May, 2022 Readings: "What potent blood hath modest May." Ralph W. Emerson
DiscussionsLiterary Snobs
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1CliffBurns
Starting off May with some horror/dark fantasy tales by Brian Evenson, SONG FOR THE UNRAVELLING OF THE WORLD.
Evenson earns some appreciative blurbs from the likes of George Saunders and Jonathan Lethem and he's quite good, though not all of these tales impress.
Definitely a few notches above the usual genre hacks.
Evenson earns some appreciative blurbs from the likes of George Saunders and Jonathan Lethem and he's quite good, though not all of these tales impress.
Definitely a few notches above the usual genre hacks.
2mejix
Finished This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff. It was well written but I found young Tobias kind of annoying. I also have questions about older Tobias' motivations. In any case, hard to follow Denis Johnson's Train Dreams and Mariana Enriquez's Things We Lost in the Fire.
Now I'm reading The Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus. A fascinating document by a Jewish historian that was fighting on the side of the Romans as they destroyed Jerusalem, which by the way was in the middle of a Civil War. Part propaganda, part apologia, part eyewitness testimony.
Now I'm reading The Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus. A fascinating document by a Jewish historian that was fighting on the side of the Romans as they destroyed Jerusalem, which by the way was in the middle of a Civil War. Part propaganda, part apologia, part eyewitness testimony.
3CliffBurns
Rob Hart's future crime novel, THE PARADOX HOTEL.
January Cole is head of security for an exclusive, high end time travel facility. Unfortunately, she, herself, is becoming "unstuck" in time...
I called this "SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE for SF geeks" and that sounds about right.
Fun read, recommended.
January Cole is head of security for an exclusive, high end time travel facility. Unfortunately, she, herself, is becoming "unstuck" in time...
I called this "SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE for SF geeks" and that sounds about right.
Fun read, recommended.
4iansales
Recent reading...
Seashaken Houses, Tom Nancollas - the title refers to lighthouses, although this book is not a comprehensive study of the subject, but a personal journey by someone who has studied them to seven of the UK's oldest and most famous lighthouse. Nancollas gives the history of each lighthouse, then visits it and describes his impressions - from within, for those he was allowed to enter (they're all automated now), or from a distance. Fascinating stuff, but I don't think I could have ever been a lighthouse keeper.
Fatal Isles, Maria Adolfsson - this was going for 99p on Kindle, but I didn't realise until after I'd bought that it was originally published in Swedish (as Felsteg, "false step"), and I would have perhaps been better reading it in Swedish. It's a fairly straightforward Nordic noir, but set on an invented island nation in the North Sea called Doggerland, whose culture is a mix of British, Scandinavian and Dutch. It was interesting to see which bits the translator had changed to make sense to a British reader, and those they'd left alone, not realising how Swedish they were - for example, ferries are painted yellow (here in Sweden, yes, not in the UK), no one in the book uses cash (Sweden has been effectively cashless for nearly a decade), and snus was translated as "chewing tobacco", but you don't chew it. Aside from the setting, an otherwise ordinary novel of its type.
CoDex 1962, Sjón - there are two Brian Aldiss story which are a series of tongue-in-cheek definitions of words from an alien language, and in one of them, I forget which, and I forget the "word", is the definition "where everything in a book is understandable except the author's purpose in writing it". That's a fairly apt description of CoDex 1962. It opens in WWII Germany, with a Jew being hidden in a hotel in a small village. He escapes to Iceland, where he makes a new life. He has with him a golem, which becomes his son (to all intents and purposes a normal human baby), and who is the narrator. Various things happen in Iceland between 1944 and 1962. There is a geneticist who monetises the genetics records of the Icelanders, and it turns out the golem story is not true, and I really did not understand what story the author was trying to help. The novel is a fix-up of three previously-published parts, which probably explains why it's missing an actual plot. Don't think I'll be trying this author again.
HebrewPunk, Lavie Tidhar - four long-ish stories which make use of Jewish occultism and penny dreadful settings and tropes, with a bit of pulp sf thrown in. Good fun. The final story, 'The Dope Fiend', is the best. 'Uganda' reads like an early attempt at Unholy Land. I knew Tidhar tended to mine his own back-catalogue for material, often re-using old stories and ideas in new stuff, but reading this collection it's painfully obvious. Worth reading, however.
Autumn and Winter, Ali Smith - I remember not like Autumn when I first read it several years ago, but I liked it much better this time. A young woman is friends growing up with her next-door neighbour, an elderly German. She also researches the life and art of Pauline Boty, the only female British Pop Artist. In Winter, a young man pays a young homeless woman to pretend to be his girlfriend (they had split up weeks before) on a trip to spend Christmas with his mother in Cornwall. The mother was a 1980s entrepreneur and is estranged from her sister, who was one of the Greenham Common protestors. The homeless woman sort of brings the family together. Some fascinating stuff about Greenham Common. Looking forward to the next two seasons.
Also, a couple more reviews on my Medium blog:
The Heretics of Dune, Frank Herbert - https://medium.com/p/heretics-of-dune-frank-herbert-62e84693fd71
This Dog/Rat World, William Barton - https://medium.com/p/this-dog-rat-world-william-barton-518ad095e6f5
Seashaken Houses, Tom Nancollas - the title refers to lighthouses, although this book is not a comprehensive study of the subject, but a personal journey by someone who has studied them to seven of the UK's oldest and most famous lighthouse. Nancollas gives the history of each lighthouse, then visits it and describes his impressions - from within, for those he was allowed to enter (they're all automated now), or from a distance. Fascinating stuff, but I don't think I could have ever been a lighthouse keeper.
Fatal Isles, Maria Adolfsson - this was going for 99p on Kindle, but I didn't realise until after I'd bought that it was originally published in Swedish (as Felsteg, "false step"), and I would have perhaps been better reading it in Swedish. It's a fairly straightforward Nordic noir, but set on an invented island nation in the North Sea called Doggerland, whose culture is a mix of British, Scandinavian and Dutch. It was interesting to see which bits the translator had changed to make sense to a British reader, and those they'd left alone, not realising how Swedish they were - for example, ferries are painted yellow (here in Sweden, yes, not in the UK), no one in the book uses cash (Sweden has been effectively cashless for nearly a decade), and snus was translated as "chewing tobacco", but you don't chew it. Aside from the setting, an otherwise ordinary novel of its type.
CoDex 1962, Sjón - there are two Brian Aldiss story which are a series of tongue-in-cheek definitions of words from an alien language, and in one of them, I forget which, and I forget the "word", is the definition "where everything in a book is understandable except the author's purpose in writing it". That's a fairly apt description of CoDex 1962. It opens in WWII Germany, with a Jew being hidden in a hotel in a small village. He escapes to Iceland, where he makes a new life. He has with him a golem, which becomes his son (to all intents and purposes a normal human baby), and who is the narrator. Various things happen in Iceland between 1944 and 1962. There is a geneticist who monetises the genetics records of the Icelanders, and it turns out the golem story is not true, and I really did not understand what story the author was trying to help. The novel is a fix-up of three previously-published parts, which probably explains why it's missing an actual plot. Don't think I'll be trying this author again.
HebrewPunk, Lavie Tidhar - four long-ish stories which make use of Jewish occultism and penny dreadful settings and tropes, with a bit of pulp sf thrown in. Good fun. The final story, 'The Dope Fiend', is the best. 'Uganda' reads like an early attempt at Unholy Land. I knew Tidhar tended to mine his own back-catalogue for material, often re-using old stories and ideas in new stuff, but reading this collection it's painfully obvious. Worth reading, however.
Autumn and Winter, Ali Smith - I remember not like Autumn when I first read it several years ago, but I liked it much better this time. A young woman is friends growing up with her next-door neighbour, an elderly German. She also researches the life and art of Pauline Boty, the only female British Pop Artist. In Winter, a young man pays a young homeless woman to pretend to be his girlfriend (they had split up weeks before) on a trip to spend Christmas with his mother in Cornwall. The mother was a 1980s entrepreneur and is estranged from her sister, who was one of the Greenham Common protestors. The homeless woman sort of brings the family together. Some fascinating stuff about Greenham Common. Looking forward to the next two seasons.
Also, a couple more reviews on my Medium blog:
The Heretics of Dune, Frank Herbert - https://medium.com/p/heretics-of-dune-frank-herbert-62e84693fd71
This Dog/Rat World, William Barton - https://medium.com/p/this-dog-rat-world-william-barton-518ad095e6f5
5CliffBurns
MEANDER, SPIRAL, EXPLODE by Jane Allison.
Subtitled "Design and Pattern in Narrative".
I don't read too many books about the craft and process of writing, but this is a good one, blurbed by none other than Edmund White.
The classic story arc has held sway too long and Alison suggests other ways of shaping narratives that help authors escape that tired, formulaic trap, using examples from literature.
Impressive and recommended.
Subtitled "Design and Pattern in Narrative".
I don't read too many books about the craft and process of writing, but this is a good one, blurbed by none other than Edmund White.
The classic story arc has held sway too long and Alison suggests other ways of shaping narratives that help authors escape that tired, formulaic trap, using examples from literature.
Impressive and recommended.
6justifiedsinner
Reading The Rebel Angels. Very good so far. Read The Deptford Trilogy many years back. May be time for a re-read.
7CliffBurns
>6 justifiedsinner: Davies is one of those writers who was very hot at one time (especially the 1970s and 80s), but who seems to have disappeared without a ripple.
Glad someone is keeping his work alive.
I just finished Ted Chiang's EXHALATION, a collection of science fiction tales.
Chiang, as I'm sure everyone knows, wrote the story the movie "Arrival" was based on.
This collection is O-KAY, but there isn't a lot of conflict or drama, the stories seem very mannered and rather sterile. The writing is fine but Chiang doesn't have a distinctive style or tone and there's not a lot of human emotion so I never found myself really caring for any of his characters or their dilemmas.
Not terrible, but not mind-blowing either.
Glad someone is keeping his work alive.
I just finished Ted Chiang's EXHALATION, a collection of science fiction tales.
Chiang, as I'm sure everyone knows, wrote the story the movie "Arrival" was based on.
This collection is O-KAY, but there isn't a lot of conflict or drama, the stories seem very mannered and rather sterile. The writing is fine but Chiang doesn't have a distinctive style or tone and there's not a lot of human emotion so I never found myself really caring for any of his characters or their dilemmas.
Not terrible, but not mind-blowing either.
8CliffBurns
Decided to read some "Golden Age" science fiction, in this case E.E. "Doc" Smith. TRIPLANETARY, first book of the Lensman series.
Pretty terrible--formless, graceless, only gaining momentum when he describes a futuristic space battle in the last fifty pages of the book.
Yet more proof that the so-called "Golden Age" of the genre was largely composed of iron pyrite and bullshit.
Pretty terrible--formless, graceless, only gaining momentum when he describes a futuristic space battle in the last fifty pages of the book.
Yet more proof that the so-called "Golden Age" of the genre was largely composed of iron pyrite and bullshit.
9RobertDay
>8 CliffBurns: A little while back, I re-read not Triplanetary, but the source novel for the whole Lensman series, Galactic Patrol. You may find my review of interest: https://www.librarything.com/work/39732/reviews/61692276 .
10CliffBurns
>9 RobertDay: Sharp-eyed review, Robert. I concur with your points.
I note the reviewers that follow after you (mostly) seem similarly unimpressed with the book. Glad to know I wasn't just being picky.
I note the reviewers that follow after you (mostly) seem similarly unimpressed with the book. Glad to know I wasn't just being picky.
11CliffBurns
DEAD SILENCE by S.A. Barnes.
Crew in deep space find a luxury liner presumed lost for two decades. They enter the ship and discover all is not well...
Kind of an amalgam of "Alien" and "Event Horizon", the author clearly more influenced by cinematic science fiction than its long literary legacy.
Diverting but derivative, the writing all right but the characterizations rather superficial and all-too-familiar.
Crew in deep space find a luxury liner presumed lost for two decades. They enter the ship and discover all is not well...
Kind of an amalgam of "Alien" and "Event Horizon", the author clearly more influenced by cinematic science fiction than its long literary legacy.
Diverting but derivative, the writing all right but the characterizations rather superficial and all-too-familiar.
12iansales
>11 CliffBurns: "Titanic meets The Shining". Oh, FFS...
13iansales
Most of my reading recently has been taken up with The Eighth Life, a humungous novel covering the fortunes of a family in Georgia from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. That's Georgia, the country. Interesting stuff, and the USSR under Stalin was a horrible brutal place, but I'm not convinced the framing narrative - a story told to Brilka, a current member of the family - works especially well.
Atlantis: Three Tales, Samuel R Delany - as the title indicates, a collection of three stories, by a favourite author. The first is set in the 1920s, about a young black man who moves to Manhattan. In the second, a black kid at school is inspired by a new art teacher, as is his best friend. In the third, a young gay black man in Greece is raped by a Greek sailor. None of these are science fiction, but all read as if they could be autobiographical (although clearly they're not).
The Cruel Stars, John Birmingham - first in a space opera trilogy by the author best-known is sf circles for the trilogy where a 2022 navy flotilla is dragged back in time to 1942. Really did not like this. Identikit right-wing US space opera universe, could have been written by some pro-Israeli fascist US author (Birmingham is Australian). The villains are actual Space Nazis - an ostracised group who attack to rid the rest of humanity of "mutants and cyborgs", ie, anyone who is not "pure". Will not be reading the rest of the trilogy.
An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris - dramatised retelling of the Dreyfus Affair, from the point of view of Picquart, the officer who uncovered the travesty of justice and fought to have Dreyfus exonerated, even ending up in prison himself at one point. I was aware of the Dreyfus Affair, but I hadn't realised how flimsy was Dreyfus's conviction, or how easily it had been to find the real culprit. The anti-semitism, and the General Staff's transparent efforts to covers its collective arse, however, I find all too believable. Recommended.
Finally, a few more reviews on Medium:-
Galaxias, Stephen Baxter: https://medium.com/p/galaxias-stephen-baxter-f0de6fb9b5ad
Fatal Isles, Maria Adolfsson: https://medium.com/p/fatal-isles-maria-adolfsson-2b93c666928a
Tunnel in the Sky, Robert A Heinlein: https://medium.com/p/tunnel-in-the-sky-robert-a-heinlein-4e38ed04a84
Atlantis: Three Tales, Samuel R Delany - as the title indicates, a collection of three stories, by a favourite author. The first is set in the 1920s, about a young black man who moves to Manhattan. In the second, a black kid at school is inspired by a new art teacher, as is his best friend. In the third, a young gay black man in Greece is raped by a Greek sailor. None of these are science fiction, but all read as if they could be autobiographical (although clearly they're not).
The Cruel Stars, John Birmingham - first in a space opera trilogy by the author best-known is sf circles for the trilogy where a 2022 navy flotilla is dragged back in time to 1942. Really did not like this. Identikit right-wing US space opera universe, could have been written by some pro-Israeli fascist US author (Birmingham is Australian). The villains are actual Space Nazis - an ostracised group who attack to rid the rest of humanity of "mutants and cyborgs", ie, anyone who is not "pure". Will not be reading the rest of the trilogy.
An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris - dramatised retelling of the Dreyfus Affair, from the point of view of Picquart, the officer who uncovered the travesty of justice and fought to have Dreyfus exonerated, even ending up in prison himself at one point. I was aware of the Dreyfus Affair, but I hadn't realised how flimsy was Dreyfus's conviction, or how easily it had been to find the real culprit. The anti-semitism, and the General Staff's transparent efforts to covers its collective arse, however, I find all too believable. Recommended.
Finally, a few more reviews on Medium:-
Galaxias, Stephen Baxter: https://medium.com/p/galaxias-stephen-baxter-f0de6fb9b5ad
Fatal Isles, Maria Adolfsson: https://medium.com/p/fatal-isles-maria-adolfsson-2b93c666928a
Tunnel in the Sky, Robert A Heinlein: https://medium.com/p/tunnel-in-the-sky-robert-a-heinlein-4e38ed04a84
14CliffBurns
Herve Le Tellier's Goncourt Prize-winning novel THE ANOMALY.
What would a society do when confronted with the impossible? In THE ANOMALY, an inexplicable event causes scientists and thinkers to ponder the nature of reality...and face some uncomfortable truths.
The first 3/4 was quite intriguing but it got too talky from there until the end.
Still found it a worthwhile, thought-provoking read.
What would a society do when confronted with the impossible? In THE ANOMALY, an inexplicable event causes scientists and thinkers to ponder the nature of reality...and face some uncomfortable truths.
The first 3/4 was quite intriguing but it got too talky from there until the end.
Still found it a worthwhile, thought-provoking read.
15CliffBurns
DON'T KNOW TOUGH by Eli Cranor.
A novel that mixes crime fiction with sports. A promising high school football prospect can't escape the ties that bind him to his troubled, dysfunctional family.
Kind of lost believability as it approached its climax but a gripping evocation of small town Americana and its crazy/rabid obsession with football.
A novel that mixes crime fiction with sports. A promising high school football prospect can't escape the ties that bind him to his troubled, dysfunctional family.
Kind of lost believability as it approached its climax but a gripping evocation of small town Americana and its crazy/rabid obsession with football.
16RobertDay
Made a start on Alex Ross' Wagnerism, which looks at Wagner's relationship with others - I'm still on the first chapter, which deals with the rise and fall of his relationship with Nietzsche - and then goes on to consider his influence on art and politics up to the present day. Hint - the politics isn't all about the Nazis, who picked and chose what they wanted from Wagner. (True, there was enough for them to pick from; but there was a lot else they ignored.)
17BookConcierge
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel – Renee Nault / Margaret Atwood
5*****
I’ve read and reviewed Atwood’s novel previously (See my review HERE), so I’ll confine this review to the adaptation.
Nault is a Canadian artist and illustrator and her interpretation of Atwood’s novel is marvelous.
Her imagery is even more vivid and memorable than some of the same scenes as described by Atwood. I’m thinking particularly of “the Ceremony” where the Commander tries to impregnate Offred each month, or the scenes of Offred walking past the wall where “traitors” are hung.
She uses just enough text to keep the story moving and to explain the images. Of course, I’d read the original (two or three times), but I don’t think I would have missed much had this been my only experience with Atwood’s story.
The final chapter, called “Historical Notes,” is perhaps too brief, but certainly conveys the relevant information, and is less likely to be skipped over than in Atwood’s original.
I do NOT recommend that readers skip the original work, but this would be a great introduction or supplement to the novel.
18CliffBurns
SEVEN WONDERS by Adam Christopher.
I should've known better.
A novel about superheroes, written by a guy who was raised on comic books.
Not good, not good at all. Flatly written, unsurprising, ineffectual. And it seemed fucking interminable at times.
NOT recommended.
I should've known better.
A novel about superheroes, written by a guy who was raised on comic books.
Not good, not good at all. Flatly written, unsurprising, ineffectual. And it seemed fucking interminable at times.
NOT recommended.
19CliffBurns
To make up for my previous aesthetic hiccup (see #18), I read Emily St. John Mandel's latest book, literally, in one sitting (okay, I got up once to get tea and celery).
SEA OF TRANQUILITY brings to mind the work of David Mitchell, interlocking stories spread over various eras of human history (including the future).
I found it more compelling than her previous offering, THE GLASS HOTEL--this one should sell oodles of copies. And good for her.
Recommended.
SEA OF TRANQUILITY brings to mind the work of David Mitchell, interlocking stories spread over various eras of human history (including the future).
I found it more compelling than her previous offering, THE GLASS HOTEL--this one should sell oodles of copies. And good for her.
Recommended.
