STG's

Consider Phlebas, by Ian M. Banks, is an SF novel and the first released book in the Culture series. I have actually read Player of Games before on recommendations. One thing to note is that this book actually defines some things that Player of Games don't. Seems silly that Banks didn't do it for the other one, as most explanations are a couple of paragraphs at most (example: drones auras). Yes, you could understand it from context, but this felt better and was more informative. The story was interesting and views the Culture mostly from an enemy's perspective - a Changer (which was quite interesting) - an human that is capable of changing his appearance and also has minor combat enhancements. The tech is pretty nice overall, specially when you consider that the book is from 1987! Many older SF novels have extensive silly sequences when read now, this one aged well apart from maybe a few bits. There are a couple of things I didn't like, in particular the some

New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson, is an SF novel set in a New York that has large parts of it underwater because of global warming. The premise is good, and the description of how this was handled, including the tech is nice. Unfortunately, large parts of the story are quite annoying, in particular near the ending. There is also a "let the people take over everything" semi-communist theme going on - which include super taxes that were actually tried in real life and never worked (i.e.: the people being taxed just move out of your jurisdiction and take either their current money or future earnings with them), or just having the government handle everything (which sounds nice because the government in theory wouldn't be as greedy, except that in most instances it actually is and tends to not know what it is doing, because there is no competition to force it to actually be competent). I actually only finished the book through stubbornness - the story wasn't

The Labyrinth Index, by Charles Stross, is the latest volume in the La undry horror series. Following the last volume, a god from another dimension is now in control of the British government. And turns out the in the USA, nobody seems to be talking about the President, or even remember that he exists... So Mhari (a "vampire") and her crew are going to the US to find, rescue the president, and try to save the US from being taken over by another alien god... Excellent as usual. Lots of exciting bits, and the evolution across the books of the powers of the groups fighting has been nice, although we did lose the "this could be happening right now under your nose" vibe a few books ago. Strongly Recommended by fans of the series, and if you don't know it yet and like clever horror, you really should start with the first one.