Real Science Fiction With Bang, Great Straight Fiction And Some New Opera

Running on reviews, comments and male intuition (yes a bit of an oxymoron) I ordered the complete Culture Novel Series by Iain M. Banks. I jut read the first to arrive, book eight, Matter, and I'm smiling like the cat that ate the mouse after a delightful little play time.  I am now reading book one, Consider Phlebas, and am running in "complete immersion mode" with Culture.  Reading this series will have you remembering your first encounter with books like Dune by Frank Herbert and Foundation by Isaac Asimov.  This is science fiction, the real deal, and it makes you happy to be reading.

I had my turn with John Sandford's latest Virgil Flowers novel, Bad Blood, the other day.  Grittiest, meanest, nastiest bunch of bad people he's had to tackle yet.  Don't start this one without a chunk of time set aside, you will not be wanting to set the book aside.  This may not be Sci-Fi but it is very eerie.  If you are not familiar with John Sandford, it is your loss.  He has never let me down (only author I say this about).  You might complain about him not writing fast enough but he is a craftsman and does not release flawed stories.  No wonder he (real name, John Roswell Camp)  won a Pulitzer as a journalist in 1986.

Mark L. Van Name had the beginnings of his Jon & Lobo Series re-released as a collection and what a pleasant surprise it was to read.  I enjoy stories of men with machines that think for themselves (both man and machine).  Jon, a vet and ex mercenary; Lobo, a space ship weapons combo, with attitude. Very enjoyable characters and casting Jon as the moral upstanding stall worth guy and Lobo as O so ready to do what he does best, kill.

Watched a movie on the computer while
the girls were in the other room this weekend.
Harry Brown starring Michael Caine,
directing debut by Daniel Barber.
Whew!  Have not seen such a realistic look inside
a bad neighborhood's drug culture in recent memory.
This is not a movie for the feint at heart.
Michael Caine is a genius
and knows his craft so very, very well.


Music to go with the mayhem.
Vicious and Walk on the Wild Side
"Doo do doo do doo do do doo"
Tracks 1 and 5 of Transformer by Lou Reed

Regards,
Richard

I Am Not A Critical Reader. I Am A Viceral Reader. Give Me Something To Expirence!

I have just finished the Jump 225 Trilogy and am breathless. Few writers and critics disagree, this trilogy is a brilliant piece of work.  These books grabbed me, shook me and would not let go.  On the grand scale of things I kept thinking of The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov, Dune (usually #1 on my all time ever list) by Frank Herbert and strangely enough but really not so strange, Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.  Foundation and Dune because of the grand scope of world building and Pattern Recognition because the unique sub genera "Sci-Fi Business Thriller" with  much to do about advertising.  I'm hoping the two mentions of "pattern recognition" I caught in my reading of book three, Geosynchron, were homage to Gibson by Edelman. Anyone who has ever seen an advertisement or plans to see one in the future should read Gibson's book.  You will be changed in what you see forever and have a lot of fun reading to boot.

I am a slow deliberate reader.  I read everything the author writes.  I pause for commas, I hesitate for semicolons and I reread the occasional line or paragraph that inspires or baffles.  I am aghast at some of the reviews I read of the books I've blogged.  Some critics are so puffed with self aggrandizing, I wonder if they even read the book.  Don't they like a good story?  Don't they want to escape and or think about something else for a little while? You will not find books I have not liked for one reason or another in this blog.  I don't finish books I don't like, my list is too long to accomplish to begin with, I don't have time for fiction I don't like.

About the near future Jihadist war series with no name by Tom Kratman, it is now officially Carrera's Legions. Thank you H. O..