Fourth Quarter 2021 Reading

[ljkeane]

Just now, Fragile Bird said:

Is that a new book? My library doesn’t have it. Is it the new Penric?

Yeah it’s the newest Penric novella.

[Fragile Bird]

I should comment in the Hugo’s thread as well, but Martha Wells got best novel for Network Effect and best series for The Murderbot Diaries! I am chuffed! I am so happy! As I said, I just love, love, love Murderbot. No, they aren’t deep, meaningful stories that people are going to write 5 threads of comments about, but dammit all, they hit me in the feels, Murderbot makes me laugh and cry and pisses me off and even frightens me at times. Watching the world unfurl through its eyes has been a real pleasure so far.

[Reny of Storms End]

On 12/18/2021 at 9:41 AM, Iskaral Pust said:

 

I really need more writing of great style!  Why are books almost always described by their plot, which tend to be repetitive most of the time.  It’s the writing style that really distinguishes a book.

Have you ever read Hunters and Collectors by M. Suddain? Might be that great style you are looking for. 

[Iskaral Pust]

3 hours ago, Reny of Storms End said:

Have you ever read Hunters and Collectors by M. Suddain? Might be that great style you are looking for. 

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

Edit: not available on Kindle, and Amazon has a single used paperback copy for $830.  I’m intrigued but I’ll have to wait until it’s available.

[polishgenius]

Weird, it's available for a fiver in epub. Doesn't often happen that way round.

Anyway, some of the most stylish SFF books I can think of (for the most part not that obscure, but just in case you've not tried 'em)

Hal Duncan's Vellum (and the sequel Ink) - these aren't for everyone because the plot is magnificently pretentious and over-the-top complicated and some people will just not have the patience, but it's got style for days.

Catherynne Valente- I particularly like Radiance, which drips with a sort of planetary-romance-meets-old-school-film aesthetic, but all of her books are beautifully written. Radiance and Palimpsest are also narratively clever (or pretentious depending how ungereous were being). Palimpsest is about a sexually transmitted city, just so you know that potentially going in.
 

Faith, by John Love- this one did actually go under the radar a little, it's a sorta existential space opera thing, bit dark, very nicely written. For a large part it's almost just one long chase and battle scene, but a very weird (and well-written) one. Need a re-read actually.

Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series is the most recent that dragged me in with its style. To begin with I was resistant, because you have to accept a certain amount of melodrama from the narrator, but that ends up being (1) part of the charm and (2) part of how the author hides things from you in narrative tricks. It's great. The quadrilogy just finished too, so there's that.

 

Anything by Nnedi Okorafor- you can talk about Okorafor's plots as well, they're like not much you'll have read and hard-hitting, but she's also just a terrific writer of prose and structurer of narrative. Who Fears Death is my favourite, though it's not a light read.

 

Just some suggestions.

[Fragile Bird]

Cool! They’re all new to me!

[Inkdaub]

I am now reading Pullman's La Belle Sauvage and it is good as expected.

[Peadar]

11 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Faith, by John Love- this one did actually go under the radar a little, it's a sorta existential space opera thing, bit dark, very nicely written. For a large part it's almost just one long chase and battle scene, but a very weird (and well-written) one. Need a re-read actually.

 

I had forgotten all about this book, but I absolutely loved it at the time. So unlike anything else out there.

[Peadar]

Oh, meant to add, I have finished and been underwhelmed by the latest Neal Stephenson. Now starting Jame O'Brien's How to be Right. He's a liberal talk show host in the UK.

[Reny of Storms End]

23 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

Edit: not available on Kindle, and Amazon has a single used paperback copy for $830.  I’m intrigued but I’ll have to wait until it’s available.

His first book is called Theatre of the Gods, that might be available. I love this guy's writing, and Hunters is available on Kindle for me. So if you want to like dm your email address I'll buy you a copy and gift it!

[Iskaral Pust]

10 minutes ago, Reny of Storms End said:

His first book is called Theatre of the Gods, that might be available. I love this guy's writing, and Hunters is available on Kindle for me. So if you want to like dm your email address I'll buy you a copy and gift it!

Thanks for suggestion.  I’ll look for that title too.

I assume the Kindle problem is some disagreement over US publishing rights.

Edit: very weird — I checked Amazon again and now the Kindle version is available for $9.99, and now the paperback copy is a mere $320.  I wonder if those f***ers had their algorithm messing around to see how much money they could squeeze out of me.  Amazon algorithms do play games to try to maximize the price for each buyer; if your history hints at large financial resources or willingness to spend, then you see a higher price than anyone else.

Regardless of Amazon’s shenanigans, I’ve now purchased a copy on Kindle.  Looking forward to it.

[aceluby]

Finished book 7 of Cradle last night and am about 100 pages into book 8, mostly reading while trying to get my kid to sleep at 1am this morning.  This ones a bit longer at 500 pages and is the favorite of the series for a small group of like-minded readers at work who recommended the series to me.  Looks like I'll likely finish the series before the end of the year, which I was not expecting.

[polishgenius]

21 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Cool! They’re all new to me!

 

Just in light of your previous post, while I think it's great, on my previous list do not pick up Okorafor's Who Fears Death unless you're in the mood for some heavy stuff. One of the things it's about is anger against both weaponised rape and female genital mutilation, and is also about genocide, racism and other happy subjects. It's a brilliant book, but a savage one.

 

[williamjm]

I finished Josiah Bancroft's The Fall of Babel. I've enjoyed all four of the books in the series, it has been fascinating exploring the mysteries of the tower throughout the series and although the final book certainly doesn't explain everything I think it did a good job of answering some of the key questions even if every answer does lead to another set of questions. I suspect opinions might vary a bit on the way in which it ends but I thought it managed to strike a balance between resolving plotlines and leaving some things open-ended, there would certainly be scope for more books in this setting but I don't think they're necessarily required. I thought many of the characters got some good development in this book, particularly Adam in the first section, and I think I enjoyed the series more as it became more of an ensemble piece rather than focusing on Senlin who I often felt was one of the less interesting characters, although I think his story arc does come to an appropriate conclusion here.

Next up I'm going to go onto another concluding volume with a titles about falling: James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Falls.

[ljkeane]

I think Knot of Shadows was probably my least favourite of the Penric novellas. It was still ok but Penric and, by extension us as the readers, felt a bit disconnected from the actual significant events of the story.

Next up I'm going to read Leviathan Falls now I've got a bit of time.

[Fragile Bird]

Yesterday A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers popped up in my library loans and what a lovely book it is! Fans of the Penric novellas may like it. It’s only 4 hours long, so a nice easy read.

200 years ago on a world with one large continent, the people realized they had to free the robots and change their life style because they were destroying the planet. A treaty gives half the continent away as a wild life preserve where the freed robots live and the other half is for the humans. There are also 5 gods on this world and main character is a monk, “Sibling Dex”, of an order that serves tea. He decides he will leave the city, and the monastery he lives in, to take a mobile tea unit out into the countryside to serve tea to the country people. The country only has one city, and the surrounding farming communities and small towns supply everything the nation needs. (As part of stopping the destruction of the planet they closed down factories and stopped using oil). The mobile unit is like a small house trailer which is moved by a bicycle that Dex pedals, assisted by a solar powered engine. One day he realizes he is having a crisis of faith, or something, and decides to go deep into the wild preserve where humans are not supposed to go to visit a ruined monastery originally built for pilgrims. It’s not a spoiler to say he runs into a robot.

I wanted to read this book as a further exploration of the possible future of sentient robots, after reading the Murderbot Diaries. It’s definitely a different developmental route from the one SecUnit takes. Like reading Klara and the Sun. And as with Penric, there’s a strong element of faith running running through it. I do recommend it.

[Peadar]

I'm starting The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. After one chapter I'm hugely optimistic about this one. I think it might have been @JEORDHl who mentioned it here first?

[HexMachina]

On 12/21/2021 at 9:04 AM, Inkdaub said:

I am now reading Pullman's La Belle Sauvage and it is good as expected.

I very much enjoyed this even if it wasn't necessarily what I expected. Pullman has always had a lovely style of writing even when his plots/narrative goes awry but La Belle Sauvage was a lot more concise than say The Amber Spyglass. I also enjoyed The Secret Commonwealth (it has its issues but overall very strong) and am looking forward to volume 3, whenever that may come. I've not seen any news but keeping my fingers crossed he might tie in the release with Season 3 of the TV show.

[JGP]

5 hours ago, Peadar said:

I'm starting The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. After one chapter I'm hugely optimistic about this one. I think it might have been @JEORDHl who mentioned it here first?

I think so, at least for this particular novel. Enjoy, it’s really fun.

[Fragile Bird]

12 minutes ago, JEORDHl said:

I think so, at least for this particular novel. Enjoy, it’s really fun.

I’ve ordered a hold at the library! Looking forward to it!