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Tentacles The SF Reviews newsletter, 18th February 2002
The Birthday
The SF Reviews 1st birthday has come and gone. The celebration at Tokyo's Geronimos Bar was the starting point for what proved a memorable evening. If you ''t there this year, well, that's OK, but be there next year.
Farewell to Jena Books
There is sad news from Japan: Jena Books in Tokyo's Ginza district closed on January 17th. It had only a small SF collection, but at least I could rely on there being half-a-dozen or so new books each month, of which I could safely purchase one or two. It's clear that there's only one solution to the shortage of SF in Tokyo: I need to relocate to Bangkok and rely on trusty old Asia Books in Sukhumvit Road. They won't let me down. Heck, they've even got a flood protection barrier in front of the shop. Of course I may be slightly influenced in this decision by having just reread "Dead Girls" by Richard Calder. Now that is a wild book.
Welcome to Amazon
SF Reviews has joined the Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Associates Programs. Book review pages now include a link to www.amazon.com and/or amazon.co.uk if the reviewed book is listed at these stores. You'll see the link on the right just under the cover picture. The link goes directly to the Amazon page for that book, so if you want to buy the book, it's easy.
Well, it's not always easy because many books are out of print. By the way, the links go to paperback editions and not necessarily the editions reviewed. If you are about to buy a book in this way, do check that the link is to the correct book and edition.
The Reviews
I gave myself the pleasure of rereading two of my favourite books this month.
- "Michaelmas" by Algis J. Budrys
- "Ringworld" by Larry Niven
Ringworld is, of course, an SF classic. Perhaps not so many people are aware of just how good is Budrys' "Michaelmas". For me, it's always been in my top-ten. It's a compact and perfect novel.
I also thoroughly enjoyed "Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville. It's not perfect, but it's very good. I would have enjoyed it more if there'd been less description of awfulness of the city and more on how the world relates to ours (my usual problem, I want to know the science behind the fantasy).
On the appalling front, there were three books:
- "Ashes Of Victory" by David Weber
- "Angel Of Destruction" by Susan R. Matthews
- "A Miracle Of Rare Design" by Mike Resnick
These I could have done without. I just noticed that their titles all start with the letter "A" and all contain the word "Of". Must mean something.
After all that prevaricating, here are the reviews that have just been uploaded:
That's all for now. As always, tell me what you think about the reviews and the site. Do let me know if there are books you think I should review.
Take care
Max
(max@sfreviews.com)
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