March 2021 Reading Thread

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I finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's Bear Head. I'm not sure whether Tchaikovsky was planning a sequel to Dogs of War when he wrote it since I think the first book was fairly complete in itself but I thought this book did do a good job of picking up the story a few decades down the line and examining some of the consequences of the events in the first book in more detail. The main new elements is that much of the book is set on an under-construction Martian colony where the workers (not all of whom are human) have had various genetic modifications to adapt to the planet. I think the Martian part of the story was more interesting than the plotline back on Earth following an up-and-coming politician launching a crusade against bioforms. There are a few characters returning from the first book and they have gone through some interesting character development since then. There are some good new characters as well, although as a protagonist I don't find Jimmy to be as compelling as Rex was in the first book. Overall I'd say the first book was maybe a bit better but I still thought this was a good sequel.
 
The Sins of the Fathers by Ruth Rendell

My first novel by Rendell, and an early one from her featuring her series character, Chief Inspector Wexford. If you're a beginning writer, it's a great example of economy: She sets her scene, her characters and her plot quickly and efficiently but without a sense of hurrying the pace. It's not perfect -- while set up early on, the conclusion is a bit pat, avoiding the consideration of nature vs. nurture -- or maybe giving an answer I'm not comfortable with. I'll be interested in seeing if she reconsidered that again later in the series.
 
Just read T Kingfisher's Paladin's Strength - twice. It is the sequel to Paladin's Grace and follows on from that story, trying to solve where the strange, murdering golems come from. It is also a story with warmth in it and a romance between two people in their forties - a beserker Paladin and a nun who is searching for her kidnapped sisters. (And no it isn't a kinky nun - they are not a celibate order. Their order is actually very interesting and non-standard but to say why would be a spoiler.) T Kingfisher has a lovely line in being really observant and making humourous comments on life. The Paladin was a secondary, and amusing, character in Paladin's Grace. I do also like how both he and the nun have conversations about "how is that I used to be able to fall down a hillside and walk away and now I sleep wrong and I have a crick in my neck for three days". As ever there is some wonderful worldbuilding both in terms of place and secondary characters and bit players. She manages to bring them to life with enough detail, or rather the right detail, to make them real without burdening the book and so slowing the story. One of the characters, Brindle, appeared in the earlier book in the same world, Swordheart.
 
Stuart R. Kaplan & Others: "Pamela Colman Smith, The Untold Story"
This book is truly a labour of love. Pamela Colman Smith was the artist for the Rider-Waite Tarot deck and both her contribution to those Tarot designs and her artistic work as a whole have been largely ignored for many years. Kaplan has collected here almost all her known paintings/drawings and in addition there are three essays from others on her life and work with a particular focus of course on the Tarot.
Although I've had that Tarot pack for almost fifty years, I've known very little about the artist and so found this book something of a revelation.
Contemporaries did not know quite what to make of her at all, a most unusual individual.

I found this drawing of Nijinsky remarkable:
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Pamela Colman Smith: "Susan and the Mermaid"
This is a reprint of the story that first appeared in a magazine in 1912. The story is pleasant enough and I like the artwork (it's also reproduced in the volume above) but sadly the quality of the reproduction (and enlargement) here is very poor.

Pamela Colman Smith: "Annancy Stories"
This was a real surprise. First published in 1899, when she was just 21, it's a number of short Jamaican folktales using Jamaican dialect rather than standard English, illustrated by the author, and evoking comparisons at the time with Brer Rabbit. She'd had two of the stories published earlier in 1896 in Franz Boas' Journal of American Folklore. Pamela had lived much of her life from the age of ten to eighteen in Jamaica. Arthur Ransome, Mark Twain, J.M.Barrie were among those full of praise for her performances telling these stories, sitting on the floor, using her own handmade wooden figures to illustrate them.

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I just read Ben Aaronovitch's Tales from the Folly, a collection of short stories related to his Rivers of London series. I always enjoy the novels and I enjoyed this as well although none of the stories are particularly essential. However, often they do provide a few more world building details or development for some of the characters (particularly the stories which are not told from Peter's perspective).

I'm also wondering if the soon-to-be-released novella What Abigail Did That Summer will be as much of a Veronica Mars homage as the story featuring Abigail in this collection seemed to be.
 
Montero said:
Just read T Kingfisher's Paladin's Strength
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I've just finished reading it. If not for your post, I would not have known that it was available. Considering the number of books by Kingfisher I have bought from them you would think Amazon would have told me. (It has recommended others of her books recently, but not that one.)

So thanks to your mentioning it, I bought it last evening. As usual, a lot of fun to read. Though it did cost me some sleep last night, since I read until 4 am.
 
There's just one story left for me to read in Clarkesworld's newest issue. But I can say already: this is their best issue in an awfully long time! First time I read through all stories without being bored to death. There's a lot of experimentalism in this issue, and international writers writing about their own cultures. (I also just subbed a piece, and have another one ready).
 
I am currently reading Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad. This is a series of vignettes covering various aspects of Thai history. I enjoy his use of description to bring out various aspects of Thai culture.
 
You Morbid Westphal by Steven Rage....very freaky and scary so far, I might wimp out of finishing this book!

A Goodreads blurb....
WELCOME TO HARBORSIDE DISTRICT HOSPITAL...
..where three of a kind have come to live, work and kill. Born whole from the rectum of a dying patient, Morbid silently stalks the hospital's hallways, heinously dispatching the most helpless of patients and in the most painfully repulsive of manners.
In the meantime, in order to pay for his family and home that includes his ghost step-father Sammy and his pet aborted fetus Chip, Westphal has to ingest mounds of dangerous narcotics to get through his night shifts.
Barely hanging on to his Care Tech gig by his fingernails, the last thing Westphal needs is to be accused of Morbid's evil deeds. You, on the other hand, simply want to find some solace.
Terminally ill from a virulent infection, and dependent on Life Support, all You beg for a peaceful and dignified demise. Shirk has other plans for You. The ancient drug-snuffling demon makes You relive all of your deadly and venial sins as he tortures You. Night after night. Until eternal Damnation begins for YOU MORBID WESTPHAL, yet again
 
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Bick said:
It’s interesting how perspectives vary. This immediately puts me off!
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It depends. I don't enjoy experimentalism per se, nor do I instantly hate it when I see. I really enjoyed the ones in this issue though. Check out "Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for an Eternal Spirit Core". It's, like, a 10-minute read.
 
I've started Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I had forgotten how mush I like this author.
 
Randy M. said:
I'll be interested in hearing what you think about this one, Paul. It's been on the shelf for a long time and I should pull the trigger on reading it, just haven't.
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Just finished The Etched City. Not completely sure what to make of it, but I like books like that and I liked this one. A weird tale, full of twists and turns and not much explained, but a good story nevertheless.

Next up is Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor.
 
HareBrain said:
Anyway, now started The Pursuit of Glory, 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning. So far mercifully free of Hollywood actors, and much more a social history than I'd expected. I'm hoping he will at some point go into the two wars that prompted me to read it.
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It looks like his strategy is to give a grounding in the various aspects of 18thC life and politics first, and then, having supplied the context, give a relatively short date-order "events" history at the end. Which is a sound idea, but I'm not finding it very gripping at the 1/3 point. Will persevere, though.

But first, I've dived into Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty, an autistic nature-obsessed teenager from Northern Ireland. Almost unfeasibly good -- I'd put him in the Kate Bush league in terms of "how did they get this good that young?" Whereas the history book was making me nod in my chair like my dad when he was 80, reading this felt energising, at the same time as being emotionally quite exhausting.
 
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