Our reads in April 2024.

Lets try to reduce that monster TBR,without it falling on top of us,of course.
Sorry for posting late,been very sick,just pulling myself together.

Dusty's TBR for April
SF/F reads
Clifford D Simak - The Werewolf Principle
Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword
Philip Latham - Missing Men of Saturn ✔
Donald A Wollheim - Mystery of the Ninth Planet✔
from other genres
John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress ✔
Darcy Coates - The Hollow Dead
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Why Did You Lie
Mark Harrison - Missing in Spain ✔

I don't expect to read a huge stack of sf this month; I'm a little more focused on non-fiction at the moment.

In Progress
The War Amongst the Angels
McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales

On Deck
Children of the Sky
Revival
Titanium Noir

>1 dustydigger: You do what you gotta do.

This month's line up looks like The Tainted Cup (fingers crossed), The Lost Cause, The Kingdom of the Gods, The Blue, Beautiful World (already half-way done), and Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon.

Currently reading: Woman on the edge of time
Just ordered Stars uncharted by S K Dunstall, and am looking forward to receiving it.
Other books I've lined up:
The best of all possible worlds
Starhawk

Planned for April:
The Lords of Uncreation
The Oppenheimer Alternative
Too Like The Lightning
The Rift

Am starting Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb, a single author sff collection I won from EarlyReviewers last month.

Now that the Hugo shortlist is out, I will probably start in on that this weekend, after I wrap up a couple more books.

This week is non-SF reading Demon Copperfield. 90 pages in and it is hard to put down. Not sure yet what I’ll pull off my bookshelf next week. I still have a lot of classics to read. Plus I have The Book of the Short Sun trilogy to read in the next couple of months. What to read… what to read… so many choices. 😀

(EDIT: whoops! I meant Demon Copperhead 😁)

>9 Neil_Luvs_Books:. I read Demon Copperhead last month. I would love to know what you thought of it when you are done.

My plans for April:
Princess of Dune
Empress of Mars
Red Team Blues
Dark Matter

All subject to change as there is a library book sale this weekend.

>9 Neil_Luvs_Books:, "Demon Copperfield" made me laugh. :) Maybe it's the Charles Dickens novel with 100% more demonic content?

I'm reading Malka Older's first book, Infomocracy. It seemed a bit dry at first, while she built her political world, but a little more than half way in, and it is becoming a thriller. I'll wait until I finish to decide whether I will continue with the trilogy.

Knocked off The Blue, Beautiful World, I enjoyed this novel, with its vision of an Earth doing the work of overcoming climate catastrophe when first contact goes to the top of the agenda, but I overlooked that this is the third novel in a loose series. From Earth's perspective it's probably free-standing, from the interstellar perspective, probably not so much.

>11 Cecrow: Maybe the book Rebecca Kuang could have written if she had wanted to write a comedic satire for her big, Victorian novel instead of Babel?

>15 mmarty164: I am not the administrator of this particular group, but note that advertising one's own book is a violation of the LT Terms of Service. Here's a link explaining what authors CAN do on LT.

https://www.librarything.com/about_authors.php

>16 vwinsloe: Okay, thanks. I'll delete my post, I guess.

Finished The Madonna and The Starship -- the first Morrow I've been disappointed in -- and started Tales from Earthsea.

>11 Cecrow: I missed that typo in my post! 😅 I’ll correct that.

>14 Shrike58: 🤣

The touchstone worked either way, so I guess you can call it whichever you prefer. :)

Unusually for me, I bailed on Natural History at around the 30% mark - pedestrian world-building, pages and pages of expository text and we never stayed with a character long enough to get any idea of their motivations. Plus it's supposed to be the distant future with transhumanism, nanotech and virtual realities, and yet Earth and the unmodified humans seemed to be at about a present day plus fifty or one hundred years state of organisation, except for speech idioms, which were late 20th century.

Taking a break from genre for a while.

I'm reading How to Mars and am enjoying it more than that I thought based on the number of LT stars that it has received. It's clever, and in some places quite poignant.

As an associational work, I did finish The High Sierra, Kim Stanley Robinson's memoir of his outdoor life, which includes a cheat sheet of how it influenced his novelistic endeavors.

I usually begin my Hugo reading with a Best Novel finalist, but I don't have any yet, so I'm starting with a Best Graphic Story one, Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons.

Followed up my Hugo inspired reading of The mimicking of known successes I read The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles. Gaslight space cozy investigations into disappearances and murders on a lightly populated Jupiter. Interesting worldbuilding as a backdrop to a classical detective investigation with a sprinkling of f/f romance. A somewhat verbose and overblown prose, which I quickly forgave as it was very much in line with the story and setting, harkening back to the narrative style of the likes of Wilkie Collins or Arthur Conan Doyle.

Finished reading Demon Copperhead. Not SciFi but an excellent book well worth reading. Highly recommended.

Not sure what I’ll read next. I’ll see what grabs me from my bookshelf tomorrow.

I'm reading some Ray Bradbury short fiction collections like Fever Dream some of it is science fiction, some horror and some fantasy and some are just fiction, but still enjoyable stuff.

So I have two Neal Stephenson novels on my bookshelf: The Diamond Age and Snow Crash. I have never read anything by Neal Stephenson. Which one should I read first?

>29 Neil_Luvs_Books: I've read and reviewed both. Snow Crash is the earlier, if you go for reading in publication order. It is early cyberpunk (which hasn't aged too badly), has an amusingly-named Protagonist (that capital letter ain't no typo!) and you'll never look at pizza delivery the same again. But there's a lot of info-dumping about ancient Sumerian. (This is par for the course with Stephenson.)

The Diamond Age is slightly more straightforward (but only slightly). There isn't the same amount of info-dumping, but the premise of the novel and its world may take a bit of getting your head around, though once you've done that, you'll be fine. I had the feeling that the end of the novel was a bit rushed.

I've finished The War Amongst the Angels (and thus the Second Ether) and posted a review.

I think I'm going to focus on finishing McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales now, since I have only two of the twenty left to read.

Picked one off my TBR pile: The Saints of Salvation by Peter Hamilton.

>29 Neil_Luvs_Books: Snow Crash, but only with the understanding that it is probably somewhat dated. I read it when it first came out and part of the huge impact was that it was a book like nothing else that had been written at the time.

>30 RobertDay: >33 vwinsloe: Snow Crash it is. I'm looking forward to reading it. It has been on my TBR pile of books for awhile.

>34 Neil_Luvs_Books:, by coincidence I just bought Snow Crash myself today. Will read Neuromancer as a sort of primer first. I've had a copy of The Diamond Age quite awhile but was waiting to read in this order.

I read all of The Mimicking of Known Successes yesterday, a murder mystery set in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. Neat worldbuilding.

>36 Stevil2001:
That sounds very interesting. I loved Iain M. Banks’s The Algebraist that had a lot of action in the atmospheres of gas giants.

Just finished Liberty's daughter by Naomi Kritzer. Takes place in a collection of seasteads a few hours west of Los Angeles. Among other things, examines some of the problems that could come up in different variations of seasteading, including infrastructure, schooling, transport, food, security, and economics. Protagonist is the teen daughter of a scientist who's a partner in the science-lab seastead, though they live in a different one.

>37 pgmcc: It was good. I read it because it's a Hugo finalist and my suspicion is there will be a novella I like more, but I was glad to read it.

>35 Cecrow: >33 vwinsloe: >30 RobertDay: I’m already on chapter 14 of Snow Crash and am greatly enjoying it so far. I look forward to seeing how everything comes together. And you are correct, I will never again look at a pizza or pizza delivery the same way again. This is a fun read.

Wrapped up The Kingdom of the Gods, which I though was an excellent conclusion to Jemisin's first trilogy (if a bit bloated). The only question now is what does Jemisin come up with next, as one gathers that the current psychological climate was really beating her up emotionally.

Also, I just got my mitts on The Tainted Cup so that is going to the head of the line.

I finished McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales and posted a review. Vinge's Children of the Sky has jumped to the head of my sf queue in light of his recent discorporation.

>41 Shrike58: Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy is on my TBR list.

Deep into Metrophage. Good, solid dystopian noir. I believe this was Kadrey's first novel, and a harbinger of Sandman Slim.

I am starting P. Djèlí Clark's Abeni's Song, a YA novel and finalist for the Lodestar Award.

>32 Karlstar: You do know that is book 3 of a series and doesn't stand alone don't you?

So I finally got a copy of The Year When Stardust Fell by Raymond Jones, which someone on this list identified for me. I had remembered it for years, but not the author or title. I read it not long after it came out, in my early adolescence. It's held up fairly well. Very creaky at times, but the overall scenario is well done. It's the catastrophe-leading-to-the-fall-of-civilization trope. I had forgotten the strong Young Adult fiction strain, with the main protagonist being in his teens.

Finished up The Tainted Cup and had a lot of fun with it. The Lost Cause will be next.

After a non-genre break, now reading An American Story by Chris Priest. Ostensibly about 9/11, it also covers the Britain of the era of "the war on terror", although having been written in about 2017-18 and partly set in 2021-22, it's not the Britain we know. This makes for an interesting perspective. Priest's adopted home of the Isle of Bute plays a role, which in turn also echoes his preoccupation with islands that ran through the 'Dream Archipelago' stories. And I'm identifying a number of congruencies with Hitchcock's North by Northwest...

Finished Tales from Earthsea, started A Quantum Murder.

I am working through the Winston SF juvenile series,now read 32/37.The last few have been a mixed bag,many of them just westerns transferred to the moon or solar system,writing ranging from barely competent to actually quite exciting. Lester Del Rey is always competent and is respectful to his readers,carefully explaining the so called science involved,and Philip Latham,in RL a highly respected astronomy professor ,often has some fascinating tangents to the standard coming of age tale where a young science enthusiast saves the solar system.
In his Missing Men of Saturn the hero is rich,a top student at the academy,head of a prestigious fraternity,admired and even idolized by fellow students,so why is he not assigned to a plum ship on graduation? Its because he is manipulative,elitist,even borderline sociopathic and his superiors obviously see through his smarmy,faux humble BS.A very unusual sort of hero back in a YA book in 1953!. Being sent off to a rust bucket with a rather dodgy crew and being sent off Saturn from whence no one has ever returned was NOT what he was expecting.lol.
I am reading 2 books from the series per month,should finish in a few months.

I finished Snow Crash. It was great fun. I had to get used to the frenetic pace of the narrative but once I adjusted it was a very fun ride.

Next up is The Dragon Masters. I have never read it before and many in this group have identified it as excellent. I’m looking forward to it.

>52 Neil_Luvs_Books:

Not sure about your touchstone. Is that really your upcoming read?

>53 paradoxosalpha: 🤣 Thanks for catching that. I edited it so that it now points to the book by Jack Vance.

I've started To Shape a Dragon's Breath, another Lodestar finalist. This I know nothing about except the cover; I didn't even read the blurb! Always a fun way to encounter a book.

>51 dustydigger: The Winston series, along with Andre Norton and Edmond Hamilton, are what got me into science fiction and reading as a whole. My first, and therefore sentimental favorite, was Secret of the Ninth Planet. I still have it and will have to reread it (60 years later!) for the nostalgia hit.

Nearly finished The will to battle, part 3 of the Terra Ignota quartet. I won't lie, the first half of this was heavy going. But I'm determined to read the whole series, and thankfully I've been more engaged these last few days.

Finished An American Story fairly quickly; although a stand-alone book, ostensibly about 9/11 (and a lot more), it has thematic echoes of the Dream Archipelago novels (and one Easter egg). It says a lot about our relationship with social media and how that is changing our world; given that I have a friend who is vanishing down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole, this spoke quite directly to me. More thoughts ob that to follow.

Now picked up Leviathan Falls.

Read The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov. The second of Asimov's Robot novels following on his short story collection I, Robot. The human/robot detective duo solve a case in the outer worlds after their success on earth. Asimov enjoyed testing the implications of the Three Laws of Robotics and how they might play out. Not all of it ages well, but I still enjoy it.

Just finished Thieves' World Ed. by Robert Asprin. This was a fun blast from the past. Published in 1978, I was in college when this came out & I read it then. I don't believe I got around to reading any of the follow ups, but they're all available on Kindle Unlimited, so I'll be picking these up every month or two for as long as I enjoy them.

>60 ChrisG1: I'm in the middle of Thieve's World myself!

>59 ChrisG1: I loved the Robots Trilogy when I first read them years ago. R. Daneel Olivaw was a fabulous character.

Just read touched, a novella by Walter Mosley. I adore his writing style and find that it holds up well as he jumps into different genres. A nice single afternoon read.

Donald A Wollheim's Secrets of the Ninth Planet was absolutely ludicrous in its SF science ideas etc,but a real rip roaring fast paced adventure rollercoaste rider,as we follow a team methodically destroying machines placed in all the planets by people from Pluto who are stealing sunlight to heat their planet!lol.. Bonkers but fun.Now on with The Werewolf Principle

I finished The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance. It was a fun read but I was surprised how much of the narrative was devoted to describing battles. There felt to me like there could have been some more fleshing out of the different cultures that were in conflict.

On to Never Let Me Go. My daughter read this years ago for her English class and I have heard nothing but good things about it. Never got around to watching the Keira Knightly film but I still know the premise of the plot. Still, should be a good read.

Just finished Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill, a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunky tale about individual AI robots fighting for survival against giant AI "gods". Humans have become extinct. Despite some sylistic glitches (someone told him it's good to alternate between long paragraphs & snappy one liners, over & over) it's a good tale. Apropos of recent posts in this forum, Cargill nods to Isaac Asimov by having his robots programmed with similar Laws to protect humans. The author handles well the issue of making the robots machines, not human, but still something we can identify with.

Just finished this one, and I guess I'd include it in sci-fi rather than fantasy. Philip Jose Farmer, Riverworld: Including To Your Scattered Bodies Go & The Fabulous Riverboat 3½***, a Kindle twofer. Read these first two some years ago, never saw the miniseries, and have now decided to read the entire quintet (with fading memory dictating a reread of the first two before going to The Dark Design, which I'm just starting).

>67 CurrerBell: I only ever read the first one, Two Your Scattered Bodies Go way back a couple of decades ago and quite enjoyed it. I am interested to hear whether you think the rest of the Riverworld series is worth reading. I have read other reviews that indicated that the sequels were not as good.

>68 Neil_Luvs_Books: I read those first two as a Kindle twofer quite some years ago and gave it (for the two combined) a 3½*** back then. I didn't see any need to change the rating on my reread. The first is a great piece of world-building; but the second, where Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens makes his appearance as the lead, tends a bit too much toward shoot 'em up. I suspect the remaining three may also have some trouble living up to the starter since there can only be so much world-building once a quintet starts moving along. It's not like Asimov's original "Foundation" trilogy, where he wrapped up each of the first two books at their ending but then brought in a new twist at the beginning of the following book.

If I turn out somewhat let down as "Riverworld" winds on, it will likely be the same problem I had with Sanderson's original three "Mistborn" novels – The Final Empire, great for world-building, but The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages turned too much toward the wam pow biff sock stuff.

Still, I plowed on through the original "Mistborn" trilogy because I wanted to see how everything would turn out, and I really do want to do the same with the "Riverworld" quintet (but probably without bothering with any of the other spin-off stories).

Finished Way Station by Clifford D. Simak. A Hugo Award winning sci-fi classic. Unlike most of the science fiction of that era, the prose is graceful & even at times poetic. It expresses the anxieties of the early nuclear age & brings forth a hopeful conclusion. Recommended.

Just started Exhalation, by Ted Chiang.

Loved Never Let Me Go, and Klara and the Sun was also a good read. I've had Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan (another favorite British author) staring at me from a TBR pile for a while now ... and the local library's SciFi book club just added Touched by Walter Mosley as the read for May. So the next week is going to be pretty good reading!

Just finished A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. I've seen a fair amount of positive attention given to this book & thought I'd give it a try. It was...okay. I'll confess I'm one of those who finds the use of the "they/them" pro-nouns to be cringey. My issue, I know. The novella length usually lends itself to doing more with the smaller amount of words, but she didn't. It felt like there just wasn't much there.

Knocked off The Lost Cause, which I think would have been more successful had Doctorow really engaged with the "Lost Cause" bitter-enders of his story, rather than just the band of young men and women who have to put up with their threats and bluster.

I finished Never Let Me Go. Augh! That’s my emotional response to it. I am so inarticulate. Very well written book. But it really is a horror story. I knew the basic premise of the book before I started reading it so I am a little surprised that I really feel punched in the gut by the narrative. A very existential read.

>75 Neil_Luvs_Books: I felt the same way. And I had a book hangover for days afterward.

>76 vwinsloe: A book hangover… that’s a good description of what I am feeling right now after Never Let Me Go. This week I am reading lighter non genre fair as that book percolates through my thinking. Starting with vol 2 of Rick Mercer’s autobiography The Road Years.

Finished A Quantum Murder, taking a SF break with Uncle Fred in the Springtime.

Finished To Shape a Dragon's Breath (great stuff, a very thoughtful Temeraire/Harry Potter riff), now onto another Hugo finalist, this one a "Related Work": A City on Mars.

Couldn't yet pickup the local library's SciFi read, so I wandered through the SciFi shelves until I stumbled across Armada by Ernest Cline and decided to give it a whirl. I'd just re-watched "Ready Player One" earlier in the week on a sleepless night, so decided to give another of his stories a try. It has started out a little bumpy, with lots of pop SciFi references, particularly about the gamer-turned-warrior storyline (which this story may end up being). Wondering if it will take an unexpected turn and become a little more interesting? The writing is entertaining enough to assure I'll finish it regardless.

Finished Leviathan Falls today. I suppose that was how it would have to end. Having a short break from genre before picking up Chris Priest's retrospective collection Episodes.

>76 vwinsloe: A book hangover, yes, very apt.

>77 Neil_Luvs_Books: Ishiguro has a very understated, minimalist style which nonetheless delivers a devastating punch to the gut. I'm not sure how he does it but it sure is haunting.

>83 rshart3: I find Ishiguro to be very inconsistent though. For example, even though I understood what the author was trying to do, I thought that The Buried Giant was just boring. From the reviews of some of his other books, it looks like I'm not alone.

Just finished Philip Jose Farmer's The Dark Design (Riverworld 3) and I'll give it 3***. I gave the first two books, a Kindle twofer, 3½*** mainly on the basis of the worldbuilding, but by now it's getting a bit tired with The Dark Design being just about the same length as the two previous combined and a bit confusing as the plot shifts back and forth among three different story threads. I'm just about to start the fourth volume, The Magic Labyrinth, and I'll finish up with the finale, Gods of Riverworld, but that's because I'm as curious to find out the ending as Sam Clemens, Dick Burton, and the other characters. It is becoming a bit of a slog, though.

>85 CurrerBell: Farmer was very much of a "seat of his pants" kind of writer and, according to the late Jack Chalker, Farmer really didn't know how he was going to wrap this project up.

>86 Shrike58: Just starting The Magic Labyrinth and I think it's going to be a bit easier reading, the way Farmer has the chapters as subdivisions of "books" with a title for each "book" indicating just what vessel the incidents of those chapters are occurring. Well, at least I hope it's a bit easier than The Dark Design....

Last night I finally got past the midpoint of Children of the Sky, and I think I've gained a lot of momentum on it. My memories of A Fire Upon the Deep are fuzzier than I'd like, but Vinge is very artful with providing the right amount of indirect exposition so that I feel like I'm on top of the story anyhow.

I recently finished The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J Sawyer. Although I don't know enough about Oppenheimer to know how accurate the first half is, where they are building the bomb, I enjoyed it. And the second half, when the sci fi raises its head, I loved. A slow read though, with tons of science. And a found the ending uplifting.

>89 majkia:

Recently screened the Nolan biopic Oppenheimer and found true what many had told me beforehand: while largely driven by many, many conversations between countless combinations of a large cast of characters, nevertheless the experience was akin to watching a car chase. Despite the three-hour runtime, my interest never flagged and the film never dragged. I don't know how accurate it is in terms of historical events, either, but it would be an entertaining and relatively efficient means for providing some background to the first half of Sawyer's novel. (Assuming you haven't seen it already, I only noted you hadn't mentioned it.)

Returning from an errand, by chance I found a copy of Leckie's Ancillary Justice in a Little Free Library. This has long been on my wishlist, in part after reading discussions posted in this group, and since I happened to finish my current fiction selection, I started into it last night.

>90 elenchus: How fortunate!
Living in a non-english speaking country, and mostly reading SF & F in english, I resigned to buying all books I wanted to read. Then last year I found out that the public library had a wide selection, I felt so lucky.

>90 elenchus: I had the same experience watching the film Oppenheimer. I was surprised at how riveting it was with very little action. A cerebral film that is fully engrossing. It is possible!

I really enjoyed reading Anne Leckie's Radch Empire novels. There is a recent fifth one that I still need to get to.

>92 Neil_Luvs_Books:
My only disappointment with Oppenheimer was the visualizations of quantum dynamics and Robert J's conception of same. What was there, was very effective but I'd been led to hope (but not really expect) it would be a bigger part of the film time than it was. I have no specific idea how Nolan might have done it better or different, just had hoped he would surprise me there.

>84 vwinsloe: Yes, that was the one I didn't like, either. In fact, I forgot all about it when I made my comment, but I remember the disappointment.

>90 elenchus: yes, I mean to get to that movie. Just haven't gotten to it yet. Looking forward to it though.

Finished Maroons, the second Grievers book by adrienne marie brown. Continues where the first book left off, after a new plague has ravaged the city of Detroit, and not many people remain. By this time, most of the dying has passed, and so we meet other survivors, slowly (a guy on the radio, a kid, and a dog, among others). The first book was a difficult read due to all the illness and dying; this book is about coping and surviving and is more hopeful. Also, good.

Knocked off Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon and had a good time with it. That the reaction to the book seems to be all over the place fascinates me. What it might boil down to is that this book is in spitting distance of being horror and there's no branding to warn you about that. Also, if you take religion seriously, you'll probably be offended. Another plus for me is that, for a change, I think an author makes the flash-back novel structure work; some folks might disagree. Talabi expects you to keep a lot of plates in the air before the payoff comes.

>97 Shrike58:
I'm interested!

>97 Shrike58:, >98 paradoxosalpha:

Me too! Love the notion of god's existence depending on how many believe in him... wasn't that the premise in Pratchett's Small Gods too?

I finished Fugitive telemetry, a mini murder mystery solved by Murderbot and friends. I'm beginning to wonder more about the larger world in this series--is it wholly dystopian? It appears so, with corporations rampaging through space and employing slavery (of people, that of AI seems to be taken for granted).

Next up, Vinge's A deepness in the sky. Long time ago I read and liked A fire upon the deep but didn't get to this "prequel".

I wonder how many times did he have to go "No, not Vernon, Vernor..."?

>99 LolaWalser: I hope you enjoy A Deepness in the Sky, I thought it was great. Probably time for a re-read.

I'm still working on The Saints of Salvation, it was slow going for a bit but it is picking up.

I think that Deepness was the better of the two big books but that is a matter of opinion. It's a fantastic read and it gets better as you think about it afterward. Hamilton's Salvation series has some awesome moments but does seem to get lost in the weeds every once in a while in between outstanding action scenes. That can make things a little difficult to keep the reader on track. You have the sensation that you are juggling one or two items too many and the story lines are on the verge of flying apart. But, the effort does pay off. Will stop there and let you that are reading decide for yourselves what you think about the books. I had a great time with them but I'm a big fan of the author.

>101 Bugsydog: That’s not unusual for Hamilton though - and yet, if you are patient enough and don’t decide to start skipping parts which seem unrelated at the end things somehow manage to connect to a satisfying ending. :)

Finished Uncle Fred in the Springtime and The One and Only Bob, now back to SF & F with The Other Wind.

I've started my next Hugo finalist (and first for Best Novel), Some Desperate Glory.

>104 Stevil2001: That's the only one of the nominees that I haven't read yet, and the high concept wasn't grabbing me. We'll see; I currently have it out from the library.

Reading Too LIke the Lightning and am really glad I found a wikipedia to use along with it. Very intriguing but sometimes quite confusing.

>106 majkia: Here are some interesting, (but spoiler-filled!), discussions of Terra Ignota:

• Reddit
  
• Crooked Timber Seminar, (first 2 books only).
  
• 2 Rash 2 Unadvised Podcast, (skip to around 4:20 of the first installment to get to actual book discussion).
  

After a fitful start I'm well underway in Leckie's Ancillary Justice, and confident my initial struggles had nothing to do with the prose or plotting, but subject matter: genocide, and colonialism. It wasn't a lack of interest holding me up, but the hateful antagonism between characters.

There's a lot to engage with, separate from the apparent story, and for me Leckie offers up a different take on what Banks addressed with the Ship Grey Matter in Excession. Or at least, it seems parallel at this stage.

Interesting too that she inverts the common premise of a civilisation dependent upon AI, insofar as machine minds remain "subject" to humans despite their advanced capabilities. Quite the opposite of the Culture's assumption that AI are in control, necessarily, and this arrangement is of little concern to Culture citizens or, for the most part, Banks himself. For both authors, there's a big "and yet" driving their stories and characters.

>108 elenchus: That’s a really interesting comparison to Banks’s Culture novels which I have yet to read.

Just started the late Chris Priest's retrospective collection Episodes. First story is the rather gruesome precursor to The Prestige, The Head and the Hand, which dates from 1972, about a stage performer whose stock-in-trade is public self-mutilation. Interestingly, given that it accepts as a given the reattachment of severed limbs, from the standpoint of 1972 that makes it a story about the future.

>107 ScoLgo: Thank you, I really needed a new podcast, and they've just finished the Thessaly trilogy!

Catching up with the Liaden series. I've just finished Accepting the lance and started on Trader's leap.

?107 Thanks for those links. I will check them out before I delve into Perhaps the stars.

>107 ScoLgo: I'll definitely check them out. Thanks

>105 Shrike58: I am almost halfway through now, and I would say that I like it but don't love it. I think the right payoff could tip me over into "love," though, so we'll see how it goes on.

>115 Stevil2001: I had to get over a ‘hump’ at around 80 pages in, and then I was sold. The unlikely characters redeemed themselves, and the setting got more nuanced