September Reading Discussion.

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I've not been getting around to posting my reading for a wee while, but at least I did maintain notes!

Timescape by Gregory Bendford - excellent science fiction, appalling sexism (even for when it was written). More here.
Recursion by Blake Crouch - I've read Dark Matter by Crouch previously and this is much better. More here.
Matter by Iain M Banks - Next volume in my Culture reread. I found it much better second time around. More here.
The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O’Brian - another excellent volume in the Maturin Aubrey series. More here.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - despite aspects of this book annoying me the excellent science and writing saved it. More here.
Central Station by Tidhar Lavie - Very colourful setting, but the science is appalling; more like science fantasy. More here.
The Expert System’s Champion by Adrian Tchaikovsky - An excellent novella sequel to The Expert System's Brother. More here.
War Lord by Bernard Cornwell - An excellent finish to an excellent series (the Saxon Tales/The Lost Kingdom). More here.
 
reading:
a terrible fall on angels - laurell hamilton - new series... seems normal so far
bloodless - douglas preston - new pendergast
king bullet - richard kadrey - last of a series
the dawn of nazi moon - douglas mckinnon - iron sky anyone?
the desert prince - peter v brett - please allow me to introduce myself...
forgotten ruin trilogy - jason anspach - current affairs book cof cof
 
I finished Jack McDevitt's The Hercules Text and I found it uneven. It falls into the category of "Books I should love, but somehow don't" category for me. I've enjoyed a lot of McDevitt's other books so I don't think it's anything about his style that is at work. Secondly, one of my favorite S.F. categories is First Contact. Thirdly, religion/philosophy/ethics plays a key role, another huge point in its favor for me. Fourthly, some sharp arguments were made that made me think and consider my own views. Still, somehow it fell short.

It was published just after Carl Sagan's Contact, with which it has some affinity, i.e. Radio message from the stars and how does the world respond. But the climax is completely different. ---- I'll stop here so as not to spoil the book. ---- But I will say that I found the ending to not be the logical one, which counts down for me. Also, it seemed that a large part of the book consisted of less than riveting dialogue. Even with the extensive re-write McDevitt did, it still read like someone feeling their way into writing a novel, while having truly wonderful ideas.

Rating a weak 4 stars.

Next up Ganymede Wakes by Joshua T. Calvert
 
Parson said:
I finished Jack McDevitt's The Hercules Text and I found it uneven. It falls into the category of "Books I should love, but somehow don't" category for me. I've enjoyed a lot of McDevitt's other books so I don't think it's anything about his style that is at work. Secondly, one of my favorite S.F. categories is First Contact. Thirdly, religion/philosophy/ethics plays a key role, another huge point in its favor for me. Fourthly, some sharp arguments were made that made me think and consider my own views. Still, somehow it fell short.

It was published just after Carl Sagan's Contact, with which it has some affinity, i.e. Radio message from the stars and how does the world respond. But the climax is completely different. ---- I'll stop here so as not to spoil the book. ---- But I will say that I found the ending to not be the logical one, which counts down for me. Also, it seemed that a large part of the book consisted of less than riveting dialogue. Even with the extensive re-write McDevitt did, it still read like someone feeling their way into writing a novel, while having truly wonderful ideas.

Rating a weak 4 stars.

Next up Ganymede Wakes by Joshua T. Calvert
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i like the cassandra project better :)
 
I have just started Octavia E. Butler: Kindred, Fledging, Collected Stories (2020) edited by Gerry Canavan and Nisi Shawl. It's one of those fancy Library of America volumes, collecting the author's first novel, her last novel, stories, and essays. With this book, she has been added to the list of genre SF/fantasy writers who have won mainstream literary approval. (Bradbury, Dick, LeGuin, maybe others.)
 
Nice to see, Victoria. You prodded me to take a look at their recent offerings. I hadn't realized they finally put out a collection of Bradbury's work. And, non-s.f., S. J. Perelman, who at times was quite funny.
 
I'm reading the first Dragonlance book by Weis and Hickman, on my Kindle, and Taiko, by Eiji Yoshikawa, in hardback. Been after the latter for a long time but it kept on being unavailable.
 
there's a wheel of time series coming out... i never did read the series.... i'm more of a urban fantasy genre and not so much fantasy...
 
so... the pendergast book, bloodless.... it's readable i guess. it's more... i guess they call it jumping the shark... it's less plausible than normal?
 
I've been making my way through Robin Hobb's Farseer series, which I am enjoying. Just finished the Liveship Traders and now into Tawny Man. Felt a bit silly for not picking up on a big revelation at the start of Tawny Man.
 
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