I’ve been trying to read things that don’t have a spaceship on the cover recently. Could it be the result of some sort of self-improvement kick? Well, maybe. But I have read most of the hard sf that’s out there at the minute, so it was also a good time to take a break.
My relationship with scifi starts with my father, who owns a large bookcase of classic sf. Everything from Asimov to Tanith Lee was all in one easy-to-access location. With no library fines. While my dad’s taste isn’t the same as mine, it gave me a really easy entry point to a great selection of scifi books. And it really is about the books for me; I stopped reading SFX when I realised that they were never going to cover the authors they reviewed about in the same way that they did the TV shows.
And without a source of information about the newest sf that was coming out, I was a bit stuck. I know that a lot of people – the majority, even – get pleasure from reading books that don’t have a trace of science fiction elements. So I thought I’d try some of them, as recommended by my friends. I can’t say that they all sucked, but I’ve not been struck by one of them yet.
Yesterday, I strolled through Waterstones, and I happened to notice that there was a large amount of books that I’d like to read, now available in paperback. These include William Gibson’s Spook County, which seemed to be only available in hardback for about a year (link goes to Guardian review when it first came out – a year ago!). In hardback, books by Ken McCleod and Iain M. Banks are around, and the start of September sees the release of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem.
There’s one pressing reason I must pick up that last book, apart from my love of Stephenson’s writing. Earlier this year I travelled to London to see Stephenson give a lecture at Gresham college. The day after, I went with my father to take a look round the British Museum, when I saw Neal Stephenson posing in the main courtyard in front of some columns. So, apart from his prose, the plotline and everything related to the craft of writing, I really want to see the image for the author’s portrait.
Also of interest: Alistair Reynold’s new book, which is still too expensively hardback and Charles Stross’s Halting State which looks a lot better than his Hidden Family stuff (sorry Mr. Stross). If you are a fiend for sci-fi like me you might enjoy tor.com and i09, but be prepared for info overload!
