Tim's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:37:20 -0700 60 Tim's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Inversions (Culture, #6) 12017 Elsewhere, in another palace across the mountains, a man named DeWar serves as chief bodyguard to the Protector General of Tassasen, a profession he describes as the business of "assassinating assassins." DeWar, too, has his enemies, but his foes strike more swiftly, and his means of combating them are more direct.

None trust the doctor, while the bodyguard trusts no one, but what is the hidden commonality linking their disparate histories? Spiraling around a central core of mystery, deceit, love, and betrayal, Inversions is a dazzling work of science fiction from a versatile and imaginative author writing at the height of his remarkable powers.

About the Author:

Iain M. Banks, one of the United Kingdom's bestselling authors of science fiction, has written such highly-regarded novels as Excession, Feersum Endjinn, Use of Weapons, The State of the Art, and Against a Dark Background. As "Iain Banks," he also writes mainstream novels, including The Wasp Factory and A Song of Stone. He lives in Scotland.

]]> 343 Iain M. Banks 074341196X Tim 0 3.93 1998 Inversions (Culture, #6)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Tim
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)]]> 8935689
Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.]]> 467 Iain M. Banks 1857231384 Tim 5 3.86 1987 Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Tim
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 1997/01/01
date added: 2011/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle, #3)]]> 116257 The System of the World, the third and concluding volume of Neal Stephenson's shelf-bending Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver and The Confusion), brings the epic historical saga to its thrilling - and truly awe-inspiring - conclusion.

Set in the early 18th century and featuring a diverse cast of characters that includes alchemists, philosophers, mathematicians, spies, thieves, pirates, and royalty, The System of the World follows Daniel Waterhouse, an unassuming philosopher and confidant to some of the most brilliant minds of the age, as he returns to England to try and repair the rift between geniuses Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. After reluctantly leaving his family in Boston, Waterhouse arrives in England and is almost killed by a mysterious Infernal Device. Having been away from the war-decimated country for two decades, Waterhouse quickly learns that although many things have changed, there is still violent revolution simmering just beneath the surface of seemingly civilized society. With Queen Anne deathly ill and Tories and Whigs jostling for political supremacy, Waterhouse and Newton vow to figure out who is trying to kill certain scientists and decipher the riddle behind the legend of King Solomon's gold, a mythical hoard of precious metal with miraculous properties.

Arguably one of the most ambitious -- and most researched -- stories ever written, Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is set in one of the most turbulent and exciting times in human history. Filled with wild adventure, political intrigue, social upheaval, civilization-changing discoveries, cabalistic mysticism, and even a little romance, this massive saga is worth its weight in (Solomon's) gold.
Paul Goat Allen]]> 908 Neal Stephenson 0060750863 Tim 5 4.33 2004 The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle, #3)
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Tim
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, #2)]]> 822 815 Neal Stephenson 0060733357 Tim 5 4.26 2004 The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, #2)
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Tim
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, #1)]]> 823 Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.

It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe--London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds--risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox.

And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance.

A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.

And it's just the beginning...

(back cover)

This P.S. edition includes 16 pages of supplementary materials.

Cover design by Richard L. Aquan
Cover illustration from the Mary Evans Picture Library; painting of Great Fire of London on stepback]]> 927 Neal Stephenson Tim 5 3.91 2003 Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, #1)
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Tim
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer]]> 827 The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence.]]> 499 Neal Stephenson 0553380966 Tim 5 4.17 1995 The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Tim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2003/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Cryptonomicon 816 Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first... Of course, to observe is not its real duty—we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes—inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe—team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.]]> 1152 Neal Stephenson Tim 5 4.24 1999 Cryptonomicon
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Tim
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Snow Crash 830 Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous� you'll recognize it immediately.]]> 438 Neal Stephenson 0553380958 Tim 3 4.02 1992 Snow Crash
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Tim
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 1996/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Player of Games (Culture #2)]]> 12012 309 Iain M. Banks 1857231465 Tim 5 4.18 1988 The Player of Games (Culture #2)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Tim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 1998/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Complicity 12014 313 Iain Banks 0349105715 Tim 3 3.92 1993 Complicity
author: Iain Banks
name: Tim
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 1997/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> The Algebraist 12009 434 Iain M. Banks 1597800449 Tim 4 4.04 2004 The Algebraist
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Tim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2006/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Excession (Culture, #5) 12013 Excession, the Culture's espionage and dirty tricks section orders Diplomat Byr Gen-Hofoen to steal the soul of a long-dead starship captain. By accepting the mission, Byr irrevocably plunges himself into a conspiracy: one that could either lead the universe into an age of peace or to the brink of annihilation.]]> 500 Iain M. Banks 0553575376 Tim 4 4.20 1996 Excession (Culture, #5)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Tim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 1982/01/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Use of Weapons (Culture, #3) 12007
The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.

The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past.

In this brilliant, multilayered book, Iain Banks explores once again the universe of the Culture, which he has previously visited in Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games. Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, Use of Weapons leaves no doubt that Banks is now the outstanding writer of science fiction in Britain.]]> 411 Iain M. Banks 185723135X Tim 5
The structure of this novel makes it worthy of note on its own. Written in interwoven chapters, it is made up of two alternating narrative streams - one indicated by Arabic numerals and the other by Roman ones. One moves forward chronologically, while the other moves in the opposite direction; yet both are about the central, tragic character, Cheradinine Zakalwe.

Despite being the third of Banks' "Culture" science fiction novels to be published, he wrote a much more complex version of this story in 1974, before any of his books saw print. He later said it was so complex it "was impossible to comprehend without thinking in six dimensions". He credits fellow Scottish author Ken McLeod with getting him to sort this baroque novel into a publishable form.

Zakalwe is a rogue, a military genius, an assassin, a sad case and an utterly sympathetic character all at the same time. A mercenary shaped by his experiences as the perfect soldier, he's taken, refined and utilised by the supposedly benign and pacific Culture for their nastier dirty tricks operations. The moral ambiguity and ethical contradictions of this are not lost on Zakalwe himself or on his Culture handler, the "Special Circumstances" operative Diziet Sma.

Gloriously grostesque, sharply observed, bleakly satrical and written with Baink's unique ability to make the most vile aspects of war and violence lyrically beautiful and richly ironic at the same time, this is the great Scottish master at his finest.

A book to loan to anyone who thinks science fiction is "dumb". ]]> 4.18 1990 Use of Weapons (Culture, #3)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Tim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:
Probably Bank's best science fiction novel and one of his best works generally. Cheradinine Zakalwe, Diziet Sma and Skaffen Amiskaw are, together, his most interesting group of characters.

The structure of this novel makes it worthy of note on its own. Written in interwoven chapters, it is made up of two alternating narrative streams - one indicated by Arabic numerals and the other by Roman ones. One moves forward chronologically, while the other moves in the opposite direction; yet both are about the central, tragic character, Cheradinine Zakalwe.

Despite being the third of Banks' "Culture" science fiction novels to be published, he wrote a much more complex version of this story in 1974, before any of his books saw print. He later said it was so complex it "was impossible to comprehend without thinking in six dimensions". He credits fellow Scottish author Ken McLeod with getting him to sort this baroque novel into a publishable form.

Zakalwe is a rogue, a military genius, an assassin, a sad case and an utterly sympathetic character all at the same time. A mercenary shaped by his experiences as the perfect soldier, he's taken, refined and utilised by the supposedly benign and pacific Culture for their nastier dirty tricks operations. The moral ambiguity and ethical contradictions of this are not lost on Zakalwe himself or on his Culture handler, the "Special Circumstances" operative Diziet Sma.

Gloriously grostesque, sharply observed, bleakly satrical and written with Baink's unique ability to make the most vile aspects of war and violence lyrically beautiful and richly ironic at the same time, this is the great Scottish master at his finest.

A book to loan to anyone who thinks science fiction is "dumb".
]]> The Name of the Rose 119073 552 Umberto Eco 0156001314 Tim 5
At the time of its publication, one reviewer described `The Name of the Rose' as "a book about everything". At first glance, it may seem to be a book largely about obscure Fourteenth Century religious controversies, heresies and sects, with a murder mystery mixed in. But this is a book that rewards repeat readings (I've just finished it for the seventh time), and the heart of the novel is in its exposition of semiotics - the world as a blizzard of signs and life and thought as their constant interpretation. Just as Brother William of Baskerville guides the naĂŻve Adso through the world of the monastery and the wider world of knowledge and reason, so Eco guides the reader through a story where few things are what they seem and everything can be read several ways.

Even the `obscure Fourteenth Century sects', which many readers find bewildering, dull or both, represent far more than they seem at first glance. The long controversy over the poverty of Christ and its application in the medieval Church forms the focus for a wide-ranging analysis of how ideals can motivate and inspire different people in different ways. In this novel we find skeptics (like William), mystical non-conformists (like Umbertino de Casale), terrorists and revolutionaries (like the Dolcinite heretics) and rigid fundamentalists (like Jorge and Bernard Gui). At the time of its first publication, the parallels between the book's religious politics and modern manifestations of the same ways of thinking, including Cold War political expediency and terrorists like the Red Brigades, would have been obvious to Italian readers. These days, in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq War, Eco's analysis has not lost any of its resonance.

Some warnings for new readers - if you think (the truly appalling) `The Da Vinci Code' was "masterful writing", you probably want to save yourself time and effort and read something else. It's not as daunting as many make out, but "Rose" is far from a light read. Eco also deliberately made the first 100 pages a difficult read, but stick with it. All those obscure politics and odd names do make some sense after a while.

Secondly, many reviewers have complained about the untranslated Latin passages. Despite what some of them have said, these are rarely more than a line or two and usually short lines at that. Medievalists will recognise most of them anyway (they are quotes from the Vulgate, Occam and Aquinas and so on, and usually famous ones), but non-specialists will usually get the essence of them from their contexts. In almost all cases they are roughly translated or paraphrased in the dialogue that precedes or follows them anyway, so they aren't actually `untranslated' at all - they just look that way.

Thirdly, people who approach this novel merely as a medieval whodunit a la the Brother Caedfel mysteries are likely to find `Rose' a strain. While the mystery story forms the basis of the plot, there is a lot more to this novel than plot. Some have said they found the mystery clichéd and derivative of other mysteries. Ummm ... yes - Eco is a postmodernist. It's *meant* to be derivative.

The real joy of this novel is its layers of meaning, which is why it's one that can be read and re-read with new discoveries every time. It's a delight to read and great exercise for the mind and spirit, as well as a counter to those who think the Middle Ages was simply a period of superstition and ignorance. Far from being an anachronism or a prefigurement of more `enlightened' times, William of Baskerville represents the medieval voices of reason, innovation and logic that are ignored by most popular representations of this badly misunderstood period.

A must read - but with your brain well and truly in high gear.
]]> 4.13 1980 The Name of the Rose
author: Umberto Eco
name: Tim
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 1985/12/01
date added: 2008/04/20
shelves:
review:
If I had to spend a year on a desert island and was only allowed to take one book, this would be it.

At the time of its publication, one reviewer described `The Name of the Rose' as "a book about everything". At first glance, it may seem to be a book largely about obscure Fourteenth Century religious controversies, heresies and sects, with a murder mystery mixed in. But this is a book that rewards repeat readings (I've just finished it for the seventh time), and the heart of the novel is in its exposition of semiotics - the world as a blizzard of signs and life and thought as their constant interpretation. Just as Brother William of Baskerville guides the naĂŻve Adso through the world of the monastery and the wider world of knowledge and reason, so Eco guides the reader through a story where few things are what they seem and everything can be read several ways.

Even the `obscure Fourteenth Century sects', which many readers find bewildering, dull or both, represent far more than they seem at first glance. The long controversy over the poverty of Christ and its application in the medieval Church forms the focus for a wide-ranging analysis of how ideals can motivate and inspire different people in different ways. In this novel we find skeptics (like William), mystical non-conformists (like Umbertino de Casale), terrorists and revolutionaries (like the Dolcinite heretics) and rigid fundamentalists (like Jorge and Bernard Gui). At the time of its first publication, the parallels between the book's religious politics and modern manifestations of the same ways of thinking, including Cold War political expediency and terrorists like the Red Brigades, would have been obvious to Italian readers. These days, in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq War, Eco's analysis has not lost any of its resonance.

Some warnings for new readers - if you think (the truly appalling) `The Da Vinci Code' was "masterful writing", you probably want to save yourself time and effort and read something else. It's not as daunting as many make out, but "Rose" is far from a light read. Eco also deliberately made the first 100 pages a difficult read, but stick with it. All those obscure politics and odd names do make some sense after a while.

Secondly, many reviewers have complained about the untranslated Latin passages. Despite what some of them have said, these are rarely more than a line or two and usually short lines at that. Medievalists will recognise most of them anyway (they are quotes from the Vulgate, Occam and Aquinas and so on, and usually famous ones), but non-specialists will usually get the essence of them from their contexts. In almost all cases they are roughly translated or paraphrased in the dialogue that precedes or follows them anyway, so they aren't actually `untranslated' at all - they just look that way.

Thirdly, people who approach this novel merely as a medieval whodunit a la the Brother Caedfel mysteries are likely to find `Rose' a strain. While the mystery story forms the basis of the plot, there is a lot more to this novel than plot. Some have said they found the mystery clichéd and derivative of other mysteries. Ummm ... yes - Eco is a postmodernist. It's *meant* to be derivative.

The real joy of this novel is its layers of meaning, which is why it's one that can be read and re-read with new discoveries every time. It's a delight to read and great exercise for the mind and spirit, as well as a counter to those who think the Middle Ages was simply a period of superstition and ignorance. Far from being an anachronism or a prefigurement of more `enlightened' times, William of Baskerville represents the medieval voices of reason, innovation and logic that are ignored by most popular representations of this badly misunderstood period.

A must read - but with your brain well and truly in high gear.

]]>