Instead, I'm going to be startled that for me reading law blogs and reading science fiction have intersected (although Mean Mr. Mustard reads scifi and he's a torts lawyer). Professor Bainbridge (Corporate Law, UCLA) reviewed Old Man's War by John Scalzi, a science fiction book I also recently read. I had no ideas it was by a blogger (someone who was a blogger first, then an author, as opposed to vice versa). While derivative of Forever War, Armor and Starship Troopers in some ways, it was also very much its own book. The first half of the book, in particular, is a joy and really thumps along. Scalzi gives much of it a conversational style and I actually laughed out loud a few times, much to Pooteewheet's amusement. His focus is obviously his characters and not just the science fiction. Scalzi also does a very nice job of not simply throwing his characters into battle after battle (in the tradition of Armor), but rather picks them off one at a time in situations exceptionally remote and different in context. There's no token death to give the illusion that war is hard, it's more like a token life to prove that not everyone dies. I wouldn't give the book quite the gushing praise it gets elsewhere, but I would absolutely recommend it to any friend looking for some science fiction to read.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Old Men With Guns
I just can't bring myself to blog about our intoxicated, (addendum) philandering, vice president shooting someone while hunting at a stocked game farm in a county owned by four hundred rich Texans, then hiding out while his victim goes from a peppering to a heart attack, and letting the administration blame the victim and joke about orange football jerseys, until our veep is ready to face the close scrutiny of Fox News. The fact that the sentence can be written at all is nauseating. If I was going to suggest some related viewing, it would be the Jon Stewart/Daily Show vids over at Crooks and Liars. The phrase "quailtards" is worth the price of admission alone.
Instead, I'm going to be startled that for me reading law blogs and reading science fiction have intersected (although Mean Mr. Mustard reads scifi and he's a torts lawyer). Professor Bainbridge (Corporate Law, UCLA) reviewed Old Man's War by John Scalzi, a science fiction book I also recently read. I had no ideas it was by a blogger (someone who was a blogger first, then an author, as opposed to vice versa). While derivative of Forever War, Armor and Starship Troopers in some ways, it was also very much its own book. The first half of the book, in particular, is a joy and really thumps along. Scalzi gives much of it a conversational style and I actually laughed out loud a few times, much to Pooteewheet's amusement. His focus is obviously his characters and not just the science fiction. Scalzi also does a very nice job of not simply throwing his characters into battle after battle (in the tradition of Armor), but rather picks them off one at a time in situations exceptionally remote and different in context. There's no token death to give the illusion that war is hard, it's more like a token life to prove that not everyone dies. I wouldn't give the book quite the gushing praise it gets elsewhere, but I would absolutely recommend it to any friend looking for some science fiction to read.
Instead, I'm going to be startled that for me reading law blogs and reading science fiction have intersected (although Mean Mr. Mustard reads scifi and he's a torts lawyer). Professor Bainbridge (Corporate Law, UCLA) reviewed Old Man's War by John Scalzi, a science fiction book I also recently read. I had no ideas it was by a blogger (someone who was a blogger first, then an author, as opposed to vice versa). While derivative of Forever War, Armor and Starship Troopers in some ways, it was also very much its own book. The first half of the book, in particular, is a joy and really thumps along. Scalzi gives much of it a conversational style and I actually laughed out loud a few times, much to Pooteewheet's amusement. His focus is obviously his characters and not just the science fiction. Scalzi also does a very nice job of not simply throwing his characters into battle after battle (in the tradition of Armor), but rather picks them off one at a time in situations exceptionally remote and different in context. There's no token death to give the illusion that war is hard, it's more like a token life to prove that not everyone dies. I wouldn't give the book quite the gushing praise it gets elsewhere, but I would absolutely recommend it to any friend looking for some science fiction to read.
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1 comment:
This was pretty funny. I almost shot milk out my nose when i heard "wingless quail-tards."
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