Thursday, September 18, 2008

Back to the Future: Live without a Net worth a read!

Blue Tyson takes me back to the beginning with his Not Free SF Reader review of Live Without a Net,my first professionally-published, original SF anthology. He makes me smile when he says, "So far, it seems, anything Anders has edited is worth a read, and you can't do better than that." But what I really like is this comment: "...the wild World War Two spy novella by John Meaney, that is the strongest work here."

More love for John Meaney always good!

9 comments:

John Picacio said...

Hate seeing that cover in red. Ugh. Wish they would've left in blue like the original. Great to see this book still getting love five years later though! :)

ces said...

Yeah, even though red is my favourite cover, I agree, blue is better.

Need to see if Amazon has it. Or Powell's.

Lou Anders said...

It's out of print, but lots of copies floating around.

ces said...

Ordered!

Lou Anders said...

As ever, I will be anxious for your opinion...

ces said...

Speaking of opinions . . .

I started Joel Shepherd's Crossover yesterday - read about half of it. It's a very fast read, & this is why, or at least it's my impression so far.

So far, I have found it to be a very "simple" book. short sentences. No big words. No big scientific/computerese language or concepts to figure out or just give up on & skip over. For some reason, too, the story seems very familiar. Girl skips out. Saves VIP. All is forgiven. Gets free car & vacation. Rides off into the sunset. Oh yes, inbetween all this, she loves sex & gets plenty. Hmmm. Sounds familiar.

I know she's not a real girl - she's an AI - but then stories about the acceptance/unacceptance of AI's aren't new either.

Well, I'm only halfway through the first of 3 books, so you could say I am only 1/6 or 16% so my opinion could very well change. BTW - it's pouring here in Seattle.

Lou Anders said...

The politics get more and more complicated. Also, for me, a lesser writer would have written about the soldier who wants more, the AI who wants to come to grips with who she is, etc... Sandy knows who she is and isn't aching to become human (a la Data and Pinocchio). Rather, we see the fact of her as the disruptive element in the politics of a world and worlds...

ces said...

Finished first book last night. You are right - the politics did get more complicated. And gosh darn, I do like her! it's getting harder to think of her as just an AI. And she's definitely disruptive, on many levels. I'm definitely looking forward to starting the next book.

But then I went to Barnes&Noble today and came home with the first edition (only 7600 copies printed according to the book) of "...and their memory was a bitter tree..." by Robert e. Howard. apparently it's a collection of Conan stories from the 1930's and published in Weird Tales. Illustrated in colour by Brom & Frank Frazetta. It is a beautiful book.

Lou Anders said...

See? And the books just get better. The third is my favorite actually...

But - all those illustrated Robert E Howard's tempt me.