Sometimes, just sometimes, you’re incredibly lucky when you take photographs.
I got lucky in this case – I was in the right place with the right lens at the right time with a bird that seemed determined to pose for me.
Mind you the whole encounter was under 30 seconds.
You could say I really like this photo.
Double Vision
Karen “Cookie” Orbach is a sci-fi loving nerd. An overweight, over naive, African American woman that can see the events of a war taking place far from Earth when she watches TV.
This book is quite interesting, especially as you watch Cookie’s character become more self aware and self confident throughout the story.
The alien side of the story is very interesting, but the best of the book is reserved for the real world as Cookie’s wall of denial starts to collapse around her after a family tragedy.
I’d recommend it to science fiction fans looking for something a bit different and very much so to anyone looking for a book with a full on female perspective.
Singularity Sky
Stross’ debut novel takes place in a universe shaped by the intervention of the post singularity entity known as the Eschaton.
This strongly superhuman intelligence has perpetuated a human diaspora far out into the light cone of Earth. This creates many new civilisations of vaguely like minded people out among the stars.
One such civilisation is the New Republic, where technology (or the lack of) is used to keep the population firmly under the control of a centralised aristocracy. When the colony of Rochard’s World is visited by the unknown force that is the Festival people’s wishes are suddenly granted in exchange for stories, entertainment and information of all kinds. This the New Republic views as an attack on their sovereignty. In retaliation they are prepared to defy the Eschaton and the prohibition on causality violation by attempting to arrive in the system just after the arrival of the Festival.
On board the attacking fleet are Earth’s UN inspector Rachel Mansour and drive engineer Martin Springfield who both have hidden agendas.
This book is piled with ideas and some great humour. Unfortunately it’s let down by some mind blowingly dull "action" sequences and characters with large roles to play that don’t even make it to cipher level. It’s something that Stross has since gotten much better at.
I’d recommend this to lovers of idea rich science fiction and in light of the fact that the sequel is a much better book in the same setting.
Spin
I made the decision to get this book after reading this post by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Even though he has an interest in the book doing well his passion for the work was obvious to see. Taking into consideration the many positive reviews in the comments the purchase became a foregone conclusion.
The story is told from the perspective of Tyler Dupree. In one stream he recounts the story of his life as measured against the mysterious “Spin” and his friendship with the Lawtons. The second, alternating, stream takes place in his current day.
I don’t know if it would be at all helpful to go into any further detail with the plot – the book unfolds beautifully and the plot, ideas and characters are never less than fascinating.
This is one of the best science fiction books I’ve read in a very long time. I suspect it’s even better than The Chronoliths and if you read my review of that you can see how impressed I was.
If you have any love for science fiction do yourself a favour and read this book.