November 2020 Reading Thread

[Bick]

I remember that from school, I think I was put off it by all the struggling readers as we took turns standing and giving it a page.
"And - then - they -waked, er, walked - up - the - line, er, lane yada yada"

Yes that wouldn’t help - it’s a terrific book.

 

[AE35Unit]

Re re reading Hogfather by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett

 

[BigBadBob141]

Great book and a great TV film, the scene with the match/begger girl and Death almost moved me to tears!

 

[AE35Unit]

Great book and a great TV film, the scene with the match/begger girl and Death almost moved me to tears!

I didn't think much of the film to be honest. Most adaptations of his books don't work for me.

 

[BigBadBob141]

I enjoy all the discworld films, obviously they are not quite the same as the books but I think they've made a pretty fair fist of them just like was done with the film versions of "Watchmen" and "V For Vendetta", I really enjoyed "Going Postal"!

 

[williamjm]

I finished Peter F. Hamilton's The Saints of Salvation. I thought it was a good ending to the trilogy. After having written so many space operas over the last 25 years Hamilton does sometimes end up repeating himself (semi-immortal tech billionaires seem to be a particular obsession) and there are times where that happened in this trilogy but he did manage to come up with a few fresh ideas in this book, particularly towards the end. After a good beginning in the first book I thought the second was a bit weaker, spending far too much time on a tedious subplot about London gang members but I thought the third book was much more focused on the interesting parts of the plot. It did have a strong finale and while it did tie up most of the main plot lines it didn't make the resolution of the story too neat. It was maybe a bit lacking in memorable characters, other than the Saints and Yirella the rest of the cast felt a bit bland. Overall I liked the trilogy although I do wonder if maybe Hamilton should try to do something that's not a space opera next for a bit of variety.

Next up I'm going to read Emily St. John Mandel's The Glass Hotel.

 

[hitmouse]

I remember that from school, I think I was put off it by all the struggling readers as we took turns standing and giving it a page.
"And - then - they -waked, er, walked - up - the - line, er, lane yada yada"

I found it terribly dull at school. Then about 20 years ago I randomly picked up one of his lesser known books, the very short A Rose in Winter which completely grabbed me with its amazing prose. I went back and reread Cider and loved it. Clearly wasted on me at the age of 15.

 

[Bick]

I found it terribly dull at school. Then about 20 years ago I randomly picked up one of his lesser known books, the very short A Rose in Winter which completely grabbed me with its amazing prose. I went back and reread Cider and loved it. Clearly wasted on me at the age of 15.

Yep. As I Walked Out one Midsomer Morning is an absolute joy to read too.

 

[Dave Vicks]

These Cordwainer Smith stories remind me a little of Phillip k Dick short Story's.

 

[Dave Vicks]

I wonder if Hollywood is interested in Cordwainer Smith?

 

[Hugh]

Chris Atkins " A Bit of a Stretch, The Diaries of a Prisoner"
The author is a documentary film-maker nominated for a BAFTA on three occasions. He was also sentenced to five years in prison in 2016, age 40, for tax evasion linked to one of his documentaries. This book takes the form of a very very readable day by day account (he kept a detailed diary at the time) of the first nine months of that sentence, served in Wandsworth Prison, before his transfer to an open prison. It is also a damning indictment of the state of UK prisons in general and much of what he says is referenced in footnotes at the back.
The book was reviewed extensively when it came out earlier this year, in part because of the angle that being likeable and well educated he was able to find his way up the ladder of in-house perks fairly quickly to a position in which his life became that bit more bearable than when he first entered the walls. A great focus for his distress was his separation from his young son.
In a sense the book didn't tell me anything new, but it held my attention - the sad thing is that everyone knows just how dysfunctional the prison system is, just how dehumanising it is for both inmates and staff, how it creates more problems (and much greater expense) for society than it solves, and yet the situation continues to be allowed to deteriorate further and further. Atkins highlights both the human tragedy and the Kafka-like ridiculousness/insanity of the system.

 

[Topher]

Chris Atkins " A Bit of a Stretch"
The author is a documentary film-maker nominated for a BAFTA on three occasions. He was also sentenced to five years in prison in 2016, age 40, for tax evasion linked to one of his documentaries. This book takes the form of a very very readable day by day account (he kept a detailed diary at the time) of the first nine months of that sentence, served in Wandsworth Prison, before his transfer to an open prison. It is also a damning indictment of the state of UK prisons in general and much of what he says is referenced in footnotes at the back.
The book was reviewed extensively when it came out earlier this year, in part because of the angle that being likeable and well educated he was able to find his way up the ladder of in-house perks fairly quickly to a position in which his life became that bit more bearable than when he first entered the walls. A great focus for his distress was his separation from his young son.
In a sense the book didn't tell me anything new, but it held my attention - the sad thing is that everyone knows just how dysfunctional the prison system is, just how dehumanising it is for both inmates and staff, and yet the situation continues to be allowed to deteriorate further and further. Atkins highlights both the human tragedy and the Kafka-like ridiculousness/insanity of the system.

This sounds great, I'll Def pick this up when I can!

 

[Vertigo]

I finished Peter F. Hamilton's The Saints of Salvation. I thought it was a good ending to the trilogy. After having written so many space operas over the last 25 years Hamilton does sometimes end up repeating himself (semi-immortal tech billionaires seem to be a particular obsession) and there are times where that happened in this trilogy but he did manage to come up with a few fresh ideas in this book, particularly towards the end. After a good beginning in the first book I thought the second was a bit weaker, spending far too much time on a tedious subplot about London gang members but I thought the third book was much more focused on the interesting parts of the plot. It did have a strong finale and while it did tie up most of the main plot lines it didn't make the resolution of the story too neat. It was maybe a bit lacking in memorable characters, other than the Saints and Yirella the rest of the cast felt a bit bland. Overall I liked the trilogy although I do wonder if maybe Hamilton should try to do something that's not a space opera next for a bit of variety.

Next up I'm going to read Emily St. John Mandel's The Glass Hotel.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on The Glass Hotel. I loved Station Eleven but haven't yet decided whether to follow her work outside SF.

 

[Danny McG]

A Learning Experience by Christopher G Nuttall.
Enjoyable standard mil sci fi so far.

Those pesky aliens keep abducting Earthmen don't they?
When will they learn it always leads to their tech being stolen and unexpected resistance

 

[Topher]

I've just started The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Only a couple of chapters in but already enjoying it - it's shameful how little I know about the cultural Revolution!

 

[tobl]

A Learning Experience by Christopher G Nuttall.
Enjoyable standard mil sci fi so far.

Those pesky aliens keep abducting Earthmen don't they?
When will they learn it always leads to their tech being stolen and unexpected resistance

yes i quite like the series but more the first 2 or 3 books. beware of the writing , it might not be to your liking in some areas

 

[williamjm]

I've just started The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Only a couple of chapters in but already enjoying it - it's shameful how little I know about the cultural Revolution!

I thought the Cultural Revolution bits were one of the strongest parts of the book.

 

[Montero]

Finished Garth Nix The Left Handed Booksellers of London - great fun - in a slightly alternate 1983 the booksellers are a police force of the occult/powerful mythic creatures - and the less powerful. Story follows a girl's search for who her father is, that rapidly involves her with the booksellers. Lots of good description of places and mythic beings. Main characters are fun and the booksellers are all quirky characters.

 

[Bick]

I just read the serialised novel, The Far Call, by Gordon R. Dickson, published Aug-Oct 1973 in Analog.

I thought it was a terrific, hard-SF novel. The action is split between Earth (Kennedy control and the political difficulties behind a manned-voyage to Mars), and the action on board two spaceships who are making the first Mars-bound trip. This story is as much about the way in which political pressures can adversely affect practical outcomes as it is about going to Mars. And yet, there is plenty of action to enjoy too. Due to an over-crowded experimental schedule, agreed to by political committee, the astronauts ('marsnauts') are over-worked and start to make minor mistakes. When disaster strikes, their problems are compounded. The serialised version of this story is I believe only available from Analog, but the expanded 1978 novel (well reviewed upon its publication) may be easier to find. Warmly recommended.

 

[dask]

The book of biographical sketches I've started about a week ago is not as interesting as I had hoped. Of the first four only one, "Hitler" by John Gunther, wasn't a slog and was in fact quite good. The other three, King George III, King George IV, and Napoleon III, were pretty much one endless string of clever insights and epigrams that seemed to require a knowledgeable familiarity with the era to get a firm grip on what was being said. Now I'm not totally ignorant of this kind of commentary. Van Wyck Brooks has a series of literary histories of a similar nature and tone and the ones I've read I have enjoyed immensely. So for the time being I'm setting it aside and will give this a go: