Sean’s Blog

Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda by Scott Peterson

Some books have a profound impact on the way you look at the world. Me Against My Brother was one of them for me. I read this book about 5 years ago and just finished rereading it. Although the conflicts described have changed and have almost moved out of the realm of current events, the lessons that we can take from this book have not.

Today we see a Rwanda struggling to over come the horror of a very personal genocide. Sudan and Somalia are still at war, although the locations and combatants have changed. Me against My Brother gives us some perspective on these current conflicts and our responses to them.
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Looking for Jake - China Mieville

Several years ago, I ran across Perdido Street Station in the local library and picked it up hoping for a fun read. What I didn’t expect was that it would change the way I read fantasy forever. Not long after I finished it I ran out to my local book store and bought The Scar and for the first time ever, I preordered a book from Amazon (Iron Council). Needless to say, I have pretty high expectations of China Mieville. Looking For Jake is a collection of his short stories and does not disappointed.

Mieville is one of the most original authors working today in my opinion and I generally read anything of his that I can get my hands on. Although I would recommend Perdido Street Station or The Scar to someone that had not yet read anything by him, Looking for Jake is a fine collection.

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The Devil’s Labyrinth by John Saul

I was really looking forward to this book. I have a soft spot in my heart for horror, and this one seemed to have it all. A creaky old Catholic school with underground tunnels and a forgotten chapel, forbidden rites, demonic possession. I was really looking forward to it. Some of my favorite horror stories have similar themes. It by Stephen King, Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, I was hoping to add this one to it. Turns out it will not be making the list.

Massive Spoiler and more after the jump (you have been warned)

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Bite by Richard Laymon

I read Bite by Richard Laymon five or six years ago and for some reason it popped into my head again recently. I went to the local used bookstore and picked up a copy and gave it a reread. I remembered that I liked the premise - a woman shows up on her high school boyfriend’s porch one night and asks him to help her kill a vampire. But I also remember there was a big problem I had withe the story, but couldn’t remember exactly what it was. Boy did it all come flooding back.

More and possible spoilers after the jump.

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Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

Christopher Moore’s Lamb is the written as a new gospel written by Levi who is called Biff, who grew up with Jesus and spent the lost years with him. The action of the book is mostly concerned with the years between Jesus’s birth and the beginning of his ministry in his early thirties. The real New Testament makes almost no mention of Jesus’s life during this time, and according to Biff it is because it was during this time that he an Jesus traveled the world.
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Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds

It’s been a while since I’ve read astronomer turned scifi author Alaster Reynolds. I loved his earlier books (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, and Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days), although Chasm City didn’t really do it for me. So I was excited when I saw Pushing Ice in a local book store.

Pushing Ice is about a crew of comet miners (or more actually comet harvesters (Although why the comets are actually harvested is never really explained. It is probably just such a standard science fiction theme that it doesn’t really need elaboration)) who are the only ones that are in position to get a close look at Saturn’s moon Janus when it begins accelerating out of the solar system under some unknown means.

While I won’t go to far into the plot, let me just say this is a story that Reynold’s talents are really suited for. The affects or relativity, long term space travel, work in a near vacuum, nanotechnology and first contact are all dealt with. And few people do really hard scifi as well as Reynolds in my opinion. My one gripe is that some of the characters are a little flat and some of the dialog seems forced. But none of this takes away from a really great read. I pounded this book down in 4 days (which is pretty good for my old rear end).

So if you’ve never read any Alister Reynolds, this would not be a bad introduction (although I would recommend Revelation Space as the best introduction to Reynolds). I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for some a good novel with some interesting ideas.