June Reading Thread

[Danny McG]

Let us know how you get on, Danny. Tchaikovsky is one of my favourites now.

Service model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I enjoyed this story, it got a bit repetitive in the last quarter of a book and a bit of a simplistic finale but altogether it was not too bad a yarn.

 

[Danny McG]

Now reading a question of navigation by Kevin Hearne - an alien abduction novella

 

[Pyan]

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - growing up in the USA of the 1950s, by Bill Bryson.

 

[Chris von shannow]

Ark Royal by Chris Nuttal

 

[Randy M.]

Started a novel and set it aside -- nothing against the book, just not what I wanted to read right now. Instead, I've started American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower. I think, sometime as a kid, I read The Untouchables, a memoir by Ness, and I know I watched the old TV show (Robert Stack played Ness, and would have been around 15 years too old for the role) and the '80s movie. I'm not far into the book, but the real Ness doesn't come across as the hard-boiled Stack version or the somewhat insecure Costner version.

Anyway, after Chicago and Al Capone, Ness went to Cleveland as a municipal director of public safety, and had to chase a serial killer.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I should mention here that, when I am at home away from the computer, I alternate my reading of SF/fantasy (which occurs mostly during down times at work) with a huge volume of mainstream (mostly) short stories called The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories (1987) edited by Daniel Halpern. It collects works first published after World War Two. (The single exception is a story by Vladimir Nabokov, which appeared in Russian in the 1930's but was first translated after the war.) Stuff from all over the world, about one-third of them translated. Eighty-one stories, a lot by very familiar names. As noted, mostly mainstream fiction, although there's a touch of fantasy here and there. (Borges, etc.)

 

[Vertigo]

Jenny Trapdoor by Neal Asher.

View attachment 119587

Great cover, too.

But how was the book?

 

[AE35Unit]

Next up The Face of Fear, an early novel by Dean Koontz as Brian Coffey

 

[Vertigo]

A few recent books:

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Although marketed as Science Fiction this isn't really; the core premise, of a bunch of people whose minds cycle back to their birth after they die so they repeatedly relive the same period of history, though with small differences, is really pure fantasy. No attempt to understand the mechanism is ever really attempted and there are many inconsistencies that make no sense if you examine it too closely. However once you manage to suspend that little bit of disbelief it's not a bad book. There is a tendency to wander off on red herrings with clever little snippets thrown in that don't really contribute to the story but feel more like the author proving how clever she is. A good book but no more. 3/5 stars

Number9dream by David Mitchell
As I started this I had a horrible feeling this was going to be a cheap pastiche of Haruki Murakami. It is only Mitchell's second second book after all and a book set deep inside Japanese culture by a non Japanese author seemed a questionable undertaking. However a bit of googling revealed that Mitchell is a great fan of Murakami this book was intended as a tribute to him. The title is a reference to a John Lennon song in the same way Norwegian Wood was a reference to the Beatles song (fortunately I read that one only recently too!) but there any similarity ends other than some elements of Murakami's style being employed. Like many of Murakami's book it is filled with many elements that are so weird and unlikely as to be almost ridiculous but, unlike Murakami, Mitchell never really succeeds in convincing the reader, at least not this reader. A good book but it's streets away from the magic of his later work. 3/5 stars

The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
Another book that was presented as Science Fiction but is more on the weird side than the science side, though there is some attempt to present a feasible scientific explanation. Setting that aside this is actually quite an intelligent book looking at different people's reactions to the anomaly that results in the appearance of their exact duplicates, right down to their DNA and memories. Sadly what appeared to be very clever writing was marred by poor translation. Many times very strange, to me, metaphors appeared that I'm guessing are valid idioms in French but when literally translated (as I assume they were) produced strange non-idiom idioms, at least in my personal use of English. Not the end of the world but they did keep pulling me out of the story. Allowing for that I'll grant it 4/5 stars.

Transition by Iain (M) Banks
I've put the 'M' in brackets there as I believe this was published in the UK without the 'M' and in America with it. It's a difficult call really as quite a few of Banks' mainstream books are seriously weird, such as The Bridge or Walking on Glass, but not SF and this book definitely has more of the Atmosphere of his non SF work but the subject matter definitely leans towards the SF side of things but not Banks' usual big canvas space opera. Maybe that bridging of his two styles is why, on this second reading, Transition still stands as a strong contender for my favourite Banks book. The central premise is of a multiverse that certain talented people can flit between, temporarily taking over the bodies of people in alternate Earths. I wrote a review on GR when I originally read it and I still that, so if anyone is interested it is here: Mike Franklin's review of Transition. It is a very complex book and some will not like its somewhat shuffled timeline, but Banks manages it well. It's also, I think, a great example of the confident writing of an author at the peak of his abilities who is also out to have some literary fun. The inner title has a subtitle "Based on a false Story" and the prologue, written in the first person, begins with "Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator, though of course if you believe everything you're told you deserve whatever you get" and ends with "...trust me." And then goes on to tell you the end of the book at the beginning, but... 'unreliable narrator' remember! And you're left to decide whether the whole thing is a 'true' story or the ravings of a madman! Your choice; unreliable remember! I loved it. 5/5 stars

Interestingly, and not through any deliberate planning on my behalf, there were a couple of themes the are shared by this batch of books. All of them are addressing issues of identity and a couple of them suggest the Simulation Hypothesis as explanation. An interesting, if unintended synergy between them.

 

[Rodders]

But how was the book?

I really enjoyed it, Vertigo.

Jenny was a victim of the Prador in early days of the war. "Rescued" by Penny Royal, she is given a drone body and hunts prador for 48 years before meeting yellow, who helps Jenny to restore her humanity.

(I'm not good at explainations, so i will apologise.)

Anything involving Penny Royal is interesting to me and this novella was no different. I enjoyed it very much.

 

[Danny McG]

This one now.....

Tim Pratt book query

I've seen some places online mention that Tim Pratt had a novel "Nigh Space" out last year, however I can't find any info anywhere! So did he or has he actually had a book with that title published?

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Vertigo]

I really enjoyed it, Vertigo.

Jenny was a victim of the Prador in early days of the war. "Rescued" by Penny Royal, she is given a drone body and hunts prador for 48 years before meeting yellow, who helps Jenny to restore her humanity.

(I'm not good at explainations, so i will apologise.)

Anything involving Penny Royal is interesting to me and this novella was no different. I enjoyed it very much.

Excellent. It was on my wish list already, so it's good to hear it didn't disappoint. And I'm with you, I loved all the Penny Royal books. Asher does like to have enigmatic but super powerful characters like Penny Royal, Dragon, Earth Central etc.

 

[Danny McG]

This one now.....

Tim Pratt book query

I've seen some places online mention that Tim Pratt had a novel "Nigh Space" out last year, however I can't find any info anywhere! So did he or has he actually had a book with that title published?

www.sffchronicles.com

Just another multiverse story, I've read much better ones, not recommended DNF

 

[Danny McG]

The complete tales of Para Handy by Neil Munro

 

[Dave Vicks]

Comic book THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN.
Wells-Thompson ,writers.Marvel.2018

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy.

 

[Danny McG]

The complete tales of Para Handy by Neil Munro

I've read the first two and I've been struggling with the cultural references and also the dialogue.
I'm putting this into my TBR and moving on to The Four Feathers by AEW Mason.

I didn't realise until this morning that there was such a book, I've only ever seen various film versions.

 

[Parson]

Now reading a question of navigation by Kevin Hearne - an alien abduction novella

Purchased and in the Queue.

I'm running on busy right now. I have finished a number of books and hope to post something about them. Maybe next week? he says hopefully.

 

[Elentarri]

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
This was fun! Set in Chicago, a human (with secrets) must team up with supernatural "monsters" to accomplish his quest... all in 36 hours. I love that the story makes use of Slavic folklore. The characters are interesting and the plot compelling.

 

[Dave Vicks]

X,by Sue Grafton, 2015.
Mystery/Suspense .