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ArisKatsaris comments on January 2014 Media Thread - Less Wrong Discussion
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Fiction Books Thread
Reread Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. Highly recommended, it has most everything I like about cyberpunk in a modern day real world setting. Without losing the Gibson world-building, world-building as a collage of interesting ideas and perspectives on things.
When I first read it, I thought this was his best book, right up until the end of chapter 37, I disliked chapters 38+ about as much as the epilogue of HP: Deathly Hallows. (And with similar belief that the book would be far better with those pages removed.)
Since then I've re-read the Bridge Trilogy, and read the sequels to Pattern Recognition. And this time I didn't find the ending frustration at all. Maybe because I could see the shape of things to come, or because I had different expectations.
The metaphor that struck me is that the structure of this book is like a certain kind of origami; much folding and unfolding, leaving you - just before the climax - with a flat sheet of paper covered in creases. Then all of a sudden it crumbles up, or seems to, but in actuality it all comes together in a new and unexpected shape.
Reading through Worm, an original novel posted in serial form over about two years, after Eliezer's fervent recommendation in the HPMOR author's notes. It's a single novel of about 1,750,000 words. And it's brilliant. It's the story of a world with superheroes, with a teenage girl as the viewpoint character. Tropes reminiscent of Miracleman.
Good, and so tense it's a superstimulus hazard.
I wouldn't normally put good books in the superstimulus hazard category, but when they're that long, you can't just take an evening and finish it.
I read it over a bit less than a week. I thought "this is taking a while, how long is it ... oh, 10 really fat books or 25 normal-sized ones. OK."
It's a touch over half as long as The Wheel of Time.
But finished rather more quickly.
This interview with Max Gladstone was linked to on Yvains blog last month and on its strength I picked up the first two books in his craft sequence - Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise Its "magicians are like lawyers/economists" premise and urban fantasy parts are very well done, and there are a decent few jokes that probably only those with some legal training will spot. The plot of the first book is a bit simple (the bad evil guy who we are told on first meeting is bad, turns out to be evil - and also reads like a less impressive Quirrel from HPMOR) however the second in the series has so far avoided the "clear bad guy" in favour of a more nuanced, Princess Mononoke style arrangement (which I hope continues until the end).
Descending order:
I read and enjoyed The January Dancer. I think the top amazon review is fair; the prose is florid, the pace ponderous, and the characters flat. But the story and universe are very engaging, and the ending came together superbly.
I very much liked The Melancholy of Mechagirl, a short story collection, particularly the last entry; while the treatment of AI is probably too soft for many here, I liked the balance it struck between human-relatable and at the same time quite alien.