So I just finished First Lord’s Fury, the sixth and final book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. This book held a lot of meaning for me and others that are fans of Mr. Butcher’s other excellent series, The Dresden Files. The reason is this, Butcher has never wrote an ending until now. Sure he has written about seventeen books total, some very successful, but he has never ended a series. So this book held the expectations of all of his fans, and might I add that he delivered in spades.
Without spoiling too much, the entire book is a war against the Vord as introduced in the first novel and expanded upon in later ones. Character progression is great, the plot has enough twists and turns to keep you interested. To put it bluntly, it was an awesome read and a worthy finale to an excellent series.
Also finished last night was Use of Weapons by the man quickly becoming my favorite sci-fi author, Scotsman Iain M. Banks. This is another of The Culture series and follows a mercenary named Chernadine Zakalwe in a double story, one set in the past, one current. The theory here is that since The Culture is basically against violence, they find highly capable military professionals to work on their behalf. Zakalwe is one of these recruits, a veritable genius of 
military action used on countless worlds by The Culture. The story follows his exploits, but is truly about his hidden demons.
This is another shining example of Mr. Bank’s shear superiority of, not just the space opera, but of just damn good story-telling to boot. This is another must read for sci-fi fans out there.
So, next on the reading list is Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. This is a book that I have been meaning to read for a year now, and well no time like the present I suppose.
MurfMan Books, SciFi Charles Stross, Codex Alera, Culture, Iain Banks, Jim Butcher, review, SciFi
Well I finally finished Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold. About three-quarters of the way through and I started getting really pissed with Mr. Abercrombie and the somewhat predictable nature to which he tends to place in his stories. But alas, he has redeemed himself and the ending of Best Served Cold was far far better than the so-called ending of the First Law Trilogy. He still tends to have an issue with leaving characters alive that probably should have died, but honestly this novel is filled with death. So characters not dying was against the grain. I have to say that I will read anything else that Mr. Abercrombie produces.
On a second note, I have started reading after much delay, Use of Weapons by the great Iain M. Banks. This marks the third in the Culture series, which has taken its place as being the best Sci-Fi series that I have read ever. I have only gotten about 50 pages deep into it, but I cannot tell you how nice it was to bridge the gap from epic fantasy to space opera in one day. It was like a long awaited homecoming. More on this novel later.
I have managed to finally come to terms with Windows Vista. I replaced the shell. Yes in the 90’s fashion of Win200 and XP I tried several old favorites (Litestep, BB4Win) and some new ones (Geo-Shell, Object Desktop) but it was SharpE that grabbed my attention. SharpE is a very polished and usable shell that can be used without heavy customization, although some tweaking won’t hurt at all. If anyone is fed up with the default Windows shell environment, the window manager for those in the know, then I highly recommend SharpE!
MurfMan Books, Tech Books, Culture, Iain Banks, Joe Abercrombie, SharpE, shell, Tech
Every time you read a book in a genre you love you always end up, subconsciously or consciously, comparing it to your mind’s own vision of that genre. Usually this is another book you have read in the past that is for you the closest to what your mind’s eye sees of that genre.
In my case for the last several months every time I read science fiction of any type, from Cherryh to Stross, I find myself comparing it to one novel in particular. The funny thing is that when I read it I thought it a great book, but would not have put it at the top of my sci-fi pile. But as time goes on I realize that so far Consider Phlebas is my quintessential sci-fi.
This actually came as a surprise to me, although now I am not sure why, but really it does make perfect sense. It has everything that a great space opera should have: action, intrigue, aliens, sex with strange furry proto-human females, and a super advanced society capable of giving its inhabitants anything they desire. Seriously, what’s not to love?
So now I am reading the second novel in the Culture series, The Player of Games, and while it is told from the viewpoint within Culture whereas Consider Phlebas was told from without, it is still shaping up to be an excellent read. Part of the reason for that I think is because of Mr. Bank’s voice throughout both novels so far. There is no struggle to read it and in fact it flows from one line to the next, from one page to the next.
I honestly have not been so keen to finish a series since I first found Jim Butcher’s amazing Dresden Files or Charles Stross’s Laundry series. Iain M. Banks’ Culture is the reading list through the summer.
MurfMan Books, Personal, SciFi Books, Culture, Iain Banks, SciFi
