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What are you reading? Fourth Quarter 2022


williamjm

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I read Katherine Addison's The Grief of Stones. I thought The Witness For The Dead was a good detective story in a fantasy setting and I thought the sequel was similarly good. One of the features of the books is that Celehar tends to have to work on multiple cases simultaneously, often of very different types, here varying from tracking down a coveted scone recipe to investigating sinister goings on in a school for orphaned girls. This means that the pacing can sometimes be a bit odd, with the climax of the main case happening about 2/3 of the way through the book with much of the remainder focusing on the repercussions of it. Despite the sometimes dark subject matter and Celehar tendency towards feeling melancholy it is an enjoyable book to read. Celehar himself is very likeable and there is a good cast of supporting characters, both old and new (Celehar's new apprentice is a good addition to the story).

I then read Neil Gaiman's seventh Sandman collection, Brief Lives, which I thought was very good even if some of the earlier parts of the quest felt a bit aimless.

I have now started one of Ian McDonald's earlier novels, Necroville, which doesn't really seem to be among his best-known works.

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Recently Harry Turtledove wrote a fifth book in the Hellenic Traders / Wine Dark Sea series, and I picked it up from the library this week.  Salamis covers the period of the rising tensions of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great, and specifically the conflict between Ptolemy down in Egypt and Antigonus Monophthalmus and his charismatic son Demetrius.

Some of the themes of discussion between the cousins in this story include freedom and slavery, the worldview of a free Greek man of affluence versus the worldview of a woman or a slave, the nature of truth in written histories compared to the nature of truth in poetry, the differences in sexual practices between Greeks and non-Greeks, and the cost of war to non-combatants.

Three of the first four books in the Hellenic Traders series are some of my favorite alternate history, as we follow two Rhodian traders as they take their boat across the Eastern Mediterranean and explore the world and their growing power as adults.  Turtledove's doctorate in Byzantine history means that this period is well within his expertise, and his straightforward writing style works very well to propel the reader from episode to episode as the boat and the traders move from polis to polis, island to island.  The one exception is The Sacred Land, where one of the traders goes inland to Judea; a turgid story that is bleak and uninteresting and fits poorly with the rest, 3/10 will not read again.

Salamis is a bit of both worlds, as the traders visit Egypt for the first time, and this is interesting because they learn new things and take action to improve their trade.  They also get involved in the wars of the Diadochi, and this is not interesting because they tag along and have no agency.  The book also has an extended sub-plot about one of the trader's love life and home life, and it adds nothing to my personal enjoyment of the story.  Finally, the book ends with the main point of conflict, whether Rhodes will remain a free and independent polis, unresolved.  On the one hand, that is annoying.  On the other hand, perhaps Turtledove will write some more after this nearly two-decade hiatus within the Wine Dark Sea.  He is more famous for other books he has written, but none of the rest of his opus is as much to my taste as these books.

If Harry Turtledove is not to your taste, beware that this book has all of the hallmarks of his later work.  Characters re-state the same set of facts or situations to each other multiple times throughout the story.  He must be dictating his stuff, and it would be good if his editor would assign someone the job of chopping some of those repetitive conversations out.  However, his ability to create the very alien to contemporary Americans' way of thinking used by the Greeks of the period is well worth the effort of slogging through yet another discussion of the danger to Rhodes from Antigonus Cyclops.

Final note:  The hard copy was published by Arc Manor and Caezik Sci Fi, and they need some better copy editors or printers, as either spelling or printing errors abound throughout the first half of the book.  The colophon omits the printing location, but if it isn't China, I will eat my hat.

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8 hours ago, Wilbur said:

If Harry Turtledove is not to your taste, beware that this book has all of the hallmarks of his later work.  Characters re-state the same set of facts or situations to each other multiple times throughout the story.  He must be dictating his stuff, and it would be good if his editor would assign someone the job of chopping some of those repetitive conversations out.  

That's why I eventually gave up on the series. After a while, I just couldn't take any more of the repetition, even though the "worldbuilding" was so convincing.

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5 hours ago, Peadar said:

That's why I eventually gave up on the series. After a while, I just couldn't take any more of the repetition, even though the "worldbuilding" was so convincing.

It is very strange that his editors don't fix this.  Even a single reading (or listening) to the story would surely highlight this issue to the first person (author or editor or pre-reader) who reads the drafts.  And it isn't every point that gets this repetition in Salamis, just the one about the threat of invasion.  And I don't recall being as bothered by it in the first two books of the Hellenic Traders.

Long ago, in the ancient message boards of Internet 1.0, I recall readers suggesting that Turtledove's American South books had a lot of repetition because the readers weren't smart enough to remember salient plot points.  I don't think that is the case, necessarily, it just seems to be Harry's didactic way of writing.  But his Atlantis stories don't suffer from it nearly as badly, nor did his Misplaced Legion series.

Maybe he had more conscientious editors for some books than others?  Certainly the typos in the copy I read didn't suggest a lot of careful editing.  It is a shame to have this booger on the ledger, because there is no doubt that he can spin a yarn, and the Hellenic world setting is terrific.

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I am reading DiLouie's One of Us and it is as good as I expected. Heavily inspired by race relations/bigotry in general, there is inherent tension in every scene. Working as intended, but I am concerned for my favorite character. DiLouie is a great writer and I think of him, Buehlman and Tremblay in similar ways.

Speaking of Tremblay, I just read Cabin at the End of the World. As usual, Tremblay's writing is good, but this feels like a short story that was stretched out to me. Tremblay gets the tone right in the various relationships and there is a moment of genuine creep that gave me the chills. Wen is naturally the star.

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I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird, I <3 @Fragile Bird!!!!!!!!!!!!

ETA: I'll have to send you something for Christmas. 

:love:

14 of 14!!!

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Feeling standalone, so read Station Eleven and the Golem and the Jinni over the past couple of weeks. 

Both were quite intimate and focused. Station Eleven was much darker than I expected, given the premise is about how art sustains humanity. The pre-pandemic, in-pandemic, and post-pandemic were all pretty grim. Small moments of hope lifted it up, but less than I expected overall. I did like that it ended on a bright note. I overall enjoyed it though! Can't imagine having read this before covid or right at the start - how much extra terrifying would that have made March 2020.

I also read it solely to have read it before watching the show, and I have to admit I liked the show better. I think it was actually a more realistic take on how the world would've looked 20 years on, and I liked most (most) of the changes.

The Golem and the Jinni felt a lot shorter / contained than it actually was. Surprisingly engaging given the sharp focus on characters and a tight plot. I enjoyed the look at cultures and myths and history that I'm less familiar with, and how the character archetypes complemented each other AND played against each other AND allowed for growth and change. I think it worked really well as a standalone and weirdly have no desire to read the follow-up - maybe someday. 

 

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This week I started, but I don't think I will finish, Admiral Eugene Fluckey's Thunder Below.  Written by the commanding officer of the USS Barb, this should be the exciting story of the vanguard of US Navy submarines and submarine warfare once the DoD finally figured out how to manufacture a fully functional torpedo.

The USS Barb was one of the most successful USN submarines of WW2, and in fact the only submarine to ever attack a train.  This is an important story, and I have read many thrilling accounts of naval warfare.  This is not one of them.

First of all, the tone of the book has been "churched up" something fierce, so although the author tells you that critical activities or relationships are happening, you never feel it.  And indeed, some of the stories are told in such a way that is frankly unbelievable, particularly regarding shore leaves.

Secondly, it is very self-congratulatory over things that are...kind of inconsequential?  Lots of cautious humble-bragging, which I could completely understand if it was about how the USS Barb changed USN tactics from conservative to aggressive.  But instead, the author pats himself on the back for things like celebratory cakes, changing out the boat's bourbon for beer, and tricking his wife and daughter by pre-writing letters to be sent while he was at sea.  Good for him, I guess?

Third, the writing is almost juvenile in tone and character.  Maybe because of the churched-up language, maybe because of the constant repetition, but it is hard to take it seriously, and indeed, it is almost boring me after getting more than halfway through.  The conflict is stated flatly, but never felt by me as a reader.  And this would be fine if the writing included a lot of technical detail, but that is also missing.

I recommend choosing something by James D. Hornfischer, such as Neptune's Inferno, rather than this book, unfortunately.

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13 minutes ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

Do you have any interest in reading the sequel, The Hidden Place?

I weirdly don't. I thought it was standalone when I read it, and now that I know there's a follow up I'm ambivalent, because I was pretty satisfied even with lingering threads. Will get to it someday I'm sure!

Do you recommend it? 

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3 hours ago, Underfoot said:

I weirdly don't. I thought it was standalone when I read it, and now that I know there's a follow up I'm ambivalent, because I was pretty satisfied even with lingering threads. Will get to it someday I'm sure!

Do you recommend it? 

My attitude toward it is similar to yours.  I read TGatJ a few years and enjoyed it.  Yet, it very much felt like a standalone.  I was surprised to learn that a sequel was written.  I’d like to read it someday, but it’s not high on my priority list.  Also, I’d have to reread TGatJ then read THP.

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Just read Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy, Luna: New Moon, Luna Wolf Moon, and Luna: Moon Rising.

As many have said, the strapline for this is "an SF ASoIaF set on the moon". Though there is something of The Godfather in there too. But there are also some interesting sidelights giving depth, for example Luna sports (mostly co-operative), Luna sexual mores, the technologies (never described in detail, but obviously carefully thought through by the author), and a form of lycanthropy driven by the phases of the Earth. And the books do a good job of hammering home just how hostile the Luna environment is, with a frequent refrain of it having "a thousand ways to kill you".

Ultimately though I was not able to really believe in the society depicted, nor in some aspects of the plot, and the last book felt somewhat weaker, with the story rather petering out. But nonetheless these were page turners, and I enjoyed reading them.

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I'm reading Kazuo Ishiguru's Klara and the Sun. I haven't got very far into it though because the last book of Ishiguru's I read, Never Let Me Go, might be the most brutal book I've ever read so I'm feeling a little trepidation over getting too invested in this one.

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I finished listening to Where the Crawdads Sing today. I liked it pretty well, though I think that listening versus reading helped because I hate reading "dialect", but it was more manageable coming as an easily-understandable accent from a narrator. Didn't love the "twist" that was imo obvious, and there were several parts of the book that stretched credulity in ways that really took away from my enjoyment. I can see why some people love it but I would say I just liked it.

I also did a quick re-read of OSC's How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy today. I've read this several times and, although published in 1990 and very dated in some particulars, it remains an interesting way to think about constructing a sf/f novel. Read through it because I'm hoping to start writing another novel soon and want to be in a good head space for it.

I finished Fellowship of the Ring last weekend in my re-read, will probably start The Two Towers this weekend. Also have The Golden Enclaves downloaded and ready to go.

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Finished John Gwynne's Shadow of the Gods today. It started slow but once the major plot points got going it really was hard to put down.

I did have high expectations for it based on Robin Hobb's Goodreads review, and it was a bit of a let down in comparison. The writing felt clumsy and the descriptions were hard to follow, especially in fights. I was surprised to see this wasn't a debut novel because it really gave those vibes, particularly in terms of prose and characterization and "twists." 

However, the world building was interesting and I can forgive a lot when a book is hard to put down. Hope we get more interesting characters in book 2 and beyond. 

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So Klara and the Sun wasn't quite as brutally depressing as Never Let Me Go but it still had a pretty melancholy feel throughout. The themes of using and discarding those who viewed as lesser be they clones, AI companions or people were pretty consistent too. Very good book but I'm getting the sense reading Ishiguru books probably isn't advisable if you're looking to avoid feeling down once you've finished.

Next up I'm going to read Adrian Tchaikovsky's new book Children of Memory.

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Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline is the 2nd and last book of the duology which continues the story of The Marrow Hunters.  

The first book follows a group of indigenous people of Canada, as the group formed and became a family, plus their travails as they tried to elude those who were hunting them for their bone marrow. 
 

The 2nd begins with one of the family members caught by the Recruiters and taken to the local ‘school’ .  
 

This book delves into themes of making hard choices and the othering of out groups.  Also explored is the turning of one person against their family.  It asks the question, what makes a family? 
 

A good sequel.

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I finished Ian McDonald's Necroville. It has an intriguing premise - revolutionary nanotechnology has enabled the dead to be resurrected with their memories and skills intact and without some of the physical limits they had before death. However, due to the law not regarding them as citizens and due to have to pay off the costs of their resurrection to the corporations they largely form an underclass. Despite the dead being the main focus of much of the plot the five protagonists are still among the living, five (somewhat estranged) friends whose plan to meet up in Los Angeles' dead enclave during Day of the Dead celebrations gets sidetracked by growing unrest.

I think the biggest problem I had with the story is that the five main characters are all fairly insufferable. They almost all come from very privileged backgrounds but seem to excel at feeling sorry for themselves, I found Santiago and Camaguey to be particularly annoying and self-centred. It also takes a long time in the book for the plot to take shape, it's difficult to follow at first and although it does come together towards the end and become a more interesting story it felt like some of the plot threads were redundant and in some cases got forgotten about along the way. This is a pity because there is a fascinating world here with a lot of potential for interesting stories and at times it realises some of that potential but it felt a lot less than the sum of its parts. I think Ian McDonald is always an interesting author but he's written much better books.

I've now started Adrian Tchaikovsky's latest, Children of Memory. I think the first two books in this series were excellent and this is off to a good start so far.

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