I like Diamond Age, (NeoVictorians! Hee!) and just accept the fact that he can't manage to write endings.

Are you guys familiar with a vampire book that features a new vampire who is obsessed with finding her collection of shoes that had been disbursed by her family when she died?

My first thought was "Huh. I bet if I became a vampire, I would do that." Sad, really. But now I must track down more info on that book.

I find it less fun than Snow Crash and less impressive than Cryptonomicon/Quicksilver but I think I might like it better than any of them.

Ooh. Snow Crash was great, and I'm 300 pages from finishing Cryptonomicon. I'm in my third month!

And yes, after Snow Crash, I'm not expecting it to have an ending. It's odd, because I've been reading it for so long I want to finish it so I can move on to other things, yet I almost feel like I don't want it to end. Because then no more random tangents about Cap'n Crunch, or productivity vs. time since last ejaculation, or stocking fetishes. And the on-topic bits about information flow are fascinating.

Cryptonomicon was awesome, as your post reminded me. I should read it again.

Right now, I've retreated again into silly fantasy. Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn, to be precise.

I really like Sharon Shinn. Her works are basically innocent romance novels with interesting characters (especially interesting females), set in fantastic locations. The Samaria novels are her most famous, beginning with Archangel, and actually become much more science fiction than fantasy, later in the series. They remind me of Orson Scott Card's Earth series a lot.

Recommended, if you enjoy fantasy.

I like Sharon Shinn too. I look forward to her latest novel, especially because it revisits the Samaria of Archangel.

Mary Sue, Mary Sue, Mary Sue. Mary Russell learns Arabic in six weeks, shoots like a sniper, understands the complex local politics, convinces their misogynistic guides that a woman can be as cool and tough as they are, flirts and captivates diplomats at the embassy soiree.... Mary Russell is perfect and everyone lurves her! Gah. Even her "flaws" are the approved ones: stubborn, decisive, too intelligent and independent for her time. Bleah.

I agree with you somewhat... I just think it's nice to have a strong female character... also one thing I didn't like about the book was the way the twists were revealed and not explained, like "okay, so who we thought was the bad guy was not the ultimate bad guy... oh yeah it's the guy you met for, like 5 seconds, and then we caught him and then we left... the end?" But I like the cheesier aspects of King's books... not too intellectually fulfilling, but sometimes that's what I want.

Today's NYT (reg req) has an editorial about teenagers/students, freedom of speech, imagination and creative writing by Michael Chabon.

It made me all allergic. And pretty angry as well (at censor-loving asshats, not Chabon - of course).

Solitude and the Fortresses of Youth

I'm reading A Door into Ocean, by Joan Slonczewski, for my book group. It's making me wonder if I've lost my ability to read SF. I cut my teeth on Heinlein and Asimov, devoured Ursula K. LeGuin's stuff, adored Zelazny's books. But I'm a couple of chapters into ADiO and I'm not sure I want to finish it. Everything is so selfconciously, "Oooooooh, we're an alien culture!" And there are a bunch of characters with names like Tithina the Indecipherable. I keep waiting for the punchline, but I have a growing dread that the author is serious. And there's over 300 pages to go.

Has anyone else read this book? Is there something I'm just not getting?

Anyone read Jodi Picoult? I've never read any of her other books, but I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading her new one, My Sister's Keeper. I'm half-asleep at my desk now, but so worth it!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had recs for her others.

tina, thank you. I have mailed that link to most of the teenagers I know (and that's a surprisingly large number). Kenny's sitting here muttering "He gets it. He gets it," over and over.

Calli, I haven't read it, but it sounds as if I'd be laughing unkindly by this point in the book. Not much help, I know.

I just read speak last night. really powerful book. YA books are so very different than what i grew up on.