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Just finished if [tribe] = by Gary Ballard and The 19 Dragons.
if [tribe] = was the final book of the Bridge Chronicles, a super cool cyberpunk trilogy that had one of the more entertaining anti-heroes I've come across. I think of this trilogy as Snow Crash lite. It covers similar technologies, it moves at a similar pace and is punchy and occasionally crass. Of the three books I found the second to be the weakest, the first was the strongest and this book sat nicely in the middle entertaining my with every page turn.
The 19 Dragons is a steampunk novella about the fall of the godlike dragons of a world that is unknowingly dependent on them for its continued existence. It was fascinating in its structure and it had a somewhat adult fairytale feel. There were a couple of logic elements that didn't exactly connect for me, but I did like the manner in which the tale was written. Additionally, I felt it almost too brief. I would have enjoyed each element to be fleshed out a bit more - the brevity of each chapter while an interesting effect didn't make me feel much (or at all) for the dragons. I followed their gradual demise with complete detachment which was a bit of a shame.
Now I'm starting what is advertised as a rather dark novel about someone's life collapsing from a point of contentment into despair - Bryan Healey's Shattered Wings.
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