April 2021 Reading discussion

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I am well into Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963) by Richard Hofstadter, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1964. It's a scholarly historical survey of the title subject.

 

[Bick]

Thought I would read John Scalzi's "Old Mans War" series after all the fuss about it, so I got all six books in a fairly cheap bundle from Amazon.
First two were good military sf, "Old Man's War" & " The Ghost Brigades", not a universe I'd like to live in but interesting just the same, the third "The Last Colony" was more political and did drag a bit here and there but finished really well, someone said it had a rather bumpy plot to which I must agree, so I gave four stars for the first two and three for the third.
However now we come to volume four "Zoe's Tale", my advise about this is AVOID THIS ONE LIKE THE PLAGUE AND RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!
What the hell was Scalzi thinking when he wrote this piece of drek, basically it's the third novel repeated all over again so no surprises at all, but through the eyes of a very annoying and boring teenager ...

I've heard this before, and so I was forewarned. I read and enjoyed the first three and left it there.

I hope the remaining two volumes are a hell of a lot better then this pile of rubbish!

The 5th and 6th are not much good either, I've heard - certainly not as good as the first 2 or 3. I think the 6th was written episodically online with input from fans - or something like that. Anyway, much like there are only three Star Wars films to me, there are only three Old Man's War books.

 

[Bick]

I am well into Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)...

Is that a really big, thick book?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Is that a really big, thick book?

More than 400 pages of small print!

 

[Vertigo]

Last month I mentioned I was going to look for big-ideas SF to read and I tried but I'm not sure I managed.

I'm expecting to have a busy couple of days and I'm away from home all weekend so I won't be reading much in the few remaining days before this thread closes, so here's my reading done this month:

Spell Hacker, by M.K England - YA(?) second-world urban fanasy magic/tech thing - A lot of teen angst in this one. I enjoyed it but it didn't blow my mind. Read this at the end of March but wasn't finished when I posted in the March thread.

The Dark Side, by Anthony O'Neill - SF - A murderous android on a rampage across the dark side of the moon, a new police chief just up from earth settling in to handle it and the corruption and decadence of the company settlements and a string of other murders on the lawless dark side of the moon. - Quite violent, wild west but in space, definitely SF but not so much on the big ideas. Recommended if you like that sort of thing, satisfying.

The Vanished Birds, by Simon Jimenez - SF - This one manages to be both big and small in scope. It's intimate in its characterization but covers a lot of ground in a universe with good-but-not-great FTL. (It'll get you there but it still takes a long time and you're subject to time dilation.) The book centers several different POV characters and jumps to flashbacks and back and forth in space a bit so isn't a simple read but ultimately pulls everything together for a gut punch of a conclusion. Some big ideas but they're more about family, memory, and human relationships rather than space and the cosmos. I'm glad I read it but it didn't scratch the itch.

Vagabonds, by Hao Jingfang - SF - Mars sent a group of exchange students - the first since the war with Earth - to visit Earth and now they're on their way back, thinking about what they've learned and trying to integrate back into Martian society. A lot about society, social and economic systems, memory (again) and human relationships (again). This one also jumps between POVs and flashbacks, some interesting tech but ultimately it's not what I was looking for. I'm a little past halfway through and it's slow going, had to return it to the library and am waiting for it to be available again.

Ancestral Night, by Elizabeth Bear - SF - Getting closer but still not quite what I wanted (yet?). I'm in the first 1/3rd of the book just started this one last week. We're out of the solar system and all over the galaxy and there's a lot of aliens out there too and everybody has FTL. Seems to be a single POV and so far centered on a salvage ship and pretty linear. The story is just getting started and I'm not sure where it's going yet but it's not big ideas yet...

Coming up I'll be finishing Ancestral Night, after that I'm not sure. I'll finish Vagabonds when I can get it.

ETA: I've come to understand that despite what I implied above, Saturday is not the 31st! Friday is the last day of April please plan accordingly.

There's a few big idea SF books I can think of but, to be honest, both manage a lot of the 'big' by being trilogies/series. However one stand alone that might do it for you might be Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns.

 

[tobl]

More than 400 pages of small print!

really? from 1963? uau. imagine if it was written today... either would be 2 pages or an encyclopedia. i'm waiting for the new l m kerr boook and re-listening to first 3 volumes

 

[tachyon]

There's a few big idea SF books I can think of but, to be honest, both manage a lot of the 'big' by being trilogies/series. However one stand alone that might do it for you might be Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns.

Love House of Suns, it's a favorite and just the kind of thing I was thinking of - I've read it 3 times! Some of Banks' Culture books would do as well, and Anathem by Stephenson, and Aurora by KSR to name a few -- but I've read these.

I've picked up "War of the Maps" by Paul McAuley to read after "Ancestral Night" that may do it.

 

[Vertigo]

Love House of Suns, it's a favorite and just the kind of thing I was thinking of - I've read it 3 times! Some of Banks' Culture books would do as well, and Anathem by Stephenson, and Aurora by KSR to name a few -- but I've read these.

I've picked up "War of the Maps" by Paul McAuley to read after "Ancestral Night" that may do it.

Okay, well I guess I was on the right wavelength then From some of my recent reading I might recommend a couple of trilogies:
Noumenon by Marina J Lostetter - not without some flaws but certainly very big ideas and a tremendously ambitious debut.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson - also not without some flaws - a little slow maybe - but again some big ideas there as well (I've still to read the last one).

Also if you like Reynolds and Banks (probably my favourite SF author) then it might be worth considering Neal Asher and maybe Peter F Hamilton (no one would accuse him of thinking small!)

 

[Hugh]

Henry Kuttner "Ahead of Time" (1953)
A collection of ten stories first published between 1942 and 1953, six of which are now credited as having been written jointly with his wife, C.L. Moore. All these stories are worth reading, but I enjoyed two particularly:
“De Profundis” concerns an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital who is convinced that there are aliens in his mind. I thought this was an excellent take on alien contact in inner space, all the more impressive for being written in 1953 .
The other story “Pile of Trouble” is about the Hogben mutant family living in northern Kaintuck, who decide to move to the southern part of the mountains to join their cousin Lemuel. I see there are other stories about them and I’d love to read them.

Kuttner was only forty two when he died. A great loss for SF.

 

[Paul_C]

May 2021 Reading Discussion.