Third Quarter 2021 Reading

[Isis]

On 7/7/2021 at 10:22 AM, The_Lone_Wolf said:

Booker of Bookers

Shalimar The Clown and The Ground beneath her feet are just great. And Rushdie is not for everyone. Took me long to adapt. 

Quichotte, I totally don't remember his latest inexplicably why donno, amnesia 

I read Satanic Verses not that long after it was published and I found it 'easier' than I had been expecting, certainly funnier than I was expecting. About 15 years later I tried reading Midnight's Children as part of my 'reading the Bookers' project and it was a struggle for me. I ended up reading it as a sort of 'book at bedtime', reading it for four pages a night in bed every night.

[williamjm]

4 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Yesterday I read Lois McMaster Bujold's tenth Penric and Desdemona story, The Assassins of Thasalon.  It was lovely.

My greatest disappointment was that it was so short, as the writing was LMB's usual good standard, the World of the Five Gods is an interesting place, and the characters, many of whom we have met before, face and deal with obstacles and challenges in a fine manner.

Strong recommendation, along with the previous nine short works in this ongoing tale.  LMB continues to explore what it means to be a hero, what is grace and how it works in real life, and the joys of family.

I do like how productive Bujold is in her supposed semi-retirement.

[dog-days]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

I do like how productive Bujold is in her supposed semi-retirement.

Indeed, long may she remain so. Here's hoping it carries on being a Hayao Miyazaki-style retirement. 

[Iskaral Pust]

I haven’t shared an update in quite a while so I have a longer list than usual.  I’ll shorten my summary of each.

I finished (reread) Quicksilver, volume 1 of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.   Unfortunately the strength of this book is the interesting period it covers — the emergence of the Enlightenment, a leap forward in finance and capital markets and economic systems, and a contrasting divergence in monarchical systems that will eventually lead to new systems of political governance — but it comes at the expense of a bloated, meandering narrative and a very boring POV character in Daniel Waterhouse, who primarily acts as our observer.

Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson is an ok-but-not-great literary fiction about relationships as a foundation/anchor for our lives and emotional well-being through a story about surrogate/foster parenting.  I was offended though by the apparent axiom that women pursue life success in the form of a husband who will support a comfortable lifestyle for them while they have a carefree life of mothering happy & undemanding kids.  The grounded character is content with just having a doctor or similar for a husband (despite being an uneducated grocery store cashier) while the privileged character marries into (and herself comes from) extreme wealth fresh out of college while also being outraged that her parents don’t view her home-making (with a slate of servants) as meriting the same respect as her brothers’ careers as CEOs and bankers.  I felt like the author set back the feminist cause by decades while actually attempting to be pro-feminist.

Whiteout by Ragnar Jonasson is an Icelandic noir mystery.  Pretty good: atmospheric, narrow cast of plausible characters, unpacks layers of relationships as the detectives work through a plausible fog of ignorance rather than any convenient omniscient perception.

Exhalation is a collection of sci-fi short stories by Ted Chiang.  Really, really good.  Highly recommended.

Dark Fissures by Matt Coyle is a very conventional noir detective mystery: a self-pitying, self-destructive former cop is a PI who always pursues the truth no matter how many enemies he makes.   It was OK but I doubt I’ll seek out this author again.

Edit, I forgot one:

Funeral Games by Christian Cameron is the third volume in his Tyrant historical fiction series about the power vacuum after the death of Alexander The Great.  Overall a good book and a good series, although in this volume the POV characters are precocious royal adolescents who have been dispossessed by a traitorous usurper, which feels like a tired trope from the fantasy genre.

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Funeral Games by Christian Cameron is the third volume in his Tyrant historical fiction series about the power vacuum after the death of Alexander The Great.

Odd, that he took the exact title that Mary Renault gave to her novel (1981) about the same matters.

[Iskaral Pust]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

Odd, that he took the exact title that Mary Renault gave to her novel (1981) about the same matters.

I think perhaps it is a phrase that historians have used for a long time: that the series of battles between factions vying for Alexander’s empire were like a huge funeral games to mark his passing.  But that’s just my supposition. 

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I think perhaps it is a phrase that historians have used for a long time: that the series of battles between factions vying for Alexander’s empire were like a huge funeral games to mark his passing.  But that’s just my supposition. 

A cursory check and I don't see that anywhere.  Emphasis here on "cursory" though!

[ljkeane]

I've just finished reading Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, I've never read one of her books before and it seemed interesting so I gave it a try. It's a bit of an odd book. For a book about time travel to the middle ages an excessively large proportion of it covers someone in the 21st century trying and failing to make phone calls to various people. 

Spoiler

Also you'd expect a book concerned with the black death to have a fairly high casualty rate but absolutely everyone Kivrin meets in the past ending up dead is a little grim.

Next up I'm read the another of Martha Wells' Murderbot novellas Exit Strategy.

[williamjm]

57 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

I've just finished reading Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, I've never read one of her books before and it seemed interesting so I gave it a try. It's a bit of an odd book. For a book about time travel to the middle ages an excessively large proportion of it covers someone in the 21st century trying and failing to make phone calls to various people.

I haven't read Doomsday Book but I did read Blackout/All Clear a few years ago and that does sound a bit familiar. I still liked the books overall but I think they would have been a lot shorter if characters had just communicated with each other a bit better (although it was more a case of not telling each other things rather than missed phone calls in this case).

[TheLastWolf]

Animal Farm by George Orwell even better than the hype 

[bms295]

Started Aurora Rising (the Prefect?) by Alastair Reynolds. I really enjoyed Chasm City, so im looking forward to this one.

[Zorral]

Captain America --

http://file770.com/united-states-of-captain-america-1-a-review/#comments

 

[Peadar]

I greatly enjoyed Robert V.S. Redick's "Sidewinders", the sequel to "The Master Assassins". I suspect it will be a long wait until book 3. But this is superb fantasy worldbuilding with some great characters. Up next, Kings of a Dead World by Jamie Mollart.

[Luzifer's right hand]

2 hours ago, Peadar said:

I greatly enjoyed Robert V.S. Redick's "Sidewinders", the sequel to "The Master Assassins". I suspect it will be a long wait until book 3. But this is superb fantasy worldbuilding with some great characters. Up next, Kings of a Dead World by Jamie Mollart.

Long waits for books are the reason why we are here. 

*inserts Obi-wan meme*

[Wilbur]

Last night I read Lois McMaster Bujold's The Physicians of Vilnoc, the ninth of her Penric and Desdemona short stories.  It was a fine story with good characters and interesting situations, and LMB's style is mature and certain.

What I liked best, though, was the description of the exhaustion and repetitiveness and need to do more in a situation with a plague.  She captures the feelings of the medical professional faced with a seemingly unending stream of patients spread across an area really well.

[Peadar]

1 hour ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Long waits for books are the reason why we are here. 

*inserts Obi-wan meme*

"These are not the books you are looking for"? Or "Help me Obi-Wan you're my only hope"?

[Luzifer's right hand]

2 hours ago, Peadar said:

"These are not the books you are looking for"? Or "Help me Obi-Wan you're my only hope"?

I prefer to prequels when it comes to memes.

https://imgur.com/gallery/GuqPt3s

[Zorral]

6 hours ago, Wilbur said:

What I liked best, though, was the description of the exhaustion and repetitiveness and need to do more in a situation with a plague.  She captures the feelings of the medical professional faced with a seemingly unending stream of patients spread across an area really well.

Yes.  Plus many of us know much more about this now than when it was written -- though nothing like what the people who do it know.

 

[williamjm]

On 7/21/2021 at 4:54 PM, Wilbur said:

Last night I read Lois McMaster Bujold's The Physicians of Vilnoc, the ninth of her Penric and Desdemona short stories.  It was a fine story with good characters and interesting situations, and LMB's style is mature and certain.

What I liked best, though, was the description of the exhaustion and repetitiveness and need to do more in a situation with a plague.  She captures the feelings of the medical professional faced with a seemingly unending stream of patients spread across an area really well.

I read this when it originally came out last year and it did feel very topical even if that was completely accidental. I think a book about characters showing competence and determination in dealing with a deadly plague of unknown origin did have an extra resonance then.

[Wilbur]

54 minutes ago, williamjm said:

...showing competence and determination in dealing with a deadly plague of unknown origin ...

Quite.