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The fake tan on my legs is streaky! Gahhh.
In other news, I've just finished Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross in my bid to read the Hugo nominees before Worldcon. It was okay, indeed a 'carnival of ideas' as someone said on the back cover and I very much liked the character of Rachel Mansour. What a great name. It's not often, ever? that you see an old woman as protagonist. She might not look it, but there's a nice contrast in life experience between her and another far younger female character. Wednesday Shadowmist, with the joke Mary Sue name, felt oddly like a Mary Sue herself sometimes though.
I suppose one of the things science fiction, or any fiction, needs to do is introduce the reader to a new world and to make the reader believe in it. It's certainly vibrant, but sometimes there was a touch of what I think of the Jake Arnotts. If you've ever read a book of his, you'll know that he won't leave period detail alone, to the point where you just want him to shut up about the clothes and the cars and the music and all the other little things he puts in so you know, yes very well thank you, these people are 1960's mods. There was a bit of that going on in Iron Sunrise, too much being shoehorned in, but then, if you're creating a world, how can there not be huge amounts of detail? I suppose it rests on how you get those details across, how much and when and how good they are.
I was disappointed by the end. I had a real sense that the plot, which raced along for about two thirds of the book, just overreached itself and fell flat, fizzled out, whatever. By the end I was glad to put it down and wasn't sure that I liked the blatant setting up for a sequel. But there were lots of nice ideas. Lots and lots of them.
In other news, I've just finished Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross in my bid to read the Hugo nominees before Worldcon. It was okay, indeed a 'carnival of ideas' as someone said on the back cover and I very much liked the character of Rachel Mansour. What a great name. It's not often, ever? that you see an old woman as protagonist. She might not look it, but there's a nice contrast in life experience between her and another far younger female character. Wednesday Shadowmist, with the joke Mary Sue name, felt oddly like a Mary Sue herself sometimes though.
I suppose one of the things science fiction, or any fiction, needs to do is introduce the reader to a new world and to make the reader believe in it. It's certainly vibrant, but sometimes there was a touch of what I think of the Jake Arnotts. If you've ever read a book of his, you'll know that he won't leave period detail alone, to the point where you just want him to shut up about the clothes and the cars and the music and all the other little things he puts in so you know, yes very well thank you, these people are 1960's mods. There was a bit of that going on in Iron Sunrise, too much being shoehorned in, but then, if you're creating a world, how can there not be huge amounts of detail? I suppose it rests on how you get those details across, how much and when and how good they are.
I was disappointed by the end. I had a real sense that the plot, which raced along for about two thirds of the book, just overreached itself and fell flat, fizzled out, whatever. By the end I was glad to put it down and wasn't sure that I liked the blatant setting up for a sequel. But there were lots of nice ideas. Lots and lots of them.