Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Books Read

While on holiday I read three books, all of which were enjoyable. First was courtesy of Stefanie Bierwerth at Macmillan – one time oppo of Peter Lavery and now and editor in her own right. This was Dead Simple by Peter James, an excellent thriller with a nice plot thread that seemed to come directly out of those old late night Hammer Horror showings. The next was Banner of Souls by Liz Williams. Some excellent ideas here, the main driving one being ‘haunt tech’ – a definite feeling of ‘I wish I’d thought of that.’ Last was Starfish by Peter Watts, which was as excellent as I expected having read his book Blindsight.

Only three books – I always expect to read more than this. I did, however, work through a couple of chapters of my Hilldiggers each day. I’ve since updated the alterations I made then and am now working through my ‘chapter starts’. I should be banging that off to Macmillan within the month.

8 comments:

Kirby Uber said...

excellent. three more for my "to read" list. 8)
not to mention the 'asher anticipation' increment. excellent indeed.

Neal Asher said...

Blimey, people listen to me?

Kirby Uber said...

of course we listen. though now that you ask this, it does make me a bit uncomfotable about that conversation we had last week... you know, that whole insurance/arson thing...

Gary Gibson, science fiction writer said...

You know, Peter Watts has made some of his stuff available free as downloads under a cc licence: http://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm - including Starfish.

Neal Asher said...

Sssh, Kirby.

I had seen that Gary. If it's there because it's unobtainable elsewhere then that would be a shame.

Kirby Uber said...

gary,

i enjoyed the link to Peter's stuff. i greedily sucked down everything and read it this past week. great stuff. have an order going out for some hard copy. 8) thanks.

Relucent Reader said...

Jeez, I love fetching up on the Isles of Serendip....I have been racking my tiny brain for days trying to remember the name of the creator of Dreams of War, couldna recall the title, and lo, you have prodded my memory, thank you.
And thank you for the comment on my screed on the 50books365 blog: I've picked up Prador Moon,and am saving it for next week's beach vacation.
Regards,
Scott

Neal Asher said...

You had me stumped there for a moment, reluctant reader ... Dreams of War is the name of a character in Liz Williams' book.