Our reads in June

Flaming June....quite literally in many parts of the USA.
Lets get away from all the turmoil,fear and anxiety within the pages of a book.What are you reading this month?

Haugtussa, a 19th Century Norwegian national romantic epic with trolls and wee folk and things in it, written in dialect. Fun! :)

I only managed 2 SF genre books last month,and only read about 4 books in all.I think I will attempt to continue with books I started ages ago and put aside for various reasons,finally try to finish them......if I can focus my mind that is! Otherwise I might read some classic short stories.
I see that our public libraries will open in August, a long way away. :0( Got a horrible feeling the excuse of reduced govt finances because of a shrinking economy will be a perfect excuse to close down even more libraries.

Dusty's TBR for June
SF/F reads
Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
John W Campbell -Who Goes There?
Pauline Ashwell - Unwillingly to School✔
Pauline Ashwell - The Lost Kafoozalum ✔

other genres
Georges Simenon - Maigret and the Yellow Dog
Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
Jane Yolen - Touch Magic✔

One piece of good news is that the local libraries in my area are starting to resume dealing with the public via curb-side hand-off of books on hold. I thus have False Value and Network Effect in my grubby little fingers.

Currently reading Red Moon.

I'm with dustydigger in trying to finish books already started, if I can focus.

After rereading the rest of The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson, I'd like to push through The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

Still reading The Book of Koli by M. R. Carey.

Still dipping into Ingathering and enjoying these gentle stories.

Just finished Night Sky Mine by Melissa Scott. I enjoyed it -- I've liked everything of hers that I've read. Having said that, it wasn't her most interesting one. As always, LGBT & gender issues are there, not as a big deal but simply incorporated, which I appreciate. And her characters are always well done and alive. The plot & worldbuilding was competent, but pretty standard cyberpunk in a space opera setting.

Reading The Killing Moon by N K Jemisin for my SF&F book group. I've enjoyed her Broken Earth trilogy, but this fantasy is a bit of a slog. Decent writing and world-building but the story and characters so far (I'm about half-way through) are predictable and unengaging. Not sure I'll finish it before the (virtual) group meeting tomorrow :(

Finished False Value this evening and was quite pleased with the story; certainly the best "Rivers of London" story in awhile.

Reading Coyote Frontier by Allen Steele.....

>11 Shrike58: I had just got False Value out of the library a few days before lockdownand have felt guilty that I have held on to it for all these months,and wont be able to return it till August!. Pity the probably long list of people behind me on the list! :0(
I am rereading some of Pauline Ashwell's engaging Lysistrata ''Lizzie'' Lee short storie, including Unwillingly to School and The Lost Kafoozalum.
I have once again put aside Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon,a bit too hardboiled indeed brutal for my tastes.Its often very grim,and a surface or escape from the nasty events,only to find I have only read about 10 pages.Still 250 pages to go...sigh......

Vis-a-vis Aaronovitch I had some quibbles with how the "Faceless Man" arc wrapped up and it wasn't clear what could be done with Peter Grant from that point. With False Value we get a strong sense of where the cycle is going from here and I probably am fonder of the book because of that than it really deserves.

Finished A Tapestry of Time, started Night Lamp.

Read Forever Free by Joe Halderman after finding it online free. A part of the Forever War series, the novel seems to wind up that reality. Started out incredibly boring but kind of a page turner once a complication in plot developed. The story had an ending reminiscent of a 1960’s twilight zone episode {did I read Halderman wrote an episode?}. An ok read but I think this one mainly rang the cash register 🙂

Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 was a real slog for me. Took nearly two weeks to get through. It was my first KSR and, if representative of his writing style, is likely to be my last. The plot, (what there was of it), was interesting, and the science seems sound but... my 2-star rating was the result of poor characterization and massive info-dumps.

Empire V by Victor Pelevin is a different type of vampire tale. Nearly four hundred pages of philosophical musings and conversations with little in the way of standard vampire tropes. I actually appreciated that aspect of it but I found the verbal repartee a bit underwhelming after a while. I expect I would have gleaned more from this book if I had a better understanding of Russian history and literature. Alas, I do not have that background so the book fell a bit flat at 2.5 stars - but in fairness, it's likely more my fault than the author, (or the translator?)

Now reading Vonda McIntyre's first novel, The Exile Waiting. Not the smoothest narrative I have ever experienced but the intriguing story and characters pulled me in immediately. Pretty much the opposite of my experience with 2312!

Also working my way through Gene Wolfe's Endangered Species collection, which is very good so far.

About half-way through Network Effect and it started a bit slow for me, but the real dynamite goes off about 40% of the way in.

Finished Network Effect this morning and if you've enjoyed the first four installments in the series there is no reason why you won't enjoy the first full novel. I do start to wonder what the series climax is going to look like.

Finished Snow Crash a couple of days back. Loved it despite some of its shortcomings (such as wondering quite when it was set as I reckoned Hiro Protagonist was pretty close to my age! And the stonking great big infodumps). Now reading a factual book on the Space Race (called, oddly enough, Space Race) before backfilling some of my Christopher Priest reading with The Quiet Woman.

A friend has reminded me that it's seven years ago today that we lost Iain Banks.

>20 RobertDay:. I had to check the dates on Iain Banks, as I couldn't believe that it could possibly have been that long. I miss his voice.

re: False Value -- Yes, definitely the best ROL book in a while.

Just finished Countdown City by Ben Winters. Mix of police procedural plus impending doom, in near-future New England. I'd read the first one but forgotten about it.

Next up: This is how you lose the time war for book group. The libraries aren't shifting books around yet, so I have to go to downtown to pick up a copy. (And August's book, Rosewater by Tade Thompson, is only available in a suburb.)

Started The Book of Koli by Mike Carey - tells the story of how a small community survive in a dangerous future dystopian world (West Yorkshire - makes a change!). So far a bit YA but very enjoyable.

Read Space Opera, which was nominated for a Hugo last year. Hated it. Read like someone was trying to rewrite The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy but completely missed every single point Adams's book had made. Most of the book is galactic history that's so relentlessly over-egged you have to skim it. Every joke has to have a string of punch-lines. Every witticism repeated to make sure the reader gets it. The cultural references are a weird mishmash of UK and US, and make zero sense - why would Rolling Stone, a US mag, mention Debenhams, a UK department store? The book also does comedy foreign accents, which I had thought was a definite no-no these days. It's supposedly inspired by Eurovision, but only an American would walk away from Eurovision and write something that was all about genocide and mega-violence. Avoid.

Just finished The End of October. This was written before the COVID pandemic. Wow. This guy got it mostly right. Hope the end of the book is not our future.

Current print book: Recently acquired Forced Perspectives so am currently re-reading Alternate Routes before tackling the sequel.

E-book: About 20% into Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker, which I'm really enjoying so far.

Also still plugging away at Endangered Species.

Currently reading The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, which I backed on Unbound.

>26 ScoLgo: About 20% into Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker, which I'm really enjoying so far.

I envy you your first time reading Angelmaker. That is a great book.

Reading Galaxy Blues by Allen Steele. I must say that reading these Coyote books in order really highlights Steele's development as an author - the first Coyote book is staid and rather predictable compared to this one, which is full of action and character development...

>28 pgmcc: I'm familiar with that feeling... ;)

The book is a hoot. The shadowy organizations, espionage, supernatural-seeming mysteries... For me, it's reading a bit like if China Miéville had written Declare - only with tighter plotting than we usually get from Mr. Miéville. Nearing the halfway point today and yes, it's a great read so far. I'm especially enjoying Edie Banister's narrative; there's nothing quite like an octogenarian ex-spy doddering around her apartment taking out three hit-men sent to kill her. Such an excellent scene!

Finished Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 160 and added Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 161 to my rotation.

I just finished reading an old Spider Robinson, Night of Power. Given the times we are living in the concept of blacks taking over New York City doesn't really seem like science fiction. It's a little dated for sure; cell phones were obviously not even considered by Spider although he did mention a car phone. Still since Spider is not producing anything now I'm always delighted to find an old one that I haven't read.

I just picked up a library hold today for the first time since March. My city currently has 3 branches open for hold pickups and next week they are going to open some more and will allow books to be returned then. The book I picked up today doesn't have to be returned for 60 days but I'll try not to hold onto it that long.

>32 gypsysmom:

Hooray for libraries opening! I just picked up two holds today. It's slow, but they're steadily increasing services here too.

Geez, I don't remember Night of Power, but I think I probably read it. When did it come out? Sounds like a response to a couple of early '80s movies, too.

>30 ScoLgo: I'm especially enjoying Edie Banister's narrative

You'll be pleased to hear that there's a short story available called Edie Investigates.

I finished reading my "Planet Stories" edition of The Swordsman of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline. The history of my start on my Ace pulp edition, stumbling over what appeared to be a reference to the Korean War (in a story originally published in 1933) and subsequent ordering of this newer edition featuring Kline's original published text can be found here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/321000

In the meantime, The Swordsman of Mars is a fun, old adventure story, originally published in serial form in Argosy Magazine in, as mentioned, 1933. For a modern reader, the story definitely puts the "willing" in "willing suspension of disbelief," and calls for racism blinders as well (yellow people bad, white people good). But I had a good time reading it.

>34 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks! That does please me to hear. It also pleases me to find Edie Investigates is available from my library via Overdrive.

This Wednesday is starting to look up!

>33 karenb: Copyright information says 1985. I'm not sure I had discovered Robinson at that time although it must have been soon after.

Finished The Book of Koli and enjoyed it immensely. Small communities try to survive in a dystopian world where human gene-engineering has caused trees to become lethal, the few bits of pre-apocalypse tech are seen as almost magical, and rogue cannibals haunt the forests. It starts off as a YA coming-of-age story but about half-way through becomes something more - a dangerous journey into an unknown past. An engrossing start to the trilogy - I will certainly pick up the next 2 books.

>38 SChant: While it disappoints me to note the appearance of another trilogy before he gets around to finishing his Felix Castor series nevertheless I will still continue to pick up (and probably enjoy) his books. Glad to see you enjoyed it so much.

>30 ScoLgo: That is a great scene.

I also enjoyed the short story about Edie Banister, "Eddie Investigates". It was only available as an e-book as far as I recall. I think I read it before Angelmaker.

I just checked, £1.32 on Amazon uk Kindle.

E.T.A. I see I am too late with this information. :-)

>39 AHS-Wolfy: Is Felix Castor not finished? I thought The Naming of the Beasts was the last one? He's published loads of different stuff since then.

Reading Spindrift by Allen Steele....

Speaking of libraries coming through for me Storm of Locusts and The Fated Sky will be my other genre reads for the month.

I read Robinson quite a bit back in the day when he was a mainstay at "Analog." Eventually one's tastes change and, when I had cause to read Lady Slings the Booze back in 2006 (gah, does time fly), I was really underwhelmed. He started losing me with his dismissive review in "Analog" of We Who are About To...; I'm not a great enthusiast of Russ but even my adolescent self could sense that Robinson just didn't get it.

>41 SChant:

Yep I thought that The Naming of The Beasts brought it to a close too.

>38 SChant:

I got a review copy of The Trials of Koli and, while I won't be reviewing it because I don't think it serves as a good entry point to the series (a requirement of the publication), it remains a very good read.

Started on Chris Priest's 1990 novel The Quiet Woman (which I somehow missed when it came out), and it's turning into a neat page-turner with lots of odd conspiratorial stuff working away in the background, against a backdrop of a southern England irradiated by an accident at a French nuclear power station and something making crop circles that isn't four drunken students in a hired Transit van...

Though a lot of the ordinary domestic detail from 1990 makes some of it read like a historical novel at times.

Finished Night Lamp, going farther back in time for Telepath by Sellings.

Currently reading The Last Astronaut, which has been shortlisted for the Clarke Award. It's really bad. It's basically Rendezvous with Rama rewritten as a technothriller.

>49 iansales:

Hmm I may decide not to buy that then. The only other one of the Clarke shortlist I haven't read is The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell - which looks to be the only non-core-SF title this year.

>49 iansales:

I wonder how many of the readers in their 20s has actually read Rama. The blurbs for this one sounded a lot like a SF movie for this age group (if not even younger) so not very surprised that it also reads like one.

Better late than never I am part way into John W Campbell's Who Goes There? which is the foundation for the various The Thing films. Good fun.
Also doing a nostalgic reread of C J Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur Totally relishing being back on the docks of a space station,and meeting up with all the great variety of alien species Cherryh has given us. This was my first ever Cherryh bookway back in the 80s,and I have been a great fan of her work ever since.I have the trilogy volume,so its very unlikely I will stop after Pride,I'm extremely likely to continue on with Chanur's Venture and The Kif Strike Back I do like a good villain,and the Kif are suitably nasty. Still have difficulty sorting them out with all those strange names. Yay!

I read Rendezvous with Rama about 40 years ago,and have never revisted it,I found it all a bit dry and plodding,and never had the desire to continue the series (not missing much by most reports. I am intending to do some rereads,as all my huge annual challenges plans have basically collapsed.(I'm 40 books down on my normal book tally already) perhaps I'll go back to Rendezvous just for curiosity's sake

>41 SChant: & >45 andyl: There's supposed to be one more in the series. Pete Sutton posts on the category challenge group and is a big fan and has met Mike Carey on the convention circuit so asked him about it. Said he had it all planned out but had other commitments to get to first such as his releases under the M. R. Carey moniker.

Talking about long delayed series entries,does anyone know anything about the progress of Jim Butcher's Peace Talks I was sceptical about the July date when it was announced,and now with Coronavirus??
Disappointed so many times I'll only believe Jim has finished the book when I actually physically am holding it! lol.

>53 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks for the info. Hope he gets round to it.

>54 dustydigger: my understanding is that Jim Butcher finished the sixteenth novel a while ago, and it's still expected to be released next month.

Battle Ground is scheduled for release two months later, in September.

crikey. I took a record number of BBs in catching up on this thread. Keep up the good work, all!

>52 dustydigger: I contributed to the Frozen Hell kickstarter campaign a couple of years ago. Got a nice hardcover plus e-books of both versions out of it. I had not read either one before but ended up liking the longer version slightly more than Who Goes There?. It's the same basic story but it fleshes in more backstory of how they found and unearthed (uniced?) the Thing.

> 56 We weren't talking about Jim Butcher. Mike Carey's Felix Castor series is the subject.

>59 SChant: Just a typo. Obviously, aspirit meant to type >54 dustydigger:, not >53 AHS-Wolfy:.

>60 anglemark: Yes. I'd typed a three instead of a four.

>59 SChant: Fixed.

>61 aspirit: Ah - makes more sense now ;)

>50 andyl: and >51 AnnieMod: I described the book on Twitter as being a cross between Rendezvous with Rama and the film Prometheus, with none of the sense of wonder of the first and all the baffling stupidity of the latter. I'm honestly surprised it made the shortlist. In its defence, it's not a debut. On the other hand, judging by Wellington's output prior to it, he's a complete hack.

Of the rest, I have Cage of Souls on the TBR, and read A Memory Called Empire late last year. I thought the Martine was a triumph of worldbuilding over, well, pretty much everything else that makes a good novel. It didn't seem to know what its plot was, there were no actual ideas in it, and the author was clearly so jazzed about the central lesbian relationship she forget to characterise the rest of the cast. Having said that, it's not blow-shit-up slavery-in-all-but-name type of space opera, and for that we should be grateful.

>52 dustydigger: The Compact Space books are among the best Cherryh has written. There's five of them, btw. The trilogy is followed by Chanur's Homecoming and Chanur's Legacy.

I am currently reading Eye of the World by Robert Jordan and White Trash the 400-year untold history of class in America by Nancy Isenberg. I just finished Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey, while I did enjoy the story, this was an audio book and the narrator was terrible. (A high pitched baby voice that just got on my last nerve.)
I just realized I've done a terrible job of entering my books into Librarything. *Sigh*

Finished The Quiet Woman; it's a very well disguised alternate history with a lot of utter weirdness going on but it reads like a Home Counties novel of domestic turmoil. It also very much channels the real-life case of the murder of Hilda Murrell and the increasingly wild conspiracy theories that sprang up over that case (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Murrell and https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1994/mar/21/argentina.falklands).

Now moved on and starting a Bob Silverberg anthology of stories set in different authors' extended universes, Far Horizons.

>64 iansales: Yep,I know. I have the first three in one volume,and the other two separate. This will be my third reading of the series. I was supposedly only reading Pride as part of a challenge,but I know I'll just carry on. Once I get into her world I find it difficult to leave! :0) One of the few authors whose books I canenjoy rereading. Just checked and I have 42 of her books,physical books. All of them I had to order from the US because you never see her books in the library or bookshops here in my area.

>64 iansales:,>67 dustydigger:
I agree that the Compact books are among her best. I recently re-read the first four (I'm doing lots of re-reading of favorites; COVID comfort reading). The ending scene of Homecoming is one of my favorite moment of the whole series (no spoilers, but fans will know what I mean). Haven't gone on to Legacy yet.
Dusty, I thought I was doing well on physical copies, but I just checked and own only 28 -- you leave me, well, in the dust. Once I get back to used book stores -- a favorite activity -- I'll have to address this disgraceful situation. :-)

Reading "At the Earth's Core" by Burroughs. Of course more fantasy than sci-fi, but a lot of fun anyway.

>32 gypsysmom: Libraries are also opening for holds here. None of mine have shown up yet, though. And we used to be able to use the library at any odd hour of the day (almost) including weekends. I really miss that!

>67 dustydigger: >68 rshart3: I have 47, many of them first edition hardbacks. My copies of the first four Compact Space books are the signed slipcased editions from Phantasia Press. They're all in storage at the moment. But once they're out, I plan to complete my collection of Foreigner books - I only have the first nine. I remember when you used to see her books all the time in WH Smith back in the 1980s.

Finished Storm of Locusts yesterday evening and while I liked it, there is no denying that it was a bit shallow as compared to the first book. Roanhorse aspires to "American Gods" Lite but wound up with "Mad Max" with different cultural trappings this time around. That her next novel is set in a totally different milieu suggests that Roanhorse has her own sense that she needs to reexamine her agenda for the series.

Started a re-read of A Memory Called Empire for my SF&F book group. Despite >63 iansales:'s misgivings I found it a cracking read back in March and am enjoying it again this time. True, the plot is a bit light but it builds up subtlely and I found the slowly evolving attraction between Mahit and Seagrass quite believable.

Finished Telepath, started Tiamat's Wrath.

Finished The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein. Interesting read. Certainly a lot there I don't remember from my reads of his books, althoughthat was mostly a couple of decades ago. Now reading Borne. Not enjoying much, tbh.

Wrapped up The Fated Sky yesterday evening and enjoyed it. If I have a gripe there is a running interpersonal conflict that aggravates all concerned on the mission out to Mars but which has no real emotional resolution in the book; maybe it'll be grist for another story.

>75 Shrike58:
Maybe in book three, The Relentless Moon, out in a couple of weeks? https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250236968

Finished Chanur's Venture and went straight into The Kif Strike Back. Really the trilogy is just one long book divided up for publishing convenience I think.Good stuff.
I am doing a with ''Z''n Alphabet challenge in July,we are FINALLY finishing up. The need to read an author and title with the letter ''Z'' involved was an excellent excuse to read Zelazny's The Doors of his Face,the Lamps of his Mouth,and might sneak in A Rose for Ecclesiasteswhile I'm at it. For fun with zombies I'll'read Diana Rowlands My Life as a White Trash Zombie.
Apart from these I wont get much SF on the TBR this month. I am way behind in my vintage crime plans this year,I need to dive in to Edmund Crispin,Cyril Hare,Patricia Wentworth et al.
But for now I am completely immersed in Pyanfar Chanur's fraught navigating dangerous multispecies political dangers. She is one of the few authors I read where I think,''Oh good,I still have 220 pages to read.'' or ''Oh no,only 30 pages left,I dont want it to end.'' :0)

Currently reading Redemption in Indigo, which was given me as a "bonus book" when I ordered a book from Small Beer Press. Enjoying it.

iansales (#78):

I really enjoyed Redemption in Indigo. I couldn't finish Lord's second book, The Best of All Possible Worlds.

Reading Coyote Horizon by Allen Steele....

>79 lorax:

The Galaxy Game which is in the same universe as The Best of All Possible Worlds was pretty good. I found it far more readable.

Wrong month, never mind.