Nuketown

Bookshelf

Off the Bookshelf: Altered Carbon, The January Dancer, Dreadnaught, In Death Ground

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 9:00pm

DreadnaughtI've been able to make a serious dent in my summer reading list over the last few months, knocking out four books in two months.

Given how busy work has been, that's not to bad. Of course, it helps that I was on vacation for 10 days, which allowed me to knock out two of the books (Dreadnaught, In Death Ground) and most of a third (The Shiva Option, the sequel to In Death Ground).

The 8-hour road trip to get our vacation spot also allowed me to make a serious dent in the audio version of The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian, one of his Aubrey/Maturin novels about naval warfare in the early 1800s.

Nuketown's Summer 2011 Reading List

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 7:13pm

DreadnaughtSummer 2011 is well underway, and so is my summer reading list. While some summers I know exactly what I’m reading in the spring, this summer I stumbled into my reading list. Work’s been crazy busy (leading to June’s deficient of posts at Nuketown) but even with a high workload my brain demands an escape to my summer reading list.

I’ve divided my reading list into two parts: The Summer List and the Island List. The Summer List consists of books I’ll be reading throughout the summer, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The Island List is a subset of books that I’ll be taking to Butler Island on Lake Champlain with me for my much-needed, oft-dreamed of summer vacation.

You can follow my progress through my Summer Reading list on GoodReads, the social networking site for bookworms.

Open Call for Stories in the Ether, Volume 1

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 05/15/2011 - 10:00am

Love writing science fiction, fantasy and steampunk short stories? Then check out Nevermet Press' open call for submissions for their upcoming anthology, Stories in the Ether, Volume 1. According to the official announcement, "Stories In The Ether will be published individually through Nevermet Press as a blog series, and later as a collected print, PDF, ePub and audio anthology for fans to enjoy offline or through other means."

They are looking for short stories (25,000 words or less) and flash fiction (3,000 words or less). Further details and submission guidelines can be found on their web site.

When Baseball Meets Lord of the Rings

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Wed, 05/11/2011 - 9:09pm

This may be one of the best newspaper corrections I've ever seen, courtesy the MetsBlog. Apparently, the RA Dickey named his bat "Orcist the Goblin Cleaver", but mis-attributed it to belonging to Bilbo Baggins. It actually belonged to Thorin Oakenshield. It's not often that baseball and speculative fiction combine -- the last time I can remember it happening was the movie Frequency, a time-bending film set against the backdrop of the 1969 World Series (again involving the Mets).

SF Site: May 2011 Review List

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 05/01/2011 - 5:39pm

SF Site's May 2011 reviews are now online. They include Terror in the House by Henry Kuttner, Albedo One, Issue 39, Shadowheart by James Barclay, The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds, Christine (audio book) by Stephen King and The River Kings' Road (audio book) by Liane Merciel.

Of these, the one I'm most interested in is The Prefect; I've enjoyed most of Reynolds books, and I an SF-meets-hardboiled noir book sounds really good right now (though I suppose my friends will demand I read Altered Carbon first...

SF Site: January 2011 Book Reviews

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Thu, 01/13/2011 - 8:57am

The January 2011 edition of SF Site is out with reviews of The Secret History of Fantasy edited by Peter S. Beagle, The Unlikely World of Faraway Frankie by Keith Brooke, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2010, Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold, Echo by Jack McDevitt, The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton, and much more. Read all of the reviews at SFSite.com

They've also opened voting for the SF Site Readers' Choice awards for 2010.

Kobold Quarterly #16 Now Available

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 01/11/2011 - 9:19am

Kobold Quarterly #16 Kobold Quarterly reports Issue #16: Winter 2011 is now available.

The new issue of the magazine includes new magic items for Pathfinder's Golarion campaign setting, potion miscibility rules for 4th Edition, the ecology of the gearforged, an interview with Robin Laws, new 4th Edition magic items, and much more. I'm looking forward to getting my print copy, but I know I won't be able to resist the temptation to read the digital version on the iPad.

Off the Bookshelf: Evolutionary Void, Realms of Cthulhu, iPad Book Readers

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 9:19pm

The Evolutionary VoidAfter a long hiatus because of too much to do at work, I've finally gotten back to reading fiction ... because of work. Specifically because of the iPad I'm trying out at my day job.

I work at a college, and we're piloting the iPad to see how tablets might be integrated into the academic environment. Part of that is trying out the different e-reading software out there, and that gave me the perfect excuse to get a new book. Or rather two new books: The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton and Realms of Cthulhu, published by Reality Blurs.

SF Site: mid-November 2010 book reviews

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 11/22/2010 - 5:54am

The latest edition of SF Site is online with reviews of Conflicts by Ian White (a military SF anthology about all manner of future wars), Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (a vampire book in which the lead character is a woman in love with a vampire, trying to catch a non-vampire killer who's hunting women in love with vampires ... I think I just hurt my brain) and Absolute Planetary by Warren Ellis (a massive collection of the comic books of the same name). Read these and other reviews at SFSite.com.

Off the Bookshelf: Century Rain, Reversing the Anthology, Temporal Void

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 06/28/2010 - 8:46pm

I finally finished New Moon by Stephanie Meyers, and I have to say the vampire/werewolf/teenager love triangle left me cold. The main character, Bella, is whiny and unsympathetic, and she's exactly the sort of emotional heatsink that I'll be telling my son to avoid in ten years or so.

Finishing the book allowed me to move on to my proper summer reading list, starting with Century Rain and The Space Opera Renaissance. While both books were already on my bookshelf, I did still find myself buying another book for the list: Peter Hamilton's The Dreaming Void.