I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Dune is by far one of the most famous classics in Sci-Fi, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best science fiction novel in 1966. I am ashamed to say that I am just now getting around to reading it. I have of course seen the original theatrical movie, the Sci-Fi Channel remake, and subsequent mini-series Children of Dune. I have just vague memories of the original movie and don’t really remember much of the Sci-Fi Channel remake or Children of Dune. I wanted to see for myself the vision that Frank Herbert had for Dune, and then compare it to the movies afterwards. Keep an eye out for a DVD review of both the original movie and the Sci-Fi movie in the near future.

Frank Herbert includes a series of appendixes, glossary, and map at the end of Dune. I chose not to read any of the appendixes or glossary to see how much of the details are described throughout the novel. My first impression is that Herbert plunges the reader directly into a galaxy full of history and mysteries. I felt like the first few chapters, or even novels, had been left out. Herbert clearly spent a lot of time developing the history and background of the characters and worlds for this novel. The appendixes are very helpful, but I think there are too many spoilers for me to recommend reading them before diving into the novel. (more…)

Ok, so as I posted earlier, I didn’t do any reviews this year, but I consumed a ton of content. Some may be from 2015, but it is hard to remember. I’m going to provide a list with some highlights and recommendations

• Audiobooks
  • Elantris – Brandon Sanderson: Good stanalone book, one of his earlier works. Interesting premise – people get a disease and are forced to live in the remnants of a once great city. They cannot be killed, but also cannot heal. Each injury never heals, and never stops hurting.
  • Mistborn Trilogy (1-3) – Brandon Sanderson: One of my favorites this year, very unique set of magic systems
  • Alloy of Law / Shadows of Self / The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn novels)- Brandon Sanderson: continuation in a different time period, also very good
  • The Rithmatist – Brandon Sanderson: Another unique magic system, aimed more at the YA audience, but I enjoyed it.
  • Pandora’s Star / Judas Unchained – Peter F. Hamilton: Second favorite series of the year, be warned, some explicit adult situations
  • Lock In (Amber Besson’s narration) – John Scalzi: unique premise, police procedural
  • Android’s Dream – John Scalzi: another unique premise, enjoyable
  • Redshirts – John Scalzi: must read for any Star Trek fan! won 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  • Agent to the Stars – John Scalzi: I didn’t really care for this one, too much focus on talent agency politics, interesting premise though.
  • Fuzzy Nation – John Scalzi: Good book, reboot of “Little Fuzzy”
  • The Dispatcher – John Scalzi: Novella, another interesting premise by Scalzi
  • Ready Player One – Earnest Cline: One of my favorite standalone novels of the year – must read for anyone that grew up in the 80’s
  • Armada – Earnest Cline: Lackluster followup, skip it. Cline doesn’t dodge the fact that he ripped the premise off of “The Last Starfighter” movie from the 80’s.
  • Undying Mercenaries Book 1-4 – B.V. Larson: Sci-Fi Military fiction. Lots of violence, a little sex. I got these super cheap at $1.99 a pop, would not recommend spending a full Audible credit on them.
  • Year Zero – Rob Reid: I read this in book format back in 2012. Premise is that aliens unwittingly pirate enough music from Earth to bankrupt the galaxy. The solution? Destroy Earth! Remeinds me a bit of The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • Altered Carbon / Broken Angels – Richard K. Morgan: Great audiobooks, a couple of my favorite from this year. Lots of violence and a little sex, so be warned. I’m finishing up reading the 3rd book Woken Furies as the narrator changed and didn’t bother to read up on how to pronounce the main character’s last name.
  • Alien: Out of the Shadows (An Audible Original Drama – Full Cast) – Tim Lebbon & Dirk Maggs: Free from Audible, OK if you like the Alien universe
  • American Gods (Full Cast) – Neil Gaiman: Maybe the best standalone audiobook of the year. The performances were perfect and the story engaging. This is soon to be made into aTV series on Showtime I think.
  • Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman: Decent book, narrated by Gaiman himself
  • Hyperion (full cast) / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion / The Rise of Endymion – Dan Simmons – ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SERIES OF THE YEAR. I cannot count how many times I caught myself thinking back on the stories. I’ll definitely be listening to these again in the future. A good amount of violence and some sex as well, so be warned.
  • The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C. Clarke: decent book that introduced the idea of the space elevator
  • Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke: ending literally gave me shivers up my spine – The Syfy TV miniseries was just loosely related to the book. Skip that and read this!
• Books
  • Old Man’s War series (Book 1-6) – John Scalzi: Very interesting premise. Each book seemed to have a new perspective, not like a continuation of the previous ones. I’ll try to explain it a bit more if I have time to go back and review the books individually.
  • Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue – Hugh Howey: YA related, checked it out and it really wasn’t for me
  • Beacon 23: The Complete Novel – Hugh Howey: guy stuck on the edge of the galaxy, a bit of a psychological thriller toward the end
  • Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang: good collection of stories
• Short Story
  • Paper Menagerie – Ken Liu – ending gave me shivers up my spine as well, very good story

That’s it for now. I don’t think I have time to list TV. maybe next year!

As I sat down to write this review, I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I read an entire physical book. Since 2018, all my novel reading has been on a Kindle Paperwhite. Before that, I used a Kindle Fire but still alternated with physical books. Reading on the Fire was always a bit of a hassle because of the glare. The Paperwhite’s e-paper display is in a completely different league. I like it so much that when I revisited the Foundation novels a few years ago, I borrowed the ebooks from my local library even though I already had the physical copies on my shelf. One nice perk of the Paperwhite is that it’s easier to read while eating because I can flip pages with my knuckle.

Recently I wanted to disconnect from electronics before bed. The best way seemed to be grabbing something from my bookshelf that I hadn’t read yet and didn’t already have digitally. That’s when I noticed Svaha by Charles de Lint. I vaguely remembered seeing a recommendation for it years ago and picking up a copy through Book Mooch, a site where people trade books they’re done with. I’m pretty sure it’s been sitting unread for over ten years.

When I pulled Svaha off the shelf, I could barely remember how or why I got it. The cover, showing a Native American man with a wolf, didn’t ring any bells, and the back-cover description didn’t sound like my usual genre. Most of my reading leans toward science fiction and, more recently, fantasy. Still, I decided to trust my past self and give it a shot.

The story takes place in Canada sometime after 2094. Without spoiling too much, the setup is that in the 1990s a Native American named Daniel Hollow Horn became a music superstar and used his fortune to educate and empower his people. Over time they became world leaders in science, technology, and law, eventually surpassing the rest of the world. After a period of war, they withdrew into self-contained “Enclaves,” kind of like Wakanda from Black Panther, except everyone knows where they are. They managed to protect themselves from the pollution and fallout left behind while the rest of the world fell apart.

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