June 2020 Reading Thread

[Paul_C]

Rereading The Drought by JG Ballard which is really good. I havent ever reread this, unlike The Crystal World and The Drowned World, probably because I lent my original copy to someone 35 years ago, who promptly died.

I'm not sure I'd dare read it after that.

 

[AE35Unit]

Currently reading 'One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers' a book of cycling memoirs by Tim Hilton

 

[Extollager]

Finishing another Phyllis Paul novel -- this'll be my eighth -- Echo of Guilt, originally published as Pulled Down.

That must have been generic "Gothic" cover art that was on hand. It has nothing to do with the book.

 

[Hugh]

Rereading The Drought by JG Ballard which is really good. I havent ever reread this, unlike The Crystal World and The Drowned World, probably because I lent my original copy to someone 35 years ago, who promptly died.

Ahh! I ordered a copy that arrived a few days ago, and should be reading it within the next week or two. Must be @45 years in my case (likewise Crystal/Drowned/Wind). I realised certain images from it are deeply embedded in me and I’m curious to re-read them (whereas I remember nothing at all of the others). I’ve sneaked a look at the first two or three pages and have been impressed, but need to finish current reading first.

 

[Bick]

Now reading another Ellis Peters Cadfael novel: Monk’s Hood. T’riffic.

 

[Danny McG]

A crime thriller, Killing Pretties by Rob Ashman.

A bit odd to my reading mind because the writer keeps jumping about with the tenses and doing flashbacks without explanation.
No doubt it'll all come together at the end

 

[The Judge]

Now reading another Ellis Peters Cadfael novel: Monk’s Hood. T’riffic.

I love the Cadfael books! I used to have all of them, but lack of shelf space made me give them away to charity years ago. Then last year I felt nostalgic and fancied a re-read, so I went looking for them. So far I've managed to get hold of most of them, each of which I sped through. They're undeniably formulaic, but they're well constructed, the characters are excellent, and for me they're a real comfort read.

 

[Bick]

I love the Cadfael books! I used to have all of them, but lack of shelf space made me give them away to charity years ago. Then last year I felt nostalgic and fancied a re-read, so I went looking for them. So far I've managed to get hold of most of them, each of which I sped through. They're undeniably formulaic, but they're well constructed, the characters are excellent, and for me they're a real comfort read.

Yep, I know what you mean. I'm really enjoying Monk's Hood, and I've found and acquired about 12 of them from used books stores too. I'm reading them in order (in keeping with my standard OCD approach) and will probably move straight on to Saint Peter's Fair after this.

 

[HareBrain]

Finding I'm too familiar with The Hobbit to be gripped by it. Might go back to it, but in the meantime I'm rereading Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, which I've only read once more than thirty years ago. The original and best, as far as I'm concerned -- feels fresher than anything of his I've read since, and his authorial voice is lighter and less obtrusive.

 

[Bick]

Currently reading 1984 by George Orwell

Funnily enough, of all Orwell’s novels it’s probably my least favourite. It’s excellent of course, but it appealed to me less than Burmese Days, Aspidistra, Coming up for Air, etc. Coming up for Air is I think his best novel.

 

[Bick]

Yep, I found I did want to spend more time in 12th century Shropshire, so I have indeed moved on to Saint Peter’s Fair, by Ellis Peters, as predicted.

 

[Bick]

Finding I'm too familiar with The Hobbit to be gripped by it. Might go back to it, but in the meantime I'm rereading Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, which I've only read once more than thirty years ago. The original and best, as far as I'm concerned -- feels fresher than anything of his I've read since, and his authorial voice is lighter and less obtrusive.

Interesting perspective Harebrain. It is extremely readable. I felt the lack of a cohesive plot was ultimately a problem, but it is delightful in other ways I agree. As a stand-alone it’s terrific, as a “Discworld book” perhaps less so?

 

[HareBrain]

I felt the lack of a cohesive plot was ultimately a problem

Yes, I'd forgotten that aspect. I reached the first "break" last night ("A second prologue? What the?") and have no idea what's coming apart from Bel-Shamaroth (and I only recall that bit because I nicked the name for a D&D game thirty years ago). The plot of the first part holds together very well, though.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm reading Alien caller.
It's the 2013 Smashwords edition, written by some NZ bloke named Greg Curtis.

Interesting so far @psychotick

 

[Paul_C]

I've started a short story next, New Atlantis by Lavie Tidhar.

Not sure what to make of it. It wasn't awful, but felt like a heavily abridged version of a much bigger book.

Next up is a collection of NK Jemisin short stories, How Long 'til Black Future Month?

 

[Vertigo]

Once again I'm struggling to find the time to write fuller reviews so just a few words on some of my recent reading:
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - This is a difficult one; the ideas are excellent as is the writing except that it is very uneven. Pratchett of course was always capable of inspired writing and periodically exactly this kind of writing does appear, bearing the unmistakable Pratchett fingerprint. However, Baxter's writing style is very different; less inspired and more prosaically solid and workmanlike. Both styles are good and have their place: Pratchett excels in the absurd and satirical, as in the Discworld books, Baxter is better with solid well-founded science. This book, rather inevitably, has elements of both and, sadly, that is a problem, producing a rather uneven read. That said, I will probably continue with the series. 3/5 stars
The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian - The last couple of books in this long series have drifted towards maudlin self-doubt and related somewhat depressing themes, but in this book O'Brian has come back to a good solid (if rather linear) story and dialled down all that introspection. A great improvement! 4/5 stars
The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin - I confess that I am not a great lover of short stories, generally preferring novels. In fact, I really tend towards the longer, Hamilton style, doorstops! I like to get immersed in the story and the characters and find this hard to do in a shorter form. As such I might not have bought this collection had I realised what it is. But in the end Liu Cixin’s exceptional imagination won me over. I can only stand in awe of that imagination and his ability to construct a plausible scientific framework for it. Two of these stories are probably closer to novellas which probably helped and whilst they are not dated I suspect that at least one of them may have been a rather youthful product (or maybe more tongue in cheek than the writing/translation managed to convey) which didn’t help so much. But overall a collection of truly extraordinary flights of scientific imagination. Excellent! 5/5 stars
The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken - I really wanted, and tried, to like this but, in the end, it just didn’t really work for me. The writing is generally quite solid and the story itself is a good if slightly formulaic heist with lots of hidden twists. My difficulty really lies with the world building which is big and ambitious, and certainly imaginative, just, for me, totally implausible; I just couldn’t accept as realistic any part of the various cultures, science, motivations and characters. Apart from anything else what is described as Homo Quantus is, as far as I can see, just the ability to temporarily switch to an autistic savant state and I really don't see what that has to do with quantum physics. But, let's face it, having 'quantum' in the title is a great hook for any reader inclined towards hard SF, which this absolutely is not. I’m afraid I won’t be continuing with the series. 2/5 stars
The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks - I can see how some readers might find this a bit too similar in construction to some of Banks’ other works and I guess they would be right but that didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying my last unread Banks’ book (both mainstream and SF). A bit sad that. But unlike his slightly bitter final book, The Quarry, this has more than enough of Banks' quirky and often very dark humour. I suspect he had a lot of un putting this one together. The final reveals were all a bit predictable but, as is so often the case with Banks, it was the journey that counted. Excellent! 5/5 stars
Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky - The whole idea behind Roadside Picnic is just brilliant, but unfortunately I found the writing much less so. This may be the fault of the translator who is not even identified, but almost all the characters, dialogue and internal thoughts I found unpleasantly aggressive and spiteful. None of it felt natural and this made the whole book seem unrealistic. All of which is a shame when the idea behind the book is so inspired. I tried my hardest to make allowances for when it was written but whether now or back in the seventies I have not found the average person to be quite so willing to throw an insult or a punch at such minor provocation. Maybe things were different in ’70s Russia? 3/5 stars

 

[The Judge]

I've read only two of those six, and I wholeheartedy agree with you on one, and totally disagree on the other!

I had to refresh my memory of The Far Side of the World, as it's so long since I read it, but having done so via Wikipedia I can confirm it's a cracking read. (Most of the Aubrey books are, of course.) But The Steep Road to Garbadale I read in 2014 and though I've already totally forgotten the plot, I do recall I hated with a passion! My thoughts at the time:

To begin I was OK with it, though he's another one to keep jumping backwards and forwards in time without any warning, so the first paragraphs of every scene were confusing as I tried to work out who, what and, more importantly, when, but the further into it I got, the less enamoured I became as there's only so much teenage angst and sexual fumblings I can take. And the self-pitying, self-indulgent adult the main character becomes, his hypocrisy, his stupidity, his failure to act, his drink and drugs, his role as unthinking mouthpiece for Banks's socialism and anti-American rantings, and the wish-fulfilment aspect of his mathematician girlfriend (incredibly intelligent, incredibly beautiful, incredibly active, and incredible in bed), not to mention the complete anti-climax of the easily foreseen Great Family Secret made me come close to throwing the book at the wall.​

I dunno, Vertigo, trying to guess which of the books you recommend I might actually like, is akin to playing Literary Russian Roulette!!

 

[Vertigo]

I dunno, Vertigo, trying to guess which of the books you recommend I might actually like, is akin to playing Literary Russian Roulette!!

I can sympathise with this; I so often find exactly the same with others, which probably says more about my quirky likes and dislikes, than about those of other reviewers. Regarding Banks' proselytising, of which almost all of his mainstream books are typically guilty, I have, shall we say, become accustomed to it!

 

[williamjm]

I finished reading Charlie Jane Anders' The City in the Middle of the Night. I found it to be one of those somewhat frustrating books which do have some interesting elements but never really seem to develop their full potential. I thought it was an interesting setting, a tidally-locked planet where a human colony exists in a narrow strip between the equally inhospitable regions of constant day and constant night. Much of the story takes place in the two main cities, the rigidly structured society of Xiosphant and the anarchic Argelan. I thought Xiosphant was the more interesting of the two with some aspects that seemed fairly original while Argelan felt a bit more cliched. However, I felt the world-building was a bit shallow and this is particularly true of the third city which gives the book its title and seems potentially fascinating but the book only spends a brief amount of pages there.

I thought the book started off strongly but the pacing seemed to slow once it got to Argelan where it spent a lot of time on subplots that weren't all that interesting (such as Mouth's search for information about her former family). It got more interesting again later in the book but this section felt a bit rushed particularly as it approaches the finale. A major event takes place off-screen and doesn't seem very plausible and the book finishes very abruptly without really resolving its main plot points.

The characterisation can also be frustrating at times. Some of them do get some good character development through but one of them seems to abruptly turn into a Bond villain. It's also a book where the characters spend a lot of time not talking to each other about important things, it's maybe not unrealistic to have characters incapable of having a conversation about difficult topics but it is frustrating.

After that I read Ted Chiang's novella Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom. Chiang always comes up with some fascinating premises for his science fiction short stories and this is no exception, focusing on the implications of a technology which allows people to communicate with their own selves in parallel worlds and what they do with that information. Sometimes I feel Chiang's characters aren't as memorable as his ideas but I thought the character development worked well here and it felt like we got a plausible range of reactions to the technology. Overall, I thought this was a very good story.

Now I've started Seanan McGuire's In An Absent Dream.

 

[Parson]

I began Redemption Lake by Susan Clayton-Goldner but quit only 15% into the book. I had a very strong visceral reaction to the set up. The set up is a teenage boy who has a quickie with his best friend's mother while drunk. Wakes up to find her dead and instead of calling 911 like he thought to do at first, he cleans everything up and tries to keep his part secret. --- This kind of scenario is exactly why I usually hate romances. In romances, and I suspect here, if people would just tell the truth so much pain and trouble could be avoided. Okay, you've made a horrible mistake. Own up to it. Take the consequences and be done with it. Lying about it will ALWAYS be worse in the long run. --- But my reaction was so strong that I might go back to the book because obviously I'd made a deep connection to the main character.

I have also picked up a series of 4 books from Blake Banner's "The Dead Cold Series." This was a classic detective novel in the style of Sam Spade and I thoroughly enjoyed the book 1 An Ace and a Pair. Read the short novel in one evening. My only quibble was I thought that there were too few clues as to answer the question "Who Dun it?" It also had a Emma Peale kind of character that I enjoyed. In fact it wouldn't surprise me that the old Avengers TV show was part of the inspiration for this.

Next up another D.I. Kim Stone book, Dying Truth by Angela Marsons.

---------

I'm really struggling to find S.F. books which appeal to me, lately. It seems that lately the books which sound at first blush to be interesting, are all cookie cutters of one or another successful formula. Or they are some convoluted space opera whose hold to any possible future is too thin for me to accept. Maybe that's why I liked the original Murderbot novellas so much.