Perlkönig

The books I read, the music I listen to, and the games I play

“Player of Games” by Iain M. Banks

Being a gamer myself, I had high hopes for this book. I was a little disappointed. It was pretty good overall, but the specific game aspects were highly romanticized and frustratingly non-specific. I did find his views on randomness in games interesting. There wasn’t as much coarse language in this book as in the first, [...]

“Consider Phlebas” by Iain M. Banks

This is the first of what Banks calls his “Culture Novels.” These consist of standalone novels set in the same essential milieu. The centre of this setting is the society known as the Culture: advanced humans with highly advanced sentient machines and capabilities of genetic manipulation. From the first page to the last, the book [...]

The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

The Death Gate Cycle is a series of seven books. I remember starting it years ago and never finishing. I picked it up again in the new year and yesterday finished the last book. The story is fundamentally about fear—about different manifestations of and reactions to it. It was an enjoyable read with some exciting [...]

“The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss

I have a general rule that forbids me from starting a series of books that’s not already finished. It can take years for a sequel to make it through production, and by that time I’ve read so many other books that I basically have to start over anyway. When I first picked this book up, [...]

“The Martian Chronicles” by Ray Bradbury

  Originally published in 1950, The Martian Chronicles is another of those classics that I have known about but never taken the time to read. This  is a true piece of literary art—poetry. The core story is of the colonization of Mars. It doesn’t sound very poetic, but trust me. Even if you’re not a [...]

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  • Who am I?

    My name is Aaron Dalton. See the "About Me" link for more information. The name Perlkönig is a combination of my favourite programming language (Perl) and the title of one of Franz Schubert's most famous lied (Erlkönig).

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