Fourth Quarter 2020 Reading

[The Drunkard]

On 11/25/2020 at 5:41 AM, Starkess said:

I finished listening to The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I picked up the audiobook from the library and had very little idea what it was about, so needless to say the start of Day 2 was quite the surprise for me! I enjoyed the book a lot, but it slumped a bit in the middle, taking a bit too long to find its way through the muddied mid-book wilderness. I also found the ending a bit strange. Not the mystery itself, which was excellently done, but the surrounding trappings 

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of the world that Aidan/Anna are returning to. It felt so jarring when it was introduced and it never melded well with the aesthetic of the time period. I get the idea that it's a futuristic setting on Earth? But maybe not. This is never made clear and trying to switch the climax of the book from saving Evelyn to saving Anna didn't fully work for me.

 

Initially I thought they were in some kind of hell or purgatory and the plague doctors were something like angels, trying to torment/rehabilitate the people they locked up.

[ljkeane]

I finished Christian Cameron's The Last Greek. It's good military historical fiction as Cameron's books tend to be. Going by his afterword that's the end of the series though. I thought these books were going to be about the Macedonian wars with Rome but apparently not. 

Next up I'm going to read Rhythm of War.

[williamjm]

I finished Peter F. Hamilton's The Saints of Salvation. I thought it was a good ending to the trilogy. After having written so many space operas over the last 25 years Hamilton does sometimes end up repeating himself (semi-immortal tech billionaires seem to be a particular obsession) and there are times where that happened in this trilogy but he did manage to come up with a few fresh ideas in this book, particularly towards the end. After a good beginning in the first book I thought the second was a bit weaker, spending far too much time on a tedious subplot about London gang members but I thought the third book was much more focused on the interesting parts of the plot. It did have a strong finale and while it did tie up most of the main plot lines it didn't make the resolution of the story too neat. It was maybe a bit lacking in memorable characters, other than the Saints and Yirella the rest of the cast felt a bit bland. Overall I liked the trilogy although I do wonder if maybe Hamilton should try to do something that's not a space opera next for a bit of variety.

Next up I'm going to read Emily St. John Mandel's The Glass Hotel.

18 hours ago, Starkess said:

Yes, I'm quite glad I did! As a general rule, I try to learn as little as possible about a book (or TV show or movie) once I decided to read it. I've found this usually considerably increases my enjoyment.

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Yes, I could see that. It would explain the very tacked-on feeling! I saw that he has another book out that sounded like it was the ship referenced by the Plague Doctor, so perhaps he'll expand more on it in that one. I'll check it out at some point!

 

I agree it's usually a good approach not to know too much about a story in advance. I didn't know much about The Seven Deaths... beforehand but I did know about the key plot device.

I did read his latest The Devil and the Dark Water a few weeks ago. I liked it, although not quite as much as The Seven Deaths. Again, it's a cleverly constructed murder mystery although this time it owes more to Conan Doyle than Christie.

[Iskaral Pust]

I read The Philosophical Detective by Bruce Hartman, which is a literary fiction meta novel and excuse to expound on some interesting ideas from literature and philosophy.  It’s not a traditional detective novel at all though.  It has a series of improbable vignettes, almost like Sherlock Holmes, where mysteries are presented and solved with logic that links back to the latest philosophical point.  I enjoyed it overall.  I like when authors play around with ideas.

I started The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple, a nonfiction history (obviously).  I didn’t go far into it though.  The first several chapters were very scattered and quite boring, especially considering the fascinating events and characters it is based on.  There were recitations of names but no anchor to the overall pattern or competing factions.  I may go back to it another time, but it wasn’t grabbing even though I was in the mood for a good non-fiction. 

I just finished Kings Of Heaven by Richard Nell, the conclusion of his Ash & Sand trilogy.  A very enjoyable read and a really good trilogy overall.  Ruka/Bukayag is one of the most unusual protagonists in a fantasy trilogy, and the wider cast of characters like Kale, Lani, Farahi, Eka, and Dala are all good too.  The setting is unusual with impoverished Viking-ish people of a southern continent, a trade-based Pacific Island-ish civilization at the equator and an Asian-ish continent to the north dominated by a China-ish.  I’ll definitely read whatever Nell writes next.

[LongRider]

On 11/18/2020 at 2:29 PM, Corvinus85 said:

Finally finished Children of Ruin. @LongRider

From your comments I get you quite liked the book.  The first book was the one I liked better and just wasn’t as satisfied with this one as you were.  It’s been awhile since I read it and my impressions were it was too, I don’t know, everything just went too right.  Not a well written review I know.  Thanks for your comments though, I like your review.

   
 

 

[Peadar]

8 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I started The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple, a nonfiction history (obviously).  I didn’t go far into it though.  The first several chapters were very scattered and quite boring, especially considering the fascinating events and characters it is based on.  There were recitations of names but no anchor to the overall pattern or competing factions.  I may go back to it another time, but it wasn’t grabbing even though I was in the mood for a good non-fiction. 

I've had mixed experiences with his books, but I very much enjoyed Return of a King, about the disastrous British (first) attempt to conquer Afghanistan.

[A wilding]

I second the recommendation for Return of a King. An impressive argument for the cock-up rather than conspiracy view of the world.

[Zorral]

23 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

started The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple, a nonfiction history (obviously).

I read that when it came out last year. It's hilarious that our reactions to this book and Return of A King are just opposite! For me, The Anarchy was nearly up to the form of his earlier City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi, and White Mughals.  Not as poorly written as his Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan. That one was a real slog that never got off the ground, for this reader.

Another really good history of the British army whether for the Company or the Crown is The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905 by Ferdinand Mont.

his one is really good for the earlier years: The East India Company: Trade and Conquest from 1600 by Anthony Wild.

~~~~~~~~~~

I've just embarked on the latest biography of Henry Adams, just published, The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams.  It's going very well with other current biogaphy, Elain Showalter's The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe, whose husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, was as appalling as a husband as Henry Adams was. Both biographies are within the same frames of social circles and history -- as is also this year's biography of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Cross of Snow. Julia Ward Howe was also a poet; that Longfellow helped her with publication of her scandalous book, Passion Flowers, destroyed his friendship with Howe.  One wonders why Longfellow helped her?  It wasn't his kind of poetry, neither he nor his wife Fanny, particularly liked or approved of Julia.  Perhaps the genuine poetic gift, the real power that was in it, despite her being a woman, who shouldn't have it, or should hide it if she did, was irresistible to another poet?

 

 

[Zorral]

Has anyone here read this already?

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson --

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/20/the-ministry-for-the-future-by-kim-stanley-robinson-review-how-to-solve-the-climate-crisis

 

[TheLastWolf]

John Burdett's latest, The Bangkok Asset was fantastic. Sinchai Jipptlecheep's philosophy always introspective as ever. 

Spoiler

The Sonchai Jitpleecheep SeriesEdit

A series of crime novels mainly set in Bangkok, they consist of six books: Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo, Bangkok Haunts, The Godfather of Kathmandu, Vulture Peak, and The Bangkok Asset. They centre on the philosophical Thai Buddhist detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, and his meditative internal dialogues. Sonchai is a "leuk krung" or half-caste. He is the son of a former "rented-wife" (a type of prostitute) and a "farang." His father was a U.S. military officer whom he never knew. Sonchai has spent much of his childhood in Europe and the U.S.. A born "outsider", he is also seemingly unbribeable, which increases his alienation from his colleagues.

The novels involve Thailand's sex industry and the red-light districts of Bangkok. Sexual matters are part of the narrative, including the juxtaposition of often conflicting Thai and Western norms and mores. They have been widely praised for the breadth and depth of understanding of a number of different cultures. Apart from the Anglo-Saxon cultural traditions with which he was brought up, Burdett has shown considerable familiarity with Confucian, Buddhist, Latin and North African societies, due to his extensive travels.

The novels contain larger-than-life characters intertwined with a wry sense of humour and bizarre crimes. The crimes include execution by the release of a container full of cobra snakes into a car where the driver is forcibly prevented from escaping (Bangkok 8), the theft of valuable tattoos (and their associated human skin) off the backs' of murder victims (Bangkok Tattoo), and homicide related to the production of a snuff video (Bangkok Haunts). Juxtaposed is the investigative nonchalance and Buddhist acceptance of an "arhat" detective who can meditate even in a Bangkok traffic-jam. Many popular shamanistic superstitions that have carried over into Buddhism in Thailand are explored. Past lives (reincarnation) and hungry ghosts also contribute to the atmosphere and texture.

Salman Rushdie's Quichotte was fab too

[Plessiez]

Last week I read The Dark Archive, the latest book in Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library series. 

I quite like this series: it's not particularly deep, but it's generally pretty fun.  That said, I think the last few books have become a bit repetitive.   I don't really think this installment is much different in that regard:

Spoiler

The main series-wide plot development of note is the confirmation that Irene is Alberich's daughter, which ... yeah, would have been more of a twist four books ago.

There's also an annoying pattern in the first half of the book of every other chapter ending with a cliffhanger that is almost immediately resolved in the next chapter and doesn't have much bearing on the overall plot.  This happens enough that these cliffhangers start to feel like a very artificial way of keeping the story moving forwards ("When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand", as Raymond Chandler is supposed to have suggested). 

Although Cogman's not quite as prolific as Adrian Tchaikovsky or early '90s Terry Pratchett, she's published a novel in this series once per year since 2014, which is still pretty impressively fast.  But issues like this make me suspect the books would be stronger if they weren't being written quite so quickly.

Speaking of Chandler, I'm also currently working through a collection of his short stories called Killer in the Rain.  Specifically, these are the stories that Chandler would later "canniblize" for his more famous Philip Marlowe novels.  They're a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest, but it's interesting to see the original versions of scenes I remember from more famous works.

[Plessiez]

17 hours ago, Zorral said:

Has anyone here read this already?

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson --

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/20/the-ministry-for-the-future-by-kim-stanley-robinson-review-how-to-solve-the-climate-crisis

I've not started this yet, but it's on my to-read list.

Of KSR's last three novels, I was really impressed by both Aurora and New York 2140, though I thought that the latter suffered a bit from

Spoiler

what was, in my opinion, a pretty unreasonably optimistic ending.

However, I didn't like the more recent Red Moon anything like as much (in fact, I think I gave up on it about two-thirds of the way in).  I can't remember exactly what put me off though -- might have just been bad timing on my part.

[Zorral]

I didn't even try Red Moon, having really bounced hard off Galileo's Moon.

I didn't care much for the novel set in flooded D.C. or the novel set future flooded NYC, for all kinds of reasons, which are because I know both the cities very well, for years and years and years. 

The author persists in viewing these two peculiar cities with what east coasters often feel as the naive Southern California "green future" lenses. What he tried to do in these books did not play to his strengths as an sf writer.

This one entices me though.

 

[mushroomshirt]

On 11/25/2020 at 2:33 AM, Plessiez said:

We had a bit of discussion about this book (and the trilogy as a whole) in the Third Quarter Reading thread during the summer, and there's a (spoiler heavy) thread from around then too.

I thought City of Brass was quite good, and that the sequels (especially Kingdom of Copper) were definite improvements.  So yeah, I'd recommend it.

I finished City of Brass yesterday and really enjoyed it.  I'm not sure what GRRM was talking about with the unexpected twists.  I never knew what to expect at all from the book.

The one thing I was not a fan of was the Hunger Game-style love triangle going on.  But this is a super small complaint.

I will read the next book soon (I usually try not to drop $10 on books too rapidly).

I will also check out the spoiler-heavy threads to see what I missed. (ETA- well I guess I will wait on that until I read the whole series, seems like the thread is a spoiler for not just the first book)

[Zorral]

@ Iskaral Pust --

As you enjoyed Dalrymple's history of   invasion, you probably are familiar with the existence of the warlord's own memoir, The Babur Nama.  I just saw via The New York Times there is a new edition of the translation made by the Victorian Age scholar, Annette Susanna Beveridge. with an introduction by Dalrymple, so thought of you.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/623121/the-babur-nama-by-babur-translated-by-annette-susannah-beveridge-introduction-by-william-dalrymple/9781101908235

https://gooruf.com/asia/news/2020/11/07/the-baburnama-review-an-imperial-pen#!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-baburnama-review-an-imperial-pen-11604678292

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/books/review-babur-nama.html

[Starkess]

On 11/26/2020 at 5:08 AM, The Drunkard said:

 

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Initially I thought they were in some kind of hell or purgatory and the plague doctors were something like angels, trying to torment/rehabilitate the people they locked up.

 

I thought the same, and IMO it would have made way more sense and worked better with the ambiance of the story.

Spoiler

Also I found it really letdown that Aidan was so insistent on saving Evelyn, and he actually did manage it, but it didn't matter (except in how it reflected on his own character). Also how did they even create a simulation or whatever that contained the correct answer that they weren't even aware of? It just doesn't really make sense as an artificial construct!

 

[williamjm]

I finished Emily St. John Mandel's The Glass Hotel. It was one of those books where I did enjoy reading it but getting to end I feel that it's probably less than the sum of its parts. Taken individually the various subplots are well-written and the characters were interesting but I think the central narrative felt a bit lacking. A corrupt businessman and the 2008 global financial crisis connect together the various plotlines (which take place over decades) but while this plotline is probably the most interesting of those in the books the links to some of the other subplots feels a bit tenuous and even the resolution of that main plot feels a bit undramatic since we already know in advance most of what is going to happen. I felt that Mandel's previous book Station Eleven did a better job of tying the plotlines together.

[HexMachina]

I finished a lot of re-reads lately. My Realm of the Elderlings reread is now complete, and that was a whole journey. Emotions were fraught again reading those last chapters damn it. Someone move those onions.

Also re-read Zen Cho’s Sorceror to the Crown and The True Queen. This series isn’t popular here, as I recall, but i just find it so charming and engaging. Love it.

i then listened to Gideon the Ninth, a new ‘read’ for me. Really good story albeit somewhat confusing to begin with, especially on audio. I had planned to dive straight into the sequel but then The Ten Thousand Doors of January was on sale so i bought that first. Enjoying it so far, i like the alternating narrative style and im a sucker for footnotes.

[Inkdaub]

I finished Lethem's Gambler's Anatomy.  This is the second Lethem book I have read in a row that...underwhelmed me for whatever reason.  At one time I listed Lethem as my favorite author so I'm a little unsettled by this.  Either he changed or I changed or both or nothing.  I did enjoy the book, particularly the early sections.  I also liked Anatomy better than the previous work...Dissident Gardens...in many ways.  We'll see when I get into Feral Detective.

Next I read Carey's The Devil You Know.  I wasn't totally on board with every aspect of this one but overall I liked it quite a bit.  I'm sure I will continue reading Felix Castor stories at some point. 

Now I am reading McGuire's Middlegame.  I am still early in the story but I am enjoying it. 

[Wilbur]

I finished up Stephen Fry reading the Max Carrados detective stories by Ernest Bramah this week.  I thought that Stephen Fry did a fine job of reading the works, almost as good as the late, great Andy Minter of Librivox.

I first came across Max Carrados in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (the two books), then I picked up Thames Television's productions of the stories on an inexpensive DVD in a used book store in Edinburgh.  My daughter loved the videos, and I found them terrific as well, if only because of the list of famous actors who appear as some of the detectives:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rivals_of_Sherlock_Holmes_(TV_series)

Everyone should listen to Andy Minter's readings of Four Max Carrados Detective Stories, though.  He picked the four best stories, and his reading voice is superb.

https://librivox.org/four-max-carrados-detective-stories-by-ernest-bramah/