Sorsa

Wild duck. - And in the other news I just began reading Manhattan in Reverse written by Peter F. Hamilton. Nice times ahead. (Juha H.)

Uusi kamera

New camera - Nikon D5100. And a new book. (Photo with Nikon D70; Juha H.)

Neal Asher

Above books written by Neal Asher I've read so far. There are still quite many to go. Asher is a masterful depicter of alien creatures, alien biology. He also tells stories of the possibilities how mankind may evolve or at least change to something not seen before. Interesting thoughts and fascinating perspectives. (Juha H.)

Neal Asher

Earlier today I finished The Skinner written by Neal Asher - Wild, wild and weird story from a very harsh planet called Spatterjay. Asher is masterful depicter of imaginary or otherwise exobiology...

Now I've already began to read another book written by Neal Asher - The Technician.

Juha H.

Hannu Rajaniemi

Just finished reading The Quantum Thief written by Hannu Rajaniemi. Very impressive and multi-layered sci-fi story. Thank you very much. - What should I read next? Some Neal Asher - The Skinner or The Technician?

Juha H.

Peter F. Hamilton

Finally after more than a yearlong waiting I got Peter F. Hamilton's book The Evolutionary Void. (Thanks Play!) This is the final part of the Void Trilogy. Some very interesting times ahead.

Music news. I'm recording the sixth song based on Veikko-Kalevi Riihinen's poetry. Sini has already sung five of them. And there are a couple of guitar solos missing from two other songs. We're waiting for you J-V.

Juha H.

Alastair Reynolds

For a few days I've been reading Terminal World written by Alastair Reynolds. Science Fiction with strange twists. On planet Earth humans live within different zones and most places are technically quite backwards... Wild West with humourless Indiana Jones. Strangely entertaining story.

Juha H.

Alastair Reynolds

I just finished reading Absolution Gap written by Alastais Reynolds. The story was a quite massive Space Opera with weird mechanical culture trying to destroy everything living and space faring... I liked the whole a lot. What now? Should I read more Reynolds or some Ben Bova for change?

Juha H.

Musaa ja Neal Asher

One more day working with my music. And so I recorded some Sini's singing, some recorders and flute. Well, and of course keyboards... An ordinary Sunday.

I began reading Orbus written by Neal Asher. Hard Science-Fiction. There's some fast action, weird aliens and strange AI coming this way...

Juha H.

Keikka takana ja Neal Asherin kimppuun

We played a nice little gig - Jori, Sini and I. All went quite well and Sini is pretty happy.

Now might be the time to continue to read The Gabble - a compilation of short stories written by Neal Asher. His visions are so strangely wonderful - though sometimes very violent...

Juha H.

Neal Asher

I began reading Neal Asher's novel Line War. Once again a strange story from the far future. I've read only some hundred pages and already I've met many weird ideas of possible human biological developement/manipulation, humans combined with AI and even stranger creatures. Of course there are aliens, alien AI... And as the name of the story says - there is a war coming. Strange times ahead for me!

Juha H.

Sotakirja

For some time I've been reading Chris Bellamy's quite massive book Absolute War Soviet Russia in the Second World War. The text is based mostly on Russian archives - of which some are older and some from the time since Soviet Union collapsed. Massive book from massive material. The war on the Eastern Front with its giant battles was the biggest and most horrendous ever fought.

Very interesting in Bellamy's text is that he depicts so well what happened before the beginning of the Operation Barbarossa - what led Nazi-Germany to attack Communist-Russia.

Here and there Bellamy doubts the truthfulness of Russian archives. And because of this there is at least one real mistake. He claims that Finns lost during the Winter War (1939-1940) 48000 men. But in reality that number is twice the actual number. Why didn't he check the figures from Finish archives? He used Russian ones instead and those were from the 1950-ies.

All in all Bellamy has written an absolutely interesting book!

Juha H.

Neal Asher

I've been quite frantically reading Neal Asher's book Hilldiggers. Hard politico/military Science-Fiction with some ideas of weird genetic manipulations, AI, aliens... Now I've only some 20 pages to read - and I have to go...

Juha H.

Kaval ja Peter F. Hamilton

Slowly so slowly I'm learning to play - to blow properly my Kaval-flute. Fingerings are not the problem or not so hard to learn but how to make the instrument sing beautifully. Time and persistence it'll take.

For a couple of days I've been reading The Temporal Void written by Peter F. Hamilton. Space opera in grande scale. Hard Science Fiction and Fantasy mixed in a weird way...

Juha H.

Vasily Grossmann

For some time I've been reading Vasily Grossmann's book Elämä ja kohtalo (=Life and Fate). (I'm not proficient enough in Russian language. So I read it in Finnish...) The book is a panorama set to the time of the battle of Stalingrad during the WWII. The number of its characters is massive - the story ranges from German and Russian concentration camps to military units fighting in and near Stalingrad. There are Russian scientists and civilians behind the lines, some wounded German soldiers in a military hospital and ... Every Russian military unit had a real officer and a political officer. In many cases the political officer decided what the unit should do in fighting situation - though he was in no way militarily competent...

Grossmann was one of Stalin's best writer and propagandist. During the war he was very famous and popular. Grossmann was himself in Stalingrad while the fighting was at its hardest. So his writings were/are for real. He was no fake. But if Stalin had known what Grossmann wrote in his private diaries maybe his fame couldn't have saved him from Siberia or even worse...

In the massive battle of Stalingrad number of losses on both sides was gross. Germans and their allies lost almost 500 000 men - dead, wounded and lost. Russian casualties were more than 1 800 000 and all the innumerable civilians who lost their lifes... Stalin didn't let the civilians leave the city so that the military units would fight more bravely. Well, and the Germans didn't care very much how many Russian non-military people got killed...

Juha H.

Takaisin Hesasta

Flowers from my backyard. - Back from Helsinki. Sini and I did a one day trip there. Nice travelling by bus. I had ample time to read science-fiction short stories. Right now my living room PA is playing a CD - The Enchantment by Chick Corea and Bela Fleck. Happy, happy and relaxed music!! (Juha H.)

Takaisin Tallinnasta ja Ben Bova

Back from Tallinn, Estonia. Short but very nice trip there and back.

While travelling I read Ben Bova's book The Green Trap. Fascinating and puzzling ecological thriller - not exactly science-fiction. The story of the book was of rising oil-prices and a scientist inventing a way to make energy from water - cyanobacteria splitting the liquid in two, hydrogen and oxygen... But the oil-industry didn't want to give the scientist's revelation away. Better to make money with higher prizes. Are we being cheated?

Juha H.

Imperiumin rakentaminen

For some days I've been reading a book written by Lawrence James - The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. I thought that it might be good to find out how to build an empire. This might help me to understand better the world we live today. Britain was so great one time and its power - in good and bad - was felt all over the world. Of course one book is only one possible view to see how it all happened. - Unfortunately my reading has been so slow. There's not enough spare time in my life at the moment...

Juha H.

Peter F. Hamilton

For a few days I've been reading Peter F. Hamilton's book The Dreaming Void. I bought it, well ordered from Germany, some weeks ago but had the guts to postpone the begining of its reading up to last weekend. And now I'm so busy that I can take the book in my hands so late at night that I can read only some pages before my eyes begin to droop... The story itself seems to be a massive saga - set into the Future more than two thousand years from now. And the world is really weird - many advanced alien civilizations, ftl space travelling and in the middle of our Galaxy something frightening - or the greatest opportunity ever or what...

Music keeps me busy. That's really good because music is the best.

Juha H.

Sci-fi ja Sandmonkey

Every now and then I read a book. This time I began reading The Eternity Artefact written by L.E. Modesitt, jr. Four differing views of the same story. Hard Science-Fiction - more than two thousand years into the Future...

I haven't been surfing the blogsphere for some time. Today I realised to my delight that Sandmonkey is back. How nice.

Juha H.