August 2022 Reading Thread

[Christine Wheelwright]

Brilliant novel. I read it for the first time two or three years ago.

Agreed. Downward To The Earth is everything Avatar wanted to be. I would place it among the great SF novels.

 

[althea]

I am reading and hugely enjoying, White Wolf by David Gemell. For some reason I haven't read him in years.
I think the last one I tried to read of his, the name escapes me, was disappointing.
However, White Wolf is right up my street.
A professional warrior on a quest - what's not to like.

 

[kythe]

Continuing on my first break from the sci-fi and fantasy genres for many years, I am finding myself a fan of Jane Austin. A few weeks ago I read "Pride and Prejudice" for a change in pace, and so far I continue to find that one her best. I now have continued her works with "Sense and Sensibility", which I find a bit more frivolous version of P&P, and "Mansfield Park". This last is a more serious look at class issues of the time.

I had stayed away from Jane Austen most of my life due to a personal dislike of what I saw in people who are fans of her work. This was unfair to the works themselves. These are not shallow Victorian romances. I believe Jane Austen is to the upper class what Charles Dickens is to the lower class. She addresses social issues in her own way through portraying what marriage means for women in a society where their associations - not accomplishments - are what makes or breaks them. Yet Jane Austen herself was unmarried and self supporting throughout her life.

In many ways, I do not believe the world has changed much. The scenery is now different and legal rights have come a long way. But some of the values which favor the "haves" vs the "have-nots" are still prevalent today.

 

[Hugh]

Agreed. Downward To The Earth is everything Avatar wanted to be. I would place it among the great SF novels.

I couldn't believe just how good it was.

 

[Elentarri]

Finished: The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley.

This is an interesting, entertaining, but mixed bag, collection of 25 science fiction short stories and novellas about time travel by a variety to authors. There were a few stories that simply didn't hold my interest, most were generally well written and had a point to make or explored the possible effects of time travel. There were about 4 stories I thought were beautifully written and original in concept. My favourite stories were:

~Century to Starboard by Liz Williams:- unintended time travel to the future via a luxury cruise ship, caught up in a storm and reminiscent of those Bermuda Triangle missing planes and ships stories.

~Walk to the full Moon by Sean McMullen:- prehistoric humans appear in modern Spain. This story is delightful.

~The Truth About Weena by David J. Lake:- this is something of a continuation of H.G. Wells' Time Machine. The ending was interesting.

~Red Letter Day by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:- which deals with how our future selves might seek to influence their younger selves.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Picked up on audio CINNAMON SKIN By John D. MacDonald. @1982

 

[Parson]

Finished the series This Corner of the Universe by Britt Ringel. It's a five book series that starts very strong and tapers off toward the end. I was glad to be done with it by the time I finished the last book: Last Measure of Devotion. I'd still recommend it to someone who really likes Mil S.F. I'm not sure why I feel this way. But the stories became less gripping, more filled with social dynamics, and with a more and more prevalent love triangle. On the plus side this is one of the few recent series that has a believable ending where the soldiers go home and live a real life. I'm now reading the aggravatingly named: The Spaceship in the Stone by Igor Nikolic. I wouldn't have picked it up, probably mostly because of the title, except that book 2 in the series, Orbital Ascension sounded really good. But 10 percent into the book it sounds like something I've read before, and I'm sure I haven't, unless it was named with another name. --- I'm so confused!

 

[Danny McG]

But 10 percent into the book it sounds like something I've read before

I haven't yet read this book Parson, but I've looked at the online blurbs and it does (somehow) seem very familiar, so much so that I get a "I'm sure that I've read it already" Spidey tingle.

 

[Vertigo]

it sounds like something I've read before, and I'm sure I haven't

I get a "I'm sure that I've read it already" Spidey tingle.

Probably ripped off the plot/premise, with minor differences, from some other book you've both read. I seem to be seeing that rather more often these days

 

[Parson]

I haven't yet read this book Parson, but I've looked at the online blurbs and it does (somehow) seem very familiar, so much so that I get a "I'm sure that I've read it already" Spidey tingle.

Probably ripped off the plot/premise, with minor differences, from some other book you've both read. I seem to be seeing that rather more often these days

I'm now about half way through the book The Spaceship in the Stone by Igor Nikolic and I am confident that I have not read it before. I checked the copyright and it was 2022, and more importantly as the story goes it is clear that this is not something I've read before. It's decent light Mil SF. So far there is no space travel and the "crew" is being recruited. It's sort of like the soldiers from Old Man's War meet Dan Brown's conspiracy at this point. It's not going to be remembered forever (probably), but its a cut above a lot of the self-published stuff.

I also failed to mention that I finished Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky and this was a very good book. I'd give it a strong 4 stars. But I couldn't shake the feeling that this was actually a Fantasy book masquerading as a S.F. Other than the scientific basis for what the "wizard" did this was a Fantasy. And as the science was never described only assumed. You could change the Science out for spells and you have the same book. It was by far my least favorite book by Tchaikovsky.

 

[Danny McG]

Zer0es by Chuck Wendig tonight. (That's how it's spelled)
It's so far reading like a tech thriller with various types of hackers.

I've got the sequel Invasive downloaded, if I lose interest in book one I'll just delete them both

 

[Vertigo]

I also failed to mention that I finished Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky and this was a very good book. I'd give it a strong 4 stars. But I couldn't shake the feeling that this was actually a Fantasy book masquerading as a S.F. Other than the scientific basis for what the "wizard" did this was a Fantasy. And as the science was never described only assumed. You could change the Science out for spells and you have the same book. It was by far my least favorite book by Tchaikovsky.

I think this is perfectly valid criticism and of course Tchaikovsky was a fantasy author before turning to SF (and more recently back to fantasy again) so not too surprising to see him mixing it up a bit. I quite enjoyed the frustrations of the 'elder' scientist trying to explain things in terms that weren't inevitably interpreted by the rest as magic. He was sort of having fun with Clarke's old saying that sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic.

 

[hitmouse]

Blandings Castle by PG Wodehouse.
Perfect lazy holiday reading. Something terribly reassuring about returning to stories of the 9th Earl of Emsworth becoming outraged, again, as his pastoral idyll is disrupted by relatives, peons, or children. Almost poetry.

 

[Vertigo]

I'm am currently reading Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase (and loving it) and I came across the below passage which made me laugh out loud. I wasn't sure where to post this; Pratchett's sub forum somehow doesn't seem right, maybe the "Makes you smile...." thread but again doesn't quite feel right either. So as I'm reading it now I've put it here.

In this Japanese author's book, only later translated into English I found this short passage:

The “world”—the word always makes me think of a tortoise and elephants tirelessly supporting a gigantic disc. The elephants have no knowledge of the tortoise’s role, the tortoise unable to see what the elephants are doing. And neither is the least aware of the world on their backs.

Note that Murakami wasn't even well known at this time but clearly he had read some Pratchett!

 

[hitmouse]

I'm am currently reading Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase (and loving it) and I came across the below passage which made me laugh out loud. I wasn't sure where to post this; Pratchett's sub forum somehow doesn't seem right, maybe the "Makes you smile...." thread but again doesn't quite feel right either. So as I'm reading it now I've put it here.

In this Japanese author's book, only later translated into English I found this short passage:

Note that Murakami wasn't even well known at this time but clearly he had read some Pratchett!

Excellent.
Didn’t Pratchett take this from some ancient flat-earth cosmology?

 

[Vertigo]

I have no idea but quite possible. Wasn't the book Strata a sort of prototype for Discworld?

 

[Vertigo]

Actually I'm now even more intrigued. A quick google shows that the first discworld book was published in 1983 and this Murakami book was published in Japan in 1982. Eek!?


ETA: I learn something new every day. It seems the concept predates both authors: World Turtle - Wikipedia Which takes it back to your comment @hitmouse !

 

[Randy M.]

Actually, that's interesting, Vertigo. That two such distinct writers tap into the same mythology so nearly at the same time is a but surprising.

 

[The Big Peat]

Re-reading Abercrombie's Best Served Cold and the tone isn't really landing with me. Ho hum.

 

[Bick]

Excellent.
Didn’t Pratchett take this from some ancient flat-earth cosmology?

Yes, the invention precedes Pratchett. It's a common myth, for instance see: