From my bookshelf

Things I've been reading this past week.

Incandescence by Greg Egan
I haven't finished this one yet so who knows how I'll feel about it when I'm done but here's my thoughts so far: Egan usually makes my head hurt trying to follow the science part of his SF (and I do love him for it!) but this time, even though I'm sure I'm not completely grasping the details of the orbital mechanics on which the story hinges, I'm getting enough of it to follow what's going on without too much effort. I am wondering if the central idea really needed a whole novel, and the character driven stuff is not particularly engaging, but I do like the playing around with science stuff so all up I'm enjoying it. When I've finished reading he book I'll have to go have a play on Greg's website too.

The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
I started on the MZB's because I'd left the Egan upstairs when I went to bed one night and couldn't be bothered going up to get it. It's ages since I'd read any Darkover books but I think I'm hooked again. One of the kids asked me what they were about, I was half-asleep so I muttered something about "long-lost colony on Darkover rediscovered by Terran Empire...culture clash...adventure...alien stuff...they're good...there's LOTS of them!" (Now all I have to do is find them on my sadly disorganised and overcrowded bookshelves.)

The Iron Wolf and other stories by Richard Adams (also published as The Unbroken Web)

This is a collection of folk-tales from all over the world which I've had since I was a kid, it has beautiful illustrations and I've been looking forward to sharing them with the kids. When Tom was sick last week I asked if he wanted me to read to him in bed and he said "yes please" and that I could pick the book. I pulled this off my shelf and read him the list of stories, he asked for "The Iron Wolf". About half-way down the first page I thought to myself "this is too old for him" and asked if he wanted me to keep going. He did, in fact he loved it! The next day he had to tell Grandma all about it...and Dad and Dave and Cait. Just a moment ago he saw me holding the book and said excitedly to Dave and Cait "We could read some Iron Wolf stories, guys I think you'd really like them!" So I guess that's what we'll be doing later this arvo.