76. Gifts, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Gifts is about two Upland children, who live in a settlement where most people are Gifted with a power that travels through their families. Gry's family calls animals, whereas Orrec's family has the power of Unmaking. But Orrec can't control his power, and Gry refuses to use hers to call animals to slaughter.

Gifts was another of my $1 bargain books that I've finally got around to reading. Previously I've been a little ambivalent towards her books - they're interesting, and good fantasy, but they weren't catching my fancy as they could have. Gifts was a good read though, and I'd definitely give another of her books a chance, should one tweak my interest. Her characters are interesting, but I would have liked to see a bit more fleshing-out of how their magics came to be and such. This isn't really covered in the book, but it's also quite clearly the first in a series (works alright standalone, but it's clear the story continues) so perhaps that's something that is more fully described later. In any event, it was an interesting book, and I enjoyed reading it.

75. Hunter's Run, by Daniel Abraham, Gardner Dozois, and George R. R. Martin.

Hunter's Run is about an independent miner on a small human colony world, just as humanity is starting to branch out amongst the stars with the help of a mostly indifferent alien race for dispersal. Ramon is crude and angry, and enjoys his time spent out in the wildnerness more than the time boozing and fighting in the cities...although that's always good for some light exercise. After he kills a man, he needs to make a quick trip out. And as luck would have it, this is the trip that he finds something remarkable.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. It was a $1 bargain from the library, and it had three authors, and I was thinking 'ehhhh...maybe I'll give it a go' when I started reading it, but it really blew my expectations out of the water. Ramon is a very interesting character, and I really enjoyed the storyline. Unusual, just predictable enough in places to be enticing, and a really good look at an interesting method of character depiction and development. Totally satisfied my classic-sci fi need that the Shadow series was lacking, and I'm definitely earmarking this one for re-reads in the future. Definitely a fitting book to hit for the three-quarters mark.

74. Shadow Of The Giant, by Orson Scott Card.

Shadow Of The Giant is the fourth book in the Ender's Shadow series. It continues the story of Bean, and Petra, and Peter, and the other Battle School grads. It wraps up...well, to be honest, not very much of the story. I thought this was the last of the series, but it turns out that there is one more after this. Which makes sense, given that they leave two giant gaping holes in the plot NOT addressed at all. More or less, Earth's battles are mostly resolved in one fashion or another, but there are lurking problems off-planet that are alluded to in a very foreshadowing manner.

It's a good story, but to be honest, I got bored of the politics. The Shadow series, after the first book, turns into a political war drama book series, whereas I wanted sci fi, because politics isn't my cup of tea anyway. I didn't read this book in a very condensed or even cohesive fashion, but I'm sure it would be an okay/good read for those who are more interested in this type of thing.

73. Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card.

Shadow Puppets is the third novel of the Ender's Shadow series, and it continues to follow Bean and the other Battle School grads - particularly those that are from Ender's Jeesh - through the political scheme-hatchery of life back on Earth. Peter is a figurehead Hegemon, Petra is trying to convince Bean to marry her and give her children, and the nations of the world are squabbling over countries and borders, each trying to take supremacy. Achilles is betraying different governments in turn, furthering his own cause at all costs.

This series is quite connected. It's difficult to read one without continuing to finish the series. Each novel has its own flow to it, and its own climax, but the plotline is developing through multiple books at a time, so it seems more like one large book rather than a series of small ones. I got a bit bored during this book, and I was a little annoyed with how some of the characters were portrayed. Peter and Petra in particular did not develop as I was thinking they would, and I'm not sure I'm entirely a fan of their actual personas.

72. Shadow of The Hegemon, by Orson Scott Card.

Shadow Of The Hegemon is the second book in the Shadow series, which kinda-sorta parallels the Ender's Game series. It's focused on Earth, and the Battle School grads that don't board colony ships and fly off into the relativistic sunset. Achilles is emerging as a dangerous foe, whilst Petra and many other grads are seized as tools of war, with countries putting armies in their hands. With the Buggers gone, nations are itchy for something else to point guns at, and everyone thinks that their Battle School grads will give them the edge.

I picked this series back up because I was curious to see what happened with the story. Ender's story doesn't really have too much detail on what happens 'back home', so to speak, and I was interested to see how Bean was going to deal with his emerging differences, as well as how Peter was going to develop as a character. He's somewhat demonised in the Ender books as the hideous big brother, but it's interesting to see that he's given weaknesses, and generally humanised as this series develops. It's quite a radical change in some ways, and aspects of it become sort of unbelievable unless you accept that previous information is incorrect, or skewed.

71. The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

The Windup Girl is a sci-fi novel where biotechnology has become the major source of energy and power. It's set in near-future Thailand, where calorie companies are prying their way into a mostly self-governed, if wildly corrupt, nation. It follows a variety of characters, and uses them to show different facets of the same city.

This book was a pleasant surprise. It's one I've had on my lists for a while, but I never got round to checking it out. I'm glad I did pick it up, because it kept me entertained on a fair number of long bus rides. The characters are all interesting, and their thought processes hook into your attention. I liked the setting immensely, and the storyline was complicated, but also came together really nicely at the end. Not many loose threads to tug at, which is satisfying. I really liked it.

70. The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau.

The City of Ember is a book aimed at younger readers, but it's a neat little story nevertheless. Lina and Doon are 12, and have just been given their first jobs. They live in a city built by the Builders, where the sky is always black, food and goods come from the Storage Vaults, and the only light comes from electric bulbs, powered by a failing generator. When Lina finds what appear to be Instructions for something, she and Doon investigate further.

I liked this story because it was short, sweet, and simple. The idea is cool, and it's executed pretty well, with a reasonably satisfying ending. Lina and Doon are cute characters, and it's definitely a book I'd recommend to kids of about that age group.