Omaha Science Fiction Education Society Forum

On another forum I visit, the is a thread we do every month...just list the books you're currently reading, and any thoughts you might have on them.

For me it's:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.

So far it's a decent book (I just started it this morning, along w/ the other book I'm reading) that's a little slow on the start. But I do like the flow of Chabon's writing style, so I may stick with this.

Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe.

Great book, and facinating look at things the Ancients had that were lost and rediscovered. There is a companion book called Ancient Mysteries by the same authors that's very good as well.

I read the novelization of the Transformers movie, by Alan Dean Foster, recently. I'll be reviewing both the novel and the movie for Prometheus, the newsletter of the Libertarian Futurist Society (http://www.lfs.org). I liked the movie but the novel, which I read after watching the movie, I found to be very lackluster. The novel has many scene differences with the movie. The novel was actually far more plagued by cardbook Hollywood stereotypes than the movie. Characterization was shallow. Description was almost non-existent. The novel lacked the energy, wit, and charm of the movie. The movie also had some libertarian themes which were mostly absent in the novel. Optimus Prime's motto - "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" - was present in the movie but was turned into a New Deal-esque bromide by Foster, the only mention of freedom in the entire book: "Freedom from fear and all else is the right of all sentient beings." Freedom from fear and all else - so vague and all encompassing that freedom becomes an empty political slogan used to create support for policies that actually violate freedom. Recommendation: Watch the movie, don't bother with the novel.

I'll also be reviewing Foster's Sagramanda, a sci-fi thriller set in a near future India (my wife is Indian), so I hope it will be better than his contracted Transformers novelization.

I'm trying to get back into finishing Outlaws of the Marsh after taking a break from it.