If you wonder what happened to this blog, all I can say is that I barely have time these days to read a few regular web sites, as I am trying to read novels and short stories that need to be reviewed in Prometheus, or which are up for the Prometheus Award. I could break down the segments of my day, but even though I’m averaging 6 hours of sleep each day (up from 4), there’s still not enough time in the day to get to everything. I started some rather long posts a while back, including reviews of all Prometheus Award finalists, but no posts came close to blogger ready. I also had a change of heart when it came to posting what I wrote, as I was far from happy with some of the nominees. I also started a post listing a stack of books received, some of which I have worked my way through and now am in the process of reviewing. Even when it comes to this part I am way behind schedule. The best novel I read this year originally appeared in 2005 – Ken MacLeod’s Learning the World. I just started Vernor Vinge’s new novel, but even that has to wait until I have met all my review obligations for the Summer issue of Prometheus. Right now I’m reading Future Washington (sorry, no time for a link), which contains several excellent pieces, including a very timely (and scary) work of fiction on RFIDs. In case you’re reading this, and looking for news on libertarian fiction, all I can do is plead baby-duty and hope I’ll be able to post more data sometime in mid-July.
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I’m trying to read most of the Hugo nominees for best novel this year, since I’ll be at the con and therefore sending in my ballot next month. I’ve read two of five so far. I was trying to decide which book to tackle next — Accelerondo or Learning the World. After your recommendation of MacLeod’s book, my decision has been easy!
Accelerando is still worth reading, and I believe it recently won the Locus Award for best novel. Compared to Learning the World there’s less narrative structure (Stross took several connected short stories and re-wrote them as a novel–in sf critical terms this is called a “fix-up”), but greater technical density. MacLeod certainly has tech in the book, but it’s not center stage. MacLeod’s novel is more in the vein of Vernor Vinge, while Accelerando owes much to Greg Egan, That said, I’m looking forward to Glasshouse, set in the same universe as Accelerando and due out June/July timeframe this year.