float= The Red Rook (cover).png

Parallel Visions: City of Angels City of Demons ebook and trade paperback available on Amazon (or here).
The question of whether Vance was dead or not became more than academic when he found himself in a bathtub up to his chin in ice water like some forgotten cocktail garnish, a demonic woman standing over him, and no memory of how he got there.
Read free chapters of Parallel Visions: City of Angels City of Demons here
The Red Rook, sequel to Dispensing Justice and the second novel of Nova Genesis World is now available for Kindle or as a paperback at Amazon.
Read free chapters of Dispensing Justice here (or get it here).
Read free chapters of The Red Rook here (or get it here). -- Fritz Freiheit

Dispensing Justice (cover).png 20th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards - Honorable Mention.png
Are you an author with a wiki? Or know of an author who has one?
If so, I'd like to hear about it. Add a comment here

Fritz's recent reading list

From FritzWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

September 2020[edit]



The History of Science- 1700-1900 (cover).jpg
The History of Science: 1700-1900 (2003)
by Frederick Gregory
Great Courses
search amazon
(finished,audio,book)

Right from the start I liked Professor Maxwell's Duplicitous Demon: The Life and Science of James Clerk Maxwell (2019) by Brian Clegg as the Demon is in part the narrator. The Demon is wryly humorous and gives good footnote. One of the most interesting sections has this wonderful description of how JCM modeled electromagnetic fields mechanically, then converted the model into the famous electromagnetic field equations and moved physics into the realm of mathematical models, creating a foundation for scientific thinking that still exists today.
Warning: This is a work in progress. -- Fritz.

August 2020[edit]


Sphere (1988 novel) (cover).jpg
Sphere (1988)
by Michael Crichton
search amazon
(finished,audio,book)
Sphere (1988) by Michael Crichton wasn't bad. In the end I was disappointed by the...well, by the ending. As a longtime consumer of science fiction and, to a lesser extent, thrillers, the ending of Sphere enter that nebulous realm I consider the bane of speculative fiction, the functional equivalent to it was all a dream ending. Nor did it go far from cliche thriller fair, such as a set of literal ticking bombs and the one by one killing off characters in a confined space.Warning: This is a work in progress. -- Fritz.

The Take (cover).jpg


Rainbows End (cover).jpg
Rainbows End (2006)
by Vernor Vinge
Kindle, Paperback, Audio
(finished,reread,audio,book)



Pick
You wouldn't think that a novel with as much exposition as Soon I Will Be Invincible (2007) by Austin Grossman could be so much fun...Warning: This is a work in progress. -- Fritz.

A Wrinkle in Time (cover).jpg
A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
by Madeline L'Engle
search amazon
(finished,reread,audio,book)



July 2020[edit]


Unpick
Unfortunately, Doing Time (2019) by Jodi Taylor was a significant disappointment to me. While the characters were reasonably interesting and well written, the use of time travel was entirely for setting and is a great example of failure to fire Chekhov's gun. If a teleporting box had replaced the time machines, and a shift from historical site to some other "exotic" local, it wouldn't have changed anything. I expected there to be some use of time travel to help or hinder, to be part of the plot. As a counter point, take Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where a surprisingly intricate use of time travel to get Bill and Ted out of trouble and achieve their goals post-facto was used.Warning: This is a work in progress. -- Fritz.




Pick
Nine Princes in Amber (cover).jpg
A memorable novel.


June 2020[edit]



Forget Nothing (cover).jpg
Forget Nothing (2020)
by Jason Anspach, Michelle C Meyers
search amazon
(finished,audio,book)

Unpick
Machines Like Me (cover).jpg
My complaint with this book is a combination of the relatively mundane setting and lack of plot. To that I will add the final scene with Alan Turing and his accusing the main character with murder of the AI android, which is precisely the same thing that he did to his copy of the android.


Pick
Template:On Basilisk Station (comment)


Beyond Strange Lands (cover).jpg
Beyond Strange Lands (2020)
by Simon Taylor, David Peterson
search amazon
(finished,audio,book)

Early in Dead Beat (2005) by Jim Butcher I noticed a fairly long conversation between Dresden and another character shortly after rescuing him from zombies under necromantic control intended to explain how there was hidden world of magic and why no one in the general populace was talking about this world. It hinged on the idea that humanity was in denial about this hidden world of magic, monsters, and more importantly, super predators such as vampires. That the idea of this world was so terrifying and that no one could do anything about it, then everyone who had encountered it or had been impacted by it, and Dresden goes to pains to explain that there was a lot of impact from this world on the normal world, that they just explained it away or when they couldn't do that, just suppressed or forgot about it. Barring the idea that mysteries are always pursued by some of this, there is the notion that explaining the unknown helps to reduce the fear and terror that it engenders. And, in fact, at the end of the Dresden's conversation he actually reassures his friend that knowing about will help reduce his fear and terror. So, in order to sustain the setting there is this hidden supernatural world, humanity is bunch of idiots who purposefully deny and forget about any impact that this world has on them.

I'm going to name this trope based on the second order idiot plot trope, the second order idiot setting. A second order idiot setting is a setting, frequently a hidden world, where the only thing that sustains it mystery is deliberate denial by everyone in the setting that there is anything odd or mysterious or hidden.

Warning: This is a work in progress. -- Fritz.

May 2020[edit]

Pick
Implied Spaces (cover).jpg
Implied Spaces (2008)
by Walter Jon Williams
search amazon
(finished,reread,audio,book)
I originally read Implied Spaces (2008) by Walter Jon Williams in 2008 shortly after its publication and remember quite liking it. I'm currently (May of 2020) rereading it as an audiobook with undiminished pleasure. What is striking to me are how many features that it has in common with Parallel Visions: City of Angels City of Demons. These include a setting that appears to be fantasy at the outset, SF theme parks, a female assistant sharing an initially hidden feature that I won't reveal because, spoilers, and a hidden powerful foe. I strongly suspect these commonalities were an unconscious influence PVCACD. Thus, I'm going to have to add Implied Spaces to its inspirations.

Pick
Template:Ballistic (2020 novel) (comment)

Pick
On rereading The Player of Games (1988) by Iain M. Banks (as an audiobook, of course), ...Warning: This is a work in progress. -- Fritz.

Skeen's Leap (cover).jpg
Skeen's Leap (1986)
by Jo Clayton
Skeen #1
search amazon
(finished,audio,book)






 (e)


Also See

Other related categories[edit]

(v) (e)


Recent Related Changes

Topics recently changed in List (category):

Recent Topics with Comments




Categories[edit]

v • d • e


Retrieved from "https://fritzfreiheit.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fritz%27s_recent_reading_list&oldid=166363"