I first read it 20 years ago and am into chapter 2 again… I was immediately hooked on Nelson Demille for ‘Plum Island’ . All of his books are great . .
General’s Daughter and Word of Honor were both made into movies but, sadly, compared to the books, they sucked.
I’ve had a copy of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold for ages, unread, so I’m getting to it.
Just finished Parasite by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire). It was okay, but I guessed the reveal about the MC pretty quick. I don’t know how much is because it was telegraphed (either intentionally or unintentionally) and how much is just that I have read so much (and cut my literary teeth in the mystery genre) that I know so many different ways a story can go (because this happens to me a lot).
I am read The Deep by Nick Cutter.
Apart from my questioning the science about research stations on the bottom of the mariana trench… its so fucking spooky. More like a space station sci fi thriller but with water.
Very very spooky. I recommend.
Have you read any of Peter Watts’ books? (Starfish?)
Parasite is readable, but it’s far from her best work.
I still plan to take it with me on Friday to my not-oficially-work-related-due-to-liability-issues-but-still-kind-of-work-organised curling bonspiel (redundancy for non-curling types who may need an explanation). It’s not entirely boring that I will hate it if I end up with some alone time, but I have already read it, so if certain suspects insist that I MUST socialise I at leatr won’t resent missing out on a story, and a just weird enough concept to remind those who ask what it’s about that I am not quite normal.
If any of the vets start asking questions, at least it’s fiction and doesn’t need to conform to reality. So long as none of them suggest it’s plausible (at least insofar as a parasite completely hijacking our brains), because that will give me nightmares.
Finally getting to Zinn’s People’s History, teaching edition. It’s as thoughtful as I hoped, so far.
Gleick’s History of Time Travel was great.
I saw History of Time Travel in the bookstore yesterday and didn’t grab it. I enjoyed Chaos and The Information so I’ll count this as an endorsement and go back for it.
I have to reread because of my interests. So many great references I didn’t know about. 13 Monkeys was a goddamned remake!
There was great world and character building.
But so many Chekov’s Guns of throwaway characters with so many details you’d think they were important, only to never see them again, or do anything if import.
SPOILERS
A major character has lots of details, developmental Arc, major conflict with another character, tension mounts, THEN HE AND HIS ANTAGONIST ARE BOTH KILLED OFF SCREEN.
#WHAT THE EVER LOVING 
BANKS
Reading Decopunk: The Spirit of An Age edited by Judith K. Dial and Thomas A. Easton. Noteworthy as Paul Di Filippo, an early contributor to Boing-Boing zine (“and since you’re all information adepts, we hope that we’ll receive most stories on ASCII format MS-DOS floppies”), contributed a story.
Also reading Michael Gruber’s The Return, when the history gets too heavy.
I’ll have to check out Gleick sometime this summer. His work seems interesting… Enjoy Zinn! My aunt took his class back when she was an undergrad years ago.
Snow Crash. Which is by Neal Stephenson, not by William Gibson as I previously said here. ::cough::
It reminded me a little of Faster more than Chaos or The Information. Not quite as dense as Chaos for sure. I really enjoyed it.
Was that any good?
Currently for me:
Another Malazan book.
Orb, Sceptre, Throne. Can’t be too many left now…
checks…
Actually, there’s 8 more, including ones not published yet.
It’s pretty good. More about our perception of time and how we’re expecting things to happen at a quicker pace all the time: faster boot times, quicker dinners, even our storytelling. It’s shorter (like Time Travel) at least insofar as Gleick books go.
ETA: it is from 2000, so some of the tech stuff does seem a little quaint, but mostly in that the cool gadgets of the future are (in keeping with the theme) faster, more efficient, and more ubiquitous than imagined at the time.
