The Ware Tetralogy by Rudy Rucker

Recently, Rudy Rucker released his Ware tetralogy as a CC licensed ebook. I read Software a few years ago (found at the same time as The Slaughterhouse Five in Wendt Library). Unfortunately, the books have gone out of print and most libraries do not have any of the books. I've yet to run across one in a used bookstore either. It was a bit uncomfortable to read 703 pages on my laptop screen. I should have transferred over to the netbook, but that means I can't switch between the book and general computer usage as easily.

These books are sometimes disturbing. There is a lot of sex and violence and violation. There is also a lot of imagery and introspection and commentary. I think it was worth my time. Even though Rucker pioneered the ___punk genre, I have never enjoyed his work as much as others'--Gibson for example. I think the difference is the prevalence of drugs because that's not something I can empathize with. Also, I have a harder time staying interested in the hard science of biology or the tough math. Rucker definitely knows his math. These stories have people, not heros. There are events and people sometimes lead through the events and sometimes react.

Also, the ending kind of sucks. Well, it is a very happy ending and that feels weird after everything that has happened in the Ware universe.

Pages: 703 (didn't read the foreword or Software)

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Phillip Pullman

I read His Dark Materials years ago. The stories were interesting and I am generally unable to pick up on religious subtexts. Seriously, I read the Chronicles of Narnia in middle or high school without picking up on anything. I figured I should attempt to read some other works by Phillip Pullman and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ was the only one I'd heard of.

This book was really short. The pages number up to 245, but the margins are large, the book itself is small, and there are many blank or half pages due to new chapters. I was disappointed that the book was so short and lacked much of an original twist.  is part of the Myth series, wherein authors rewrite myths. Sort of like Little Red Riding Hood remake The Wolf's Side. I have not read the Bible in particular (small bits and Genesis only), so I don't entirely understand how this deviates. The idea is sort of interesting, but not interesting enough for an entire book.

Pages: 245

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

This writer is the geek version of Dan Brown. The writing is slightly better. This book wasn't a compete waste of time, but there are a lot of things that would have been more worth the time, such as looking at LOLcat pictures. Which brings up the fact that the geek parts of Daemon are mostly just pop culture references that already sound stupid.

Pages: 429

Dune by Frank Herbert

I ran out of library books and wanted something light to read while I finished up a section of the training at work. Dune is a very good book, as is well known. I particularly enjoyed the conversation with classmates about both Dune and sci-fi in general.

Pages: 544

Matter by Iain M. Banks

This was a very enjoyable book. Instead of focusing entirely on the primitive areas or the Culture, it explores the intersection of the two and reminds the readers that the Culture is still a newcomer in this universe. This one was far better than the previous couple I read.

Pages: 624

A previous reading list

My boyfriend is cataloging my books for me. I think a big chunk is because he is nice, but he also wants the practice with the new-ish keyboard alternative. Finally, he used to work at a library and it already bugs him that I group by books by subgenre instead of alphabetically. I thought I had a catalog of my textbooks, so I went looking through old lists. I don't have one of textbooks, but I do have a list of all the books I read from Feb 2007 to Feb 2008, complete with pagecounts. I kept track then (as now) so I can ensure that I am reading enough to stay happy. I needed baseline data for that in college, so I logged everything. As now, I am only logging books I read in whole, or complete short stories.

The interesting period in the middle of the year was the summer of alphabetical reading. I was working at a coffee/ice cream shop between the comp sci building and the engineering campus. After about 2pm, it was the closest non-vending machine general food source for the med college and the math/physics/chemistry departments. It was tons of fun to interact with all these smart people who functioned a lot like me. The summer of '07, I wasn't taking classes and I didn't have research work, so I had massive amounts of free time. I asked my customers for book suggestions. The idea was that I would read one book for each letter of the alphabet, by author last name. Some of the letters were very hard to fill in. I was introduced to many new books and I've continued reading a number of the authors. I did read other books between authors that summer--just 26 books (even when #26 is the entire Amber series) was not enough.

The niftiest part was finding out that the engineering library had ~15 fiction books. A lot of the librarians didn't even know that.

Start Date    End Date    Title    Author    Pages    total_f
9-Feb    10-Feb    Glory Road    R. A. Heinlein    294    294
10-Feb    10-Feb    Caves of Steel    Isaac Asimov    270    564
11-Feb    11-Feb    The Naked Sun    Isaac Asimov    269    833
12-Feb    13-Feb    On a Pale Horse    Piers Anthony    325    1158
13-Feb    14-Feb    Bearing an Hourglass    Piers Anthony    371    1529
15-Feb    16-Feb    Dune    Frank Herbert    535    2064
16-Feb    17-Feb    Assignment in Eternity    R. A. Heinlein    276    2340
18-Feb    23-Feb    The Man Who Sold the Moon    R. A. Heinlein    238    2578
13-Feb    23-Feb    Penguin Book of Leider    divers    189    2767
26-Feb    3-Mar    Illustrated Man    Ray Bradbury    186    2953
1-Mar    7-Mar    Glory Season    David Brin    772    3725
7-Mar    16-Apr    Glory Season    David Brin    772    4497
15-Mar    16-Mar    Sundiver    David Brin    340    4837
16-Mar    19-Mar    Hyperion    Dan Simmons    482    5319
20-Mar    2-Apr    Hyperion    Dan Simmons    482    5801
20-Mar    21-Mar    The Wee Free Men    Terry Pratchett    375    6176
21-Mar    24-Apr    Sundiver    David Brin    340    6516
22-Mar    24-Mar    The Stochastic Man    Robert Silverburg    240    6756
24-Mar    25-Mar    Slant    Greg Bear    506    7262
26-Mar    12-Apr    Beowolf    Burton Raffel    100    7362
26-Mar    22-Jul    Brighter than a Thousand Suns    Robert Jungk    360    7722
27-Mar    30-Mar    Weilding a Red Sword    Piers Anthony    313    8035
2-Apr    4-Apr    With a Tangled Skein    Piers Anthony    404    8439
13-Apr    1-Aug    Beowolf    Burton Raffel    100    8539
11-May    16-May    The Dragon Reborn    Robert Jordan    674    9213
12-May    15-May    The Rest of the Robots    Isaac Asimov    556    9769
16-May    18-May    Nebula Awards 31    edited by Pamela Sargent    331    10100
19-May    20-May    Infinity's Shore    David Brin    524    10624
20-May    23-May    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: A Novel    Susanna Clarke    782    11406
24-May    26-May    Lord Valentine's Castle    Robert Silverburg    446    11852
25-May    25-May    Ubik    Philip K. Dick    216    12068
25-May    5-Jun    The Worm Ouroboros    E. R. Eddison    444    12512
26-May    28-May    Valentine Pontifex    Robert Silverburg    368    12880
27-May    29-May    Pebble in the Sky    Isaac Asimov    223    13103
31-May    3-Jun    The Currents of Space    Isaac Asimov    217    13320
4-Jun    4-Jun    Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!    Richard Feynman    346    13666
6-Jun    8-Jun    The Origins of the Future    John Gribbin    276    13942
9-Jun    9-Jun    Stainless Steel Visions    Harry Harrison    254    14196
10-Jun    11-Jun    The World According to Garp    John Irving    437    14633
20-Jun    21-Jun    Master's Choice    edited by Laurence Janifer    350    14983
22-Jun    22-Jun    Lonesome Gods    Louis L'Amour    450    15433
23-Jun    29-Jun    The Source    James Michener    909    16342
30-Jun    2-Jul    Laughing Space    edited by Asimov    521    16863
1-Jul    1-Jul    My Name is Asher Lev    Chaim Potak    369    17232
2-Jul    3-Jul    The Persian Boy    Mary Renault    419    17651
3-Jul    4-Jul    The Fall of Hyperion    Dan Simmons    517    18168
3-Jul    23-Aug    Down and Out in London and Paris    George Orwell    106    18274
6-Jul    9-Jul    The Stand    Stephen King    1153    19427
10-Jul    10-Jul    Slaughterhouse Five    Kurt Vonnegut    215    19642
11-Jul    22-Jul    One Man's Bible    Gao Xingjian    450    20092
13-Jul    15-Jul    Snow Crash    Neal Stephenson    471    20563
18-Jul    9-Aug    Sundiver    David Brin    340    20903
18-Jul    21-Jul    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince    J. K. Rowling    652    21555
21-Jul    21-Jul    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows    J. K. Rowling    759    22314
25-Jul    26-Jul    Mama Day    Gloria Naylor    312    22626
28-Jul    15-Aug    The Winds of War    Herman Wouk    885    23511
2-Aug    14-Aug    Snow Crash    Neal Stephenson    471    23982
1-Aug    18-Aug    Monster of God    David Quammen    513    24495
19-Aug    22-Aug    Dune    Frank Herbert    535    25030
22-Aug    26-Sep    War and Peace    Leo Tolstoy    696    25726
23-Aug    23-Aug    The Chronicles of Amber, Vol 1    Roger Zelanzy    338    26064
24-Aug    24-Aug    The Chronicles of Amber, Vol 2    Roger Zelanzy    434    26498
24-Aug    25-Aug    The Telling    Ursula K. LeGuin    264    26762
25-Aug    26-Aug    Unicorn Variations    Roger Zelanzy    249    27011
27-Aug    7-Sep    Unicorn Variations    Roger Zelanzy    249    27260
30-Aug    31-Aug    The Color of Magic    Terry Pratchett    210    27470
1-Sep    3-Sep    The Disposessed    Ursula K. LeGuin    311    27781
3-Sep    5-Sep    The Cat Who Walks Through Walls    R. A. Heinlein    388    28169
7-Sep    7-Sep    The Last Yggdrasill    Robert F. Young    135    28304
8-Sep    8-Sep    Trump of Doom    Roger Zelanzy    183    28487
8-Sep    8-Sep    Blood of Amber    Roger Zelanzy    215    28702
8-Sep    9-Sep    Sign of Chaos    Roger Zelanzy    214    28916
9-Sep    9-Sep    Knight of Shadows    Roger Zelanzy    251    29167
9-Sep    9-Sep    Prince of Chaos    Roger Zelanzy    225    29392
9-Sep    10-Sep    The Chronicles of Amber, Vol 1    Roger Zelanzy    338    29730
11-Sep    14-Sep    The Chronicles of Amber, Vol 2    Roger Zelanzy    434    30164
14-Sep    15-Sep    Trump of Doom    Roger Zelanzy    183    30347
15-Sep    15-Sep    Blood of Amber    Roger Zelanzy    215    30562
15-Sep    15-Sep    Sign of Chaos    Roger Zelanzy    214    30776
15-Sep    15-Sep    Knight of Shadows    Roger Zelanzy    251    31027
15-Sep    16-Sep    Prince of Chaos    Roger Zelanzy    225    31252
16-Sep    28-Sep    The Winds Twelve Quarters    Ursula K. LeGuin    277    31529
28-Sep    28-Sep    Pawn of Phophecy    David Eddings    258    31787
30-Sep    30-Sep    Queen of Sorcery    David Eddings    322    32109
1-Oct    2-Oct    Magician's Gambit    David Eddings    320    32429
3-Oct    3-Oct    Castle of Wizardry    David Eddings    384    32813
3-Oct    5-Oct    Enchanter's Endgame    David Eddings    384    33197
7-Oct    10-Oct    Game of Thrones    George R. R. Martin    835    34032
10-Oct    13-Oct    A Clash of Kings    George R. R. Martin    1040    35072
13-Oct    14-Oct    Changing Planes    Ursula K. LeGuin    246    35318
14-Oct    16-Oct    Lord of Light    Roger Zelanzy    257    35575
16-Oct    24-Oct    The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, and Other stories    Roger Zelanzy    229    35804
24-Oct    1-Nov    Prisoners of the Stars    Isaac Asimov    538    36342
5-Nov    17-Nov    A Storm of Swords    George R. R. Martin    924    37266
17-Nov    17-Nov    Moonraker    Ian Fleming    247    37513
21-Nov    22-Nov    Mask of Loki    Roger Zelanzy    340    37853
22-Nov    23-Nov    Kiln People    David Brin    568    38421
23-Nov    25-Nov    Starship Troopers    Isaac Asimov    309    38730
26-Nov    1-Dec    Singularity Sky    Charles Stross    337    39067
2-Dec    5-Dec    Patriot Games    Tom Clancy    503    39570
6-Dec    8-Dec    The Venetian Affair    Helen MacInnes    352    39922
14-Dec    14-Dec    Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel    Scott Adams    350    40272
14-Dec    21-Dec    Feast for Crows    George R. R. Martin    978    41250
20-Dec    27-Dec    In the Beginning …    Isaac Asimov    227    41477
23-Dec    24-Dec    Gray Lensman    E. E. "Doc" Smith    253    41730
24-Dec    30-Dec    The Early Ayn Rand    Ayn Rand    528    42258
27-Dec    27-Dec    Neuromancer    William Gibson    271    42529
21-Dec    4-Jan    Asimov's Guide to the Bible, Vol. 2    Isaac Asimov    557    43086
5-Jan    21-Jan    Cardinal of the Kremlin    Tom Clancy    624    43710
7-Jan    18-Jan    Cryptonomicon    Neal Stephenson    1152    44862
24-Jan    26-Jan    Half Life    Hal Clement    252    45114
26-Jan    28-Jan    The Salmon of Doubt    Douglas Adams    299    45413
31-Jan    4-Feb    Selected Stories    Theodore Sturgeon    439    45852
4-Feb    5-Feb    Isle of the Dead    Roger Zelanzy    201    46053
6-Feb    9-Feb    I Dreamt Revolution    William Reswick    328    46381

Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks

These Culture books are due back rather soon (perhaps even yesterday), so I'm not reading other things between. This book was okay, certainly more interesting than the last one. I have a difficult time telling whether I'm less interested as the stories continue because I've read lots of stories or because they are actually getting lamer. The Culture idea is really nifty, but is most interesting when I'm learning something new about the universe, not when I'm just following around a couple characters and when it is generic sci-fi/space opera.

Pages: 357

Inversions by Iain M. Banks

Another Culture novel that doesn't directly show any of the Culture. There are two characters that are from the Culture, but they are pretending to be from faraway places on a plant that doesn't yet have reliable gunpowder-based weapons. The story here was kind of interesting, but only okay. This was a fast read. The next book is more interesting.

Pages: 343

Moving Mars by Greg Bear

We were at the craft fair in Anoka yesterday because it was something local and we don't really do local things. As expected, the craft fair was not interesting, so we went over to the bookstore. Not wanting to wander around and not buy anything, I picked up Moving Mars, hoping that it would be slightly as nifty as the Mars books by Kim Stanley Robinson. Moving Mars is okay (good enough to get nominated for a Hugo), but is very small in scope compared to even Red Mars. There's a weird piece of science toward the end and the politics are uninteresting. It was an okay read for a summer afternoon, but not fantastic.

Pages: 500

WWW: Wake by Robert J Sawyer

The last novel up for a Hugo. This one is about a blind girl who gets an eye implant that can communicate with the inventor via wi-fi. An AI that evolved out of missing packets on the internet starts reading the datastream from the eye implant. The girl realizes it, then teaches it until it becomes super intelligent (which mostly entails pointing it to various websites). The story ends. Yes, the book spends over three hundred pages to get to the interesting part and then ends. Also, WWW: Wake was big on pop culture buzzwords like "Live Journal" and "Google". It looks like The Windup Girl will get my vote, since it was the closest to a Hugo winner.

Pages: 310

Spar by Kij Johnson

This was about a woman trapped in a spaceship lifeboat with an amoeba-like alien that constantly pushes itself into her.

Pages: 7

Non-Zero Probabilities by NK Jemisin

Another Hugo nominee that I first read on my iPod. I also listened to this one on Escape Pod. I liked the way this book took a different turn on generally accepted conclusions. The city of New York seems to be non-random now--superstitions that nominally change the probability of an event seem to work. In the end, the main character decides that the world isn't actually a more dangerous place by remembering that bad things happened before.

Pages: 9

Bridesicle by Will McIntosh

Somewhat surprisingly, I mostly enjoyed Bridesicle. I initially read it on my iPod and it got mixed up with all the other short stories I read during the breaks in class. The only thing that bothers me is that this one is pretty much entirely about the human interactions--it makes you hope that the two people get together in the end. I'd prefer something that wasn't so blatantly emotional.

Pages: 11

Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente

Palimpsest felt like a drug dream fueled by Viagra and Ecstasy. I believe I was in violation of corporate policy by reading it on company property during lunch. The idea with this book is that a person sleeps with an infected person, has a weird dream, wakes up with a tattoo-like map somewhere on their body, then sleeps with lots of people who have a tattoo-like map to have more weird dreams. After about the first third of the book, the sex scenes are not described in detail. But various mutilations are discussed in detail throughout the book. I did finish Palimpsest, which is more than a lot of other people who didn't like it. I don't recommend this book. The writing is fairly good, though a bit descriptive.

Pages: 384

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Hugo Award nominee number three. I've been doing other things with my time this week, so it's been a long time since I started this book. Also, I realized that I forgot to include the last Hugo book I read, so I'll enter that after this.

I enjoyed The Windup Girl. I liked the science and the attention to detail, including using tropical fruits in metaphors. I was a little disappointed that it ended up being about how a windup girl (Japanese gene-crafted person who has jerky movements, but is evolutionarily better in almost all other ways) finds herself and survives. The male and female characters balance well, with some strong characters pulling the plot on both sides.

I'm not sure that I'll vote for The Windup Girl. It is good, but not amazing. On the other hand, despite the near-apocolyptic future due to genetic engineering, this book ends up hopeful, which isn't particularly true of either of the other Hugo books I've read. I have decided not to read Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson or The City & the City by China Miéville as both promised to be incredibly graphic and depressing.

Pages: 300