She nails the landing, too. All three books are fantastic
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Those were great, really enjoyed all three.
Might start rereading Hugh Howeyās Wool series. Fantastic dystopian fiction; the original book stands alone but is even better when followed up by Shift and Dust.
I have had Wool on my shelf for years and never tackled it. Perhaps that will be what I go to next!
Just finished the much-praised To be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers, and it was good, very well-written at times, but from a plot pov, the arc and the ending were apparent from early on. It felt slightly allegorical to me, which I donāt mind exactly, but it didnāt feel like it was breaking some major new ground.
Before that, I tried Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson, an author that was among my favorites for a long time. But her recent work has not worked for me, and this was true here as well. The very interesting premise and framing of the plot just fell flat in execution. While I admire her willingness to be very experimental, the actual plot-level writing (and even some of the dialogue) felt quite stilted and forced. I think if I go back to it, I may just read the Mary Shelley chapters and skip the modern-day ones.
Also read the graphic novel/collection Die by Keiron Gillen (of The Wicked + The Divine fame), and it was very good and worth a read certainlyāmany of the folks here would like it. Plot: About 20 years ago, a bunch of friends started playing an rpg that they created themselves. A thing happened that sucked them into the reality of the game. All but one of them escaped. Present day, now adults, they get together for the first time in years and get sucked back in by the friend they left behind, who does not want them to leave. Gillen describes the series a āGoth Jumanjiā, and thatās accurate.
Youāre missing out! One of my favorites of all time.
I did not get on with Wool at all. YMMV.
Iām looking at Wool and itās confusingā¦there are 5 parts? Should I just read the omnibus edition?
Also, itās post-apocalyptic, which isnāt my favorite so I might be in @OhBolloxās court on this one.
Still, looking for something. Started The Poppy Wars and got to chapter 2 before I grew bored, so Iāll try anything right now.
I love post-apoc and it still hit me as a dud.
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World, however, is a good one.
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Think thatās the way to goā¦ I started reading it when it was just short stories on Amazon; the Wool stuff was eventually compiled into a book, and then he released Shift and Dust afterwards.
And indeed, itās about as post-apocalyptic as it gets just shy of The Road, so caveat emptor.
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Oh, ok thenāthis is the most helpful thing anyone could have said. Wool is clearly not for me.
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This week I leant that K.J. Parker is a nom de plume of Tom Holt, author of approximately 1 billion comic fantasy novels as well, of which Iāve read approximately half. Will therefore try Besieging Armies Hate These 10 Amazing Tricks.
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Iāve now finished Foundryside and everything @OhBollox said is entirely correct. The remaining 400 pages are a brief note - āmystical apocalypse, everyone diesā - followed by increasing annoyed letters from the publisher interspersed with restaurant bills and Stephen Donaldson fanfic.
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The Things They Carried, OāBrien. Perhaps the finest novel about Vietnam, itās a terrible, Gordian Ouroboros knot of a book, with love and lust and sadness tied up in implacable violence, hatred, cowardice, and the spectacle of man at his worst shredding himself with his own shame. There are better novels about some aspects of the war, but this is like having a slightly drunk veteran sit opposite you and spill his guts.
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I read that one over 20 years ago. Still remember the one about the guy stuck in the treeā¦
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The Plotters, Kim. A look into a strange world of contract killings in South Korea, and while itās always good to try and gain some insight into other cultures, itās also partially baffling and makes me wonder if thereās layers Iām not understanding (almost certainly) versus its conventions being just unlikely. Enjoyable but odd.
The British in India, Gilmour. My interest (borderline obsession) continues, following from the incredible tale of John Companyās capitalist madness via Dalrympleās The Anarchy, to this book about the rather more respectable (or at least, less corrupt) British Raj. Perhaps the best time for this would have been some years earlier, where there was less knowledge about just how bad colonialism was for India, but in these times, such a book which features few Indians and Indian perspectives. It is a book about British efforts and British lives, but those are all in India, and it feels strange for that to be almost left out.
Warrior, Albert. A sometimes uneasy mix of archeology and more general history, it uses the excavation of an Anglo-Saxon warriorās grave and the work involved there to root the rest of the bookās discussion of Anglo-Saxon Britain, its religious changes, warfare, immigration, and changing society. It uses the phrase āDark Agesā in the blurb, which is Not Great, but the book itself is decent so far.
Finished 16 Waysā¦ and duly enjoyed it, so I thought Iād read a few more of K.J. Parkerās output.Started on his Engineer trilogy and have also finished Alexander at the Worldās End. Also good, but thereās a certain sameness to the voice that I remember from the Tom Holt alter ego, especially the 16 Waysā¦ and Alexander narrators. I did laugh at AatWE and recommend it, but think Iāll skip any backlog binge at this point.
Finally got around to The Fifth Season, by Jemison, and thatās a hell of a book. I feel like most fiction takes an idea or two, and imagines the consequences, while Jemison took an idea or two, imagined the consequences, imagined the consequences of those consequences, and on and on for a good long while. Most books I read make me think I could write a book; it would be fun. This one makes me feel like I really couldnāt.
Also, just started Declare, by Powers. Iām not pages in and already enthralled.
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Hell yeah, Declare is among my top books of all time.
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Declare really is the tits.
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Manā¦
The Declare Kindle formatting is so bad that I couldnāt make it through the free trial. They put a break after every single paragraph; this becomes especially jarring where there is dialogue.
I feel like I should just suck it up and keep reading until I donāt notice. Iām 38% of the way through a Clancy book, but maybe Iāll move on to Declare next.
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Part of my incipient midlife crisis has been realising re-reading books is largely a waste of time as I will leave too many others unread. With that said, Iāve re-read Declare three times in the past couple of years. A physical copy is well worth it.
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