Drug addict with messiah complex leads fundamentalists Muslims to power in a bloody coup.

Yeah there's more to it than that, but it's not entirely inaccurate.

Sorta like Wizard of Oz:
Girl comes to new town kills a woman, steals her shoes, teams up with 3 strangers to kill again.

Tags: books
Current Music: Nachtmar

I read a book over the weekend about a government organization based out of Colorado Springs, CO. Using a ring at their base they send explorers to planets all across the universe. On one mission a team meets a seemingly god-like alien race.

I'm not talking about Stargate, but Joe Haldeman's, 1976 Hugo nominee, Mindbridge. In the end thee book differs from Stargate in many, many ways. There are enough similarities that I checked IMDB and found out that Stargate was actually ripped off from someone, just not Haldeman.

Tiny world.

Haldeman, btw, has 5 Hugos and 5 Nebulas teaches part time at MIT. Embarrassingly he also wrote Robot Jox.*


* To be fair, Robot Jox has a good story, and I've always imagined the uncut screenplay would be amazing.

Tags: books

Let's see, Diamond Age, Mir, Chi, Spook Country, Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrows Parties, Pattern Recognition, Storming the Reality Studio.

These are just some of the hard covers. Rim is an odd sized paperbacks so is isn't on this "shelf". And my copy of Snowcrash went missing. I'd love to replace my first printing paperback because it has a more awesomer cover. I've also got a bout 3 different Neuromancer paperbacks. Each time I find an earlier edition I pick it up. Truth be told though I don't have the first copy I read. I had shoplifted it with some friends so to make good with Karma I gave it away when I was done.

Notably missing though is Vurt. If I have room I'll work to fill in that Jeff Noon sized hole in my collection.

Tags: books
Current Music: In Strict Confidence - Promised Land

Most simply described as a hard boiled detective novel I punched through Crooked LIttle Vein, Warren Ellis's new novel, in two days. That's shorter than it took me to get through a Jack McKinney Robotech novelization. One reason is that McKinney's Robotech's are written at a much higher reading level. To be fair there is a bit higher concept going on with Ellis, but not much.

I kind of expected to hate it after the first few, fairly gratuitious, paragraphs. But I think they were supposed to set the tone "if you can't take this drop the book and back away." But once you get into it the pace is fast and rhythmic.

As you expect with Ellis 90% of the dialog sounds like it could be from any of his characters. If the novel had been set in the near future it easily could have Spider Jerusalem chasing down the alternate Constitution to the United States than down on his luck gum shoe Mike McGill.

Next on my plate is William Gibson's Spook City. I'm twenty-odd pages in and still adjusting to the engine-dropping-out-of-your-car down shift between his and Ellis's styles. as much fun as Ellis was I look forward to reading Gibson with Google and Dictionary.com right there to help me along the ride.

Tags: books

Are Catcher in the Rye and Less than Zero more or less the same books?

I'm about 1/4 the way into Less than Zero and every single page reminds me of Salinger. I'm just waiting for someone to blurt out "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

Discuss.

Less than Zero is book eleven for the year. Pretty much filler while waiting for twelve and thirteen to arrive; Crooked Little Vein and Spook Country respectively. And lets be honest everything I'm reading is filler while I wait for Spook Country. William Gibson is, pretty much, the James Earl Jones of writing. If he wrote a phone book, I'd buy the hardcover and read it obsessively.

Tags: books
Current Music: Sunshine Reggae podcast