Fiction

Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
Part One: Chapter 1

I know I seem to have a predilection for giving up on books by accident, but I haven't abandoned Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (even though it's been a while). So why start this? Well, I'll be voting for the 2014 Hugo Awards, and this is one of the nominees, which I feel I should at least make some effort to read.

So far, it's not really my cup of tea. I confess I didn't even read all of this review, but the first four or so paragraphs give a good enough idea -- both of the novel, and why I'm not keen: "the real business of the novel [is] interstellar economics." Wow! Couple that with its dense hard-science-fiction style and it's all a bit much.

Not sure how long I'll stick with it, then. The advice someone offered -- that you should read all the nominated works, but only until you've had enough of each (which therefore shows you can't think that much of one if you don't want to finish it) -- seems good to me! And also practical, when there's so much to read.