On and off, I've tended to read quite a bit. So, I thought I'd put up some reviews of books as I read them. In time, I may go back and add reviews of some of the books I read in the past. Not massively exciting, but I suppose it may be of interest to someone, somewhere (perhaps).
The Android's Dream - John Scalzi
This is an incredibly fun, if not entirely serious, novel. John Scalzi seems to have burst pretty much out of nowhere to produce a pile of onjoyable stuff. The story is action-packed and silly, but reassuringly twisty and inventive. Less dumb than Neal Asher, it feels a bit like early Stross or Stephenson, but tighter and better. I'll avoid spilling the beans on the plot, since you should go read it yourself. Suffice to say, it includes a Scientology parody, which can only help improve things.
The main character is a super-hero, but that's not particularly offensive in a novel of this style. The military background felt disappointingly close to Old Man's War territory, but hey, I'm just not a military sci-fi person. Really these are light criticisms, though, in the context of how much I enjoyed this book. It's the most surprisingly entertaining piece of sci-fi that I've read in quite some time.
Permalink. Posted 21:32, Mon, 19 Apr 2010.
There is also a complete index of the books.
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