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A miscellany
Apr. 7th, 2004 06:08 pmAh, hubris... The two students I spoke of in my last entry did not show up for class tonight.
I'm just about done with The Pencil, and it seems to be affecting me in odd ways. I bought a Nestle's Crunch on the way home, and while eating it found myself meditating on the physically desirable characteristics of a good chocolate bar, and how those characteristics might be enhanced. Not that I know anything about it...
I'm rereading Paladin of Souls for the LMB list, and I've also started Greg Bear's Vitals. I don't know what to think about Bear. His early work, like The Infinity Concerto, though not all that well written, bubbled over with ideas. When his style started to mature, he wrote wonderful books like Blood Music, Eon, and The Forge of God, culminating in Queen of Angels. To my mind, that last is his masterpiece, and one of the best SF novels ever. Its main plots are rich, and there are numerous scenes which stay in my memory: the frisson when the two psych researchers realize what they've brought home with them; the flowering of the AI into self-awareness, and the aftermath; the last Haitian scene, with the policewoman, the poet's brother, and the vodun priest - I love that book.
Nothing Bear has done since has lived up to that, or, really, to his good earlier work. Slant was a grave disappointment; the characters it shared with QoA seemed like shells of their former selves. Darwin's Radio I found interesting, but largely forgettable, and I haven't read Darwin's Children. I've heard good things about Vitals, so I'm giving it a try, but I really feel as though he's lost his way. I recall reading that QoA was a critical success but a commercial flop, and that Bear retreated from his previous experimentation as a result. That's sad.
I'm just about done with The Pencil, and it seems to be affecting me in odd ways. I bought a Nestle's Crunch on the way home, and while eating it found myself meditating on the physically desirable characteristics of a good chocolate bar, and how those characteristics might be enhanced. Not that I know anything about it...
I'm rereading Paladin of Souls for the LMB list, and I've also started Greg Bear's Vitals. I don't know what to think about Bear. His early work, like The Infinity Concerto, though not all that well written, bubbled over with ideas. When his style started to mature, he wrote wonderful books like Blood Music, Eon, and The Forge of God, culminating in Queen of Angels. To my mind, that last is his masterpiece, and one of the best SF novels ever. Its main plots are rich, and there are numerous scenes which stay in my memory: the frisson when the two psych researchers realize what they've brought home with them; the flowering of the AI into self-awareness, and the aftermath; the last Haitian scene, with the policewoman, the poet's brother, and the vodun priest - I love that book.
Nothing Bear has done since has lived up to that, or, really, to his good earlier work. Slant was a grave disappointment; the characters it shared with QoA seemed like shells of their former selves. Darwin's Radio I found interesting, but largely forgettable, and I haven't read Darwin's Children. I've heard good things about Vitals, so I'm giving it a try, but I really feel as though he's lost his way. I recall reading that QoA was a critical success but a commercial flop, and that Bear retreated from his previous experimentation as a result. That's sad.
