I finished The Confusion Monday night. It took me six months, a fact which does not make me proud. Stephenson destroyed my motivation with a cliffhanger about three-quarters of the way in. After that I put the book down for a few months. Despite that, I really enjoyed the story, perhaps more so than Quicksilver. Much better pace. I'm looking forward to reading The System of the World, but I have a number of other (shorter) books to read before then.
I'm now reading Burning Chrome, a collection of Gibson's stories.
I finished Perdido Street Station a couple of weeks ago. Overall impression: slightly disappointed.
Don't get me wrong: the world that China Miéville created was pretty damn amazing. He described the city, New Crobuzon, with amazing (and at times gut-wrenching) detail. I was also intrigured by the different humanoid races, especially the khepri.
However, I couldn't help but feel like the story lacked direction. There was just too much going on to really feel for any one character. I mean, was the story about Isaac's promise to Yagharek? Or was it about the slake-moths? The tie ("crisis energy", or chaos theory) between the plot lines wasn't strong enough for me.
Also frustrating was Miéville's diction. I swear, he used the words "vertiginous" and "variegated" about 50 times in the novel. Normally that sort of thing doesn't bother me, but the words stuck out for some reason. In most places, a "cheaper" word would have been sufficient.
I'd still recommend the novel, but maybe as one to read when you need a break from your primary.
Currently on The Confusion, which had a pretty damn funny intro.
I finished Count Zero last night. It made me want to go back and read Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive again, because I feel like there were a lot of little details I didn't pick up on.
Next up is Perdido Street Station.
Last night I finished The Stars My Destination, which Elliot gave me for Christmas. I really enjoyed it, and will likely purchase The Demolished Man at some point.
Next up is either Perdido Street Station or Count Zero.
If there was a better way to go then it would find me
I finished Pattern Recognition last night. I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
It seems that I'm averaging about one book a month right now. I'd like to be reading more, but I'm usually pretty tired by the time I start reading.
I finished Broken Angels sometime last week. I enjoyed it, though not as much as Altered Carbon.
Currently I'm rereading Pattern Recognition. I just found out that a movie is in production. Hmm.
Finished William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive this morning. I enjoyed it very much. It has four different protagonists, which was a little overwhelming at times. I found myself flipping back to remind myself about previous events.
Also, it turns out I did things out of order: I read Neuromancer last year, I think. But I should have read Count Zero before this one. :-/
One of my favorite passages in Quicksilver:
Souls were created somehow, and placed in bodies, which lived for more or fewer years, and after that all was faith and speculation. Perhaps after death was nothing. But if there was something, then Daniel couldn't believe it had anything to do with the earthly things that the body had done—the children it had spawned, the gold it had hoarded—except insofar as those things altered one's soul, one's state of consciousness.
Thus he convinced himself that having lived a bleak spare life had left his soul no worse off than anyone else's. Having children, for example, might have changed him, but only by providing insights that would have made it easier, or more likely, to have accomplished some internal change, some transfiguration of the spirit. Whatever growth or change occurred in one's soul had to be internal, like the metamorphoses that went on inside of cocoons, seeds and eggs. External conditions might help or hinder those changes, but could not be strictly necessary. Otherwise it simply was not fair, did not make sense. Because in the end every soul, be it never so engaged in the world, was like Daniel Waterhouse, alone in a round room in a stone tower, and receiving impressions from the world through a few narrow embrasures.
(p. 795)
I finally finished Quicksilver, volume one of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle series. At 944 pages, I expected it to take a while to finish. Nevertheless, the pace was pleasant: more relaxed than some of his other novels. I certainly enjoyed it, and will be reading The Confusion and The System of the World in the future.
I haven't decided what to read next. I've got Broken Angels (by Richard K. Morgan), The Big U (another by Stephenson), and Mona Lisa Overdrive (by William Gibson) in the queue.