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Monday, April 03, 2006

recommended

I am not a fan of Kim Stanley Robinson - I've read a bunch of his stuff, the "Gold Coast Trilogy" (quite dated now) was fun to read while actually living in California, the Mars trilogy was so awful that I gave up after the first one (and I forced myself through both all of the "White Gold" hexology by Donaldson, AND the incredibly awful "bio of a Space Tyrant" by Anthony (friend recommended that one, I have forgiven her) - I like to complete things in general).

But, I like "Years of Rice and Salt", and as my latest "travel book" I picked up a paperback copy of "Forty Signs of Rain".

It is really good. Haven't finished it yet, but it reads well, and is worth it if only for the perspective on the NSF proposal and funding process.
Looking forward to getting "Fifty degrees below"

PS I am moderately, albeit irrationally, convinced that KSR was influenced by me and the Big Kid passing by at high speed at a previous AbSciCon. Only way I can account for the character of the "German nanny" and some of the kids' antics backstory.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kind of surprised you disliked the Mars trilogy so much, especially given that you slogged through Donaldson and Anthony (both of which I read in jr high school ... recently picked up Donaldson again just for kicks, ugh; he seems to have swallowed a thesaurus in the 2nd trilogy in particular). I found the Mars trilogy to be trash, but at least entertaining trash.

Rice and Salt is indeed quite good; I read it prior to the Mars stuff.

scott h

1:16 PM  
Blogger Steinn said...

My tolerance for some things decreased as I got older...

Definitely read 40SoR - especially if you're on a panel somewhere near the Mall or Arlington. Perfect. Though I wish I'd picked it up for the 2005 AAS meeting...

1:19 PM  

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