The Martian Race, by Gregory Benford

I'm convinced that Benford is one of the finest science fiction writers of all time. Like Timescape, this book is solid with scientific speculations grounded in the realm of the plausible. Once I started on it, it was nearly impossible to put it down. As the title implies, the story is about a race to reach the Red Planet, but would that be all? It takes a split second to notice the double entendre and figure out that the word "race" could have more than one meaning. You can figure out on your own what the second meaning is.

After a couple of bad movies on missions to Mars, it was a joy to read a well-thought out story on the topic. For some reason, at times I was reminded of good old Arthur C. Clarkes' 2001 series. It may have been due to the fact that this is hard sci-fi rather than a silly space opera kind of thing. If you wonder what it would be like to take steps under a Martian sky, this book is for you. I'll be surprised if you don't think it's award winning material.

Black Sun Rising, by C. S. Friedman

This is a fun fantasy book (read "fluff" here), which doesn't rise up to the heavens where Tolkien's works belong. It's entertaining, but that's about it. "Black Sun Rising" is the first installment in the Coldfire Trilogy and, as you may very well imagine, it ends with a hook to the sequel. Perhaps you'll be psyched enough to go on reading the series when you reach the end of this book; I feel the drive, but it's not an overwhelming one.

In a way, this follows an approach to magic that is similar to what you find in Robert Jordan's universe. One has to draw energy from the elements of nature in order to do magic in the Coldfire Trilogy's planet of "Erna". Sorcerers and adepts alike manipulate these forces to work their wonders. Nothing new here. What was somewhat annoying to me was the fact that the author simply capitalizes ordinary words to indicate a reference to magic. For instance, when you read something about "Knowing", she's talking about a divination spell. While it seems fair to assume that the readers are smart enough to figure it out after a couple of paragraphs, I didn't like the fact that this was just thrown into the pot without any explanation.

As for the rest, the story is pretty much your run-of-the-mill work of fantasy: set up the stage, introduce the quest, send characters off on the impossible errand to battle evil creatures, etc. Even if somewhat predictable, it's still enjoyable. Just as I took to some characters (Tarrant), I found a few others were lackluster (Vryce). My famous last words about this book: if you read it, you'll probably have an enjoyable time, if you don't read it, you won't miss much.

Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk

I found Fight Club a great story and I only saw the movie. The author of the book that spawned the movie is Chuck Palahniuk, who also wrote this gem of a book called "Choke" among a number of other highly successful titles. He writes in a rough-and-tough style, so if you get offended easily by foul language, bodily functions, and unusual sexual situations, don't even think about reading it. If you forget this piece of advice, don't worry because the author will warn you himself when you pick up the book. You may choose to heed the warning and leave it where you found it, but in my opinion, you'll only miss out on a great book if you do that. Behind all the seeming insanity, there's actually a very deep message that makes it worth going on until the last page. Social and political criticism abound. Invitations for deep self-reevaluation of our life styles and relationships are found on every other page. You have to get through it all to be able to put the message together, though.

It all starts with the story of a guy who goes to restaurants and causes himself to choke on some piece of food. Invariably, someone comes to his rescue and saves his life. The act creates a bond between the con-artist and the saviour, which of course is used well to the chokee's advantage. Morbit premise, yes, but the book goes deep into why someone would do this and explores the consequences. I love it and think that it merits a reread. Or two.

Blood Music, by Greg Bear

And so it happened that I was on a Greg Bear roll. After reading the rave reviews on this one (which say it's even better than Darwin's Radio), I thought to give it a try. Yeah, it's definitely a good read and much more science than the space-opera-ish The Forge of God and The Anvil of Starts, which I had just read, but still it's no Darwin. I read this while traveling in Italy, so I only managed to commit myself to it during train trips or occasional nights when I hadn't stayed up too late walking around after wine and grappa. I'm sure that my traveling and my divided attention broke the rhythm of reading this book and didn't allow me to appreciate it to the fullest. In any case, I managed to enjoy this intense story about the threat that biotech poses to our entire world. The book is pretty scary if you take it seriously and upon turning the last page, all I could think about was that I hope this is so exaggerated that nothing of those proportions would ever happen.

Anvil of Stars, by Greg Bear

Perhaps only for the sake of finding out what happens in the end of the story, I decided to read this sequel to the unimpressive The Forge of God. It turned out that I liked this sequel a lot better. The backdrop of the story is outer space and some of the plot elements reminded me of Orson Scott Card's excellent "Ender's Game". The story unfolds at a good pace and keeps you interested all the way through. It was a nice surprise to discover this one actually was a lot of fun to read (even though the corny line about the child and dog shows up in a slightly different guise). There was a lot about the dynamics of relationships between kids in a confined environment, about moral issues related to blind revenge and first contact between alien and human species. Very enjoyable soft sci-fi.

The Forge of God, by Greg Bear

I've come to like Greg Bear first through his contribution to Asimov's New Foundation Trilogy and later through his awesome "Darwin's Radio". Having read these two and aching for some good sci-fi, I picked this title up at my local library. All is all, it is not a bad read, but it didn't get me terribly excited. It reads well, it's fairly light (it tastes of soft sci-fi) and is entertaining, but a great read it is not. It's one of those gloom and doom stories about alien invasion and I won't say more lest I spoil it for you. Suffice it to say it was a good summer read, but nothing to enter the annals of the genre. I was outraged with a sentence about a child and a dog at the end of the book (I thought it was the corniest thing with which to end a book).

Under a Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes

It's thought to figure out the kind of people to whom this book would appeal. Maybe to those who wish to go to Italy or have been there or just want to learn about the experiences of another in that incredible country. I'm really not sure. I found this a VERY enjoyable read that describes how this couple decided to buy an old villa in Tuscany and restore it. It talks about culture clashes, about the hardship of getting things done in a system which you don't understand even if you cherish and appreciate it a lot. This book makes you feel you're there: you can imagine yourself feeling the heat of the summer sun, eating a good bowl of authentic pasta, having a "gelato al limone" while it melts over you hand, letting the chianti linger in your mouth, taking a walk in the town piazza at night... It even comes with a few recipes for you to try your hand at cooking, which I'm sure you'll enjoy.