JJ wrote:
Hi, gang..If you haven't read _Kiln People_ yet, definitely pick it up. I'm not quite to the end yet (about 60 pages left out of 568 in the paperback edition), but the farther I get into it, the better I like it (and I liked it from the beginning).
I'm going to make my weekly expedition to Borders in a couple of days. I'd like to stock up on SciFi books. What's new and worthy out there?
If you *have* read _Kiln People_ and you have any interest in the situation revealed in chapter 52, there's a really interesting book called _In the Company of Mind_ by Steven Piziks that deals in depth with that type of situation, along with nanotech, AI, security, and also a pretty scary look at child abuse. WARNING: If you haven't read _Kiln People_ yet, don't look at the reviews of this book on Amazon, as they discuss something that's a major plot point in _Kiln People_ but is discussed from the very beginning of ItCoM. Also, don't read the back cover, it has spoilers for the first 5 to 7 chapters of the book. And if you read the Amazon reviews, ignore the review that says this isn't science fiction; I definitely explores the social results of some interesting technologies. There is also a sequel which I have not read yet called _Corporate Mentality_.
If you like alternate history and alternate science/technology novels, there is a series of four novels by J. Gregory Keyes collectively called "The Age of Unreason." The four books are _Newton's Cannon_, _A Calculus of Angels_, _Empire of Unreason_, and _The Shadows of God_. The history in these books diverges from our history with Sir Isaac Newton, who is successful in developing alchemy (in real history, he tried but failed). Major characters in the books include Newton, a young Ben Franklin (the main "hero" of the novels so far, if there is one), Louis XIV, Adrienne de Montchevreuil (a consort of Louis XIV), Peter the Great, the pirate Blackbeard, and Cotton Mather, among others. As the books progress, new discoveries in alchemy are treated in a very scientific fashion and look much like later actual scientific advancements seen in a somewhat distorted mirror. I've read the first three and loved them, and just got a copy of book 4. Keyes is best known as a fantasy writer, although he also wrote the Babylon 5 Psicore trilogy from an outline by jms. I don't know if this guy is the same as the Greg Keyes who wrote a couple of Star Wars: New Jedi Order books.
Reggie Bautista
The Alternative View Maru
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