A dealer's room is a dangerous place

[fivemack]

I know Stars in my Pockets ... is the first half of an unfinished duology; is it a sane second Delaney to read, after Triton long ago?

The first half of the Peter F Hamilton I have on (DRMed) disc, but the e-publisher hasn't released the second half in that format.

Several people pointed out even at the con that you can read award shortlists much more cheaply, in shoulder-strain and wallet-ache and waste of bookcase alike, if you wait a year ... but having obtained this pile, where should I start?

Comments

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Ooh, we'll be expecting reviews. You have legs! I saw you cycling down Jesus Lane in shorts. Are you going to shave your beard off for summer?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Do the JUPITER THEFT first! Everything else will seem so much better...

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Do the JUPITER THEFT first! Everything else will seem so much better...

Second the motion.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that bad; except for the daft US politics, and the entire plot revolving around some truly novel interpretations of relativity ... and the Central Casting villains ...

Semi-reasonable aliens aside from their immunity to physics; reasonable grand vistas; useful as a type-specimen of Carter-era malaise.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I have legs; I train them, also arms and torso, twice weekly at the Clare Hall gym with running machines and climbing machines and cycling machines and barbells of very slowly increasing mass, then cycle back across town in shorts to be able to use my parents' nice warm bathroom and large fluffy towels rather than the Clare Hall gym shower cubicles and the small soggy towel that's all that fits in my backpack.

It's taken six months for my beard to get to its present state, and it looked sufficiently dreadful for the first two months that I was obliged to flee the country, so I'm planning to leave it on until either I find a pogonophobe whose company I value more than the beard, or until it turns all straggly and birds start nesting in it.

This was probably too much information.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

When carandol and I got together, his mother confided in me that she'd been hoping he'd meet a girl who didn't like beards and would make him shave it off. I looked at her in astonishment. "How would he meet a girl who didn't like beards, looking like that?"

It's one of the few gender issues where C.S. Lewis and I find ourselves in agreement.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Hrm, I don't believe in gyms. You can probably tell. I would go for a cycle but it's too hot and I'm too ill.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Reynolds. It's sooooo good.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

No, no: start with the worst materials and then build to a cresendo of quality. You _really_ don't want to end a reading spree with a Moffitt.

By the way, I think Mattel got the title on the collection THE BARBIE MURDERS changed to PICNIC ON NEARSIDE in later editions.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Stars in My Pocket is what you heard me read a bit of once at New Year. I really like it, and I think it's a perfectly sensible thing to read, but there will probably never be any more of it.

And Air or The Barbie Murders.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Air, or Living Next-Door to the God of Love. I didn't much care for the Grimwood. Most of the way through the Reynolds and it's ... ok.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Given the Clarke result, and the universal enthusiasm at Eastercon, it had better be Air, hadn't it?

The Reynolds I admit I picked up mostly from completism; it struck me from opening at random pages in the bookshop as having a kind of mix of Gratuitous Space and Big Dumb Objects which would have to be done really well to compete with pre-existing Niven.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Delany was one of my favorite authors -- until Dhalgren. Triton was a *little* better, but I haven't read any fiction of his since then; I gave up.

I'd suggest that somebody interested in Delany should read his Driftglass collection, whether or not they also like his later work.

I have a strange or at least rare fondness for Donald Moffitt, so The Jupiter Theft should get read eventually (I don't like his "Crescent in the Sky" books so much, but they might make interesting reading against today's geopolitics).

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest that somebody interested in Delany should read his Driftglass collection, whether or not they also like his later work.

Second the motion. Emphatically.

If you don't have Driftglass, but you do have an Ipod, here is the radio production of "The Star Pit," starring Delany himself, at an age when he was a blazing young star in the SF firmament.

I haven't listened to it yet myself.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

Stars in my Pockets... was the first Delany I read. I've read four or five others since then, but I think that was my favourite, so I'd have no problem recommending it.

Similarly, though, Consider Phlebas was the first Iain M Banks I read, and remains my favourite; Raft likewise for Baxter, and The City and the Stars for Clarke. Maybe it's just an extension of the sequel/cover version thing...