chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Cheshire Chuqui) (11/20/84)
It's amazing how much reading you can catch up while criss-crossing this wonderful country of ours-- airplanes and airports seem to have a purpose after all. Anyway, onward to things I should have read months ago: Dying of the Light - George R. R. Martin Pocket Books, $1.95 Rating: *** I've seen mixed reviews of this book, but I found myself entranced and involved in it. It isn't an easy or happy book-- this is a book for an active reader (similar but not as well done as Wolfe's books); definitely not a casual read. The story is set on Worlorn, a rogue planet on it's way out of a star system and into unending darkness. Worlorn was used as a festival planet by a federation of worlds, and now scientists are studying it as it dies. The book studies the scientists, their societies, and how they interact with each other. Very powerful on a gut level, especially the characters and their strengths, faults and foibles. It made me read long after I should have been asleep, and that is the best recommendation I can make. Wings of Omen -- thieves world #6 - robert lynn asprin Ace Fantasy, $2.95 Rating: ** I was looking forward to this book after devouring 1-5, but this one left me flat. Perhaps the new characters just aren't as interesting as the older ones (noticably in the background in this book). Part of it may be that I just have trouble with the Beysibs (an amphibian invasionary force from book #5). Mostly I think it is just that I (and some of the authors) are running out of steam on the project-- I just don't think it will sustain itself much longer. Robots of Dawn - Isaac Asimov Ballantine #3.95 Rating: * *yawn* a 398 page short story, padded to fill. No real challenges, no real suspense, Asimov at his most mechanical. Isaac Asimov writing about sex reminds me of reading Gray's Anatomy-- it's all there, in perfect detail, and I'm terribly bored. The whole book left me terribly flat, the only reason this book seems to exist is to try to link (with understated references to psychohistory) the robots with Foundation. Not really worth it, in retrospect. hmm... only 30 books to go and I'm up to date. Time to go back east again, I guess... *grin* chuq -- From the Department of Bistromatics: Chuq Von Rospach {cbosgd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA This plane is equipped with 4 emergency exits, at the front and back of the plane and two above the wings. Please note that the plane will be travelling at an average altitude of 31,000 feet, so any use of these exits in an emergency situation will most likely be futile.