August 2021 Reading Discussion

[HareBrain]

Started The Magic Box: Viewing Britain Through the Rectangular Window, a history of British TV and film by Rob Young. This is very well-written by someone almost exactly my age, and unlike other nostalgic TV histories, focuses mostly on SF and folkloric elements. I think quite a few members here would really enjoy it.

 

[Hugh]

Joy Chant "Red Moon and Black Mountain"

It's rare for me to read fantasy and I'd never heard of this author. The book was first published in 1970 when the author was just twenty five - my copy is a 1978 hardback reprint so it must have had some popularity at the time.
It's not my style of writing - there are touches of archaic phraseology and the occasional 'hadst' or similar - but it's impressive for a young writer. Unusually for me, I found myself admiring the editing as this seems to keep the plot and different threads tight. However, by the end I was regretting that there was not more detail about the various magical characters that make cameo appearances: written well this has the potential for a very interesting longer novel. I see there are two more books set in the same world tradition, but to be honest I doubt I'll read them.

 

[Bick]

I finished Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson. My brief review:

Into the Storm is the first in Taylor Anderson's ongoing alternate history Destroyermen series. The concept is that an old and ill-equipped WWI-era destroyer called into action in WWII encounters a Japanese fleet of ships in Asiatic waters, and looks doomed, until it passes into a strange squall, which transports the ship and everyone on it to a parallel Earth. This is a very different Earth, in which dinosaurs did not die out, and humans do not appear to exist. The sentient species of the the planet appear to be an aggressive descendent of velociraptors, and a lemur-like mammalian species, which are at war with each other.

The book starts at a cracking pace, which Anderson handles well, maintaining intensity while also deftly providing interesting background on the old destroyer, USS Walker, and its crew. One of the joys of alternate history is that you learn as you're entertained; with Into the Storm, the old 'four-stacker' destroyers are interestingly brought to life. The invented elements here, such as the evolved sentient species are also well-thought out and make reasonable scientific sense.

This falls into the SF sub-genre of 'alternate history', as it's set in 1942, but it also reads like a cross between Harry Harrison's West of Eden, and The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Overall, it's a satisfying novel, though it does read as the first book in a longer series; the conclusion cannot wrap everything up, and much is left unresolved for subsequent books. There are now 15 books in the ongoing series and whether I ever read them all is far from certain, but the second book, Crusade, has at least joined my TBR list. These books should certainly be read in order.

 

[Galactic Bus Driver]

I finished Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson. My brief review:

Into the Storm is the first in Taylor Anderson's ongoing alternate history Destroyermen series. The concept is that an old and ill-equipped WWI-era destroyer called into action in WWII encounters a Japanese fleet of ships in Asiatic waters, and looks doomed, until it passes into a strange squall, which transports the ship and everyone on it to a parallel Earth. This is a very different Earth, in which dinosaurs did not die out, and humans do not appear to exist. The sentient species of the the planet appear to be an aggressive descendent of velociraptors, and a lemur-like mammalian species, which are at war with each other.

The book starts at a cracking pace, which Anderson handles well, maintaining intensity while also deftly providing interesting background on the old destroyer, USS Walker, and its crew. One of the joys of alternate history is that you learn as you're entertained; with Into the Storm, the old 'four-stacker' destroyers are interestingly brought to life. The invented elements here, such as the evolved sentient species are also well-thought out and make reasonable scientific sense.

This falls into the SF sub-genre of 'alternate history', as it's set in 1942, but it also reads like a cross between Harry Harrison's West of Eden, and The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Overall, it's a satisfying novel, though it does read as the first book in a longer series; the conclusion cannot wrap everything up, and much is left unresolved for subsequent books. There are now 15 books in the ongoing series and whether I ever read them all is far from certain, but the second book, Crusade, has at least joined my TBR list. These books should certainly be read in order.

Thanks, Bick. These books just moved closer to the front of my TBR list.

 

[elle telle]

I just finished both Jade City and Jade War by Fonda Lee. Whoever had recommended them to me had described them as fantasy novels, which I suppose they are, but they're like if you mashed up a fantasy novel with The Godfather - and I have to say I loved it.

Next up for me is Dune Messiah... I re-read Dune about a month ago after seeing a trailer for the movie, and after hearing mixed things about the sequels for years, decided to form my own opinions and read a few myself.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume Three (2009) edited by George Mann. A glance at the author bios in the back indicates a balance of British and American writers, with some famous names, such as Ian Watson. No particular theme or style of SF, which is a good thing.

 

[Danny McG]

I've finally finished a long overdue re-read of The Gap Cycle, brutal but good.

Now it's Blitzcat by Robert Westall, a YA that I started reading many years ago but never finished.

Blitzcat - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Danny McG]

Now it's Blitzcat by Robert Westall, a YA that I started reading many years ago but never finished.

Blitzcat - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Memory playing tricks here, the book I was reading years ago had bombs raining down on Coventry, and a lot of desperate refugees following the cat through the burning streets.

It kept pausing at junctions and then leading them to a safe route.
However this one I'm reading has it sitting in a horse and cart with a wily old drover picking the directions.

Anybody know if there was different versions published?

 

[Danny McG]

This tonight:-

 

[williamjm]

I read Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun, the first volume in an epic fantasy trilogy set in a world inspired by pre-Columbian American civilisations such as the Mayans. I read Roanhorse's debut novel Trail of Lightning a couple of years ago and I liked bits of it but I felt it was very uneven, however I feel she has improved as a writer since then. The most interesting aspect of this book is the setting, while it isn't quite the first fantasy series to use this kind of setting it is still noticeably different to the setting of most fantasy series. I think the world-building works well, gradually revealing various aspects of the society without having to rely too much on large chunks of exposition.

I thought the plot moved at a good pace with most of the book taking place in the 20 days before an eclipse regarded as a major event by the sun-worshipping religious order who rule the continent, although with some flashbacks revealing more about the characters. One issue is that it is very much the first novel in a series with nothing resolved and a big cliffhanger right at the end. The book follows four different characters and I did find three of them interesting, although the remaining character gets very little to do in the book although they will presumably play a bigger role later in the series.

Overall, I thought this was a good book although due to the lack of plot resolution it's difficult to really judge it completely without reading the sequels.

I've now moved on to Katherine Addison's The Witness for the Dead. I really liked The Goblin Emperor so I'm definitely intrigued by another book set in the same world, even if the protagonist was a relatively minor character in the first book.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

I have just started The Revolutionary Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior (2018) by Stefano Mancuso, translated from the Italian by Vanessa Di Stefano. The original Italian title is La piante hanno gia inventato il nostro futuro ("Plants have already invented our future") which seems to be more relevant to one of the book's major points, as to how some aspects of plant life might be adapted into technology. The English title emphasizes the way in which plants react to the environment can be metaphorically considered memory, communication, etc., but that's somewhat over dramatic. Anyway, there are lots of pretty photographs.

That sounds right up my street! Having read Merlin Sheldrake's "Entangled Life" a couple of months ago, which does the same thing for fungi

 

[Bick]

This tonight:-
View attachment 81048

What a big book
Of course, all the books written by Patterson and someone else, are by the someone else, not Paterson. But as Paterson can't write to save his life, that's perhaps a good thing!

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Close to finishing Hari Kunzru's Red Pill - very intense, topical, funny but not-funny.
Comics-wise I've read The Motherless Oven by Rob Davis, very good, comparable to Steve Aylett's Accomplice maybe but not much else

 

[Bick]

I'm reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, now.

 

[Serendipity]

I finished an advance reader's copy of Star Chaser by Peter F Hamilton and Gareth L Powell earlier this month. It is out on 24th Aug and it's a darned good read.

Currently reading The Fire of the Dark Triad by Asya Semenovich. So far another darned good read.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Just started, finally, EM Forster's The Machine Stops, a short story from a century or so ago I've had my eye on for a while.

 

[MartinChis]

Finished Non Stop by Brian Aldiss. It was good but the ending felt a little rushed. Still the premise was really interesting.

Onto The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Really enjoying this so far but saddly seems all too relevant with the recent situation in Afghanistan.

 

[Parson]

Just finished this:

This is literary S.F. It is very memorable, but not because of the S.F. elements but rather for the psychological insights. In only that way it is like Flowers for Algernon. Klara is a "robotic companion" who is designed to be a child's companion. The story is told from Klara's point of view and I found that interesting but quite frustrating. Klara is most certainly sentient, but she is uneducated. So there is a lot going on in the world that is important to her and the story, but she does not understand it, and often assigns very wrong causality. Just for example the sun, which is part of the title she sees in a religious sense as life giving and healing. So she's both right and wrong. As the "narrator" she was a continual frustration to me, because there was so much I wanted to know, and I felt could be known, but Klara understandably, does not understand.

It's really hard to rate this book. I gave it my standard 4 stars, which in my system equates to pretty-very good. But certain people might rate it as one of the best books they've ever read and others might easily see it as a waste of time. If anyone reads this I'd be interested in their take on it as well.

 

[hitmouse]

Just finished this:

View attachment 81089


This is literary S.F. It is very memorable, but not because of the S.F. elements but rather for the psychological insights. In only that way it is like Flowers for Algernon. Klara is a "robotic companion" who is designed to be a child's companion. The story is told from Klara's point of view and I found that interesting but quite frustrating. Klara is most certainly sentient, but she is uneducated. So there is a lot going on in the world that is important to her and the story, but she does not understand it, and often assigns very wrong causality. Just for example the sun, which is part of the title she sees in a religious sense as life giving and healing. So she's both right and wrong. As the "narrator" she was a continual frustration to me, because there was so much I wanted to know, and I felt could be known, but Klara understandably, does not understand.

It's really hard to rate this book. I gave it my standard 4 stars, which in my system equates to pretty-very good. But certain people might rate it as one of the best books they've ever read and others might easily see it as a waste of time. If anyone reads this I'd be interested in their take on it as well.

I wasn’t aware of this book and I will be interested to look at it. I have read a few other Ishiguros and I rate them highly. He does seem to like characters with a limited perspective which affects their interpretation of the world.

There was an affecting Arthurian fantasy The Buried Giant recently which was about old age and loss of
memory.

Remains of the Day is very good ( and a great film starring Anthony Hopkins) set in the 1930s about a lord and his butler who think they understand the world when they really do not.

 

[Rodders]

I've not read any of Ishiguru's books, but they are rated very on Media Death Cult's Book Tube, so i might pick some up on my next book spree.