After a long spell of just re-reading what was on my shelves, I’ve rediscovered the library and the lure of new books. Since it’s summer and I need to get my geek on somehow, most of the books have been sci-fi:
- Contact, by my imaginary better half Carl Sagan
- Dune: House Atreides, by Brian Herbert (who should be disinherited) and some other dude
- House of Suns and Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds (lots of science and lots of plot but not really the best written books in the world)
- Altered Carbon, Philip K. Morgan (Raymond Chandler with cyborgs!)
I’ve even sneaked in some things that aren’t space opera: The Name of the Rose and Happy All The Time (Laurie Colwin, whose writing about food I prefer to her novels).
I know you’d expect someone who blogs about “literature” to read, but getting back into the habit felt worthy of a mention. (“The books I’ve read, let me list them.”)
I warned you about those new Dune books, silly.
Yes, it is–I didn’t want to even dignify him with a name. I think “a writer of outstanding mediocrity” is an excellent summary of both of them, though.
I think the “some other dude” you’re thinking of on the Dune book is Kevin J. Anderson, a writer of outstanding mediocrity who actually made me angry with some of his Star Wars tie-in novels a decade or so ago. He got so many little details that a fan would instantly know… it sometimes seemed as if he hadn’t bothered to even watch the movies before he started typing.