Books: Many

[woodwardiocom]

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

A relatively light Vorkosigan novel, being mostly a detective story. Recommended, but not as much as several of the earlier novels.

Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter

An early cyberpunk novel, with strong fantasy elements. (It resembles Camelot 3000 in a few ways.) The main female character is a bit disposable, but still: Mildly recommended.

The Lies Of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

In D&D games, I often play the thief. This is a lovely novel about a gang of fantasy thieves, who get wrapped up in someone else's revenge, but end up dealing a little of their own. Gritty, imaginative, and first in a series. Recommended.

Citizen In Space by Robert Sheckley

A collection of short SF and fantasy stories, most of them gently mocking of people's foibles. Recommended

Strange Interludes by Tim Powers

Another story collection, including time travel, ghosts, and dark immortals. Powers likes to juxtapose people's inner demons with outer ones. Recommended.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I finally got around to reading this. Boy howdy, is it good! It was a literal page-turner for me, and I did not see the end coming. Clever, gripping, and highly recommended.

The Astounding-Analog Reader, edited by Harrison and Aldiss

A collection of stories from the fabled SF magazine, gathered from 1932 to 1946 (mostly 1941-1946). They are largely much-anthologized already ("Farewell To The Master", "Nightfall", "By His Bootstraps", "City"), but there are a few in there I hadn't previously read ("Seeds Of The Dusk", "Time Wants A Skeleton", "Placet Is A Crazy Place"). Direly out of print, but recommended.

Plotto by William Wallace Cook

This 1928 book is a guide to creating plots, piece by piece: E.g., "197: A, threatened with death by savages, is offered his life by B, the ruler of the tribe, if he will marry her. May be followed by 904 or 973." With 1500 cross-referenced story-fragments, it's a scary work of organization, and even potentially useful to a modern writer (though it's a little — a lot — mired in its era). Recently reprinted by Tin House Books. Recommended (to a narrow audience).

50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need To Know by Tony Crilly

Fifty brief essays of 50 math facts, from π to The Riemann Hypothesis. Light, but good to have around a developing mind.

Comments

[dmmaus.livejournal.com]

In that 50 Ideas You Really Need To Know series, a friend of mine (Joanne Baker) wrote the Physics and Universe titles. I recommend them.