Halting State
By far his best novel so far, Halting State is a near-future thriller set in Edinburgh.
Category: Science Fiction
mange?
Roadside Picnic
Seminal Soviet SF, the source for Stalker – the highly acclaimed Tarkovsky film
beloved?
The Ghost Brigades
The follow up to Old Man’s War is a curious beast. It’s set in the same context, even features a couple of characters from that first novel, but it’s protagonist is entirely different.
Jared Dirac is a Special Forces soldier in the CDF, what the regular forces call The Ghost Brigades. Unlike every other Special Forces soldier Dirac was created to host the conciousness of another man. Charles Boutin was the brilliant scientist behind the BrainPal and the transfer of conciousness that allows the CDF special forces to exist, but now he’s gone renegade and betrayed humanity to competing alien forces. However the transfer seems to fail and Dirac becomes a regular SF grunt.
The book follows Dirac through basic training and into full-blown combat and on to a confrontation with Boutin himself after he gains access to the man’s memories.
It’s a fun book but flawed in that it lacks a real sense of coherence and succeeds better in providing a satisfying ending to the story in the first book than anything else.
It’s still worth a read if you want a quick blast of Heinlein like old school science fiction, like.
sming?
Rainbow’s End
A near-future techno thriller by the master of singularity SF
mr magenta?
Engine City
Third and final book of the Engines of Light sequence sees
space suit?
Dark Light
Second book in the Engines of Light trilogy
titov?
Cosmonaut Keep
The first of the Engines of Light sequence, this rather wonderful book is set in two
mabuse?
The Jennifer Morgue
The second Bob Howard book is a genuine delight.
Where the first played with the tropes of a Len Deighton style spy, this one subverts the James Bond archetype.
Full of clever twists and humour, Stross subverts your expectations at every step.
Of all his varied output I think that the Laundry books come out best – he tries a bit too hard with his full-on SF and seems a bit bored of his fantasy series. With the Laundry he\’s just having fun and it shows.
I wholeheartedly recommend that you read both The Atrocity Archives and this one – you will not regret it.
chartreuse?
Old Man’s War
Scalzi’s debut novel is a stylish homage to Heinlein.
The central conceit of the novel is that the human Colonial forces recruit citizens of the wealthy western nations to become solidiers as they reach 75 years old with the lure that they’ll be young again and out defending humanity among the stars. It’s an idea that Scalzi has a lot of fun with as the new recruits go through basic training and on into relentless battle.
The prose can be a little lumpy at times and he’s not quite worked out how to show instead of tell, but it’s quite a lot of fun.
I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a diverting piece of old school science fiction
buzz rickson?
Pattern Recognition
