Books Read Update
Anathem Neil Stephenson
Pirate Sun Karl Schroeder
The Quiet War Paul McAuley
Night Sessions Ken MacLeod
Half a Crown Jo Walton
Mind Over Ship David Marusek
Black Man Richard Morgan
House of Suns Al Reynolds
The H-Bomb Girl Stephen Baxter
This is Not a Game Walter Jon Williams
Palimpsest Catherynne M Valente
Winterstrike Liz Williams
Wireless Charles Stross
Astropolis Sean Williams
Matter Iain M Banks
Permanence Karl Schroeder
Karl's second published SF novel. It's got a huge amount in it, almost too much. From modest beginnings not unlike a Heinlein juvenile we head into discussions of interstellar civilizations, weird alien species, interstellar mysticism, why FTL is bad for you, economics, and much more. The Heinlein juvenile like wrappings get rather stretched in carrying all this material, and we end up with not one but at least three interstellar quest stories as well as links to future Schroeder novels, though it's not quite clear how they fit into this background. The result is a rather odd beast, not shaped like a usual novel, which is both a flaw and a feature. This was published in 2002. I suspect these days it would be split into two or three separate books...