Recently in Abandoned Category

Singularity Sky by Charlie Stross.

Nov 16
I liked the rain of telephones at the very beginning. I'm not as captivated by the "eastern European" bureaucracy. I was really hoping to enjoy this a lot, as I like Stross's short fiction. But I'm not giving up on the book yet either. So far, it's a space opera spy novel...

Dec 6
I just don't have the concentration for this one right now. I'm spending so much time concentrating on the technology that I'm losing the plot.

It very much reminds me of Iain M Banks, only more so, if that makes any sense.

Mother of Kings by Poul Anderson.

I just couldn't get into this one. When I saw it on the shelf at the library, I guess it reminded me of Harrison's Hammer and Cross series, which I did enjoy reading. But this book seemed perhaps too spare and close to the sagas it draws from. I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters, and gave it up after perhaps 50 pages.

The Devil and Deep Space by Susan R. Matthews.

This caught my eye while I was browsing the SF section at the library. The blurb on the back cover reminded me of Kristine Smith, an author I enjoy, so I figured I'd give it a try.

It was totally unclear from the cover that this is not a standalone book or the first in the series. In fact, it's book four. I only got a few pages in before bogging down in the mass of details about the world and people without the barest hint of anything interesting happening. But there seems to be some sort of religious underpinning to a multi-world buearocracy, with Judges and an Inquisition, and one of the contenders for First Judge wants to do away with the Inquisition. And this is all very politically fraught, apparently.

But meanwhile, I'm bogged down underneath the unfamiliar names of people, places and institutions, and don't really care whether the Second Judge in question becomes First or not. So I'm giving it a pass.

The Ill-Made Mute: The BitterBynde, Book 1 by Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

One of the later parts of this trilogy caught my eye on the new books shelf at the library, so I decided I'd try starting at the beginning of the series.

But I only made it partway through chapter two before deciding to give up. The book was drilling in to me, over and over and over again, that the main character was shunned and ignored by everyone around him. OK, OK, I get it already.

Also, the framework of the book was showing through too clearly for my taste. Mr. no-name shunned and ignored is a servant and hides behind tapestries, follows other low-class servants around, and hears about important things going on which just so happen to describe the world around to the naive reader. Very convinient. But not interesting enough to keep me reading.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Happened across this in the bookstore, and remembered it from a discussion in the rec.arts.sf.composition newsgroup, so I picked it up.

2004-01-01
Apparently, this book didn't grab hold of me enough to make me want to actually finish it.

Charisma by Steven Barnes

Saw Tales of Robin Hood by Clayton Emery at the library while looking for dusty books (books that haven't circulated in a while). I enjoyed the McKinley book so much, that I snatched this one up.

The tone struck me as off from the beginning. Strike one was in Chapter Two, when Sir Guy let out with "I don't want them associating with losers." The modern phrasing and language just knocked me out of the story. Strike two was on the next page, where we get a sadistic Sir Guy whipping an underling across the face.

It reminded me of that large section of Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule which is all about power gained through sadistic behavior. That section was far enough in that I decided to finish the book, but it certainly didn't make me want to rush out for the next book in his series.

Strike three was the dead baby in chapter three.

On to something more worth my time.

But if you want to buy a copy, it's apparently available in a POD version from iUniverse.