Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Yeah, they're pretty nice on the world-building front, with each one pretty much a self-contained story but with the whole ongoing zombie-spread plot in the background tying them together. There's lots of nice references to real world figures in the background, which is cool for 19th Century American History buffs.
I'm a little annoyed at a fairly major continuity gaffe towards the beginning of Ganymede, where two characters are presented as meeting for the first time, when they clearly met in the last book, but, other than that, I've been really satisfied with them. The next book in the series, The Inexplicables, is coming out by the end of the year, and I'm really looking forward to it!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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I'm reading the Brideshead Revisited. I wonder about the title.
Its a good read, very well written, easy, but, I wonder about the whole theme of unrequited love ... impossible love ... stuck in circumstances beyond your control. It dosn't seem like an adult would have a hard time in the situations that the main characters are in. Just tell people to frack off ... or don't ... but don't agonize and ruin your life over it. ya know.
Its a lot of himming and hawing ... and I'm not sure where or what the real plot is.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
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It's part of a series that started with a human society that had become operant, with several mental abilities and having joined the bigger galaxy. Some do not fit well into that galaxy and take an "out" to go six million years into the past where instead of saber tooth and caveman society, they find Earth has been inhabited by operant aliens. May wrote three books on this then wrote
Intervention: which back in the present tells how humans came to be operant. This was followed by
Galatic Millieu, the three volume story of how we became a part of the bigger universe. It basically gives the backstory to the story already told.
Jack-the-Bodyless: I trudged honestly through the previous volumes but this one is a Masterpiece. In previous issues Julian May shows considerable knowledge of society building, biology, cosmos, physics, mystery, and weaving a non-linear story with clarity. She's an extremely smart individual but in this volume she finally was able to make me start to care about the characters, particularly Jack. May had written interesting characters but I didn't have an interest in the relationships until this volume.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Finished the next book in Galactic Milieu: Diamond Mask.
It was as good as Jack the Bodyless.
The next book is about Jack's and "Diamond Mask's" life together fighting the big bad.
Julian May would have been a great Legion writer. Very strong in science and philosophy, great at coherently weaving several story threads and her dozens of characters have distinct voices.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: I haven't posted in awhile, but wanted to mention my current obsession: Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series.
Roughly, it's alt-history steampunk with zombies. It takes place in a world in which the American Civil War has raged on for 20 years, dirigibles are a major part of the transportation infrastructure, and an accident with a mining machine has caused a strange gas to flood the city of Seattle, turning it's inhabitants into the living dead and requiring that the city be walled off to prevent its spread.
The first book, Boneshaker, concerns the teenage Zeke Wilkes who makes his way into the walled city of Seattle to find answers about his father (who invented the mining machine), and his mother, Briar Wilkes, who follows him into the city to retrieve him. Apparently it's soon to be made into a motion picture, which should be pretty awesome.
The second book, Clementine, is about an ex-slave and air pirate who is attempting to retrieve his ship that has been stolen from him. When it turns out that the stolen vesssel is carrying parts for a Union super-weapon, the captain ends up in an unlikely partnership with a past-her-prime Confederate spy.
The third book, Dreadnaught, is about a Confederate nurse trying to make her way cross country from Richmond to Seattle to see her estranged father before he dies. Traveling by dirigible, Mississippi River Boat, and Union War Train, she gets caught up in the front lines of the ongoing confrontation between North and South. Plus there's a Ranger from the Independent Republic of Texas and a couple of Mexican officials who are travelling to Utah to investigate the disappearance of a Mexican militia unit who have gone missing on a humanitarian trip Both of the border, with strange rumors that they've gone crazy and started engaging in cannibalism. The epic battle between Union and Confederate trains attempting to race each oher throigh the Provo Pass and its aftermath is not to be missed.
I've just begun the fourth book, Ganymede, which opens in a New Orleans brothel and apparently focuses on a dangerous submarine, and it promises to be another groovy addition to the series.
Highly recommended for fans of exciting adventure and action stories, strong characters (especially females), groovy steampunk technology, and zombies!
quote:Originally posted by Blacula: ^ THOSE. BOOKS. SOUND. AMAZING!
What a crazy mish-mash of concepts but it sounds like it all really works. I love writers who are able to create a fully-fleshed, real-seeming universe for their characters to inhabit and this one sounds like she's been able to do it.
Never heard of the author or the books before but I'll definitely keep my eye out for them now.
I echo Blacula's thoughts! These sound amazing! I'm really curious now!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
^^I'm guessing you'd totally love it, Cobie!
I also predict that they are going to be super-huge in general whenever the Boneshaker movie comes out.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for right now! World building, high adventure, cool characters and a general original / quirkiness.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I was looking in my basement..and came across my copy of "Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint." I had forgotten how much fun it was to read Danny Dunn!
From: Cincinnati | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by lancesrealm: I was looking in my basement..and came across my copy of "Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint." I had forgotten how much fun it was to read Danny Dunn!
I am missing like one or two of these books. I loved them as a kid. Collected a lot of them several years ago...need to finish them up. Time to start reading them to my son as well.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Currently reading The Divine Comedy again. I tend to indulge in it around Halloween. There's a discipline to reading something so intense and complex. You almost have to study it as opposed to simply reading it. But the visual imagery is so rewarding that it's well worth the effort.
I've found that listening to it being read aloud while following along with notes about each canto (which are almost essential as Dante used many popular references and people in the poem) is a highly enjoyable and clarifying way to make your way through Dante's journey. Canto, afterall, means "song" or "singing", so hearing it performed brings life to the words.
The Divine Comedy! It's not just for school reading!
From: St. Louis, Missouri | Registered: Sep 2012
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quote:Originally posted by Legion Tracker: For those interested, Barnes & Noble just posted a list of 9 American science fiction books from the 1950s. Here's the link:
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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