i've set myself some huge reading targets for the next few months, starting with china mieville's new book, embassytown, which looks to be hard science fiction philosophical and someway dense in linguistics and semantics, i love chinas work, he's a pretty original writer and tells an elegant tale. next up is, the quantum thief by hannu rajaniemi which is a first novel and appears to have such a fantastic plot, again hard sic fi, i can't resist the challenge, apparently he's some sort of quantum mathematician so it may be hard going, although alister reynolds is an astro physicist and he's not as challenging as you may think, the simple idea is to write a good story, not a technical manual. anyway i'll give the quantum thief a go.
next it's the complete works of issac asimov, whom i read as a teenager and loved but omitted the foundation works, which i believe is considered the ultimate science fiction concept, so i am looking forwards to reading his work again and this time including the foundation series. he's a bit of a scientist to but old school, less theory more logic and reason, plus he's an interesting ethics man but there are 10 books in the series and i'm somewhat overwhelmed.
but in there somewhere i also want to read cormac mccarthy's blood meridian, which i have heard is the definitive american novel.
i scanned a few pages this morning and it's such incredibly layered and evocative writing, brutality made beautiful.
next up is thomas pynchons last book inherent vice which people say is quite assessable and more of a linear narrative than his previous works, so with the onslaught of winter upon us, the ice age will pass and i will be head down in another world.