Books

Jan. 20th, 2008 11:23 pm
dsrtao: dsr as a LEGO minifig (Default)
[personal profile] dsrtao
_Ascendancies_, Bruce Sterling

Single-author short story anthology, billes as the best of his works. A few Shaper/Mechanist stories, the Chattanooga trilogy, a few stand-alones.

It's interesting to me how his style changesover time, yet usually feels representative of a [different] group of authors. _Cicada Queen_ could be Swanwick, _Green Days in Brunei_ could be Gibson (after a suitable course of antidepressants), _Our Neural Chernobyl_ could be Brin, _Are You For 86?_ channels Rucker, _Bicycle Repairman_ could be Doctorow. In fact, if _Bicycle Repairman_ was set in Toronto instead of a future Chattanooga arcology, everyone would nod sagely and say, yes, that's Cory Doctorow doing really good work.

There's no point in reading the first group of stories when _Schismatrix Plus_ is still in print, but the rest of them are entirely worthwhile.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-01-21 10:54 am (UTC)
ext_58972: Mad! (Default)
From: [identity profile] autopope.livejournal.com
Dirty little secret: "Bicycle Repairman" was a key formative influence on "Lobsters".

(no subject)

Date: 2008-01-22 09:27 pm (UTC)
ext_104661: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alexx-kay.livejournal.com
Why "dirty"? Influences are nothing to be ashamed about, especially when they're high quality ones.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-01-21 04:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robertdfeinman.livejournal.com
Do you really read so many books? When do you find the time?
Page generated Jun. 9th, 2025 02:05 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios