More book squee
Jun. 16th, 2013 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hmpfBought this week (as if I had money, hah): Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson - on the strength of a number of enthusiastic reviews that made it sound really interesting. It arrived today, and I've had a closer look, and it still looks really interesting (exept for the cover, which is awful). It's a First Contact story told essentially in the form of blog reviews of ancient alien computer games sent to the (human) reviewer by the aliens. If nothing else, that's a conceit for a novel I haven't encountered before.
Looking forward to receive as a birthday gift from my parents, in less than two months: All four published volumes of the print version of Problem Sleuth, the most systematically, intricately insane webcomic I know. Strangely enough, this is also a kind of meta-meditation about games. I read this a couple of years ago online and have been wanting to reread it on paper for ages; I just held off on buying the books because I was hoping the author would perhaps publish the fifth and last volume of the series sometime soon so I could buy them all in one go (the postage for international shipping is ridiculous). But it looks as if that's still years away, so I put it on my wishlist for my birthday - and it's right at the top of the list, too.
Recently discovered and found surprisingly effective: The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross - third volume of the Laundry series. A series set in the early years of an apocalypse that somehow feels "fresh" to me. It's a weird cross between a spy novel, a satire of bureaucracy, and Lovecraftian horror - all mixed with a kind of IT sensibility, because in the Laundry universe, IT, as applied mathematics, is essentially a form of magic. Or maybe the other way around. The hero is a programmer turned demonologist, and in the employ of a branch of the British secret service. -- I never would have bought this book, but I found it on a bookcrossing shelf just after I moved here in March, and since it seemed to be recent(!) English-language(!) sf/fantasy(!) I just had to take it; it was like it was meant for me. (I live in a tiny German village. Recent English sf and fantasy is the last thing I would have expected on a bookcrossing shelf here. It really felt as if someone had put it there just for me, to welcome me. :D)
These aren't the only books I've read recently or will read soon, but they're the ones that colour my emotions the most at the moment - along with a whole lot of Banks.
Speaking of which: this is a really good interview/article.
Oh, and since there seems to be a theme of "game meta fiction" here today, why not add a rec for Banks own volume of game meta fiction: The Player of Games. This was my true introduction to the Culture, and it made me a fan. It seems to be fairly widely regarded as one of the best ways to get into the Culture series.
Looking forward to receive as a birthday gift from my parents, in less than two months: All four published volumes of the print version of Problem Sleuth, the most systematically, intricately insane webcomic I know. Strangely enough, this is also a kind of meta-meditation about games. I read this a couple of years ago online and have been wanting to reread it on paper for ages; I just held off on buying the books because I was hoping the author would perhaps publish the fifth and last volume of the series sometime soon so I could buy them all in one go (the postage for international shipping is ridiculous). But it looks as if that's still years away, so I put it on my wishlist for my birthday - and it's right at the top of the list, too.
Recently discovered and found surprisingly effective: The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross - third volume of the Laundry series. A series set in the early years of an apocalypse that somehow feels "fresh" to me. It's a weird cross between a spy novel, a satire of bureaucracy, and Lovecraftian horror - all mixed with a kind of IT sensibility, because in the Laundry universe, IT, as applied mathematics, is essentially a form of magic. Or maybe the other way around. The hero is a programmer turned demonologist, and in the employ of a branch of the British secret service. -- I never would have bought this book, but I found it on a bookcrossing shelf just after I moved here in March, and since it seemed to be recent(!) English-language(!) sf/fantasy(!) I just had to take it; it was like it was meant for me. (I live in a tiny German village. Recent English sf and fantasy is the last thing I would have expected on a bookcrossing shelf here. It really felt as if someone had put it there just for me, to welcome me. :D)
These aren't the only books I've read recently or will read soon, but they're the ones that colour my emotions the most at the moment - along with a whole lot of Banks.
Speaking of which: this is a really good interview/article.
Oh, and since there seems to be a theme of "game meta fiction" here today, why not add a rec for Banks own volume of game meta fiction: The Player of Games. This was my true introduction to the Culture, and it made me a fan. It seems to be fairly widely regarded as one of the best ways to get into the Culture series.
