Kris, First - thanks for visiting my blog, Websites People Read. Second - NE Ohio??? Me to!! Near Akron? We’ve started an in person quarterly meeting of Akron area bloggers to network and learn. Let me know if you are interested in joining us.
Third - have you read This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. It’s an oldie - but a goodie.

Deborah

I’m actually in Willoughby, about 20 minutes east of Cleveland. Akron would be about an hour drive for me, but quarterly meetings might not be too bad. I’ll give it some thought.

Interesting that you should mention the language, Gerall, because it’s—quite frankly—making the beginning of the book difficult for me to get into. I think the problem is that I’m listening to it on my morning and evening commute, which is only 10 minutes each way. In those ten minutes chunks nothing is happening. It’s all very descriptive and clever, but totally unsuitable for a 10-minute drive in which, at best, I can give the story about 40% of my attention.

Spook Country is not an action-oriented plot by any stretch. Given the conditions under which you’re listening to it, even I , the language-nut, would have a hard time with it.

You might want to try Stephenson’s Snow Crash or Vinge’s Rainbow’s End for this commute. Much quicker initial plots, a bit more razzle-dazzle, and still well within the cyberpunk (the former) or post-cyberpunk / transhumanist (the latter) genres.

Delicious listening!

Although, maybe during a vacation, you could give Spook Country another try?

Deborah

I have read all of Gibson’s ouvre. Every book. While there are several memes you’ll see that recur throughout, it’s his use of language that I keep coming back for.

Where Clarke allowed readers to know his work was science fiction with zingers like “The door dilated open.”, Gibson is much more careful about how he crafts images. Very much effort seems to go in.

He’s kind of like a science fiction William Faulkner, IMO. /Virtual Light/ was a good one, but suffered from a non-temporally-ordinal beginning which turned many off of the series.

I’ll have to get my reading blogged sometime this week… I wonder; do we include non-fiction in this exercise?

-pax-

Interesting that you should mention the language, Gerall, because it’s—quite frankly—making the beginning of the book difficult for me to get into. I think the problem is that I’m listening to it on my morning and evening commute, which is only 10 minutes each way. In those ten minutes chunks nothing is happening. It’s all very descriptive and clever, but totally unsuitable for a 10-minute drive in which, at best, I can give the story about 40% of my attention.

Where Clarke allowed readers to know his work was science fiction with zingers like “The door dilated open.”, Gibson is much more careful about how he crafts images. Very much effort seems to go in.

He’s kind of like a science fiction William Faulkner, IMO. /Virtual Light/ was a good one, but suffered from a non-temporally-ordinal beginning which turned many off of the series.

I’ll have to get my reading blogged sometime this week… I wonder; do we include non-fiction in this exercise?

-pax-

And thank you for the awesome suggestions. I’ve added them to my reading list!

I hope you’ll consider my debut novel, HUNTING THE KING, though it is coming out in hardcover in April. [...]

If I may be so bold as to offer you some unsolicited advice, Peter, you may wish to spruce up your web site a bit to help market your book. A pre-order link for Hunting the King at Amazon.com would help, as would an excerpt from the book (perhaps part or even all of the first chapter) and a means to contact you or leave feedback. If you’ve got the time, you might even consider turning your site into a blog about the writing, publishing and marketing process behind Hunting the King.

I’m no marketing whiz (I’ll leave that to the likes of J.C. Hutchins or Mur Lafferty) but I’ve seen authors do wonders marketing their work on the Internet in the past couple of years; everything from podcasts to blogs to virtual book launches. Take advantage of the great marketing tool you’ve got at your fingertips and create some excitement about your book. Leaving comments on blogs like mine is a good start, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Good luck!