Remember how I lamented last year about not reading enough science fiction compared to fantasy and everything else I read? Well, looks like I won't be doing any bellyaching this year. So far, I've read five books in a row. Actually didn't intend to do that, it just sort of happened.
Hey, by the way, did you know that Dragonriders of Pern is classified as science fiction? I sure as heck didn't until I was halfway through Dragonflight. Anyways, here's the five:
A re-read that was long overdue. I thoroughly enjoyed OMW the first time I read it seven or more years ago and I've always meant to re-read it, but I could never get the show on the road until last month.
Another re-read and one that was better served by it. I didn't dislike The Ghost Brigades the first time I read it, but I didn't exactly fall head over heels for it either. A second run through was much better since I knew what to expect.
This was the odd bird. I've had Night Train for years and years now (I can't even remember where or when I bought it) and up until last month, it was doing nothing but collecting dust and moving from shelf to box to shelf. I can't explain why I all of a sudden decided to read Night Train, but I did and I regret not doing it sooner. It didn't exactly knock my socks off, but it wasn't a waste of my time either. It might be one of those books (like above) that gets better during a second run through.
The third in the Old Man's War series. I really enjoyed this one because it was not what I expected. I can't really explain why I liked this book without spoiling the plot, but suffice to say that if you like brinkmanship, interstellar politics, plot twists, and the kind of behind the scenes throatcutting that would make the Lannisters from Game of Thrones proud, this might be a book worth checking out.
Now, you would think that a series featuring a quasi-medieval society, dragons, and the men and women who ride them would make Dragonriders of Pern firmly of the fantasy genre...and you, good sirs and madams, would be wrong. The origins and lost technology of Pernese society, as well as old standbys such as teleportation and time travel put the series in science fiction territory.
I liked Dragonflight, but you can tell that it is a product of 1960s fantasy. The characters are always really dramatic when they talk or do anything. The romance between F'lar and Lessa was like out of a soap opera or something. And yeah, all the dragonmen (because dragonriders wasn't manly enough?) have those cliche fantasy names with an apostrophe between the first and second letters.
I'm pleased as punch with my progress. Not least of which is because I've never read five books from the same genre in a row before. Last year I read them in groups of three, but never five.
I plan on keeping this trend up with Robert Asprin's Phule's Company, maybe followed by Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. After that, I think I might read the first Stainless Steel Rat or Riverworld. I'm in a classic sci-fi kind of mood.
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