Interesting Links for 6-25-2010

What I’m Reading

I managed to take in a bit of short fiction while waiting for my son to finish the book he’d borrowed, Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews (which I now have). There are a bunch of good reads out there for the enjoying.

The Dead Man’s Child by Jay Lake on Cosmos Online offers a lyrical narrative that builds on itself to resolution in the manner of the old teaching tales. It’s not rushed or focused on action or gore, and is compelling for that very fact. What did you think of it?
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/fiction/online/885/the-dead-mans-child?page=0%2C0

I listened to Father’s Kill by Christopher Green on Beneath Ceaseless Skies in audio form. I rarely have time for audio, so it’s not my favorite method of “reading,” but the BCS reader is quite good. I found the tale evocative and primarily mood focused. It does have a twist at the end that I didn’t anticipate, but is both well seeded and surprising too so nicely done.
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=48

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This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams

My husband recommended this novel for me, and it meets a lot of my interest areas. This Is Not a Game talks about the gaming world gone one step further into the real one, and then explores the social and economic consequences of same. The novel has a very cyberpunk feel to it while at the same time showing none of the traditional modifications. It reminds me a lot of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, with modern-based tech as opposed to steampunk.

One of the reasons I enjoyed the book is its very complexity. Walter Jon Williams keeps numerous threads running throughout the book for which the interrelationships are not clear from the start. There are many types of books this one can fall under, but ultimately it’s a mystery. Dagmar is the main character, and she is responsible for crafting complex games run through the Internet but intersecting with the real world as an effort to advertise brand-new products. The games may involve international travel or just research but draw players into a world where treachery is the natural state of things.

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Interesting Links for 06-11-2010

What I Am Reading

I just read Michelle Rowen’s The Demon in Me, and as usual, she did not disappoint. While the novel shows her characteristic upbeat style, it also provides a deeper main character than her Bitten and Smitten series who must deal with some heavy questions and circumstances. Like has happened before, I quibble about the classification of a romance novel, but that doesn’t reduce my enjoyment, or the fact that I’m eager to see what Rowen does next in the series.

Promoting

At this point, I use my social networking time to learn more about publishing for the most part, but this article does a good job of pointing out some of the myths that are used to support how much time is given to free networking sites:
http://chipmacgregor.typepad.com/main/2010/05/the-hidden-costs-of-social-networking.html


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Social Media and the Coffee House

I was at a restaurant with my husband last night and we started talking about social media, specifically the differences between Twitter and Facebook. Something clicked for me, and I thought I’d share what I figured out.

My parents are both retired Foreign Service officers which means that I spent much of my childhood surrounded by reams of fascinating adults. This included other diplomats, company folks stationed in the same country, ex-pats often from Ireland, or any number of other folks who had chosen to live outside their native country, or who were native to the country we were currently in. I learned quite young how to behave among them so I wasn’t sent to bed early, though before that I would hide under the dining room table so I could still listen.

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BayCon 2010 Con Report and Interesting Links for 6-4-2010

This week has been all about catching up after BayCon (I returned to a deluge of over 600 emails and 100-200 more come in each day) so I don’t have very many links for you to enjoy. However, I’ll give my first real con report below them to make up for it.

What I Am Reading

I finished This Is Not A Game by Walter Jon Williams while at BayCon and haven’t had time to write up my thoughts. It’s definitely an interesting read, though I have some issues with the storytelling. I talk about the reader’s 50% for description here: http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision43/Alteredpeception.htm, but in this case my quibble is which thread of a complex novel was given dominance.
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