![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiveforsilver posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
imperfectletterOriginally posted April 09, 2006 in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fiveforsilver:
22. A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane (book 6 in the Young Wizards series) (320)
I'm a big fan of Duane's Young Wizards series. I picked up the third book, High Wizardry, around 11 years ago at a KMart or some such when I was on a long trip with my parents and needed something to read. I did, I admit, judge a book by its cover, but I wasn't disappointed. It took me a few years to realize it was part of a series, though. These are ostensibly written for young adults but the writing style - particularly of some of the later books - and many of the themes can speak to adult readers of fantasy as well.
The two main characters in most of the books are friends and wizarding partners Kit and Nita. In this book, Nita is suffering from depression due to a great loss in the previous book (The Wizard's Dilemma) and so Kit strikes out on his own to try and contact another local wizard who is stuck in the middle of his Ordeal - a sort of test that every wizard goes through when the power is first offered to them. The catch is that that wizard, Darryl, is autistic, and entering his mind to try to communicate with him starts to take its toll on Kit.
A lot of YW fans don't care for this book, and I believe it is not because it's not a good book but because it is - because it gives you a taste of the depression, the lonliness that Nita is feeling, and even an idea of how cut off from the world Kit feels because of his time spent with Darryl. I tend to read it when I'm a little depressed, because while it intesifies those feelings for a while, it eventually brings you back out of it, too.
23. *Old Man's War by John Scalzi (313)
I read Scalzi's blog (although, y'know, I have no idea how I found it), so when I was at the bookstore to waste some time and saw his book, I decided it was high time I found out if I liked his fiction as much as his blogging. And I do.
Old Man's War is science fiction. I had no idea what it was about before I picked it up, but I found that the title is surprisingly apt. It's set in a future time, and all elderly people on Earth are given the option of joining the CDF (Colonial Defense Forces) when they turn 75. You are taken off Earth and - on Earth, at least - declared legally dead. Nobody on Earth knows exactly what happens next...except that they somehow make you young again, to fight in the war.
24. The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (246)
Another science fiction. This is for some inexplicable reason one of my favorite books, though it's very dated - it was written around the birth of the internet, and Brunner's view of what the internet would become is interesting, though inaccurate in many ways. It's not a book I've ever really been able to summarize or explain well, though. I like the end - it's one of those things that you sort of wish could be in the real world, but it's probably too idealistic to really work.
*New reads
Current reading:
Lint by Steve Aylett
The Best of the Best: 20 Years of The Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois
(Still working on those two, one because I don't like it much and the other because it's very long.)
Almost finished with Thud! by Terry Pratchet
fiveforsilver:22. A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane (book 6 in the Young Wizards series) (320)
I'm a big fan of Duane's Young Wizards series. I picked up the third book, High Wizardry, around 11 years ago at a KMart or some such when I was on a long trip with my parents and needed something to read. I did, I admit, judge a book by its cover, but I wasn't disappointed. It took me a few years to realize it was part of a series, though. These are ostensibly written for young adults but the writing style - particularly of some of the later books - and many of the themes can speak to adult readers of fantasy as well.
The two main characters in most of the books are friends and wizarding partners Kit and Nita. In this book, Nita is suffering from depression due to a great loss in the previous book (The Wizard's Dilemma) and so Kit strikes out on his own to try and contact another local wizard who is stuck in the middle of his Ordeal - a sort of test that every wizard goes through when the power is first offered to them. The catch is that that wizard, Darryl, is autistic, and entering his mind to try to communicate with him starts to take its toll on Kit.
A lot of YW fans don't care for this book, and I believe it is not because it's not a good book but because it is - because it gives you a taste of the depression, the lonliness that Nita is feeling, and even an idea of how cut off from the world Kit feels because of his time spent with Darryl. I tend to read it when I'm a little depressed, because while it intesifies those feelings for a while, it eventually brings you back out of it, too.
23. *Old Man's War by John Scalzi (313)
I read Scalzi's blog (although, y'know, I have no idea how I found it), so when I was at the bookstore to waste some time and saw his book, I decided it was high time I found out if I liked his fiction as much as his blogging. And I do.
Old Man's War is science fiction. I had no idea what it was about before I picked it up, but I found that the title is surprisingly apt. It's set in a future time, and all elderly people on Earth are given the option of joining the CDF (Colonial Defense Forces) when they turn 75. You are taken off Earth and - on Earth, at least - declared legally dead. Nobody on Earth knows exactly what happens next...except that they somehow make you young again, to fight in the war.
24. The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (246)
Another science fiction. This is for some inexplicable reason one of my favorite books, though it's very dated - it was written around the birth of the internet, and Brunner's view of what the internet would become is interesting, though inaccurate in many ways. It's not a book I've ever really been able to summarize or explain well, though. I like the end - it's one of those things that you sort of wish could be in the real world, but it's probably too idealistic to really work.
*New reads
| |
24 / 200 total books (12.0%) |
| |
6 / 50 new books (12.0%) |
| |
9,266 / 50,000 pages (18.5%) |
Current reading:
Lint by Steve Aylett
The Best of the Best: 20 Years of The Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois
(Still working on those two, one because I don't like it much and the other because it's very long.)
Almost finished with Thud! by Terry Pratchet
