What Are You Reading? 2024 Quarter 1!

[polishgenius]

1 minute ago, Gaston de Foix said:

Yes, I have never read Arthur C Clarke so will try Rendezvouz with Rama or 2001.  If I had to pick, which one of those two?

 

I think 2001 is better, but I might recommend Rama to you specifically because it's also, you know, classic, and of the two much more the one where you'll immediately see where Expanse took inspirations from. 

[unJon]

3 hours ago, Gaston de Foix said:

Read it at 14 (following the Covenant series).  I was a bit traumatized by the thing that happened early there, so maybe didn't get the full flavor of the series.  Donaldson has this bleakness, no? Of the authors I've read, on the Depress-o-meter: Robin Hobbs < Donaldson < Tchaikovksy of Shadows of Apt.

 

Yes fair. I read as an adult (and never read Covenant). 

If you like Tchaikovsky try his space opera series starting with Shards  of Earth. It does not have that bleakness. 
 

Have you read The Three Body Problem and its sequels? I found mind blowing (second book was my favorite). 

I also enjoyed the Neal Asher polity books, but he isn’t loved on this board because of his politics (which impact his books for sure). I thought the Dark Intelligence series was great, but hard to start there as there is a lot of history you need for context. 

[SeanF]

I’ve begun Tasha Suri’s, The Jasmine Throne, set in a fantasy version of medieval India.  It’s very good, reminiscent of Guy Gavriel Kay’s mix of poetry and realism.

I laughed at the blurb describing Suri as Imperial librarian, which makes her sound like a character in Dune.

[Underfoot]

2 hours ago, SeanF said:

I’ve begun Tasha Suri’s, The Jasmine Throne, set in a fantasy version of medieval India.  It’s very good, reminiscent of Guy Gavriel Kay’s mix of poetry and realism.

I laughed at the blurb describing Suri as Imperial librarian, which makes her sound like a character in Dune.

I really liked the first book. Curious to hear how you like the second

[Take on Me]

I'm currently reading Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee.  It's a fresh spin on Arthurian Legend.  Anyone read it yet?

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, Take on Me said:

It's a fresh spin on Arthurian Legend. 

 

(in seriousness, it's on my list, but I've been made rather cynical of it by the marketing bumf comparing it to Pratchett and Gaiman. Like, big shoes. But I'll get to it eventually)

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

On 2/26/2024 at 1:07 AM, Gaston de Foix said:

I have enjoyed Space-Operaish sci-fi the most in the past, yes.  The Foundation Series was also a formative influence as was I, Robot (books, I hasten to add).  

Yes, I have never read Arthur C Clarke so will try Rendezvouz with Rama or 2001.  If I had to pick, which one of those two?

Just don’t read Childhoods End or you’ll get existential gloom 

[Wilbur]

I derived a lot of pleasure from reading Vonda N. McIntyre's Dreamsnake for the first time a few weeks ago, so I picked up another audio version of one of her books, Superluminal.  This audiobook was read by the consistent Rachel Evans.

Both of these books impress me with McIntyre's skill as a writer, although Superluminal is a very different kind of work.  In it, McIntyre combines several different flavors of science fiction, gathering some high-quality threads from Golden Age, New Wave, Hard, and even some feeling of proto-cyberpunk and definite early eco-SciFi.  I have no idea (other than some truly terrible book covers) why I have never read any of her work previously.

In Superluminal, she introduces a character who engages in the sort of meandering exploration of a very far future human society in the vein of a Jack Vance To Live Forever or Maske: Thaery sort of culture.  Another character is also introduced, and they form a relationship within the weird society, and the first ten percent of the novel is this growing relationship and unhurriedly exploring the culture that the two characters inhabit.  Then the book introduces a third character in a sort of ecological warfare SciFi situation for another 5% of the plot, and we explore that world.  Although I can't put my finger on why, this section brings to mind the sensibility of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood in a positive sense.

So 15% of the book is taken up with this sort of conversation and world-building, but nothing really seems to be happening and who the protagonist is and what he or she wants is unclear, so I am wondering whether I should continue with it.  The writing is good, however, and the setting has some strong cyberpunk political undertones, so I stick with it.

Then all three characters suddenly get their marching orders and travel separately and then together, and the plot is both Golden Age space exploration and New Wave navel-gazing and some hard science mathematics all mixed together, and the Action quotient fires way up there, in a very James Blish-writes-a-Star-Trek-novel sort of fashion.  I am not sure what the stakes really are, because the brief New Wave-style navel-gazing is hard for me to keep in focus, but the characters have agency and are truly likeable or dislikeable as necessary for the plot to work.  And now they all have a sense of urgency and take action to get to where they think they need to be.  (Trying to write this without spoilers.)

Now, reading the previous three paragraphs, you wouldn't think that this novel could be wrapped up in a satisfactory manner than makes the reader happy to have spent that effort, particularly in the first portion of the book.  But Vonda McIntyre does indeed bring the book to a climax that makes sense and is satisfying.  And once again, she leaves the reader with a sense of wanting to know more about the world and the people she writes about.  These books are tricky to report on without spoiling future first-time readers, so let's say that some hidden and unexpected gems do appear to reward the careful reader.  I had to go back and re-listen to a specific chapter again.

This is another book where McIntyre deals with human sexuality in an extremely mature fashion, much more so than the New Wave authors had done in the decade prior.  You can see why Robert Heinlein dedicated Friday to her (among others), as he probably wished that he could deal with sexuality in his books with as much forthrightness and in such an open manner.  Maybe most men are just too prone to engage in wish-fulfillment when they address sex in their stories.  For McIntyre, though, sex is portrayed a valuable thing, not the motivator for the characters, but as a means of communication and intimacy.  Very positive stuff, and not cringey.

Vonda McIntyre was a writer worthy of her Hugo and Nebula awards based on these two books.

Edited March 4 by Wilbur
added links

[Maithanet]

Started a reread of Dune (I read it once before in high school).  30 pages in and enjoying it thus far.  Lots of good economy of storytelling. 

The Harkonnens are a little too mustache-twirling for my taste, and I'm surprised at just how much of the plot of the first half of the book is revealed in their initial plotting session.  Herbert certainly wasn't trying to hide their plans, he has a (clumsy IMO) meeting where the Mentat and Baron bring Feyd up to speed on all their machinations, most of which come to pass exactly as described.  They even highlight the possibility of Leto or Paul fleeing to the desert and hiding amongst the Fremen, although this is seen as unlikely. 

[Gaston de Foix]

On 2/25/2024 at 1:25 PM, Wilbur said:

Another possibility you might enjoy is Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire's Fall.

Thanks, man!.  I just finished this series.  Or is it finished, does anyone know? Some spoilerific thoughts below: 

Spoiler

Things I liked: 

- space opera!

-lots of straightforward feel-good moments

- the politics generally made sense

- the glimpses of Earth History as seen in the distant past

- very good with Asian culture/names.  Narayanguru and what happened to him definitely deserved longer treatment. 

- Martinez playing detective.

Things I disliked: 

- the predictability of the enemy and the amount of time we spend with Martinez's cleverness.  This may be a product of reading 6 similar novels in 7-8 days. 

- the ending seemed...inconclusive? Why did the Shaa wipe out the Lorkin? For that matter how did Lamey escape Spannan?

 - what actually happened to Prince Huang's theories?  Were they viable?

 

[Wilbur]

12 hours ago, Gaston de Foix said:

...This may be a product of reading 6 similar novels in 7-8 days...

  Hide contents

 

 

 

Ha - you have to space your series out with something completely different in between each book, not Bogart the whole series in one go!

Seriously, though, if you had to wait several years to get through the whole bunch, it eases back on those sorts of problems, which are very real for me also when I do a straight run.

I think the same thing about those other two negatives, and it may be that WJW planned to deal with them later, but then went and wrote the really excellent Dagmar Shaw short stories, novellas and novels since then.

Also, if you like WJW's style and have already read Dagmar Shaw, I strongly recommend his Days of Atonement.  No one has written as accurate and engaging story of real-world physical science research since Vernor Vinge, and it might be a good palate cleanser from the too-clever-by-half character you mentioned.  The protagonist of DoA is definitely human.

[Derfel Cadarn]

I’ve just bought The Will of the Many, by James Islington. Mainly because Dark Academia is pooular with publishers, so I’ve just started planning a gothic Dark Academia fantasy, to start once my WIP is finished this summer (ok, autumn).

So I shoukd read something recent in the genre. It’s first person present tense, which will take some getting used to, but the reviews seem good.

[williamjm]

I read R.F. Kuang's alternate history/fantasy Babel, or the Necessity of Violence. I thought it had an interesting premise and I think it is at its strongest when showing how the Oxford Translation Institute where most of the book takes place can both be a place of wonder for the protagonists and also something built on deeply rotten foundations that they are increasingly unable to ignore. I thought that the plot was sometimes not as good as the premise, the plot developments in the first half of the book did often feel predictable, although there are some more surprising events later on. I think the characters also get more interesting in the later sections when there is some exploration of what is really motivating them, they can be a bit frustrating when they come up with some spectacularly stupid plans but it does make sense that a bunch of sheltered academics can be naive about how the world works. The final section could have been the most interesting but it felt a bit rushed, after all the build-up it felt as if it was in a hurry to get to the heavily foreshadowed conclusion.

I found some of the footnotes annoying, the notes on translations and etymology are fine but some of them seem to only exist to make explicit things about characters that were already clear.

[shortstark]

Just finished Tchaikovsky City of Lost Chances which was as usual excellent, the thing though I do not enjoy it, but was fascinated, it was unsettling and unpleasant but engrossing nonetheless, which brings me to the man himself, had there ever been an author as prolific and good as Tchaikovsky?

What's even more remarkable is the diversity of his offerings in the Sci/Fi category..

I am constantly in awe of this man's output and the quality...

Well done ...

Edited March 16 by shortstark
Typo

[Jaxom 1974]

Currently reading: Patricia McKilip's The Tower at Stony Wood. All kinds of different vibes with this one, though almost all of them feel Aurthurian...

Currently listening to: Tom Miller's The Philosopher's Flight. This is one I've flirted with purchasing for a while since I saw it at B&N, but never pulled the trigger. When it came up as a suggested option for listening, I decided to give it a go. And damn it is fun. Plenty of Harry Potter or Wise Man's Fear vibes here, but (for me at least) mostly better. Now I know I'll pick this one up to have a hard copy.

[Wilbur]

Last quarter Fragile Bird reviewed a Josephine Tey mystery, and this inspired me to pick out one of her books that I had never read before, The Franchise Affair.  The audiobook read by Karen Cass is a top quality production, but I prefer the older one read by Carol Boyd.  The Boyd version I preferred was a copy of the books-on-cassette model, so the sound is marginal, but Boyd is a great reader.

Tey is a smooth, sophisticated writer who has a great deal of sympathy for all of her characters, the good, the bad, and the indifferent.  I would say that she is the most compassionate of all the golden age mystery writers, and while her protagonist may not be as charismatic as those of Allingham, Christie, or Sayers, the rest of the characters in her books receive a more humanistic treatment.

In this particular book, Tey writes a compelling mystery set after World War 2 that is post-War Britain without the whining, and with a surprising amount of romance.  Georgette Heyer or Lois McMaster Bujold would be proud to have written this book, in which the events of the crime and the slow discovery of the solution ease a comfortable country solicitor out of his pleasant daily routine and propel him into something more.  One of the best features of the story is the sense of inclusion that the characters have, and how that inclusion spreads to embrace more of the characters as the story unfolds.

This is set in the world of Tey's main detective, Inspector Grant, but he only features in a cameo role.  As a result, the story and the main characters both have room to breathe in a way that the stories of protagonist-centric detective heroes of Allingham, Christie and Sayers never really do.

Highly recommended.

Edited March 16 by Wilbur
added links

[ljkeane]

19 hours ago, shortstark said:

What's even more remarkable is the diversity of his offerings in the Sci/Fi category..

I am constantly in awe of this man's output and the quality...

I just finished House of Open Wounds, which was excellent, and was going to post something similar. Tchaikovsky's level of output combined with the quality of the books and variety of different imaginative settings and stories really is nuts. He's got another sci fi book coming out in a couple of weeks.

Next up I'm going to read Robert Jackson Bennett's Locklands.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Just finished Watership Down for the first time. I'm 44 and nearly cried multiple times. What a great book. I think I shall watch the movie next.

ETA: As a dopey American, I subconsciously thought of the title "Watership Down" as similar to "Black Hawk Down"--which isn't so far off considering how the book unfolds--but, you know, we don't really have "downs" in the U.S.--which, I believe are a specific type of rounded hill unique to Britain. 

Edited March 17 by Centrist Simon Steele

[ljkeane]

7 minutes ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

Just finished Watership Down for the first time. I'm 44 and nearly cried multiple times. What a great book. I think I shall watch the movie next.

You don't want to watch the film. You're only 44, you're too young for anything that traumatising.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

You don't want to watch the film. You're only 44, you're too young for anything that traumatising.

...I have heard that, lol.