Musings by Seref Arikan

Ok, slightly off topic, but if you are interested in my reading list for the last couple of months, here is a brief summary.

Atul Gawande, “Better “. Professor Ingram gave this book to me. If you want to see how doctors see certain things, and how hard it is to perform some tasks which they are expected to perform without any errors, read this book. Gawande discusses some interesting topics, including ethics, with quite unusual examples. Would you become a lawyer after years of being a medical doctor, and sue your own colleagues for malpractice cases? Could you use your medical knowledge to end someone’s life, for an execution? A great read.

Stephen King, “Cell”.  King is not the King I’ve admired for so long anymore. He has his style, he never loses it, you get the same feeling everytime you read his work, but Cell made me feel that I am reading a recycled version of his creativity in the past. You’ll find many common points with this book and his previous works. I do not want to believe that he is done with his universe, after finishing the Dark Tower, but I am failing to enjoy his recent works.

Vernor Vinge, “A fire upon the deep”.  My first encounter with Vinge, and  I think this is a good book. Vinge reminded me of Asimov in many ways, and he manages to build a different type of society which is real enough to keep you in the story. A couple of interesting ideas about the universe, including the slow zone, allows him to explore the outcomes of a partitioned universe. I have found some important parts of the book to refer to Gibson’s Neuromancer trilogy, but it is hard to avoid him when you’re writing about AI.

Neal Stephenson, “Snowcrash”.  This is the book that come closest to Gibson’s world in Neuromancer, among the others listed in this post. It almost gives that feeling I get when I read Gibson, but the main story did not create a powerful impact on me. Still, a good work of cyberpunk. I’d like to get my hands on this kind of books more, but I’d like to see a little bit darker material.

David Mitchell, “Cloud Atlas”.  A serious demonstration of talent. Can’t say the genre, because Mitchell shows that he can write four or five genres in the same book! Tom gave this one to me as a present, and it is one of the most interesting works of fiction I’ve read in the last couple of years. It made me realize that I need to go back to non-science fiction more often.

I am now reading  The Graveyard Book from Neil Gaiman, but I have to say that I want him to focus more on adults’ stories. His genious in Sandman and American Gods shows that he can be very impressive when he constructs complex stories, but all his other works I’ve read after American Gods are a little bit too simple (maybe flat is a better word here). Anansi boys was good, but I want something in the lines of American Gods. I’ll always follow him, but he seems to be a little bit too much into writing books for young people recently.