We Need to Have A Talk About Writing...

Feel free to not only talk about the books that I talk about here, but add your own book list here.

I have this huge hankering for a hard scifi novel with real, current science.

I had a browse through the Google Play Store for science fiction novels that fit the high tech or hard science bill. Of course I had no idea what I was looking at. A lot of series, or franchises (it’s so hard to tell these days), and a lot of older works by authors I know and trust (like Greg Bear), but I wasn’t sure how new their writing was.

I thought perhaps what I was after was a bit of Glen Cookish space opera a la his Shadow line series. With that thought in mind, I spied the epic covers to John Scalzi’s novels. Spaceships crashing into each other, spaceships hovering over moons, more spaceships in close calls with each other; all done in a grand painterly style that speaks of big ideas and vast universes to be explored.

So, I bought and read the first instalment (it was first released in instalments, once a month, but I won’t go into that concept just here).

The verdict? Not what I was after. Space opera, yes. Well written and witty, yes. Will I read on? Yes, but not just yet. And here’s why.

A lack of detail that means the characters could just as well be in a submarine in the Atlantic, rather then a spaceship in Utche territory.

There’s nothing wrong with the details that are used, it’s just a different kind of science fiction more akin to whimsical action adventure.

I now have my eye on M. J Locke’s “Up Against It”. If only I could actually find an ebook version for sale! Not sure if its a region thing but Amazon won’t let me buy it, and no one else online seems to stock it. It must be good.