November 2021 Reading Thread

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I finished Trial by Fire, by Charles E. Gannon. This was enjoyable. It essentially reworks the alien invasion theme, with some modern technological ideas and modern perspectives. The first book in Gannon's Terran Republic series, Fire with Fire, was more thoughtful in some ways, and more of a political mystery/thriller, whereas this was straighter military SF. As milSF, it was pretty good though, and it had a number of twists and clever ideas in it, but it was probably overly long. It's the best part of 900 pages, and I think it could have been made tighter and better if Gannon had cut it down by about 200 pages. The middle section describing the various teams undertaking insurgency actions against the invading 'exos' was too involved and followed too many disparate groups. It's also worth noting that this book would probably be hard to follow if you hadn't read Fire with Fire. The third in the series, Raising Caine, is back to a saner length (still 640 pages, mind you), and sounds intriguing (less military, once again), so I'm likely to keep reading these. They are better than Honor Harrington and Vorkosigan books, in any event (imho).

I'm now going to re-read Dune Messiah (from my lovely new first edition :))
 
Bick said:
They are better than Honor Harrington and Vorkosigan books, in any event (imho).
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How could I resist with such a claim. "Fire With Fire" is now located on my Kindle and in the TBR pile.

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I finished the Katie Kincaid four book series (so far) by Andrew Van Aardvark by reading Katie Kincaid Ensign and Katie Kincaid Lieutenant. They follow her adventures as she joins a semi near future Space Force. Earth has been a peace for a couple of hundred years and now travels among the nearby planets in a few weeks to a few months. She is the first "belter" to be accepted into officer training and follows her. It is my kid of Mil S.F. (not as good as Honor Harrington @Bick) but good enough. I found the characters and situations to be believable and the resolution of the conflict in each book to be believable and balanced. No ending in these books is permanent or perfect. Kinda like this world. I'll almost certainly read book 5 when and if it appears.

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Right now I am reading Dark Pattern by Andrew Mayne it's a book in his Naturalist series where a highly intelligent "computational biologist" uncovers and brings to justice (sometimes vigilante justice) mass murders. I loved the first in the series, I liked the second a lot, but this one seems rather pedestrian. I'm having trouble staying with it.
 
Oh my god last night I read the first story in this The Future Makers anthology-
The Fourth Dimensional Demonstrator by Murray Leinster.
This was an odd take on time travel, in which a man struggling financially is the benefactor of his dead uncle's time machine. But he uses it to replicate things, including money. Oh and there's a kangaroo called Arthur. Soon there are 6 of them. Weird, I've had dreams like this...
from the man who gave us The Time Tunnel TV series.
 
Danny McG said:
Tonight's new book (it just arrived early evening today) is Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson.
I hope it's better than his dismal DoDo effort
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DoDo was awful. I did like Fall, or Dodge in Hell, though. He’s really one of my favorite authors, although I am rather new to the genre. I hope you enjoy Termination Shock!
 
I liked DODO slightly better than I did Fall, but both pall in comparison with Stephenson's earlier work. I hesitate to by Termination Shock.
 
Vertigo said:
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - Probably my favourite book of 2021, a brilliant piece of magical realism that deals with some disturbing themes and yet achieves an incredible feel-good atmosphere. More here.
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I've read quite a few of Murakami's books, this was one of my favourites. I'd like to reread it at some point because I feel like I'm a bit better at picking up on symbolism and other literary devices now, and I remember thinking there might have been more levels to appreciate the novel on than I was capable of on my first reading. I need to read IQ84 too. I really enjoyed the first few chapters, which I read when I had a flatmate who owned it, and which I often think back to, something about it really intrigued me.
 
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog by Dylan Thomas.

I have read lots of Thomas' poetry but relatively little of his prose. This slim volume is a collection of semi-fictionalised short stories about his childhood. Absolutely brilliant stuff.
 
As far as SFF goes, this month I’m reading/have read The Impossible Man by J.G. Ballard. I am ever amazed by Ballard’s range of vocabulary. This book is a collection of short stories that remind me of Joseph Conrad. Furthermorw, Vladimir Sorokin’s Day of the Oprichnik was a fascinating alternate reality novel of Russian mafia, monarchy, and Chinese imperialism. I’m sure some of you have read Strugatsky Brothers, and it is in lieu of that. I’m attempting to finish out The Hero of Ages to complete my Mistborn reading for the year, and although it was rather adventurous and fun- I actually prefer Scott Lynch.

Otherwise, I have been reading Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, an old Italian novel reminiscent of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost, and Heinrich Böll’s The Clown.
 
there's a new cussler out, by the son, dirk and i'm waiting for secret missions by jonathan maberry.
 
I think I want to read/reread more by W. G. Sebald before getting serious about Carole Angier’s biography of him. I took up a book I’ve had but neglected for years, George Orwell: A Life in Letters (2010) and have started it. Orwell wrote a classic essay on Dickens that came to mind as I’ve been reading Little Dorrit again. SFwise, I did read Ray Faraday Nelson’s “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” in Reel Futures ed. Ackerman and Stine t’other day. That’s the way sf should be written (much of the time): take a nifty idea, work it up in a simple atmospheric plot, tell the story, and Bob’s your uncle. None of this horrible word-processed logocopia.

I think I just invented a word.
 
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