Along with magazines (a work in progress not included here), let's skim a few (call it ten) books from the Science Fiction section. I'd be surprised if I spent more than a half hour (target time is more like fifteen minutes, being ten minutes rounded up) with each one of these books. It says nothing about their quality: the time-line having been pre-decided.
A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy
Alex White
- I was hoping for humor.
- Money is meaningless on a desert island.
- I question how much of worth it can actually buy.
- Make possible, yes.
- But, buy?
- Magic.
- That was unexpected.
- Boots is not a viable name.
- For me.
- For the spellchecker.
- I wonder if I could make a poem out of the chapter headings.
- They have spaceships.
- But other amenities are more sparse.
- Melody is more passable as a name.
- In this instance, however, it is a chapter heading.
- I've done worse.
- Nilah, Aisha, Taitu.
- A he, a she, and a planet.
- 'Child of the Singularity.'
- I can't really put my finger on why such a story bores me.
- The lack of inspiration?
- Literally, the stars are the limit.
- And we play with guns and scramble after...
- Money, I'm guessing.
- Solo Revenant Overture.
- Chapter headings.
- Names.
- Whatever.
- False limitations.
- I'd say.
- Standoff Duet.
- More fun than the chapters, themselves.
- Could be a song.
- 'Readers and Writers beware.'
- That's how the lyrics would go.
- Well, I've never read a fictional character's Last Living Will & Testament before.
- Not that I read this one.
- But it's a nice plot device.
- 'Disobeying orders.'
- I just felt like opening the book and pointing to a phrase at random.
- I am done here.
Exit Strategy
The MurderBot Diaries
Martha Wells
- Got to love MurderBot.
- Or he will kill you.
- Not even 50,000 words.
- Why write more?
- Fact heavy.
- Little conversation.
- The occasional aside.
- Come on, MurderBot! Murder somebody, already!
- Statistics.
- 47% of them are too dry to be an effective form of humor.
- You have one chance of going rogue.
- And, of course, one needs to have gone rogue before they can deliberately decide to go rogue.
- Maybe, MurderBot should start a blog.
- She is more prolific than I.
- MurderBot's name remains his best feature.
84K
Claire North
- Is that the BAUD Speed.
- At a cover price of $15.99, it's two bucks cheaper than MurderBot.
- And twice the length.
- The power of a name.
- Psycho Kill Bot.
- I, hereby, christen thee.
- Spatial poetry.
- The two-dimensional organization of words.
- Maybe, I could read this.
- Double and triple indented tabs.
- The penalty is too high for a mere rape.
- Stream of consciousness murder.
- I want to read more, as it comes off the ticker.
- Is it that I simply do not like the name Theo?
- I am turned off by text that begins.
- 'Theo...'
- I do not care what comes next.
- The wording could be improved by an italic offset.
- I don't want my time-travel to take place inline.
- I like snow.
- I did not find my 'in' to the story.
- I never cared.
- I think Theo used time-travel to avoid (perhaps unjust) punishment and start over.
- The unindented first paragraph in each section does nothing for me.
- The tabs seem random.
- I can see the conceptual advantage.
- But I don't see the logic in this particular case.
- This particular application.
- But then, I didn't look very hard.
- The country manor.
- A place of interest.
- I will stop there.
The Consuming Fire
John Scalzi
- Don't trust the High Priests.
- Like, ever.
- I was hoping the book would begin and end with profanity.
- But it only begins that way.
- F!
- She lied.
- But did she lie about her lying?
- I feel that this story stretches a single idea book-length thin.
- Maybe two.
- But to be fair, I have yet to Drop In.
- A fact.
- Let's skip to the end.
- It talks of Flow.
- But I found none.
- Never entered the story.
- Let's try one more.
- Not for me.
- Maybe, I just don't feel like doing this, today.
City of Lies
A Poison War Novel
Sam Hawke
- Maybe, lack of interest in wars and fighting is why I left the genre behind.
- I should say nice things or the author might jujitsu me.
- Starting at the end.
- Let me just say, the war ain't over until everyone (still alive) agrees it's over.
- Being -- - ---- as the curtain falls is not a good sign.
- I have no idea as to the importance of this character.
- Heck, maybe they started the book -- - ----.
- So at least, he's still hanging in there.
- My father tried to kill me when I was three.
- My mother when I was two.
- But I succeeded where they had failed at the humble age of thirty-two.
- I don't care for the fake botany lessons between chapters.
- Give me reality or give me death.
- The slow death of captivating fiction.
- This ain't it.
- Not sinking in.
- How would I write this book?
- Craft it better?
- I feel bad not Dropping In.
- Is it me?
- Or the book?
- Thought and humor is what I want.
- A narrow band.
- I didn't get what I want.
- Let's assume the author gave as she desired.
Valiant Defender
Shirlee McCoy
- Walking by the romance section, I noticed some of the books feature dogs rather than men.
- Kinky.
- Man, dog, woman, crime.
- She couldn't do it without his help.
- And he wouldn't do it without his dog.
- Nice, she makes him a snack.
- You know what they say, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
- A fuzzy head.
- And legs all wobbly.
- From climbing stairs.
- Sure.
- Remember, doG spelled backwards is God.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2018
The Year's Best Science Fiction And Fantasy
- Isaac (as in Asimov) sounds like he was a fun guy.
- But he was a secondary writer.
- I know, he's a giant.
- Who I don't care to read.
- If I recall correctly, the annual used to be much bigger.
- I think I will care more about the Grand Master's intro than anything else.
- McMore or McLess.
- I can do a Choose Your Own Adventure in HTML.
- I do not care about other people's writing.
- Maybe this project was a stupid idea.
- And then, I remember that I read every word of the Grand Master's intro.
- Kontent is Cing.
- Eventually, all bleeding stops.
- I will kill you.
- But don't take it personally.
- It's just my job.
- Hobby, whatever.
- I've been to the library with a mule called Mescal.
- It helps to deal with the rage.
- You are the sacrifice.
- That's a lot of books.
- Which can only mean, we are not talking about real full length adult oriented fiction.
- But what do I know?
ReWrite
loops in the timescape
Gregory Benford
- It's a puzzle I am not going to try and figure out.
- It's actually harder incorporating the truth than crafting a mystery.
- Mystery allows holes.
- Truth does not.
- Looks like a bit of Revisionist History.
- Concentrating on how to bring about the revision.
- Thrusting!
- !!!
- Better than the first time.
- Life is easy.
- If you know what comes next.
- That's why I like replaying the same computer game over and over again.
- It's somebody else's version of one of my own stories.
- Monetary wet dream.
- Hollywood mogul.
- Or player, at least.
- Given the magic wand, what else matters.
- I want to eat more.
- Simple desires.
- I think if I had my life to live over, I would eat more.
- And be a loner sooner.
- Living forever (iteratively) I'd like to learn to live without money.
- After all, there is no sense building wealth if a loop can end at any moment.
- I'd dance myself into the ground.
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe
Alex White
- I like the covers.
- This is the first book in the series of which the first book on this page is the second.
- This will be short.
- I like the titles.
- And the cover art.
- They speak to me.
- Yeah, I don't care.
- Realizing it was almost a repeat is enough.
- Done after the first sentence.
The Stars Now Unclaimed
Smugglers, Spies, and Snarky Spaceships in a Kick-Ass Race to Save the Universe
Drew Williams
- I used to love TOR Books.
- The mystery is The Pulse.
- I don't like mysteries.
- Tell me what The Pulse is.
- Now!
- On page 39, I came across a folded corner.
- It's the call sign of a previous reader.
- And things like that are getting to be an important part of the reading experience, for me.
- That personalized randomness.
- Serendipity.
- She has a past.
- Another mystery.
- A mystery I shall not wait for the author to solve.
- Another book mark, the most interesting part.
- Page 310.
- I don't think they got this far.
- The love interest.
- Am I learning anything about the craft of writing?
- I find the name Scheherazade to be sexy.
- I know nothing about the character.
- Might as well be a dude, otherwise.
- Maybe, I should just boycott stories with guns.
- No, that isn't the problem.
- Eh, who knows.
- I am just grabbing them more or less at random.
- Maybe more thought on my part will yield more thought on theirs.
- Or maybe, I am in the wrong section.