Things I've read lately

So it was an outage for 89 days and I didn't read much and didn't update this with any of the books.

Absolution Gap--A reread, but good.
On Basilisk Station--Enjoyable
Bright of the Sky--Mostly interesting, but probably not enough to pay for the book on Kindle.
Installing Linux on a Dead Badger--Very funny. You should read it.
The Paradise War--Kind of interesting, but less so when I discovered that this is part of a long series. Neat that an established author put something out for free on the Kindle.
The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1--Another free book. This was okay, but geared toward young adult or something.
The Paths of the Dead--I don't know why I keep reading these books. Plot is just fine, but the writing style annoys me.
The Jennifer Morgue--I liked The Atrocity Archives and some of the later works in this series better, but this one suffered by being read very slowly over a week or two.
One of Our Thursdays is Missing--I don't know why I keep reading these books.
How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe--Not that good.

A Clash of Kings--Partial reread to prepare for the upcoming 5th book.
The Color of Magic--I got about half way though one night before I needed to go to sleep.
Way too much stuff at work--I spent the first portion of the outage reading. Stuff about why the analysis done on nuclear fuel and nuclear cores and whatnot is done correctly. I think that got up to ~2000 pages not including graphs and the pages I skipped. But that doesn't count toward my total.

Hugo nominees thus far:
Novella
"The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky--This was rather good. If there weren't an Alastair Reynolds up in the same category, I would vote for this.
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang--I read this one a while back (during the nomination period) because it seemed likely to get a nomination. It was interesting, but a lot more about people's feelings than I liked.
"The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand--This one didn't explain enough before the end. And just not that interesting.
Best Novelette
"The Emperor of Mars" by Allen M. Steele--I listened to this one on a podcast, StarShipSofa. But I read it again for now (because I couldn't remember whether the name was the same). This feels like a strong contender to me. Neat that this was largely meta-sci-fi.
"Plus or Minus" by James Patrick Kelly--Not actually that interesting. There is possibly potential in this universe, but this story was not compelling.
"That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made" by Eric James Stone--I think I want to reread this one during a non-outage time. There were definitely interesting ideas here and the religion aspect somehow didn't throw me off.

Pages: I'm saying 20 pages/novelette and 85 for novellas as I don't know the pagecount due to reading on Kindle.
4113

Galatic North by Alastair Reynolds

This book is a collection of short stories in the Revelation Space universe. The back story about Nevil and the Conjoiners at Mars was really great to read--the events are referred to in other Revelation Space books, but here much of the story is explained. I love seeing the partial conclusion of the universe in the last story, Galactic North, where the galaxy has been taken over by the greenflies. I'd be even more interested in what life is like in the galaxy at that point, but seeing what most of humanity is doing is interesting as well. There are a couple of throw away stories--little bits of the universe that would never merit inclusion in a novel because they aren't important to any storyline, but that help fill out a character or an idea. I particularly like learning that the Conjoiner drives are controlled with a disembodied Conjoiner brain. I do not recommend reading this book before some of the other books in the universe because it does fill in a lot. I like trying to work out some information myself. But this is a good addition to the Revelation Space universe.

Pages: 384

The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds

This novel isn't as good as some of the earlier books in the Revelation Space series. This book was enjoyable enough, but not particularly worth the $7.99+tax. I liked the more technological parts of this book, but didn't particularly care for the more political statements or the foreshadowing of the Plague time. I am much happier that The Prefect was written after the better books in the Revelation Space series because I wouldn't want to those books ruined by the foreshadowing in this book.

Pages: 416