December 2022 Reading Thread

[Dave Vicks]

Currently The Great Courses .Plato,Socrates, Aristotle
By Robert C.Bartlett.

 

[Foxbat]

The death of Greg Bear has prompted me to hunt out some of his stuff. Currently reading Eon.

Thinking about purchasing the SF book A Fire Upon The Deep by Vinge.Anyone like it?

I concur with @vanye. Initially, I struggled to get my head around the basic concepts of the Zones Of Thought but after kind of grasping and probably more just accepting the notion, I enjoyed this book.

 

[Danny McG]

Tonight I'm taking in a space opera by Cat Rambo - You Sexy thing
(That's the name of the starship btw)

It was going ok, an enjoyable space yarn, but now it's got magic in it as well.
If I'd realised it was science fantasy I wouldn't have bought it

 

[bretbernhoft]

I am reading "Inertia" by Mark Everglade.

 

[Vertigo]

It was going ok, an enjoyable space yarn, but now it's got magic in it as well.
If I'd realised it was science fantasy I wouldn't have bought it

That's one for me to avoid then!

 

[Vertigo]

Okay so strictly this should have been in last month's thread but never mind. A pretty good selection this time around. The Last Policeman came recommended by @Danny McG , thank you! Well worth a read!

The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters
I approached this with some trepidation; I’m not a great lover of police procedurals and the setting of Earth facing total extinction from an asteroid impact in 6 months’ time all seemed a little too depressing (all this is learnt in the first few pages so no spoiler there!) and I’m not absolutely sure this is even science fiction. However, that setting, depressing though it is, actually presents an interesting scenario; if the world is facing known total destruction in 6 months what does everyone do? Who wants to spend their last six months working, cleaning the sewers, running the electricity, putting food in shops and so forth, and what worth does money have? But if everyone stops working then how does everyone exist for those last six months? And, for this story, does finding a murderer really mean anything? All this puts a different spin on a sub-genre that I don’t normally much like and, combined with good engaging writing and a likeable protagonist, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this slightly strange book. And there are another two books that I’m now looking forward to! 4/5 stars

First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
Another enjoyable instalment in the Thursday Next series. I felt on this occasion that Fforde was a little self-indulgent, although not necessarily in a bad way. There was an awful lot of time spent having fun with literature in the sections within the Book World, which is where much, if not most, of this episode takes place. Much of this fun was largely incidental to the plot and could have easily been left out, but…it was FUN! As always, the reader shouldn’t get too concerned about logic and sense and certainly shouldn’t try to disentangle the time travel/manipulations. Far better to just sit back and enjoy the ride! [Irrelevant aside: I only just discovered that some years ago the Swindon Council, in recognition of Fforde’s dedication to the town, named a bunch of roads in a new housing estate after characters in these books. How cool is that?] A genuinely enjoyable read filled with humour that is always inoffensive and never nasty. 4/5 stars

Take Back the Sky by Greg Bear
Desperately sad that Greg Bear died whilst I was halfway through this book. A great hard SF author who, whilst not always completely clicking with me, wrote some classics of the genre.

Take Back the Sky is the third book in Bear’s War Dogs trilogy about a war against the alien ‘Antags’ invasion. The first book was a mostly straight forward military SF thriller with some little weirdness, the second book ramped that weirdness up moderately significantly and this last book took it even further and became quite grim and dark in many places. There are many similarities with Bear’s earlier Hull Zero Three, as much of the action takes place in a vast semi, or possibly completely, organic and utterly perplexing spaceship, following the protagonists’ attempts to understand and survive its various systems. Ultimately, the ending provides a satisfying explanation and conclusion to the trilogy, if just a little too much by way of a convenient deus ex machina. As with the previous two books this was a good but not exceptional read and I again find I have a distinct preference for his earlier works. 3/5 stars

The Orphaned Worlds by Michael Cobley
The Orphaned Worlds is the second volume in Cobley’s expansive space opera series, Humanity’s Fire. It continues what is proving to be space opera writ on a huge galactic canvas including multiple levels of inhabited hyperspace. With its slightly mystic overtones it is in some ways comparable with the Star Wars films and, although I find myself a little uncomfortable with those aspects, I am enjoying it, in particular its enormous and engrossing plot complexity, where I would also draw comparison with some of Peter F Hamilton’s Commonwealth books. And a bit like some of Hamilton’s works it takes a bit of getting into. I was a little ambivalent after the first book; the writing is sometimes a little cumbersome, I really could do without the (dated) Scottish accents and the very large cast of characters took a very long time to feel properly filled out, but, as the galactic picture fills out and solidifies in this book, the whole story has grabbed me more strongly. I enjoyed this book and am enjoying the series, but it took a while for me to be convinced. 4/5 stars

The Last conversation by Paul Tremblay
This is my fifth novella in the Forward Collection curated by Blake Crouch and, whilst still science fiction it has a distinct bent towards horror. It’s difficult to comment on the content without giving spoilers, but suffice to say the intensely personal second person works very well to make the reader feel at the centre of a brooding and disturbing mystery that builds up nicely to the climax. By the end the climax is pretty well signposted so it’s no great surprise but that slow ominous build up is very well handled. 4/5 stars

I'm now engaged with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Harumi Murkami which is weird...really weird! But I'm very much enjoying it!

 

[Dave Vicks]

On deck DREAM LAND by Bob Lazar.An Autobiography.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I just finished Murder and Mischief, by Carol Hedges, the latest in her series "The Victorian Detectives." This is ... book ten? ... in the series, and I've enjoyed all of them in spite of the too-cute (and oddly inappropriate since the tone tends toward the dark and serious) titles . This is, after all, Victorian London, in all its crime and squalor, the sharp contrasts between the rich and the poor, and the challenges of police work at a time when the Metropolitan Police Force and Scotland Yard were fairly new, and the public didn't quite trust them.

What I like about them is that the setting, characters, and situations are consequently often quite Dickensian in flavor. She obviously has done a lot of research into the period, and she never seems to make a misstep in that regard. Also she is excellent at turning a phrase, in a way which is also reminiscent of Dickens. Being mysteries, each book is a stand-alone, but she does have an interesting cast of recurring characters whose private lives progress (mostly in the background), so if anyone is interested in trying this series, I suggest beginning with the first book to avoid spoilers.

One warning for those who care about such things: she writes in the present tense, something which I completely forgot about after a few pages, but which I know is something that other readers can't get past.

 

[Extollager]

Thanks for the warning about the present tense writing, Teresa.

 

[Elentarri]

The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
"The Bone Key" is a collection of 10 linked, gothic, short stories revolving around shy and anti-social museum archivist Kyle Murchison Booth, who specializes in rare manuscripts. After a botched raising-the-dead ritual, Booth has attracted the attention of various supernatural entities such as ghosts, ghouls, incubi. The stories are fairly entertaining and interesting. They weren't particularly terrifying, but some were creepy.
Sarah Monette also writes under the pseudonym Katherine Addison.


Sourdough Culture: A History of Bread Making from Ancient to Modern Bakers by Eric Pallant
The narrative starts with Pallant receiving a sourdough starter and his attempts to trace the provenance of this starter, which apparently came from Cripple Creek, Colorado during the 19th century gold rush. Getting stuck with his provenance search, Pallant researches the history of leavened bread making from the "other end" of history hoping that this forwards-and-backwards methodology will meet somewhere in the middle. Doing some research with the assistance of archaeologists, archivists and master bakers, the history of sourdough bread is traced through ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome, the European Dark Ages, the French Revolution, the British Industrial Revolution, the discovery of the Americas and the gold rush in Colorado and California. Pallant also take a look at how sourdough bread influenced historical events and how commercial yeasted (i.e. non-sourdough) bread, which is more uniform and faster to produce, took over. Interwoven within the historical, detective and microbiological narrative is the author's own sourdough bread baking experience. This combination provides a compelling and fascinating story about one man's search for everything about sourdough bread. I found his attempt to make sourdough bread from scratch - including growing his own wheat - fairly entertaining. The experience was time consuming and not particularly simple. Each chapter also contains a recipe.


The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
The Magic Circle is based on the Brothers' Grimm fairy tale Hansel & Gretel, but with a twist. This story is told from the perspective of the child-eating witch, who wasn't always a witch, didn't always eat children, or live a lonely existence in a candy house in the middle of nowhere. This is a story about a single mother trying to do the best for her child, with an appearance and talents that make the rest of the village uncomfortable. Unfortunately, life doesn't always turn out as planned... especially if their are demons involved. Napoli has written a somewhat dark story, but it's beautifully told, if a bit short.

 

[cyprus7]

I just read a mesmerizing short story, 'The Variant', by John August.

The Variant | johnaugust.com

The Variant is a short story by John August. It's a spy thriller with a strong dose of science fiction, in the vein of The Prisoner and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., or the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges. It's 7,176 words, which is about 23 pages typeset. It's described on Amazon thusly: After 35

johnaugust.com

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Currently reading The Fall of Numenor, by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Brian Sibley, with illustrations by Alan Lee.

 

[Randy M.]

The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
"The Bone Key" is a collection of 10 linked, gothic, short stories revolving around shy and anti-social museum archivist Kyle Murchison Booth, who specializes in rare manuscripts. After a botched raising-the-dead ritual, Booth has attracted the attention of various supernatural entities such as ghosts, ghouls, incubi. The stories are fairly entertaining and interesting. They weren't particularly terrifying, but some were creepy.
Sarah Monette also writes under the pseudonym Katherine Addison.

A favorite collection of mine. Monette says she's trying to combine the better parts of M. R. James and H. P. Lovecraft with 100% less misogyny, which I think she succeeds at. I don't think she was trying for true horror, though, so the stories tend toward creepy and even cozy.

Without really intending to, this year I reread three of my favorite mystery/crime novels: The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Underground Man, Devil in a Blue Dress. So I've decided to reread another, The Final Solution by Michael Chabon, really a novella, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that on first reading exceeded my expectations. Chabon captures the tone of British crime writing, and specifically Doyle's, without falling into parody. Twenty-five pages in and so far, so good. I was enthralled by this on first reading so now I'll see if I still feel as kindly toward it.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started Do It Like a Woman . . . and Change the World (2015) by Caroline Criado-Perez, which deals with several women who did various remarkable things (it starts with the woman who was the first person to cross Antarctica alone by human muscle power only) and analyzes this achievements from a feminist viewpoint.

 

[BT Jones]

It astonishes me how quickly everyone else here manages to devour books, I have just finished my 3rd of the year (in my defence, the first two were It (444k words) and Under The Dome (299k words), by Stephen King).

But it was a good one: Boy Swallow's Universe, by Trent Dalton (his authorial debut). Apart from a speculative dalliance with fate and universal things, it has no sci-fi fantasy elements and is a semi-autobiographical drama about the author's upbringing in the crime-laced suburbs of Brisbane in the 1980's, told in 1st person present tens. A very Australian book in tone and humour, the first half was an absolute knockout, with colourful dialogue and raw, genuinely scary characters amidst what was a decidedly unpleasant backdrop (the suburbs the author grew up in are still regarded so now!). The 2nd half was quite the match for event and drama, aside from our protagonist's experiences as a novice writer with The Courier Mail, which were fascinating and a little underexplored. The narrative style and stylistic leitmotifs began to grate slightly as well.

Still, I'd thoroughly recommend it, especially to any Austrophiles (is that even a thing?) and anyone that doesn't mind dark, adult-grade humour and the seedy underbelly of society.

 

[Bick]

Currently reading two books now:
Crucible of Time, by Jeffrey A. Carver, and
Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

[Extollager]

The Hound of the Baskervilles never fails to please.

 

[Bick]

The Hound of the Baskervilles never fails to please.

Indeed. I have pleasant memories of the first time I read it, as a teenager on a family holiday, reading it on the sunny deck of a canal boat as we pottered up the Thames, with swallows skimming over the water, moorhens fossicking around the base of bulrushes by the waters edge, and cows looking up at us from green fields as we passed by. It may be the most idyllically English memory I have of my youth.

 

[Danny McG]

Indeed. I have pleasant memories of the first time I read it, as a teenager on a family holiday, reading it on the sunny deck of a canal boat as we pottered up the Thames, with swallows skimming over the water, moorhens fossicking around the base of bulrushes by the waters edge, and cows looking up at us from green fields as we passed by. It may be the most idyllically English memory I have of my youth.

I was doing six months in a young offenders institution the first time I read it, yours sounds a little nicer

 

[Bick]

I was doing six months in a young offenders institution the first time I read it, yours sounds a little nicer

Crickey, yes, we may define the upper and lower bounds of pleasantness regards the events that surround the book’s first reading. All others probably lie somewhere in between. Answers on a postcard from anyone who feels they can extend the range either below the lower bound or above the upper bound. This could become quite an interesting sub-discussion.