August 2022 Reading Thread

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Two more new authors from the recommendations of some of my existing favourite authors. Michael Cobley (Iain Banks) I will read more of but Allen Stroud (Adrian Tchaikovsky) oh dear, just oh dear.

The Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley
The Seeds of Earth is a bold attempt at epic scale intergalactic, political space opera which on the whole succeeds fairly well. It does have an element of mysticism in it suggesting comparison with Star Wars and its ‘Force,’ which for me is a slightly negative aspect, though others would no doubt love it even more for that. Despite that the overall story works well with interesting characters and good plotting and action. The writing is generally good except the biggest problem for me is that the author has spent most of his life in Glasgow and seemed to feel the need to have a colony world, where most of the action takes place, that has been settled by humans from Scotland, Russia and Scandinavia. And then writes all the Scots’ dialogue as though they’ve come from the back streets of Glasgow whilst everyone else converses in unaccented English. So first, consider the population differences; would Russian, Scandinavian and British not be more likely, or even European, and yet the common language is English? And second, it makes the dialogue much harder to read! However, I do wonder if it influenced Iain Banks in his recommendation of this book? I did enjoy the book and will continue with the series (5 books to date). 3.5 stars

The Simulacra by Philip K Dick
Dick really does do a good line in absurd dystopia. In The Simulacra he presents an America where the First Lady remains in the White House across multiple Presidents, marrying each one as they are ‘elected’ (interesting that this doesn’t really seem to allow for a female President). However she, apparently, holds all the power rather than the figurehead President. It does get far more complicated than that, but there lie spoilers. The absurdity continues with two of the story’s characters competing with bizarre variety hall vaudeville acts for the attention of the First Lady by playing classical music pieces on… two jugs! Throw in a bit of time traveling, a world-famous pianist who never touches the piano but uses his powers of telekinesis, and not forgetting the Neanderthals and you’ve got quite a weird little story! Dick clearly had quite a bit of fun with this book, and it contains plenty of his usual focus on mental illness and drugs, but underneath is a fairly sharp satire on politics by bread and circus. A very strange book, this is PKD after all, but I found myself thoroughly enjoying it! 4 stars

Killing Titan by Greg Bear
Killing Titan is a good solid sequel to War Dogs. It’s not the best military SF I’ve ever read but it’s not bad and the battle sequences are solid if sometimes a touch confusing. The whole premise of the alien ‘Gurus’ and ‘Antags’ (Antagonists) is intriguing with the constant nagging feeling that there is something more going on that the Gurus, Earth’s allies, are not disclosing. Bear drives the narrative along well with slow but steady revelations leading to an eventual cliff-hanger ending, which I normally don’t like, but in this case the reader is given enough to satisfy the questions raised in the story so far and neatly leads you into the possibilities of the final book in the trilogy. A solid satisfying read though do prefer his earlier works. 3.5 stars

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
My first two Murakami books were 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore, both later books of his and both excellent and they inspired me to go back and read the rest of his work in the order they were written starting with the loose trilogy of the Rat. In the first two of these Murakami already has that wonderful technique of writing the prosaic with a mesmerising beauty. But they don’t go much beyond that, there is little plotting and very little actually happens. Here, Murakami is really getting into his stride; he still has that knack of making the ordinary extraordinary but now there is a solid plot, and his magical realism has really taken off. One interesting literary quirk that Murakami employs is that no one, absolutely no one, is named. The narrator is first person and unnamed and then there are the girlfriend, the boss, the secretary, the rat, the Ainu youth, the sheep professor, the caretaker and so on. That might sound a bit clumsy and awkward, but it never is and somehow completely suits the style of the narrative. I loved every minute of this strange often bittersweet story. 5 stars

Fearless by Allen Stroud
I really, really wish I’d given up on this early on. I’m sorry Mr Tchaikovsky, you write excellent books yourself, but your recommendation of this book stinks! I’ve not got the time to list all the faults in this book but here’s a few. The main character has been born with no legs and eventually finds her way into space where, with weightlessness, her disability is much reduced, and she enjoys success eventually rising to Captain of her ship. Fine, I can live with that, and in fact loved it (only she does go on about it rather a lot). But then we learn that out of a crew of twenty-five there are no less than seven members with prosthetics. That’s nearly 30%! At first, I thought maybe there has been some sort of plague or horrendous thalidomide style event but if there is it never gets mentioned and though we actively meet with a good dozen or more of the crew only one of them has a prosthetic – an arm – which doesn’t really work with being no handicap in space. Then the whole narrative is filled with overly long-drawn-out introspection which always seemed to bloom mid action, whenever the tension was building, and consequently totally destroys that tension. And then there was, regardless of the gender of the reader, continual mansplaining…argh I think most SF readers understand that you can’t just open a pressurised airlock to space without long explanations on the loss of resources. Please! Then there were so many inconsistencies; it seems that, frequently, in one part of the spaceship everyone is being thrown against their seat straps by the violent motions of the ships, whilst in another they are calmly sitting around completely unaffected. And then the physics; pure oxygen is apparently inflammable, or you can stop a torn space suit from leaking air by holding your hand over the tear. This book just got steadily worse and then ended with a total cliff-hanger with almost nothing resolved. I will not be going on to the sequels. I should add that I seem to be in the minority; most on Goodreads seem to like it! I know others on the Chrons also seem to rate him and I apologise if I appear a little vitriolic but this book managed to press just about every annoying button I possess. 1 star
 
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Vertigo said:
Two more new authors from the recommendations of some of my existing favourite authors. Michael Cobley (Iain Banks) I will read more of but Allen Stroud (Adrian Tchaikovsky) oh dear, just oh dear.

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
My first two Murakami books were 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore, both later books of his and both excellent and they inspired me to go back and read the rest of his work in the order they were written starting with the loose trilogy of the Rat. In the first two of these Murakami already has that wonderful technique of writing the prosaic with a mesmerising beauty. But they don’t go much beyond that, there is little plotting and very little actually happens. Here, Murakami is really getting into his stride; he still has that knack of making the ordinary extraordinary but now there is a solid plot, and his magical realism has really taken off. One interesting literary quirk that Murakami employs is that no one, absolutely no one, is named. The narrator is first person and unnamed and then there are the girlfriend, the boss, the secretary, the rat, the Ainu youth, the sheep professor, the caretaker and so on. That might sound a bit clumsy and awkward, but it never is and somehow completely suits the style of the narrative. I loved every minute of this strange often bittersweet story. 5 stars
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Nice reviews. It's about 15 years since I read A Wild Sheep Chase, I think, and had forgotten the non-naming of characters, but the sense of convincing strangeness has stuck with me. I'll have to re-read it someday. I've not read 1Q84, as it happens, but did read about 6 of his earlier works, up to After Dark.
 
Bick said:
Nice reviews. It's about 15 years since I read A Wild Sheep Chase, I think, and had forgotten the non-naming of characters, but the sense of convincing strangeness has stuck with me. I'll have to re-read it someday. I've not read 1Q84, as it happens, but did read about 6 of his earlier works, up to After Dark.
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I absolutely loved both 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore and I can't wait to read books like Killing Commendatore, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood which friends keep insisting I must read. But I'm bring disciplined and will read them in order! Actually much easier now I've reached the point where he's hitting his stride. Very much looking forward to Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World which looks really weird and has SF elements.
 
Judge Dredd: Years Two.

Judge Dredd Year Two.jpg

I plan to read these until I get a bit of series fatigue.
 
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The Getaway by Jim Thompson, the first of the Crime Masterworks series that I picked up recently. A good read but there is a surreal twist towards the end which is interesting but having come from a long history of sci-fi and fantasy it was strangely a dip back into a familiar genre that I really didn't need.
 
I finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's Eyes of the Void, the second book in his space opera trilogy. I liked the first book in the series and thought this was a good continuation of the story. Since this is the middle book of a trilogy it was never going to conclusively resolve anything but there are plenty of revelations throughout the book and the ending of this sets things up for the conclusion (although I suspect things are going to be resolved in a way that's different to how most of the characters expect). As well as learning more about the Architects who are threatening the future of humanity we also learn more about the various other alien races that humanity has made contact with, and (as might be expected from a Tchaikovsky book) those aliens are often much more alien in their outlook and biology than in a lot of other space opera series. In one respect I think the series is perhaps not as good as Tchaikovsky's best books, while there are some interesting characters in this there may be a focus on too many of them for any of them to get the same sort of character development that characters in some of his other books do.

I am now about to start Robert Jackson Bennett's Locklands, the concluding book in his fantasy trilogy.
 
Up next(on deck) FLETCH by Gregory McDonald. And Schlock Mercenary by
Howard Tayler.Comic book.
 
I noticed a lot of Space Opera is being read.
Heard The Force is the 2nd biggest Religion in New ZEALAND.
 
Toby Frost said:
I started the first Cadfael book, A Morbid Taste For Bones, thinking that it would be a pretty quick read as it's a short mystery story. However, it's surprisingly hard going: the dialogue has that stilted quality that writers seem to like using for historical stories (why?), and it's full of clunky dialogue tags. The story begins with several pages of backstory. It feels very dated.

After that, I'll be reading The Empyrous Proof by @HareBrain !
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Oh dear. I really like that series. Did start reading it in the 90s and re-read a few times since. Also like the TV series with Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. Haven't read it in a few years, so don't know if I'd have your problem now, though I probably love it too much to notice.
 
Elentarri said:
I completed 2 books over the last 2 days:

Down Under by Bill Bryson.
Australia is a fascinating continent/country, but you wouldn't know that by reading this book. Bryson spends so much ink blathering about himself, his visits to pubs, trying to be funny (and mostly failing), driving/riding through the middle of nowhere (repeatedly ad nauseum), complaining about all the creatures that are going to kill him (which he doesn't actually come across), and blundering around town, that "Australia" was pretty much ignored. Except for those rare occasions (most of which are found in the last quarter of the book) where he delivered some interesting historical factoid. The weird and wonderful Australian wildlife got a passing mention, but nothing that anyone wouldn't be able to pick up on a random "worlds most dangerous animals" YouTube video (the video would at least have pictures!). I found this book to be pretty tedious and didn't particularly learn anything I didn't already know about Australia. Anyone interested in the world's largest island that is also a continent should find a travel guide or a picture book. It would at least have pretty pictures to look at and probably more information.

City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire by Roger Crowley.
City of Fortune (and misfortune) provides a fast paced and fairly interesting history of the rise of the Venetian empire and the commercial wealth it created. The city's prosperity rested on nothing tangible - no land holdings, no natural resources, no agricultural production or large population. There was literally no solid ground underfoot. Venice survived on trade and lived in fear of the severance of its trade routes. Crowley refers to Venice as the first "virtual economy". The book starts off with the role Venice played in the disastrous 4th Crusade (c.a. 1000 A.D) and end with its demise once trade routes to India and the Spice Islands bypassed the Mediterranean Sea (c.a. 1500 A.D.). There is also much about piracy, empire building (and holding and losing), commerce, difficult diplomacy with the encroaching Ottomans, and vicious squabbles with the rival Genoese.​
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Venice sounds fascinating.
Bill Bryson - I tried his Small Island one on the UK and gave up rapidly. Fortunately it was from the public library.
 
I just finished Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. This is a wonderful historical novel. This is the fictionalized account of Lyudmila Pavlichenko a Russian sniper in World War II. I had never heard of her, but she caused a big splash in 1942 and may have played a bit of a role in helping to move the US to support Russia in the early stages of the War. I love the Epigraph of the book:

"In the summer of 1942, as the world was locked in war against Hitler, a woman crossed the sea from the Soviet Union to the United States. She was a single mother, a graduate student, a library researcher. She was a soldier, a war hero, a sniper with 309 kills to her name. She was Russia's envoy, America's sweetheart, and Eleanor Roosevelt's dear friend."

The bulk of the story is well documented. The parts about her sniper activities ring very true, although some say that there was Russian propaganda at work. It is also clear that there is some historical fiction at work as it works toward an ending that is not historical, but it captivated me and I would recommend it. I rate it a 5 star historical novel.

How famous was she in the summer of 42? Woody Guthrie wrote a song about her.

 
I am well into The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger (1938; original title Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography, which seems like an unnecessary change.) Besides her work as a pioneer of birth control, it's also got lots of stuff about her childhood, marriage, own children, world travels, and radical politics. Quite readable.
 
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