OT: best book in years

[Aahz]

In article <bjdp74$nr2$2 at wheel2.two14.net>,
Martin Maney  <maney at pobox.com> wrote:
>Aahz <aahz at pythoncraft.com> wrote:
>>
>> McMaster Bujold (start with _Shards of Honor_, but don't read _Barrayar_
>> yet if you pick up the _Cordelia's Honor_ omnibus).
>
>Are you advising the traditional publication order or reading here?  I
>did that the first time; last year I went through them again in
>internal chronology sequence, and damned if I don't think they work
>just perfectly well that way.  I suspect Baen, and presumably Lois,
>would agree, as that seems to be the way they're packaging the omnibus
>reissues, at least mostly.

I'm absolutely recommending pub order.  It's not critical the way it is
with Brust, and I certainly agree that re-reading Bujold in chron order
works quite nicely, but there are certain bits that work better if you
read in publication order.

>> Social SF: anything by Ursual K. LeGuin, _Courtship Rite_ by Donald
>> Kingsbury
>
>I stumbled across Kingsbury's _Psychohistorical Crisis_ at a bargin book
>outlet early this year, and thought it was absolutely stunning.  I have
>to keep telling myself it's too soon to reread it, yet.  A couple
>months ago I had to dig out CR as a surrogate.  I hadn't read it in
>donkey's years, and I'm happy to say that I found it had aged very
>well.
>
>No, Martin, it is still TOO SOON!  <rumble rumble ...>

Yeah, I'd never gotten around to reading _Courtship Rite_, and my cousin
gave me _Psychohistorical Crisis_ to read while I was in Vegas.  Anyone
who liked Asimov's _Foundation_ trilogy *has* to read _Psychohistorical
Crisis_.

I'm not sure how well it'll stand up to re-reading, though.

>(this group/list is dangerous.  just a few hours ago I was looking
>forward to finishing _Death in a Tenured Position_; now it's looking
>more like a obstacle that wants overcoming.  sheesh!  maybe i can find
>some nice python programming project to distract me...)

<smirk>
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

This is Python.  We don't care much about theory, except where it intersects 
with useful practice.  --Aahz