Tag: science fiction

reading · science fiction

Surprising Tid-Bit In Apprentice in Death

Sonia LalLeave a comment

I finished the latest In Death book, Apprentice in Death. It is the 43rd book in the series and that is pretty cool. I hope they finish the movie soon. Who knows what is going on with it?

There is a high school named after Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

I don’t think she has any high schools named after her in the present, but it’s interesting that she does in the future this book lives in. I mean, lots of famous people have schools named after them. But it gave me quite the jolt to see it in this book.

She may have schools named after her, no matter how this election goes. But I suppose it is more likely if she wins.

It is still sort of surprising to see it there in Apprentice in Death, mentioned all causal-like.

 

 

General

On Genre and Shelving

Sonia Lal4 Comments

This week I went to a library that did not have a separate science fiction shelf. (Or a 657ipiseparate mystery shelf.)  Instead the library put science fiction sticker on the spine and shelved the books in alphabetical order by last name.

I was displeased by this arrangement. I wanted all the science fiction books in one place so I could look at them all at once. I didn’t want to wander through half the library looking for science fiction/fantasy books.

I suppose if I had time to look through all the shelves and was willing to be distracted by interesting covers, it would have been excellent arrangement. But I didn’t have much time, I just wanted a quick look at their science fiction/fantasy selection and see if something looked good.

I may go back if I have a few hours to spare. And can I say how odd it was to see literary classics and science fiction books on the same shelf. Which may have been the point.

General · reading

Unique words in Left Hand of Darkness

Sonia Lal1 Comment

I am still reading The Left Hand of Darkness.  90u7bm

This book has used three words: phlegmatic, obdurate, pertincious.

I am a bit awed.

I hardly see these words used even once in novels, and this book not only uses them, it uses them all in one sentence. In one sentence.

It is awesome.

I have barely started. And this whole thing with the king putting red cement on a new building – uh, red like blood, yeah? – is also awesome, but I don’t really understand that yet.

That’s okay. It’s early days yet.

General · reading · science fiction · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: The Left Hand of Darkness

Sonia Lal7 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.

teaser

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

90u7bm

Yes, indeed the people in it are androgynous, but that doesn’t mean that I’m predicting that in a millennium or so well all be androgynous, or announcing that I think we damned well ought to be androgynous. I’m merely observing, in the peculiar, devious, and thought-experimental manner proper to science fiction, that if you look at us at certain odd times of day in certain weathers, we already are.. I am not predicting, or prescribing. I am describing. I am describing certain aspects of psychological reality in the novelist’s way, which is by inviting elaborately circumstantial lies. 

– from the Introduction in the Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General · reading · science fiction

Have I read this book before?

Sonia Lal2 Comments

This is a question I find myself asking this week.  2zpoccl

I’m reading the first Kris Longknife book: Mutineer by Mike Shepherd. I know I’ve read other Kris Longknife books before. I’m pretty sure I’ve read this first one, too.

It’s just that I don’t actually remember the events in this book. There was a rescue of a kidnapped little girl; she goes to provide food and vaccine to a community over in with a deadly, infectious disease; I don’t remember thing.

I remember the liquid metal and that you could form it into any shape that you wanted. I also remembered that it stopped working after a while, maybe on purpose. I remember her computer’s name.

Nothing else is ringing a bell. Which leads me to ask myself: Have I read this b00k before?

I can’t make up my mind. But if I haven’t read it before, how did I miss the first Kris Longknife book? I don’t know. It seems impossible.

 

General · reading · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: Ancillary Mercy

Sonia Lal10 Comments

image Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

“Governor Giarod requests that you return to the station at your earliest convenience.” Seivarden said. Ship said. That request, the barely polite gloss of at your convenience or not, was more peremptory then was strictly proper.

– Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

General · reading · science fiction

Eve Dallas is mellowing?

Sonia Lal1 Comment

image I finished the new Eve Dallas, Devoted in Death, a few weeks ago and I’ve been thinking: Eve Dallas is a lot mellower in this book. She still kicks ass and takes names, but in a less aggressive way.

Before, she threatened robots and parked right in different of buildings instead of finding a proper parking spot.

In this book she actually parks in parking garage before going up to interview witnesses or suspects or whoever.

It’s just so odd. What does this new, mellower Eve portend? I’m convinced it means something.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Sonia Lal28 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

The tower, which was not supposed to be there, plunges into the earth in a place just before the black pine forest begins to give way to swamp and then the reeds and wind-gnarled trees of the marsh flats. Beyond the marsh flats and the natural canals lies the ocean and, a little farther down the coast, a derelict lighthouse.

– Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

science fiction

Science Fiction Flowchart

Sonia Lal6 Comments

While randomly browsing I found a flowchart someone had created on photobucket. I saved the link on tinypic.

This flowchart:

 

I have watched/read some of everything. And I like pretty much all of it. So. But I like space opera best, so there it is.

But if you’re looking for something in particular, this is a handy guide.

science fiction

Star Wars Droids Keep Going and Going and Going

Sonia Lal1 Comment

I was watching Star Wars a few days ago (episodes IV and V) and the droids (C-3PO & R2-D2) just keep going and going and going.

C-3PO at least shuts down sometimes, but I don’t think R2-D2 ever does.

I wish my phone had batteries like that.

And, hey, if electric cars had batteries like that, I bet gas fueled cars would go the way of the dodo. All gas stations would turn into battery stations.