January Reading Thread

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I finished Ian McDonald's latest novel, Hopeland. I think the best way to summarise this is that it is showing how two very different families, each with their own obsession, try to find a way to prosper in a turbulent 21st Century. The Hopelands are trying to build a multinational 'family' where kinship is based on choosing to join the family rather than any biological connection while the Brightbournes are trying to create things that will last for generations. Throughout the book there is a love triangle between members of the two families, I think the actual question of who ends up together is not the interesting part of the book but it does drive most of the plot due to the characters taking inspiration from each other's families. As the book goes on an increasing amount of it is focused on the impact of climate change, particularly on the Arctic and the Pacific Islands, with the Pacific plotline becoming the most compelling part of the story. It is a long book with a lot happening in it, including some occasional fantasy elements, but I thought it did justify the long length.

I've now started Adrian Tchaikovsky's House of Open Wounds, the sequel to the excellent City of Last Chances, and this is also very good so far.
 
Currently ROUGH WEATHER,Robert B.
Parker, 2008.
Featuring Spencer PI.

And Dr.Katz :THE AUDIO BOOK.2018.
 
Just finished:

Laughing Shall I Die by Tom Shippey [I love this book!]

This book is not for the squeamish! This is also not a straight-forward, narrative history of the Vikings, nor a treatise of Norse mythology. Shippey examines the lives, and especially the deaths, of the great heroines and heroes of the Viking Age, as is revealed in their own words - the Old Norse poems and sagas - as well as the words of others - various chronicles and accounts in other languages. This book is a fascinating and interesting look at viking psychology - what made the Vikings so different and so distinctive - as revealed by the literature (sagas, legends and stories) left behind by themselves and their descendants. The book progresses in a more or less chronological order, from the prehistorical sagas to those that correspond with documented, historical events. Shippey also makes some effort to explain how plausible the events described in the literature, as determined from archaeological findings, other historical texts and sometimes medical cases. While most vikings were Scandinavian, the majority of Scandinavians were decidedly not Vikings. The author also takes great pains to point out that "viking" is a job description, one that involves rape, murder, war, piracy, plunder, extortion, slaving, and occasionally trade (have to make money off the extorted and stolen goods somehow!).​

"'Egil's Saga' is not a feel-good story. It backs up the argument that Viking society had a 'psychopathic' element in it. Or in their view, troll genetics." from pg 116 of Laughing Shall I Die by Tom Shippey.
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I love Tom Shippey's writing style - academic but also accessible, with a pithy and understated humour. I found this book examining Viking culture to be interesting, especially in terms of raising awareness of things I had never even considered, and wonderfully entertaining to read. I do suggest being at least vaguely familiar with Viking history before reading this book as it isn't meant as an introductory text to the subject. Also, knowledge of some of the sagas (or at least that such things exist) would be useful, but isn't particularly necessary to enjoy this book.​

Note: This is a book I will definitely re-read when I take up my (neglected) Icelandic Saga binge read one day.
 
Elentarri said:
Just finished:

Laughing Shall I Die by Tom Shippey [I love this book!]

This book is not for the squeamish! This is also not a straight-forward, narrative history of the Vikings, nor a treatise of Norse mythology. Shippey examines the lives, and especially the deaths, of the great heroines and heroes of the Viking Age, as is revealed in their own words - the Old Norse poems and sagas - as well as the words of others - various chronicles and accounts in other languages. This book is a fascinating and interesting look at viking psychology - what made the Vikings so different and so distinctive - as revealed by the literature (sagas, legends and stories) left behind by themselves and their descendants. The book progresses in a more or less chronological order, from the prehistorical sagas to those that correspond with documented, historical events. Shippey also makes some effort to explain how plausible the events described in the literature, as determined from archaeological findings, other historical texts and sometimes medical cases. While most vikings were Scandinavian, the majority of Scandinavians were decidedly not Vikings. The author also takes great pains to point out that "viking" is a job description, one that involves rape, murder, war, piracy, plunder, extortion, slaving, and occasionally trade (have to make money off the extorted and stolen goods somehow!).


I love Tom Shippey's writing style - academic but also accessible, with a pithy and understated humour. I found this book examining Viking culture to be interesting, especially in terms of raising awareness of things I had never even considered, and wonderfully entertaining to read. I do suggest being at least vaguely familiar with Viking history before reading this book as it isn't meant as an introductory text to the subject. Also, knowledge of some of the sagas (or at least that such things exist) would be useful, but isn't particularly necessary to enjoy this book.​

Note: This is a book I will definitely re-read when I take up my (neglected) Icelandic Saga binge read one day.
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Sounds interesting! I've put it as a want-to-read on Goodreads, but when I'll get round to it I've no idea.
 
Have just started Shards of Earth. I'm working my way through Adrian Tchaikovsky's work right now and I feel like I've stumbled upon a hidden treasure trove. Children of Time was absolutely wonderful, and what little I've read of Shards of Earth bodes extremely well.

(Looking up Shadows of the Apt, I'm left thinking that between SotA and CoT, it seems that Tchaikovsky has a strong interest in arthropods...)
 
Approaching halfway in Strange and Norrell, and have been reminded that quite a lot of it feels rather diversionary (for example, Strange's experiences in the Peninsular War). It's also struck me that there are so far only minimal stakes for the two main characters. It's a testament to the quality of the world and writing that it retains its pull despite this.
 
HareBrain said:
Approaching halfway in Strange and Norrell, and have been reminded that quite a lot of it feels rather diversionary (for example, Strange's experiences in the Peninsular War). It's also struck me that there are so far only minimal stakes for the two main characters. It's a testament to the quality of the world and writing that it retains its pull despite this.
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Maybe because of it, for some of us.
 
Tim Pratt: Liar‘s Blade, Liar‘s Island and Liar‘s bargain

I very much enjoyed Pratt‘s SF (Axiom) and his fantasy does not disappoint, either. Swashbuckling adventure with a generous dollop of humour.

The tales are also a very interesting twist on the sword & sorcerer topos: The sword is the sorcerer. The human isn’t even good with a sword, but a world-class con man. And it‘s hard to tell who is the hero and who is the sidekick in this pairing.
 
vanye said:
Tim Pratt: Liar‘s Blade, Liar‘s Island and Liar‘s bargain

I very much enjoyed Pratt‘s SF (Axiom) and his fantasy does not disappoint, either. Swashbuckling adventure with a generous dollop of humour.

The tales are also a very interesting twist on the sword & sorcerer topos: The sword is the sorcerer. The human isn’t even good with a sword, but a world-class con man. And it‘s hard to tell who is the hero and who is the sidekick in this pairing.
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Sounds interesting.
 
I've just read "The Monkey," a novella by Isak Dinesen.

Very often, when reading her work, I feel that Dinesen's characters and characters demonstrate something profound about the workings of the human heart. But this story is . . . just strange. I don't quite know what to make of it. Maybe I wasn't meant to. Perhaps she means to confound.

Either way, the prose was, as usual, glorious.
 
Leonard Woolf "Growing. Seven Years in Ceylon"
It's 1904 and the twenty four year old Woolf is heading out to Ceylon in the heyday of British imperialism to take up a post as a Cadet in the Ceylon Civil Service, taking with him ninety volumes of Voltaire (1784 edition) and a wire-haired fox terrier (which has to travel on a separate boat). Second of five volumes of autobiography. This covers his seven years in Ceylon before a year's leave in England - seven years in which he loved the people and the country and also gained rapid promotion, ending up governing an area containing 100,000 people, while becoming increasingly disillusioned with colonialism.
Unusual reading for me, but I enjoyed it.
 
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