Getting faster
Nov. 11th, 2007 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threemonkeysAstonishing, I finished reading a book today. It seems like ages since I finished the previous one. It does not explain the general slowness in getting through the book but there was a bit of an impediment to getting started. The first part of the book had previously been published as a short story that I had read. A pretty good story but not one I was feeling compelled to read again. However I didn't want to skip the introductory parts of the book so I struggled through the short story again. It didn't help kick the book off well. It isn't a general principle - sometimes reading the familiar story can kick things off faster and better. It all depends on the story. In this case, it lead into a book that was really a series of tightly connected short stories anyway - Accelerando by Charles Stross.
Stross is fun in an old fashioned "sense of wonder" space opera kind of way. I don't mean the science is old fashioned. It is very much of the moment and taps into some of the more optimistic popular culture views of the future. In other words, pretty much what science fiction of the golden age did. It has the same failings too - stories and characters being secondary to the technology and some big blobs of exposition. There is a bit of a revival of this mode of writing at the moment and Stross is regarded as one of the leading lights. I'm not convinced. Yes it is fun but it is flawed by relying too much on the idea. But then again, there is a market for that and I'm glad that there are people writing for it and being published. Personally that kind of book can appeal from time to time. I just think that on those occasional times that I will still be better off with Stephen Baxter even if Stross makes a handy backup.
Stross is fun in an old fashioned "sense of wonder" space opera kind of way. I don't mean the science is old fashioned. It is very much of the moment and taps into some of the more optimistic popular culture views of the future. In other words, pretty much what science fiction of the golden age did. It has the same failings too - stories and characters being secondary to the technology and some big blobs of exposition. There is a bit of a revival of this mode of writing at the moment and Stross is regarded as one of the leading lights. I'm not convinced. Yes it is fun but it is flawed by relying too much on the idea. But then again, there is a market for that and I'm glad that there are people writing for it and being published. Personally that kind of book can appeal from time to time. I just think that on those occasional times that I will still be better off with Stephen Baxter even if Stross makes a handy backup.