February 2021 Reading Thread.

[hitmouse]

Culture Series of Iain M Banks: A Critical Introduction by Simone Caroti - an excellent critique of Banks' Culture books. More here.
Look To Windward by Iain M Banks - I'm loving these books even more on my reread. Excellent! More here.
State of the Art by Iain M Banks - State of the Art is only a short novella contained in a collection of short stories of the same name. It is particularly interesting for two things. Firstly in that it gives a little more background to Diziet Sma who appears much more prominently in Use of Weapons and secondly, and more interestingly, it is the first and, I think, only time that Earth appears (very unflatteringly) in the Culture books and where we learn that the Culture has not grown from some kind of Terran diaspora but actually already existed before we learnt to talk. Interesting and worth reading for a Culture fan but not brilliant. I really don’t think the short form was Banks’ forte! 3/5 stars
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway - bizarre but excellent, I think, debut novel. More here.

i discovered Nick Harkaway a couple of years ago and read all of his novels. Gone Away World is good, but some of his others are stellar.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Finding it hard to carry on with Null-A at the moment in terms of just sitting and reading, but I've been listening to Sanderson's Way of Kings on audiobook while doing other things or walking lately. Mostly out of curiosity, since I've been watching his lectures. I'm enjoying and benefiting from those, but I don't think he's my kind of writer. While I'm enjoying WOK on some level, his prose and dialogue is not the best. I am interested enough currently to see how things unfold though, and that will determine whether I continue with the series. I think I'm around 9 hours in, which is probably a little under 20%.

 

[tobl]

I ended up reading it most of the night, yet another Slow Horses triumph!
Great spy story, one long session (tired now zzzz)

so,since you gave a new name to try i will return the favor: john corwin

 

[Vertigo]

i discovered Nick Harkaway a couple of years ago and read all of his novels. Gone Away World is good, but some of his others are stellar.

How would you describe them genre-wise?

 

[Hugh]

Two aged Ballantine paperbacks
Lester del Rey: “And Some Were Human” (1961): featuring eight del Rey short stories
Lester del Rey: “Robots and Changelings” (1957): eleven del Rey short stories
I preferred "Robots and Changelings": for the most part the stories are that much later and it shows in the writing, but I liked the first collection too.

One curious note concerning “The Pipes of Pan” (1940) in "Robots and Changelings": for me this provides a crucial element for Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". In the story the god Pan has come to witness the death of his last worshipper (no plot spoiler as this is early on). If you're a god, the death of all those worshipping you has consequences:
"When the last of their worshippers was gone, they either died or were forced to eke out their living in the world of men by some human activity"....
..."Ishtar, or Aphrodite, was working somewhere in the East as a nursemaid, though her old taste for men still cost her jobs as fast as she gained them. Pan's father, Hermes, had been working as a Western Union messenger the last he'd seen of him. Even Zeus, proudest of all, was doing an electrician's work somewhere..."
No criticism of Gaiman intended here as writers do this all the time, but I think it very likely that consciously or unconsciously he had picked up on this story in conceiving "American Gods". (Of course others may have written along these lines before and I just haven't come across them).

 

[hitmouse]

How would you describe them genre-wise?

They vary. All SF-ish but pretty eclectic. Gone Away World is the most conventionally SF. Tigerman is a subtle eco-disaster thriller with strong Ballardian tones. Angelmaker is a cracking adventure set in an ever so slightly alt-London (the closest analogy I can think of is the London in Rivers of London, but without any of the magic stuff.) Gnomon, his most recent, is more ambitious and profound: a real brain-teaser detective story where the nature of reality is quite uncertain for a long while.

All very excellent. Gone Away World probably the least interesting for me, though that is not to say it is not very good.

I am not sure why Harkaway is not discussed more. One of my best discoveries in recent years.

 

[Lawrence Twiddy]

Finding it hard to carry on with Null-A at the moment in terms of just sitting and reading, but I've been listening to Sanderson's Way of Kings on audiobook while doing other things or walking lately. Mostly out of curiosity, since I've been watching his lectures. I'm enjoying and benefiting from those, but I don't think he's my kind of writer. While I'm enjoying WOK on some level, his prose and dialogue is not the best. I am interested enough currently to see how things unfold though, and that will determine whether I continue with the series. I think I'm around 9 hours in, which is probably a little under 20%.

@The Scribbling Man have you read the Mistborn Trilogy? If so did you prefer it to what you have read so far of The Way of Kings?

I only ask because I too have my reservations with some of the dialogue from Sanderson. Parts to me seem as though characters overly explain themselves to help me as a reader follow the story arc's, which I am already tracking without the checkpoint reminders or explanations. Still very much enjoyed everything else about the books though, enough to finish The Final Empire and be half way through The Well of Ascension. I'm really excited to finish the trilogy because take nothing away from the books the story and world building are great! I was just in my subconscious secretly crossing my fingers that the Stormlight Archive was even better until I saw your post.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

@The Scribbling Man have you read the Mistborn Trilogy? If so did you prefer it to what you have read so far of The Way of Kings?

I only ask because I too have my reservations with some of the dialogue from Sanderson. Parts to me seem as though characters overly explain themselves to help me as a reader follow the story arc's, which I am already tracking without the checkpoint reminders or explanations. Still very much enjoyed everything else about the books though, enough to finish The Final Empire and be half way through The Well of Ascension. I'm really excited to finish the trilogy because take nothing away from the books the story and world building are great! I was just in my subconscious secretly crossing my fingers that the Stormlight Archive was even better until I saw your post.

I haven't really read anything of his before. I started reading Skyward not long ago, but it was just feeling too generic and YA for me, and I haven't had much time to sit and read (hence this on audio).

One of the problems is definitely what you say, though I feel it comes through more in the prose than the dialogue - AKA exposition. There's just a lot of recapping and reminding the reader what has already happened, like I'm reading a "previously on...". It makes for a slow and tedious read at points, and the reason for the length becomes apparent and immediately feels unjustified as a result. I'm hoping the pace picks up though. There is one character I quite like the story of, so I think that's keeping me patient at the moment.

 

[Lawrence Twiddy]

I haven't really read anything of his before. I started reading Skyward not long ago, but it was just feeling too generic and YA for me, and I haven't had much time to sit and read (hence this on audio).

One of the problems is definitely what you say, though I feel it comes through more in the prose than the dialogue - AKA exposition. There's just a lot of recapping and reminding the reader what has already happened, like I'm reading a "previously on...". It makes for a slow and tedious read at points, and the reason for the length becomes apparent and immediately feels unjustified as a result. I'm hoping the pace picks up though. There is one character I quite like the story of, so I think that's keeping me patient at the moment.

Yes completely agree, you've summarised to a tee the way I have felt (especially with the "previously on..." comment) about a lot of parts in Mistborn books I've read. Very interesting to hear you mention these traits in The Stormlight Archive making it apparent it is an occurring style throughout Sanderson's writing and nice to be aware of as I always make trouble for myself with expectations - especially when it comes to cinema. He does do everything else very well though Sanderson! So I will too be patient; as my grandma use to say 'Patience is a virtue'.

 

[Parson]

I gave The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manar another go. ---- Still no go. It seems a story of bee keeping with a little political story mixed in. It's a no-go for me.

Started T. A. White, Rules of Redemption. This book has a strong start, but it's slowing down. I beginning to worry that instead of a Science Fantasy, it's a true Fantasy set in the far future. Will continue to read.

I might re-read Star Soldiers by Andre Norton at the same time. A book which is more Science Fantasy rather than Fantasy set in the far future. At only slightly over 200 pages it might not even qualify for a novel today.

 

[Bick]

I might re-read Star Soldiers by Andre Norton at the same time. A book which is more Science Fantasy rather than Fantasy set in the far future. At only slightly over 200 pages it might not even qualify for a novel today.

Sure it's a novel. Anything over about 120 pages is a novel. It's not a bloated modern novel, granted...

 

[Parson]

Sure it's a novel. Anything over about 120 pages is a novel. It's not a bloated modern novel, granted...

Yep, I agree. But it still made my eyes go wide to red that number in today's context.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Ah, the good old days, when the public libraries were full of hardcover science fiction novels from Doubleday, each one with a little sticker of a rocket blasting through an atom on the spine*, each one containing exactly 181 pages.

*The mystery/suspense novels had a little magnifying glass, and the Westerns has a little cowboy riding a horse.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm re-reading a trilogy again, Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee, starting with Ninefox Gambit.

Hopefully I'll understand it a bit better this time around!

 

[Vertigo]

I'm re-reading a trilogy again, Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee, starting with Ninefox Gambit.

Hopefully I'll understand it a bit better this time around!

I really didn't get on with it; all that numerology stuff just completely turned me off. Couldn't stand it I'm afraid.

 

[tachyon]

I'm re-reading a trilogy again, Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee, starting with Ninefox Gambit.

Hopefully I'll understand it a bit better this time around!

Good luck! I've read Ninefox Gambit twice now, the 2nd time in preparation for reading the sequel, I think re-reading does help. That being said Raven Strategem is a DNF for me - I got lost along the way and haven't returned to it yet to try to figure it out.

 

[AE35Unit]

I gave The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manar another go. ---- Still no go. It seems a story of bee keeping with a little political story mixed in. It's a no-go for me.

Started T. A. White, Rules of Redemption. This book has a strong start, but it's slowing down. I beginning to worry that instead of a Science Fantasy, it's a true Fantasy set in the far future. Will continue to read.

I might re-read Star Soldiers by Andre Norton at the same time. A book which is more Science Fantasy rather than Fantasy set in the far future. At only slightly over 200 pages it might not even qualify for a novel today.

Hmm I've yet to discover this author, and I didn't realise she was a woman. I assumed Andre Norton was male. Anyway I looked her up on Fantastic Fiction and I couldn't find Star Soldiers listed there.
Also I see she wrote a book called Beast Master. I'm sure I've seen a film called that.

 

[Parson]

I assumed Andre Norton was male.

Didn't we all? --- She started writing in the late 1940's a time when the idea of a woman writing SF was quite a bit out of the norm. I would guess that the androgynous name helped. But her first published work was with a male pseudonym, Andrew North? Later in life she started writing a lot of Fantasy stuff. Some consider her Witch World stuff the best she wrote.

I found this book for free on Amazon.

Star Soldiers

 

[The Big Peat]

Read Aliette de Bodard's Fireheart Tiger. Twistier than any novella has any right to be. The writing zips by but I had to take several moments to reflect while reading. Its tender and harrowing by turns.

 

[Bick]

Didn't we all? --- She started writing in the late 1940's a time when the idea of a woman writing SF was quite a bit out of the norm.

She was very well known as a female SF/fantasy writer, and she had good company with female contemporaries such as Brackett, McClean, Moore, Merril, etc., so it wasn't that unusual in the Golden Age. She won the Grand Master award before Asimov got it. I think back in her day, everyone knew she was a woman - its perhaps only more recently, since her work has dropped out of the common consciousness that there's been any uncertainty from modern readers.