Snappy Title...

The month has passed me by. I thought of a snappy title, but didn't want to give the wrong impression. So the long and the short of the month is that I've been reading a lot. It takes me away from problems that are outside of my control. It is what it is.

Failure Mode the last book in the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Allanson

The finale. Sort of figured out the shape of the ending, as in there is a story that is set up in a certain way and the ending has to deliver on the promise. So while the details of said ending were well played, there was nothing unexpected. No twist that might have made me go, I didn't think of that! Fun read.

Leviathan Falls last book in The Expanse series by by James S. Corey

The conclusion to the Holden and proto-molecule shenanigans that was the basis of six seasons of TV space show awesomeness. The books are subtlety different to the show, which is neither good nor bad. Arguably the books do some things better than the show, and the show does some things better than the books. For example Cara Gee as Drummer, and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala

Again, the promise of the story and the title pretty much gives away the plot of the book. The epilogue was a welcome, if slightly predictable from projecting the consequences of the plot, meant again that the basic shape of the ending was obvious; it was just the order of the details.

That might be me being a bit harsh.

Shards of Earth & Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The first two books of the Final Architecture series, which I think is going to be a trilogy. Has the whole Expanse vibe going for it, except the setting is farther into the future.

Really enjoyed both. They kept me thinking, and surprised me too. So highly recommended.

War Dogs Trilogy by Greg Bear

War Dogs, Killing Titan, and Take Back the Sky read as a result of his passing, which was not your typical MilSF story. Felt like I was reading a fever dream, or someone recounting a their trauma.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamysin Muir

Another fever dream of a read, is this gay romp; think Rocky Horror Picture show, featuring lesbian necromancers, which I understand is now a thing.  We met the author at a convention several years ago, before the dark times, and she was a scream to hang out with. Not a book for everyone, but a book that a lot of people will enjoy.

I've managed to read a bunch of other books too, but I'll talk about them next time.

However, I will say that I've started reading Mick Herron's Slow Horses series, as research for Anderson's character development in my current draft of Two Moons. 

Also, I've managed to get about half way through the editing of my Cthulhu novel, The Bureau, which is good.

Things are looking up. That's all for now.

World Book Day

 

Having finished my current novel, well doing edits, I'm enjoying the chance to read a bit more. I was also reminded that it's World Book Day. Yay!

Books I've recently finished are:

Shambleau by C. L. Moore, which is a collection containing: Black God's Kiss; Shambleau; Black God's Shadow; Black Thirst; The Tree of Life; and Scarlet Dream. That's two Jirel of Joiry tales, and the rest feature her other famous character Northwest Smith.

A very different story telling style to what I normally read or the current fashion. Besides enjoying the stories, it left me thinking about how I write. Recommended.

I've also read the next two book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher: White Knight and Small Favor. Urban fantasy is not my go-to genre (I like rockets, robots, and rayguns too much),  but I've enjoyed the stories for what they are.

However, these last two reads have blown my socks off. Great stuff, but I can't imagine that anyone needs a recommendation from me, but recommended anyway.

  

Another book that knocked my socks off is Beholder's Eye by Julie Czernada the first of a trilogy called the Web Shifters. We had read her Species Imperative trilogy omnibus collection, and I had been most impressed by her alien biology and world building so I was on the look out for another novel from her.

Beholder's Eye starts slow, but by page 60 I couldn't put the book down.

And another, new to me author, I've read recently is the first book in the Diving Universe series, Diving Into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Her writing is as smooth as silk, and her ability to provoke emotions in the reader was awe inspiring. So again recommended.

Currently I'm reading Cibola Burn by James S. Corey, book four in The Expanse series. What I've read so far has grabbed me, making me want to read more. So, wishing you all a very Happy World Book Day, and let me know what you're reading.

Reading List

It has been a while since I've reviewed the books I've been reading. 

Adiamante by L. E. Modesitt Jr. 1996: I really enjoyed this story. It has a strong anti-war theme, but it doesn't preach, but rather it's anti-war because wars have consequences. The perspective of the main POV character was nicely done, and if you're looking for something to read that comes at things from a different direction, then this book is well worth your time.

Into the Guns (America Rising Book #1) by William C. Dietz, 2016: I picked up this volume after reading his Andromeda Trilogy that I reviewed here; Liked it enough that I bought the second: Seek And Destroy (America Rising Book #2) by William C. Dietz, 2017; Likewise enjoyed this enough to pick up the third: Battle Hym (America Rising Book #3) by William C. Dietz, 2017.

Now having read all three books I have reservations over his research. All F111s were retired in 1998, which for a novel set circa 2018 is a thing. The M1A1 has the 120mm cannon, and not the original 105 mm.  If you can tolerate the gaffs, then it's an enjoyable read.

Altered Starscape (Andromedan Dark Book #1) by Ian Douglas, 2016 & Darkness Falling (Andromedan Dark Book #2) by Ian Douglas, 2017: I enjoyed these a lot. Very much what one has come to expect from Keith, super science, nanotech etc, and the story rollicks along. Can't wait for the next book.

The Human Division by John Scalzi, 2013: It has been a while since I've read anything from Scalzi. This is a series of interlinked short stories come novelettes and a novella as a book that first appeared as a serialization. I enjoyed this well enough, and I'm of a mind to read the final book in the series.

Alliance of Shadows (Dead Six series) by Larry Correia & Mike Kupari, 2016: I'm a big fan of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter series, even though the Dead Six books are action & adventure with no SF content, I was sucked into them because after I met Larry at a book signing at Forbidden Planet. I reviewed Swords of the Exodus here. Mike Kupari's book Her Brother's Keeper I reviewed here.

A satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, which means you really need the other two books first. Go buy them now.

Monster Hunter Siege by Larry Correia, 2017: On a a whim, I bought this story in hardcover. I needed something to read that would cheer me up and this book deliver in spades. It also advances the plot, and if you like books with guns this is the book for you. If you don't enjoy such things, or references to Lovecraft, or books centered around the the idea of killing monsters is fun, then it's probably not for you.

The Two Moons (Compilation of Inherit the Stars 1977 & The Gentle Giants of Ganymede 1978) by James P. Hogan, 2006: Came across a recommendation for this series and found a compilation volume of the first two novels. By the time I had finished it I had gone and found the sequels too. In brief, written by Hogan as a response to seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey and him wanting a story that made a bit more sense.

Childhood's End

I've also been reading Jack Bickham's Scene & Structure book, the person who Deborah Chester was taught by, and there's definitely a fashion to provide a structure for the reader to understand the story.

Having recently watched the mini-series of Childhood's End I went back and re-read the story.  It's one of my favourite SF novels, as in when I had to downsize my collection it was one that I kept because I felt I would want to re-read it.

Clearly the reader demographic has changed over the last 60 plus years since Childhood's End was written, which is a thing, because to maximize sales (readers) one has to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, and classic SF really doesn't do this. This may be a factor in why written SF is a small market.

For example, Childhood's End.  

Who is the protagonist?  

Who is the antagonist?  

Where is the character development?  

It's arguably one of the classic novels, yet today it would be a hard sell.

NB: Just to be clear, love Childhood's End, and Arthur C. Clarke remains one of my all time favourite writers.

Summer Reading Fun: Part 6

 

The last of my summer fun reading posts.

I bought this book by Sarah A. Hoyt, who was new to me on the strength of her blogging, called A Few Good Men.  However, this ended up as one of those books I bought and didn't get around to reading for a while.  But in all fairness, to both her and myself, I have quite a few of these; though not as many as some people I know.

I'm reluctant to try reading a new author, which when I was young would never have crossed my mind, but not it has become a thing.  Probably a sign of my impending old age and countless disappointments in the past.

Initially I was umh and aahs as I started this book as it reminded me of The Count of Monte Cristo –– in space!  Except its not, as it's set on Earth, in the future where a few good men have taken over and rule the Earth.  So, not really such good men after all.  But, once I settled into the tale of over-throwing the good men I was charmed by the story, which is different enough from the novel that clearly inspired it to be engaging.

The only reason I haven't picked up any other of her books is that finding the first book in the Darkship series, to which A Few Good Men is a side novel, has proven to be difficult.  However, I have a little list, and I shall hunt down copies in due course.

Summer Reading Fun: Part 5

Last weeks failure to post means that this week I get to put two up.  The next book I dived into from my to be read pile was Glen Cook's masterpiece The Dragon Never Sleeps.

I commented on Passage at Arms here, as it is one of the great military SF novels of the genre, but I'd never gotten around to reading his other military SF novel.  This is partly down to how difficult it has been to get hold of a copy,.  And remember I don't do E-Readers or enjoy reading fiction on a monitor; and you can call me an old fuddy-duddy if you like.

Let me start by saying they don't write books like this anymore, as in this drops you in the deep end, and just expects you to keep up.  It also expects the reader to be acquainted with the tropes and able to keep up with concepts that are mentioned in passing.  This is hard SF, where the characters are not more important than the plot and the ideas, which is opposite to what I see today where characters are considered to be the most important factor in a story.

It was every bit as good as its reputation would make it sound.  Can't say more than that.

Summer Reading Fun: Part 4

 

I had meant to put this up last week, but work demands meant I was tied up with more pressing matters.  The result was too much to do in the time available.  However, this has meant I will be able to implement some decisions I've been putting off due to a lack of time over the last 18 months.

Enough of the business side of being an aspiring novelist, because writers like to read too.  After finishing the Andromeda series by Dietz,  I jumped into reading the sequel to Dead Six by Larry Correia and Mike Kupari called Swords of the Exodus.

This is not in any shape or form SF.

There's some mild fantasy flavour, but not enough to remove it from the real world.  Rather it treats some real world conspiracy theories and gives them a twist that could be explained by either being supernatural or alien artifacts.  We shall see how it pans out in the third book.  I enjoyed it, and the gun stuff is excellent.  From reading around the web, I understand that this places the book in the male dominated action and adventure genre.

I may have misunderstood.

Regardless, this second book also clearly shows both author's development as writer's.  The characterization is superior to the first book: as in both Valentine and Lorenzo are more clearly defined as people in their own right.  In the first book, it was sometimes unclear from the voice of the character, who-was-who, except by referring to the chapter headings.  This time I was never in any doubt about which character I was seeing the narrative through.

So again, recommended, and I can't wait for the third book to come out in paperback so I can find out what happens next.  As a further recommendation I went and bought Mike Kupari's first novel, Her Brother's Keeper, on the strength of reading this.

Damn, another book added to the to be read pile: current running total 31.

Summer Reading Fun: Part 2

After finishing the Grimnoir Chronicles I started reading Michael Z. Williamson's A Long Time Until Now.

Some of my friend's don't like American libertarian science fiction.  I've often expressed the opinion that I don't like science fiction which espouse communism.  So I understand that certain ideologies can put readers off.  However, on reflection, after an email exchange with a different friend, I would recognize that both are in essence science fictional utopias.  One based on individual freedom, the other based on communal sharing.

In my professional capacity as a cognitive behavioural therapist I think neither can be implemented, because it would require an evolutionary change in homo sapiens sapiens genome to effect either.

Having skated around politics, lets move back to the text.

Williamson's latest book is in my mind not as good as his Contact with Chaos story.  However, A Long Time Until Now shares a lot of the things that made his other book very interesting.  The description of paleolithic life and arising social structures within a science fictional framework displays a stunning knowledge of history from extensive research.

What let it down, for me, was its length, and the ending.

A Long Time Until Now is a long book, and while I didn't feel it was too long or poorly paced, the story does take it time to unfold.  The bigger disappointment was that the ending didn't quite nail it, because I was left wanting to know more, but its pretty clear there won't be a sequel.

Saying that, I would recommend getting it anyway and reading it for the masterful research.

The Vang: The Battlemaster

And now I've finished the third book in Christopher Rowley's The Vang series, the first being  Starhammer, and the middle book being The Military Form, and what a ride it has been.

This is not your usual series, or even for that matter trilogy, the story being far looser than what one has come to expect when reading either.  Yet it has elements of both.

It's a series, if one considers the first novel to be a prequel written to define the setting, which it is because it lays down a lot of world building stuff that underpins the sequels.  However, given the settings are separated by a thousand years they're not exactly sequels except for the theme that links them all together.

As for being a trilogy, then if the simple definition of a trilogy is three books that tell a single story then yes but, the single story is not about the humans.  It is instead a story about the Vang, and Rowley manages to generate in the second and third book quite a lot of sympathy for the plight of the Vang even as they do horrible things to the humans, which is quite an achievement.

All added up it makes for an interesting execution of what a story is, and how it can be told.

And it is very clear I've given nothing away about the plot of the story, and I'm not going to.  If eighties SF interests you, as in all that is old is not necessarily passe, then these books are well worth reading.  If one like military SF where the military side is mostly from the alien perspective, then this story will also be of interest.  If one thinks that the eighties is full of old fashioned stuff which has no value, then you probably want to skip these.

I loved it, and more importantly I want to read more by Christopher Rowley.  The biggest question is how is it that these novels aren't in print, it seems such a shame to me, as they have a lot to offer new readers coming into the genre.

The Vang: The Military Form

I reviewed Starhammer here, The Vang: The Military Form is Christopher Rowley's sequel and middle part of what is loosely a trilogy: the first book is effectively a prequel to the second book, and the third is effectively a postscript.  As I said before, the story telling is compelling, and like before I found myself picking the book up in spare moments to read a few more pages.

The story takes place a thousand years after the events in the first book, and mankind has spread throughout the galaxy, free from the threat posed the Laowans who dominated the first novel.  But, the threat of the Vang remains, mostly in remnants of their technology.  This book starts with a crew who finds something interesting in space, the kind of something that could make them very, very rich or very, very dead.

It's not much of a spoiler to say that the later is closer to what actually happens, as in lots of people die as the consequence of waking a military form Vang, which then proceeds to do what it does best: conquer lesser forms by assimilating them.  There's several twists and a wry commentary on how rulers demands mean that the military is not allowed to do what is necessary; and that's just from the Vang perspective.

Had to go away and start reading the third when I finished this, which says everything you need to know really.

Starhammer

This book is the first part of a loosely connected trilogy by an author I've not read.  It came recommended to me from a friend of a friend, and I uhm'd and aah'd about getting copies because the prices on Amazon were at one point astronomical.  Fortunately, I kept an eye on them and they dropped back to more reasonable levels after about a year.  Also, reviews on Goodreads were a bit mixed, and after reading the book I can see why, but my usual comment applies–they're wrong because they miss the point.

Let's start with the pitchline:  Aliens meet the Thing...

At one level that tells you all you need to know about the theme and the tone of these books.  If you aren't able to manage visceral shock and horror then these books are not for you.  However, if like me you enjoyed the film Aliens, and loved John Carpenter's The Thing, then this book and its sequels may well rock your boat.

However, terms and conditions apply.  This is not Colonial Marines in space kicking ass, and the alien Vang are not exactly the Thing either, being a far more rational, and disturbing exo-parasite life form.  Also, the writing has elements that would get a lot of criticism in today's market, for example, the occasional use of mind hopping in chapters.

But, this none of this detracts from the story that is compelling, driving forward from one crisis to another, that leads to the ultimate reveal of a dead alien races weapon, the eponymous Starhammer, created to fight the Vang.  Highly recommended, and I will add the Vang were the inspiration for the Flood in the Halo series.

The Battle of Forever

I have a pile of books to be read.  I'm pretty sure lots of people who like to read do to.  After reading Grave I decided to re-read The Battle of Forever by A. E. van Vogt.  He is one of my favourite  authors, with his short story the Black Destroyer being the classic that arguably marked the beginning of SFs golden era, and also inspired the Alien film series.

My worry that the The Battle of Forever wouldn't stand up to a re-read was unfounded, and while I could criticize the way the story was told, doing so is not really my thing.  What I will say is that the story kept me engaged and wanting to continue reading, something that a lot of other books do not.

The plot is a combination of the heroes journey, a quest and rebirth, by using a naive character as the central protagonist who is a master of philosophy.

This device allows van Vogt to pit an intelligent but, gullible character against aliens who, if not exactly evil, clearly do not have the best interests of humans at heart.  This is in many way classic science fiction, in that the story is about big ideas and discussing a future where travel amongst the stars is possible.

I enjoyed it so much that I read it in one day, an event that is so rare nowadays as to call attention to itself, but also an indicator that the novel is short or as I prefer to think of it, tightly written with no flab.

With regard to my own writing, I'm still adapting to the demands of running a clinic three days week, which is considerably more tiring than just doing two days.  I've been progressing my second novel, but have realized that I really need to up my game when describing the aliens, because of stuff I've been watching and reading in the meantime.  However, progress remains slow, and realistically if I could do more I would, so I just have to be patient with myself.

Progress Update

It has been a while since I've made a post about my writing.

I've been going through a slow period due to a combination of factors, some in my control, some not.  My day job demands have been rising, a victim of my own success, but my manager has got that under control, and I feel a lot let stressed: not just from the work, but from the pressure of having to commit to more work than I can manage.

It's also that time of the year where the weather is miserable, it's dark, damp and cold.  I've felt run down and even went off reading, which is a thing.  I've only just managed to finish reading a second novel this year.  The first was Eric Frank Russell's The Great Explosion, actually read so I could review it for Galactic Journey, see here.

After that I started Michael Z. Williamson's When Diplomacy Fails.  I've only mentioned his work in passing back here, and it took me longer to read the third book in the Ripple Creek series as I kept putting it down.  That says more about me than the book, but the author is better handling action than he is with interior dialogues of character beliefs: as in the action grips you by the seat of the pants that is hard to match when writing reflective thoughts that are well meaning, but ultimately don't really add anything i.e.: could be removed without detriment to the story.

Still, Williamson is one of those authors who I will buy his latest book when it's available in paperback because he delivers high octane action goodness.  Inspirational too.

So, looking at my diary this year I've only managed to work on my second novel a total of four days out of a possible 16: with some caveats I might say eight days because writing for my blogs and other people's blogs take time, as in they don't write themselves and the Galactic Journey pieces take a lot of research time to do too.  That's not a complaint, just an observation.  But, assuming that I'm now only going to realistically write one day a week it has consequences on how long it's going to take me to finish the edits on my second novel.

Currently I'm at chapter 16 of Strike Dog out of 62; OK some of those are very short chapters.  Words wise I've done 31,209 words out of 97,578 with 66,369 to go, which doesn't sound so bad: a third of the way through rather than just a quarter.  However, this doesn't take into account any extra writing I will do to add sub-plots etc.  There's a lot resting on this second novel, given that the first was rejected, because the publisher wants to see my second one.  I really want to nail it so they'll want to publish my story, because it would make my life so much easier than having to self-publish, given the demands of my day job.

Finally, rewatched Predator over the weekend.  Thirty years old and still eminently rewatchable.   As the old saw goes, they don't make them like that anymore.  And that's not sarcasm, this movie is a streamlined, pulse-pounding action flick that grabs one from the opening scene and keeps the roller-coaster ride going until the end.  Neither of the sequels are as good even though both have merits, the third being better than the second because the second hasn't dated well.

Species Imperative

Species Imperative is the 10th anniversary edition of Julie Czerneda's trilogy: Survival, Migration, and Regeneration.  I read this book because it was highly recommended in reviews for its portrayal of aliens.  Czerneda has a background in biology and it shows in her writing.  That's a compliment.

Let me start with the negatives.  The omnibus edition is so heavy I had to wear my wrist braces to hold it while reading.  I can forgive this book being so long because it's an omnibus of three long novels; so no complaints here about the length of the story as I did with George R. R Martins first Game of Thrones novel.  I'm not averse to long books, just books that go on too long.

Second nit-pick was the romantic sub-plot that runs through the three novels.  I found it intruded into the plot and could have been edited without affecting either the main story or the protagonists development, but other people may well disagree.

The third nit-pick are the titles.  For me, they were too on the nail and gave away the plot, but there again I'm a writer who has a background in psychological medicine, and I'm sensitized to things that seem obvious to me.

What I loved about this book was the biology, the way the aliens were described and developed and the overall story arc.  It was a compelling read, as in I found time to pick the book up and dip into it, whenever I had a twenty minutes or so to read.  This isn't a military SF novel despite the fact that the plot involves the destruction of worlds as an implacable alien force literally eats everything in its path.  There are some descriptions of battles and skirmishes, but the focus is on the biology driving the aliens actions (there are several factions).  And I really felt for the plight of the aliens who were not just humans with rubber foreheads.

So check it out, it's a hefty read, but well worth your time and effort.

The Span of Empire

This is the third novel in the Jao series, the first two novels in the series I reviewed here and here.  I bought the The Course of Empire on a recommendation that it had interesting aliens.  Given I'm writing a bunch of aliens where my Beta reader said I could do with upping my game, I gave it a go and fell in love with the story.  The sequel, The Crucible of Empire, hit all the spots, but K. D. Wentworth who brought so much to the series died fighting cancer.  Therefore, this third volume David Carrico has to take the torch and carry it forward.

From listening to the Baen podcasts I know that Carrico wanted to do justice to Wentworth's characters, but I inferred from what he said that he needed the freedom to do his own thing.  Without giving away any spoilers, what we see in this story is the addition of new aliens, a nice expansion of the Ekhat position, and as a result a culling of those characters that weren't driving the plot forward.   I was also left wanting more, which is always a good sign in a series.  This story felt fresh and has the potential for some real plot fireworks when forces collide.  Recommended.

For me the take away was the aliens, and this book and another I will talk about next time are making me rethink my portrayal – description of and interactions with – the aliens in my second novel, which I'm currently working through to address the deficits in my story telling.

The Crucible of Empire

I hadn't planned on reading the sequel to The Course of Empire so soon, but my partner decided she did and went and bought a secondhand hardback from Amazon, so how could I resist?

The story starts two years after the end of the end of the previous book and introduces a fourth race to the Jaoverse.  If you want a synopsis then I recommend reading Amazon or Goodreads.  The plot has enough shenanigans going on to keep the reader engaged, but what I liked most was the alien culture building.  I was sucked into the world and society of the Lleix, so much so that when we start to see them through the eyes of the Humans and Jao it's quite a shock.

On other matters, I've been busy writing for the Galactic Journey blog, which takes a lot of time because I have to research everything to make sure it's not anachronistic.  For example, making sure I didn't use the phrase male gaze, which was not coined until 1975.  Still, I like a challenge, and it makes a change to write outside of my usual areas of interest.

On my own writing, well that's been interesting.

Currently, I'm working through another edit of Strike Dog, folding in my Beta reader's criticisms and suggestions, and I'm up to chapter five, which is 13,597 in out of a total of 95,768 words.  So a start, but what this doesn't tell you is that chapter four has yet to be written.  Though I have 6,682 words from an earlier draft cut and pasted into my novel, it requires a drastic rewrite, because the reason those words were cut in the first place was because they were a dreadful info dump.

In the meantime, my beloved is re-reading Ghost Dog, but before she started, she decided to re-read Bad Dog.  Guess what?  She found some typos.  Only four, which to be fair isn't many, but still a shock for me, and I imagine that given another set of eyes or a longish break, more could be found.  However, they were mostly trivial things like an extra and an the, but there was one character name error, and a line that needed revising to reflect changes made in an earlier edit of the novel that I missed.

Cést la vie.  Gnashing of teeth.  Until next week, take care.

Shooting the Rift

A disclaimer, just in case you don't know, but Alex Stewart is a long-time friend of mine and therefore I'm probably biased in my review.  So I'll get that out of the way right now: go buy this book.

OK, plug finished.

I really liked Shooting the Rift.  The story felt very comfortable to me.  It had the feel of putting on a pair of slippers and dressing gown and curling up in comfort.  At times the book read like yesterday's future of tomorrow, but Alex managed to remind me that the future will be unevenly distributed and the mix of tech levels as his protagonist travels from one world to another.  Shooting the Rift features a fascinating melange of cyberpunk in a trans-human future where mankind has spread out across the stars; so while this is not full-fat, high caffeine, raw meat science fiction, it is in the tradition of grand sweeping space opera.

I'm so glad that I really enjoyed reading this, because so often when I read friends books they're OK but, they don't grab me and make me want to read the sequels.  The denouement of Shooting the Rift leaves everything with the promise for more.

Quite frankly I want more and it can't come soon enough.

Thunderbird

Running late again due to the knock-on effects of the time it took me to sort out my computer.

I think it's clear from previous posts that I'm a fan of Jack McDevitt; in particular the Alex Benedict and Priscilla Hutchins' series.  Though I was rather disappointed with the last Hutchins book Starhawk, which I thought added little to the series story arc or character development.  Thunderbird is a sequel to his 1996 novel Ancient Shores, which was a novel I really enjoyed.

However, while the writing is good, the plot of Thunderbird was rather disappointing.  

Not in the same way as Starhawk, which added nothing to the series, but because of the direction McDevitt decided to go with the idea of a stargate that can take one to other worlds.  For me, while the characters made perfectly acceptable decisions, they were the wrong characters to be telling a story of exploring strange new worlds, seeking new life and alien civilizations, and boldly going where no one has gone before.

It's unlikely there will be a sequel to Thunderbird, which is another reason why it felt disappointing. 

There again, I never expected a sequel to Ancient Shores, as the novel is self-contained, and ends with the puzzle solved and hope for a new journey.  I'm reminded of the adage that a sequel written many years after the original is generally not improved by the passage of time, because the author will have grown and changed.

Other than that my spare time has been taken up with dealing with computer issues, archery practice and my job, which has meant a failure on my part to progress the draft of my third novel.  This is quite troubling to me as it indicates a failure to adapt, as the Marines would say, but it reflects the demands of my job and why I hadn't been writing while working full-time.

At some point I will have to make a decision on what I'm going to do if I sell my first novel.  Until then I have the luxury of waiting and seeing what happens.

NB: Please excuse my overly critical voice of a writer whose work I greatly admire.

The Course of Empire

After last week I started another book – The Course of Empire by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentworth, which meant I didn't get very far into the story and because I only tend to read on Sundays meant it took me longer to finish it.  Eric Flint is one of those authors who seems to write a lot of books with other people: or perhaps I should say other people write books with him?  As such, it makes it difficult to know what part of a book's story is down to which writer.  This bugs me because I like to get inside the head of an author through their writing.

However, saying that I enjoyed his Boundary series, written with Ryk E. Spoor, and I needed something to dispel the disappointment from giving up on the last week's book.

I really enjoyed The Course of Empire.  It wasn't the page turner in the way that say a Jim Butcher novel grabs one, but I found myself drawn to pick up the book over the course of the week and read a few more pages (so much so that I spent time reading it when I should have been working on Ghost Dog).  By the end of the novel I wanted to read the sequel, which my partner Susan had gone and ordered, while I was still ensconced in the story of the Jao occupation of Terra.  There's also a third volume coming out, stalled for several years by the fact that K. D. Wentworth died, called Span of Empire with a new co-author – David Carrico – coming out in September of this year.  It will be interesting to see how the change of co-author affects the telling of the story.

Other than that I've done diddly-squat this week on my own novel.  Hopefully next week will be more productive.  Catch you all later.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

After a tiring day of archery on Saturday, and still recovering from a cold I took it easy on Sunday, and read Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen the latest book by Lois McMaster Bujold set in her Vorkosigan universe.  

I couldn't put it down.  

OK not literally, but once I started I had to finish it.  There are very few authors that do that to me nowadays.  I note that some people thought the title was long and made suggestions that the book should've been called Sergyar, but quite frankly I thought the title was most apposite: namely it describes the subject matter of the book, which in this case is about two people's relationship and grief.  There are other things going on, but the story is small in scope even if set with a large universe.

Writing wise I've been working on article for Henry at Miniature Wargames & Battlegames magazine that I started last year but which became lost in the sea of anxiety that was finishing my first novel.  Anyway, I completed the photo essay, which required me to take more pictures, as the first lot weren't right: I'd failed to set the ISO setting on both cameras to the same number (I was doing a compare and contrast shot of 12 versus 16 megapixels, which to be fair had to be taken at the same settings. 

Since then, when not at work, I've been enthusiastically taking more pictures with my new camera.

So that's it for another week.