What are you reading? Fourth Quarter 2023

[polishgenius]

Remember when Stanislaw Lem complimented Philip K. Dick as the only American SF writer who wasn't a dull derivative charlatan, and Dick responded by declaring that Lem must be a communist conspiracy because no one person could write with as much variation as he did. 

[Zorral]

One of my mentors was a great admirer of Dick, and wrote some of the first critical pieces about his work as literature, as opposed to 'genre.' , as this mentor adored 'genre', and was one of the editors of the Vertigo lines.

Alas, like Dick himself, my mentor died prematurely, due to one of those rare brain tumors that rarely show themselves in men of his age.  Dick, well, he had chemical imbalances and unwisely self-medicated.

[Martell Spy]

Stumbled on "The Ruin of Kings" by Jenn Lyons recently. It was on the local library rec shelf. Looks great so far, I'm only about 60 pages in. I wish I had more reading time.

It's more high magic than I usually think of myself liking which made me skeptical, but it seems to work so far better than I expected. There's a lot of powerful wizard characters, but so far they aren't the protagonist and they all have mysterious, possibly sinister agendas. The book starts out in a memorable manner.

[Wilbur]

Last quarter unJon recommended Claire North's Ithaca, so I reserved a copy of the audiobook read by Catrin Walker-Booth.

The tragedies of Aeschylus that we know as the Oresteia, covering the part of the story of the Three Queens of Greece that includes the return of Agememnon from Troy, his murder, the flight of Clytemnetra, her murder by her son Orestes, his trial, and the pacification of the Eumenides is very High Fantasy in that it very explicitly calls out the interaction of the Greek gods with the humans of the story, and how this interaction doomed the men and women therein.

Despite the gods-to-the-front aspect of the story, the three plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides are a sort of domestic humanizing of the heroes and actors from the Iliad and the Odyssey.  The men and women are shown as real people with real familial relations and both personalities and failings and struggles to succeed against the will of the Fates.

Claire North takes that same approach in the form of a modern novel, and she succeeds in telling the story of the Three Queens from the viewpoint of Penelope (the other two Spartan Queens are her cousins, Helen and Clytemnestra, and eventually Elektra).  And when I say viewpoint of Penelope, this is a worldview that is entirely female, because it is also the viewpoint of Hera, who acts on behalf of Penelope to motivate, encourage, enlighten, and empower her to preserve the kingdom of Ithaca.

And preserve it she does, from the suitors, from the greed of Menelaus, from raiders, from economic collapse.  The story covered in this first book of a three-part trilogy is the time frame of the death of Agememnon to the death of Clytemnestra, but takes place in Ithaca rather than Mycenae.  She does so with the help of Hera, whose own position among the gods has fallen far from the height of her powers during the Titanomachy.  And she does so while struggling to raise Telemachus in the absence of the men of Ithaca, who are traveling and dying off on their way home from Ilium.

Now one serious obstacle to my enjoyment of the book occurs throughout the first third of the book, and that is that North shows us a main concept, and then explicitly states that main concept.  The main concept is that the women in Ithaca have to work to preserve the state, but that Greek society is misogynistic, so they have no explicit agency and have to use round-about means to achieve their ends.  Men are gross, drunkards, fools, and otherwise hairy, stinking impediments who impose a harsh and unfair regime on society.  North shows this via incident, and then closes the paragraph that clearly shows this by stating it explicitly.  This happens many times early in the book, and it was almost enough to make me put it aside.

Fortunately the editor must have gotten tired of it as well, since the latter portion of the book are relatively free of this issue of redundant showing and then telling.  Absent this tic, I would say that this story rises up near the level of Mary Renault.

I look forward to picking up the second in this series, House of Odysseus.  Strongly recommended to those of you looking for a strong, resilient female protagonist or an excellent, contemporary retelling of the stories of the last days of Mycenaean Greece before the Bronze Age Collapse.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Wilbur
added links

[Zorral]

Reflection of the day: Does anybody else wonder what Lancelot did to Bernard Cornwell when BC was just a little kid that Lancelot is never anything but an irredeemable dickhead from the beginning of the Warlord Chronicles to the end?    While BC eventually in spite of himself cannot help but fall into admiration for Guinevere by the end!

There is so much about this Arthurian series to not only love, but really admire.  It really is one of the smartest set of books published in the 20th century.  Not to mention the sword bridge between religion and magic, superstition and common sense, that everyone walks. Derfel believes in his old Briton gods, Arthur doesn't believe in any of them, nor the Christian god either.  It's got more twists and turns than anything else, while always, all of them, are plausible, made to be so, very carefully.

Also, there aren't many works in which sheer cleverness matters as much as it does in these books;  moreover, there are so many different forms of cleverness at work, here, so the conflicts are fought as much with the weapons of clever as much as with blades.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Zorral

[Fragile Bird]

On 10/10/2023 at 5:12 PM, Martell Spy said:

Stumbled on "The Ruin of Kings" by Jenn Lyons recently. It was on the local library rec shelf. Looks great so far, I'm only about 60 pages in. I wish I had more reading time.

It's more high magic than I usually think of myself liking which made me skeptical, but it seems to work so far better than I expected. There's a lot of powerful wizard characters, but so far they aren't the protagonist and they all have mysterious, possibly sinister agendas. The book starts out in a memorable manner.

Reading this makes me want to borrow the audio book and listen to it all over again. I’ve done the first few books but my library didn’t have the audiobooks for the last couple of books so I stopped. I almost bought a paperback version (I really like the hero that you start to follow in this first book) but I am trying very hard not to buy more books until I’ve read what I have. I should check to see if the later books have audio versions yet.

The story gets very complicated….

This actually brings up a topic that I’ve been meaning to talk about. What is it with demons these days? So many authors are making demons the hero of their books, and I just don’t get it. Lyons’ series gets into demons, Leigh Bardugo gets deeply into demons, going to hell and all, and Martha Wells’ latest book, The Witch King, is all about demons. I’m really struggling with The Witch King. I’ve started it over and tried to imagine the main character as a type of Murderbot who eats your soul instead of just killing you. And of course for the most part the books are set in a middle eastern kind of land with characters whose names you trip over because as a North American you have to try really hard to keep them straight. (Do people in the Middle East have trouble following characters named Mike and Dave and Alex?) It might be easier if I was reading a hard copy of the book and I could grasp the names better visually, but the audio book makes it harder.

eta: after thinking about it and looking at all the audiobooks I’ve listened to over the last few years (hundreds) The Witch King is the only one I’ve had a problem with names. Maybe it’s the reader’s accent or cadence of speaking. I’ll pay better attention this go-round.

Speaking of Murderbot, I did a re-read and as I was borrowing the books a new version of All Systems Red, the first book, came up, what they call a Dramatized Adaption, with multiple readers and sound effects. It’s a bit fun, and I gather they are going to do every book, but it’s weird not hearing Kevin R. Free as Murderbot. It’s also 45 minutes shorter, iirc, because you don’t need some of the bridging dialogue where Murderbot says things like “Dr. Mensa looked thoughtful, and then she said”, she just says it. You might enjoy it as something slightly different. 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Fragile Bird

[Underfoot]

On 10/10/2023 at 5:12 PM, Martell Spy said:

Stumbled on "The Ruin of Kings" by Jenn Lyons recently. It was on the local library rec shelf. Looks great so far, I'm only about 60 pages in. I wish I had more reading time.

It's more high magic than I usually think of myself liking which made me skeptical, but it seems to work so far better than I expected. There's a lot of powerful wizard characters, but so far they aren't the protagonist and they all have mysterious, possibly sinister agendas. The book starts out in a memorable manner.

This has been on my list for ages, this made me bump it up!

[JGP]

35 minutes ago, Underfoot said:

This has been on my list for ages, this made me bump it up!

YMMV... iirc I lost interest in this one about 7/8ths in and never picked it back up. 

[ljkeane]

I really didn't like Swordspoint. It wasn't badly written but pretty much every character in it was an awful person and it's not like, say, a Joe Abercrombie book and they're entertainingly awful, they're just all terrible. I found it hard to get into the story given I really wasn't particularly invested in what happened to any of the characters. I think it's actually the next book, which she wrote about 20 years later, that I've seen people recommending for Ellen Kushner so I might try it at some point but I'm not sure I'll be rushing to read it based on this one.

[TheLastWolf]

I found Minority Report better. Can't believe this man has got so many adaptations. My dad loved Total Recall

[Iskaral Pust]

Standing In Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin is a John Rebus police procedural set in Edinburgh.  Very good series, with a pragmatic, unloved curmudgeon of a main character.  I’ve enjoyed all of these so far.

Mutiny by Julian Stockwin is a historical fiction from the peak of the Royal Navy, or perhaps this time the nadir.  It covers the fleet mutiny at a time when a French invasion threatened.  Historically and politically interesting topic but made for a dull novel here.  Ridiculously contrived to allow the main character to suddenly participate in the mutiny while of course still being a loyal patriot who would never betray the service, king or country.

I Choose Darkness by Jenny Lawson is a very humorous essay about the author’s memories of childhood Halloweens.  Enjoyable and a fun change-up.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Iskaral Pust
autocorrect!!

[Iskaral Pust]

Against All Gods by Miles Cameron is a Bronze Age historical fiction, the first in a series.  It felt so cheesy to me.  Perhaps I was too tired to lose myself in it and suspend my disbelief.  DNF’d

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie was an immediately absorbing read, despite my tiredness.  I think it’s well known around here but it’s a far future interstellar SF and the sole POV is an isolated fragment of a spaceship’s AI. The otherness of the narrator and the slow reveal of the underlying crisis make this very good.  I’ll finish this trilogy.

Promise Of Blood by Brian McClellan is the start of the Powder Mage fantasy series.  Yikes this was cheesy, tropey and centered on a very contrived magic system.  I still love fantasy but I find I’m so jaded.  I’ve no patience now for stuff like this that I might have enjoyed 20 years ago.  These days I need fantasy to be excellent or really fresh.  Anything in between won’t hold my attention — they’re all just variations of something I’ve read before.  DNF’d 

Snow Flower And The Secret Fan by Lisa See is a literary fiction about two women friends in 19th century China with a secret correspondence via silk fans.  On one hand it’s an interesting view into a different time, place and culture, and it portrays an almost Brokeback forbidden romance.  But the story is pretty boring.  Perhaps others will appreciate it more.

(luckily Ancillary Justice redeemed this poor run of books)

Edited October 20, 2023 by Iskaral Pust
Edit: fixing autocorrect

[polishgenius]

7 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

 These days I need fantasy to be excellent or really fresh.  Anything in between won’t hold my attention — they’re all just variations of something I’ve read before.  

 

I recommend The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, a book from last year I enjoyed recently. I can't guarantee you'd enjoy it of course but it's pretty unlike anything I've read before, at least. 

Also if you ain't read them potentially the Craft series by Max Gladstone, starting with Two Parts Dead, if you want something with a lighter touch. It's not epic fantasy in the manner of McClellan or Cameron, but it's fantasy and it's pretty epic so... hey ho. 

 

(I enjoyed Against All Gods more than you - I'm a fan of Cameron in general- but I agree that in general epic fantasy seems to have less quality coming through than it used to, at least European-based epic fantasy. That's almost certainly because focus has shifted to other kinds of fantasy so it's not necessarily a bad thing but it does make it harder to find a specific kind of fix)

 

 

 

Myself I just started Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock but I'm not really sure I'm in the mood for it. Still got the Archive Undying banging around in my head, even though the ending was a bit rushed imo. Also The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera which is pretty good but takes a rather odd screeching turn in the type of story it is between the set up and conclusion. 

 

Also just finished Celestial by MD Lachlan, which initially presents like a Clarke-type story in the vein of Rama but is far more similar to Anihillation by Jeff VanDerMeer- it's alright but Lachlan is not an author of the level of either VDM or Clarke. It's not gonna live hugely long in my memory. 

[Iskaral Pust]

7 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

I recommend The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, a book from last year I enjoyed recently. I can't guarantee you'd enjoy it of course but it's pretty unlike anything I've read before, at least. 

Also if you ain't read them potentially the Craft series by Max Gladstone, starting with Two Parts Dead, if you want something with a lighter touch. It's not epic fantasy in the manner of McClellan or Cameron, but it's fantasy and it's pretty epic so... hey ho. 

 

(I enjoyed Against All Gods more than you - I'm a fan of Cameron in general- but I agree that in general epic fantasy seems to have less quality coming through than it used to, at least European-based epic fantasy. That's almost certainly because focus has shifted to other kinds of fantasy so it's not necessarily a bad thing but it does make it harder to find a specific kind of fix)

 

Thanks, I’ll add The Spear Cuts Through Water to the list.  

I read the opening novel of The Craft before but the lawyers-as-wizards set-up didn’t grab me.  It felt like a light, soapy legal drama — where the protagonist can find a convenient precedent or loophole to resolve every crisis, as if no-one else has been to law school or has any experience practicing law — dropped into a fantasy setting that would just allow the convenience of a legal system of his own creation. At least The Good Wife around the same time did it with better writing.  In my defense for being overly reductive and dismissive, I did say that I’m jaded by repetition.

[dog-days]

Had a cold this week so took a break from Windmill Hill by Lucy Atkins to indulge in Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. Thought it was well-paced and engaging, fluffy but not to the extent that it annoyed me. Just the kind of thing you might want to read if you're lying in bed with no energy paracetamol'd to the eyeballs. 

The author has apparently written a prequel, which is an odd choice – it just removes the big selling factor of the original (i.e. what makes people happy? Coffee and pastries. Are fantasy fans people? The balance of probabilities says yes. Then what they need is the coffee shop fantasy sub-genre) and instead turns it into generic fantasy. 

ETA: Ok, I've investigated, and the next book is a prequel, but it replaces the café with a bookshop. I can see the thinking, but would still rather it was a sequel. Not that I feel any kind of successor is really necessary. Legends and Lattes isn't that kind of book. What it did feel it could spawn easily, and now that I know the author is also a game developer, maybe will, is some sort of Stardew Valley-esque sim. 

Cold now gone so back with the Atkins. 

[Fragile Bird]

34 minutes ago, dog-days said:

Had a cold this week so took a break from Windmill Hill by Lucy Atkins to indulge in Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. Thought it was well-paced and engaging, fluffy but not to the extent that it annoyed me. Just the kind of thing you might want to read if you're lying in bed with no energy paracetamol'd to the eyeballs. 

The author has apparently written a prequel, which is an odd choice – it just removes the big selling factor of the original (i.e. what makes people happy? Coffee and pastries. Are fantasy fans people? The balance of probabilities says yes. Then what they need is the coffee shop fantasy sub-genre) and instead turns it into generic fantasy. 

ETA: Ok, I've investigated, and the next book is a prequel, but it replaces the café with a bookshop. I can see the thinking, but would still rather it was a sequel. Not that I feel any kind of successor is really necessary. Legends and Lattes isn't that kind of book. What it did feel it could spawn easily, and now that I know the author is also a game developer, maybe will, is some sort of Stardew Valley-esque sim. 

Cold now gone so back with the Atkins. 

Lol, I was just going to post about this book. It’s a bit silly, a bit fluffy. I’m halfway through. An orc’s heart’s desire is to run a coffee shop in a town where no one has heard of coffee. And of course, people get hooked fast!

 

[dog-days]

1 minute ago, Fragile Bird said:

Lol, I was just going to post about this book. It’s a bit silly, a bit fluffy. I’m halfway through. An orc’s heart’s desire is to run a coffee shop in a town where no one has heard of coffee. And of course, people get hooked fast!

 

Yes, if it were a Terry Pratchett novel, Dungeon Dimensions would certainly be involved. The way iced cinnamon buns are discovered as the perfect accompaniment to coffee within a few days of opening is surely too good to be true. (OK, Baldree does kind of justify that it in the plot.) 

It's a very fluffy book, though I feel it does its stuff well and unashamedly. Not deep, not challenging, but very welcome escapism. 

[Fragile Bird]

22 minutes ago, dog-days said:

Yes, if it were a Terry Pratchett novel, Dungeon Dimensions would certainly be involved. The way iced cinnamon buns are discovered as the perfect accompaniment to coffee within a few days of opening is surely too good to be true. (OK, Baldree does kind of justify that it in the plot.) 

It's a very fluffy book, though I feel it does its stuff well and unashamedly. Not deep, not challenging, but very welcome escapism. 

How did we find this book? Did someone else mention it? I can’t remember.

[dog-days]

5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

How did we find this book? Did someone else mention it? I can’t remember.

Jerol recommended it in my winter reads thread, but I think I may have seen it mentioned before then -- maybe on a dreamwidth blog. 

[KingintheNorth4]

Since it's October, I felt that it was the appropriate time to reread World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks.