Books of August 2010

Future on Fire
Orson Scott Card, Ed.
ISBN 0-812-51183-2
376 pages
August 27th

Collection of short stories.  Some very interesting ideas on the future.

Tapestry of Spies
Stephen Hunter
ISBN 0-440-22185-4
442 pages
August 15th

Picked up because I like Stephen Hunter's Swagger books.  I was maybe 100 pages in before I was sure I had read it before.  Published in 1985, so probably read as a young teen.  Not a bad book.  Made me think of a N-F book I read once about the Cambridge Five.


The Gray Nineties
James Wesley, Rawles
No ISBN
247 pages
August 8th

Discovered this while looking for some more end of the world novels.  Written by a real life 'survivalist', it actually is a very interesting and for the most part believable prediction of the break down of society after an economic crisis.  Society really is a fragile thing, and when the poop hits the fan, this guy will be ready.  Of course it was supposed to happen in the 80's.  Then mid-nineties.  Then Y2K...

For me, this book was ruined by one completely stupid thing.   I believed the story of the fall.  I believed the lawlessness.  I believed the preparation necessary as the characters bunker down in the boonies with a crapload of guns while the world as we know it falls apart, ready to deal with whatever comes their way.  What evilness arrives on their doorstep?  Two homosexuals.  With guns.  Who just so happen to be card carrying communists.  And looters with a cart full of jewelry and gold.  And they eat children.  Yep, the world ends and the badguys are " murdering, cannibal, commie, fruiter looters."  At that point we moved from interesting speculative fiction to paranoid nut-job lunacy.

A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller, Jr.
ISBN 553-06883-125
278 pages
August 3rd

My favourite genre is end of the world, or post-apocalyptic fiction.  A re-read of this classic (#49 on the top 100 sci-fi books of all time. After reading The Man in the High Castle last month, I think I'm up to 70 from the list.)  Discovered that there is a sequel, I'll have to try and track it down.

Invisible Prey
John Sanford
ISBN 978-0-425-22115-0
441 pages
August 1st

Another crime author I've read all of.  The other being Michael Connolly.  Good, but not great.  A perfect book for a Sunday afternoon.