Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

Dubbelster by Robert A. Heinlein

  • Started on: 2012-01-01
  • Finished on: 2012-01-02
  • Read in: Dutch
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Science Fiction

In an effort to read more award-winning books, and even more (classic) science fiction, I picked Double Star by Robert Heinlein as my first read of 2012. It is the oldest unread Hugo winner I own, and even though I have 8 books by Heinlein on my shelves (or in boxes, because the shelves are overflowing), I had never read anything by Heinlein.
This is the story of Lorenzo, an actor. It is the future, and mankind has met the Martians, Venetians and other aliens. We have colonies on the moon and live and travel to the planets. There is one great human empire, ruled by the figure-head Emperor Willem (yes, of Orange, great to see our royal house do so well in the future). Lorenzo is contacted to do the acting job of his life, which leads him to a nest of Martians (who he can’t stand) and to a meeting with the emperor himself.
The book was written in the fifties, and in some ways shows its age. The only woman is an in-love-with-her-boss secretary, and computers are nowhere to be found (slide rules are still going strong). And except for aliens and space travel, the book isn’t really science fiction. It is more about politics and could have taken place on earth, where the aliens are people from a different culture. But all this doesn’t matter if you keep it in mind. It is a very enjoyable novel, short but good. Four out of five stars.

  • Started on: 2012-01-01
  • Finished on: 2012-01-02
  • Read in: Dutch
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Science Fiction

In an effort to read more award-winning books, and even more (classic) science fiction, I picked Double Star by Robert Heinlein as my first read of 2012. It is the oldest unread Hugo winner I own, and even though I have 8 books by Heinlein on my shelves (or in boxes, because the shelves are overflowing), I had never read anything by Heinlein.
This is the story of Lorenzo, an actor. It is the future, and mankind has met the Martians, Venetians and other aliens. We have colonies on the moon and live and travel to the planets. There is one great human empire, ruled by the figure-head Emperor Willem (yes, of Orange, great to see our royal house do so well in the future). Lorenzo is contacted to do the acting job of his life, which leads him to a nest of Martians (who he can’t stand) and to a meeting with the emperor himself.
The book was written in the fifties, and in some ways shows its age. The only woman is an in-love-with-her-boss secretary, and computers are nowhere to be found (slide rules are still going strong). And except for aliens and space travel, the book isn’t really science fiction. It is more about politics and could have taken place on earth, where the aliens are people from a different culture. But all this doesn’t matter if you keep it in mind. It is a very enjoyable novel, short but good. Four out of five stars.