Two More Books

That reminds me, I also finished two more books-- The Cunning Blood and The Android's Dream.


Both were pretty good, I would rate them at 4 out of 5 stars, and worth getting.
The Cunning Blood is a very interesting story about a future Earth dominated by risk-adverse nanny staters and their lost, electricity-deprived penal colony. Nanotechnology and emergent intelligence also features prominantly. I liked it a lot, you can read more about it here, but it had a few downsides. The penal colony faction, the Moo Moos, was an unrepentant, one-dimensional stereotype from start to finish, and was occaisionally cringingly bad. The other was that I thought it was just a bit too long. Still, not enough to keep me from recommending it.
The Android's Dream was the latest offering from John Scalzi, the author of the really incredible Old Man's War. The Android's Dream is very tongue in cheek, and sounds like it was created as a dare based off of Philip K. Dick's book title, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. All in all, the book is quite nice, although there were a few outlandish moments which made me wonder how it would read-- notably, the very first chapter. There's action and intrigue, plus some twisted humor. It's worth reading.
I'm currently about half-way through Sergeant Lamb's America, and really enjoying it.