Reading Recommendation: Green, by Jay Lake

August 11th 2009 at 8:31 pm

This was my worldcon reading book, the one I stayed up for a bit even after stumbling in late to read, and finished on the flight home.  I liked it a lot.  Green is ambitious, with a grand scale story that follows Lake’s protagonist from an early age to a very mature, dangerous young woman.  While I have enjoyed Jay’s other work, Green pulled up a notch for me.  Jay is a stylist, and I’m the kind of reader who prefers that the prose not slow me down.  In Green, it almost never did.  Yet it was still beautifully written.  Jay also drew me in close to his main character and I truly cared about her outcomes. 

Green is worth you time.  It’s a bit too weighty to be a summer beach book, but fast-paced enough that most readers will want to keep flipping pages. 

I’m looking forward to the sequel.  I know it’s done since Jay read from the beginning of it recently at the University Bookstore.

Oh – and as a goofy geek grace note, one of the suggestions that word press comes up with to get “worldcon” right is “Whedon.”

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Books

Wings of Creation by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

Available November 10th, 2009 from Tor Books.

Reading the Wind by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

Audio promo:

"Brenda Cooper's newest novel is a feast of character and concept. She depicts the devastation of war on microcosmic and macrocosmic levels, and even more so, the driving motives of young men and women caught in deadly conflict. Cooper is a master explorer of the interaction of society and individuals. She probes the psychology of her genetically enhanced characters with both rare depth and fidelity to scientific plausibility. Moral conundrums drive the plot in this unforgettable narrative. Don't miss this compelling work by a major new talent." - Mary A. Turzillo, An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl.

"Brenda Cooper tells a tale of a powerful brother and sister in a fight for their lives, offering insights along the way into the nature of courage and the hunger for community that burns in every human being. This is a lively book, full of colorful images and a memorable cast of human and animal characters, a worthy successor to The Silver Ship and the Sea." - Louise Marley

Available in July, 2008, from Tor Books.

The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper

Silver Ship and the Sea cover image

Audio promo:

"The first solo novel by Larry Niven's Building Harlequin's Moon (2005) coauthor portrays the thoroughly convincing human colonial society on Fremont, a dangerous planet rife with vicious predators, frequent earthquakes, and falling meteors....Distinctive characterizations, well-limned interrelationships, and the vividly realized Fremont contribute to an exciting coming-of-age story with a strong message about the evils of prejudice." - Sally Estes, Copyright American Library Association.

Mass Market Paperback, July 2008.
Included by Booklist as a "Best Adult Book for Young Adults."

Building Harlequin's Moon by Brenda Cooper and Larry Niven

Building Harlequin's Moon cover image

"Fans of both hard and softer, psychological SF will welcome veteran Niven and newcome Cooper's well-written tale of a 60,000 year layover in space, in which physical challenges of world building are matched by the social challenges of collaboration among disparate groups." - Publisher's Weekly

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