A Spattering of What I’ve Read
Along with a lot about Mondragon, I’ve read: The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris, Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis, and The Year’s Best SF 15, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. (I’ve been reading a lot more since getting a Kindle and you should too.)
A really cool ‘neo-noir’ (or whatever) survey of the American wasteland. Take most of what is perceived as the excesses of today (wealth, power, drugs, sexual promiscuity, etc) to the n’th degree. Call it the mainstream. That’s what Warren has done here. Also, its a very short book so quick and fun to read.
Very circular. However, if you make it through the overwrought, you’ll find some really haunting, poetic paragraphs that speak to the nature of love, distance, health, and family. One of those books that makes you appreciate those around you, and demands you raise yourself above the complacency born of being around them.
I don’t normally do compilations (rarely do I find myself aligned with the perspective of the editors), but this was fun. Bruce Sterling’s ‘Black Swan’ is great with hints of Inception, Peter Watts ‘The Island’ was simply stunning, and Mary Robinette Kowal’s “The Consciousness Problem” raises some interesting questions about love and clones.
-Shlok
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