October 2021 Reading Discussion

[Serendipity]

I just finished reading Bewilderment by Richard Powers. My SFCrowsnest review is here.
Bottom line - I can see why this is shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but had to treat is as alternative history for the near future because of the tech used in the novel.

 

[Danny McG]

I just finished reading Bewilderment by Richard Powers. My SFCrowsnest review is here.
Bottom line - I can see why this is shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but had to treat is as alternative history for the near future because of the tech used in the novel.

It sounds intriguing, I've just now downloaded it, based on your review. Cheers

 

[Danny McG]

Back to the 1930s now, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

I'm nearly halfway through it now, good stuff - I've seen very similar writing by much more modern authors

 

[Provincial]

I have just finished re-reading Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke. This is the first time in decades that I have re-read a book within a couple of days of having finished my first read-through. It wasn’t because of the mysterious elements of the story however; Mrs. Clarke wasn’t writing a whodunnit with lots of confusing clues. It was because I wanted to go back to the extraordinary universe she had created and live in it again. My husband bought me a beautiful hardback copy when it first came out, knowing how I loved her first novel, and I think that in some ways the contents of the book are as lovely as (if not lovelier than) it’s outside - once you get the dustcover off it, that is!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Nice to hear, @Provincial. I read Piranesi earlier this year, and loved it.

 

[tobl]

I'm nearly halfway through it now, good stuff - I've seen very similar writing by much more modern authors

need a pillow? there's a new mitch rapp out

 

[tobl]

as for powers , just read the blurb... not my cup of tea

 

[tobl]

as for powers , just read the blurb... not my cup of tea

hum, i'm sounding very british... maybe it's all the comedy i've been watching. i do mean comedy not the news... aldo....

 

[Dan Jones]

Finished The Subtle Knife. It feels a much bigger book than its 330-page length implies. That sounds like a criticism, but it's not. I simply marvel at how much theme and depth Pullman stuffs into a book of such modest length. It's a marvellous novel.

And now I've started the haunted house novel The Grip Of It by Jac Jemc.

 

[HareBrain]

Finished The Subtle Knife. It feels a much bigger book than its 330-page length implies. That sounds like a criticism, but it's not. I simply marvel at how much theme and depth Pullman stuffs into a book of such modest length. It's a marvellous novel.

And now I've started the haunted house novel The Grip Of It by Jac Jemc.

Not going onto The Amber Spyglass?

 

[Dan Jones]

I've reserved it at the library, will take a week or so to come in. The Grip Of It is quite short, around 250 pages, so reckon I'll finish it within a week.

 

[Randy M.]

Back to the 1930s now, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

If you get the chance to read or at least check out the recent annotated version, it's worth the effort.

 

[Randy M.]

I've reserved it at the library, will take a week or so to come in. The Grip Of It is quite short, around 250 pages, so reckon I'll finish it within a week.

I'll be interested in hearing what you think of it. I keep seeing it mentioned as something quite good.

 

[Montero]

Recently did a re-read of the first two Quantum Curators books by Eva St John and then onto the latest one out.
Very clever parallel world and time travel books. We live on beta-Earth, the Quantum Curators come from Alpha Earth and are conserving artefacts which are destroyed in our time line. A Cambridge (UK) academic becomes involved in the retrieval of an unknown Faberge egg in the first book - the story is told from his viewpoint and from the viewpoint of one of the Quantum Curators who tend a bit to the special agent category, rather than the academic. Series starts well and I think gets better. Has a nice element of humour, but are not comedies. Interesting, feel-real characters and the detail is well done.

 

[williamjm]

I've just finished Joe Abercrombie's The Wisdom of Crowds. I thought it was a good conclusion to the trilogy, while everything follows on logically from events in the previous two books there are some fairly dramatic changes in the state of play through the course of the book. Some of those plot developments are sometimes a bit predictable but there are still some tense scenes in the latter stages of the book. Out of the two main plot threads the battle for control of The North is the most familiar as this is the latest in a long line of such battles, but it was still a satisfying storyline. The storyline in the Union is however significantly different to anything in the previous First Law books and while the books have always had plenty of cynicism in them I think this felt the most dystopian of them. One of Abercombie's strengths is always his characterisation and that continues here with most of the characters getting some good character development and they've change a lot since the beginning of the first book in the trilogy - perhaps with a couple of exceptions since I don't think Jonos Clover or Broad have necessarily changed much although at least the former has been an entertaining character throughout. The ending did feature more set-up for future books than I had been expecting, but a conclusive ending that wrapped everything up neatly perhaps would have been unlikely.

 

[Don]

In the middle of Perry Rhodan Nr. 56 Die Toten leben / Ace #48 The Dead Live. My eBay.de bid will probably close on Monday for the next hundred, Nr. 100-199, Perry Rhodans, so you guys pretty much know my reading material for the foreseeable future.

 

[Danny McG]

Grandfather anonymous by Anthony W Leichenbaub

A retired NSA super hacker is reluctantly drawn back into the game to protect his 'on the run' granddaughters

 

[dask]

Setting aside my short story collection for something a little more Octoberish:

 

[Danny McG]

A good crime thriller, I enjoyed it back in the day.... IIRC it was part of a series by Lutz?

 

[Provincial]

I have been reading an article about how climate scientists, some of whom have been researching the effects of environmental collapse, global warming, etcetera for at least three decades, deal with the impending sense of doom they have to deal with every day. Spoiler alert: apparently they cling to hope, and try to do something positive about it even if it seems a small thing which won’t solve the problem on its own, such as getting politically active (when did that ever change anything?), producing artwork about the issues (thinking of Banksy here), or eating less meat/going vegan.

It made me wonder if there are many SF books which are based in a future where we have explicitly dealt with these problems without abandoning the planet and are happy sharing resources. I can think of a couple, but I don’t recall reading many. It would help my peace of mind if I could read more like that, especially if they suggest workable scenarios to explain this success. Incidentally, writing such fiction sounds like the kind of personal contribution someone could make which might help other people deal with the present better. People need hope.

Book recommendations, anyone?