden Planets, edited by Marvin Kaye, the latest collection of original novellas published by the Science Fiction Book Club; since two of the others (Between Worlds, One Million A.D.) were superb, and Down These Dark Spaceways was better than average, I do not expect any disappointment in this book.
Expect some reviews in July and August after I return from Italy and actually do all the reading.
