Mar

20

Posted by : atcampbell | On : March 20, 2007

Recursion by Tony Ballantyne

Eleven people attended the discussion of Tony Ballantyne’s Recursion. Nobody has read anything by Ballantyne before, because this is his first novel. Everybody in the group has started the book. About half the people finished it. Some of the rest were planning to finish, but a couple of people were so disappointed by the beginning that they put the book aside.

Recursion consists of three storylines, set at different times in the future. In the storyline set in the most distant future, a human and a robot fight Van Neumann

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Mar

05

Posted by : atcampbell | On : March 5, 2007

Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder

On March 5, 2007 the FACT reading group discussed Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder. Everybody who was present at the discussion has read Karl Schroeder before. All but one person had read at least some part of this book. Only 4 people (out of 8) finished it. Most of others were planning to finish. The person who did not even attempt to read this book justified her decision with one word: Ventus. 🙂 Despite agreement that Lady of Mazes was better than Ventus (Karl Schroeder’s first novel), the group’s opinions on Lady of Mazes ranged from lukewarm approval to outright disappointment.

While some people thought Schroeder’s world building seemed interesting at first while the story centered on Teven Coronal, later in the book both the world building and the plot faltered. A few people gave the author credit for developing something rarely seen in SF, countless overlapping virtual realities with no

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