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Books (55)

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- Market Forces (2)
- (Gollancz SF S.)
- By Richard Morgan
- Finished on Dec 20, 2009
  
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Market Forces

Worth reading!

Tough & ruthless.
An insight on the world 40 years from now.

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— Dec 21, 2009 | Add your feedback
- The Return
- Book IV of Voyagers
- By Ben Bova
- Finished on Oct 17, 2009
  
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The Return

yes, it's good but...

...the fabric Bova's novels are made with is being stretched too much and begins to tear apart.
As for Terry Brooks (who merged the ‘Knight of the Word’ series with ‘Shannara’) Ben Bova is doing pretty much the same with ‘Voyagers’ and ‘The Grand Tour’.
The novel deals with former 20th century ... (continue)

...the fabric Bova's novels are made with is being stretched too much and begins to tear apart.
As for Terry Brooks (who merged the ‘Knight of the Word’ series with ‘Shannara’) Ben Bova is doing pretty much the same with ‘Voyagers’ and ‘The Grand Tour’.
The novel deals with former 20th century Astronaut Keith Stoner, now endowed with the god-like powers he owes to the alien technology he and his family are able to master, meets with the characters of the Grand Tour Novels at the end of the 21st century.
But this is no longer the world Keith and his family left more than a century before.
Even though the “trick” Bova uses to mix the two different storylines is kind of remarkable this new book appears to me as not as exciting as the previous novels of both the series.
There is lack of action: all along the novel almost nothing happens, furthermore some characters are just sketched leaving the reader with the feeling that something during the reading is missing.
The end of the book leaves (would you expect anything else?) some room for a further sequel…..
Money is money, no surprise, but I’d rather prefer to read something new from Bova genius…..

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— Oct 19, 2009 | Add your feedback
- The Steel Remains (2)
- By Richard Morgan
- Finished on Aug 29, 2009
  
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The Steel Remains

awesome!

Ringil is a gay hero that survives telling story of his past battles in exchange of board and lodging in a small village Inn.
Archeth is a lesbian half blood virago, that lives at the court of the emperor
Egar is a former mercenary from the steppe and also an outcast Clan Chief.
With this ... (continue)

Ringil is a gay hero that survives telling story of his past battles in exchange of board and lodging in a small village Inn.
Archeth is a lesbian half blood virago, that lives at the court of the emperor
Egar is a former mercenary from the steppe and also an outcast Clan Chief.
With this three characters Morgan destroys the classical cliches of fantasy genre creating a new astounding novel in the fashion of his previous SF works!!
By far the better fantasy novel I've read in the last years!!
P.S.
When Ringil asks about the origin of dwenda's powers he gets a typical SF answer.... just a few words....
is this simply a joke by Morgan or something more?
I hope we'll find it in the upcoming second book of the trilogy

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— Aug 31, 2009 | Add your feedback
- Brisingr (48)
- By Christopher Paolini
- Finished on Oct 19, 2008
  
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Brisingr

1 person find this helpful
good

Paolini is able to mix Star Wars saga with fantasy.
Still worth a read, anyway!

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— Apr 18, 2008 | Add your feedback

- Mars Life (2)
- By Ben Bova
- Finished on Aug 28, 2008
  
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Mars Life

Not as expected...

The adventures of Jamie Waterman, the half-Navaho astronaut, continue on Earth and Mars.
This time he deals with the psalm-singing zealots of the New Morality movement who are rapidly taking over American government and its economy after the effects of global warning seriously hit the US (and the ... (continue)

The adventures of Jamie Waterman, the half-Navaho astronaut, continue on Earth and Mars.
This time he deals with the psalm-singing zealots of the New Morality movement who are rapidly taking over American government and its economy after the effects of global warning seriously hit the US (and the rest of the world, as well) and who are willing to shut down the entire Mars Program that strongly conflicts with their beliefs.
In the meantime, outstanding discoveries are made on the surface of Mars…..
This is the latest of Ben Bova’s ‘Grand Tour’ of Solar System novels and the author refers to the plot and characters already built in his previous works with, to my opinion, a certain lack on imaginative strength.
The book is, anyway, worth reading even though Bova can write better novels.
A big mistakes about timeline is to be reported: somewhere in the books the story is reported to happen in the 2050s (and this is in accordance with the timeline of the whole Grand Tour Novels), elsewhere the author mistakenly refers to the 2090s.

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— Aug 21, 2008 | Add your feedback
- The Assault on Reason
- How the Politics of Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision-making
- By Al Gore
- Reading since Jun 25, 2008
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The Assault on Reason

Interessante

Al Gore scrive in maniera eccellente, anche se la trattazione politica non è certo il mio forte. lo finirò con calma!
La lettura continua: a volte pesante e lento, ma illuminante!!

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— Jul 14, 2008 | Add your feedback
- Elves of Cintra, The (1)
- Genesis of Shannara
- By Terry Brooks
- Finished in 2006
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- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (488)
- (Harry Potter, Book 7)
- By J. K. Rowling
- Finished in 2005
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- Scottish Myths and Legends
- By Judy Hamilton
- Finished in 2006
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- The Children of Hurin (28)
- By J.R.R. Tolkien
- Finished on Jan 27, 2008
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- Voyagers II
- The Alien Within
- By Ben Bova
- Finished in 2007
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- Black Man (3)
- By Richard Morgan
- Finished on Nov 8, 2009
  
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Black Man

very good!

‘Blackman’ is a hard-boiled detective story that takes place a century from now, in a future different from the one depicted in Takeshi Kovacs trilogy....
What we are, like we act, what we do and accomplish in our lifetime is due to the capabilities we acquires from the culture we were born and ... (continue)

‘Blackman’ is a hard-boiled detective story that takes place a century from now, in a future different from the one depicted in Takeshi Kovacs trilogy....
What we are, like we act, what we do and accomplish in our lifetime is due to the capabilities we acquires from the culture we were born and soaked or it is related to our genes and we can’t do anything to change our “wiring”.
This is the main theme of the book. Morgan gives us his answer with a truly remarkable and riveting book.
Not an easy writing, especially at the beginning, when the author is binding together the different parts of the storyline. But it you are patient and endure the effort of surviving the first chapters you’ll be rewarded with an awesome SF novel.

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— Oct 21, 2009 | Add your feedback