"A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Douglas Adams

I've read a lot by Poul Anderson lately, but this is the one I want to talk about. Not that he didn't write anything that utterly blew my mind...but it's nothing I'm ready to commit to words yet. Suffice it to say "Brain Wave" was the best.

Now, you have to respect this book for its sheer cultural impact. I laughed hysterically while reading this because he hit the nail on the head as far as weaving banality into matters of galactic and personal devastation. Beautiful, no?

- Johnny "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish"

So, I've taken kind of a hiatus from reading as much. Or posting. Anyway, I can sum up the things worth mentioning in two words: Vernor Vinge. Whatever he writes, pick it up and read it. I have read every novel he's written, and every one of them is brilliant beyond words. But the best one? "A Fire Upon the Deep." A book so genius that it set the course of science fiction for nearly two decades since. It has literally staggered other sci-fi writers with its brilliance so much that they're not even sure where to take the genre from there. In other words, it's an innovation so intimidating that no one's sure yet how to proceed from there.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

- Johnny Vincero