• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

What book is everyone reading at the moment? Part 2.

I just finished the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. I came across them at Trident Books in Boston while I was at a conference and the concept intrigued me; it seemed like nothing I had ever read before in Sci Fi.

And it was. I read the whole thing in 7 days.

I couldn’t put it down. My wife got mad at me. But I was drawn into the world VanderMeer was creating. The plot centers around an anomalous Area X that suddenly popped into existence on the southeastern coast of an unnamed (America) country. Area X is a place where nature has overtaken civilization. The novels detail the government’s exploration and attempts to figure out the nature of Area X.

It was, frankly, captivating. VanderMeer’s prose is quite obviously reflective of his love of nature. The descriptions of this weird new world were vibrant and menacing, even if a bit vague. This isn’t a book where everything is tied up in neat little gift packages and the whole thing is a bit…weird. It’s a bit of a head scratcher and it makes you think; at least it did me. I won’t say anymore about the series. I thought it was great, so check it out.
 
xjx388 said:
I just finished the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. I came across them at Trident Books in Boston while I was at a conference and the concept intrigued me; it seemed like nothing I had ever read before in Sci Fi.
Click to expand...

Conversely, Blindsight is like a few other things I've read before. The author blends together a couple very old-school ideas, and a couple newer ones, in a (so far) near-perfect futurism synthesis. Most authors tend to go hard on one of these big concepts, and throw in maybe one other as background or world-building. Peter Watts builds a supercharged V-12 monster, and gets it firing on all cylinders.
 
theprestige said:
Conversely, Blindsight is like a few other things I've read before. The author blends together a couple very old-school ideas, and a couple newer ones, in a (so far) near-perfect futurism synthesis. Most authors tend to go hard on one of these big concepts, and throw in maybe one other as background or world-building. Peter Watts builds a supercharged V-12 monster, and gets it firing on all cylinders.
Click to expand...


I’ll check it out. Although I probably need a break for a week or so.
 
xjx388 said:
I just finished the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. I came across them at Trident Books in Boston while I was at a conference and the concept intrigued me; it seemed like nothing I had ever read before in Sci Fi.

And it was. I read the whole thing in 7 days.

I couldn’t put it down. My wife got mad at me. But I was drawn into the world VanderMeer was creating. The plot centers around an anomalous Area X that suddenly popped into existence on the southeastern coast of an unnamed (America) country. Area X is a place where nature has overtaken civilization. The novels detail the government’s exploration and attempts to figure out the nature of Area X.

It was, frankly, captivating. VanderMeer’s prose is quite obviously reflective of his love of nature. The descriptions of this weird new world were vibrant and menacing, even if a bit vague. This isn’t a book where everything is tied up in neat little gift packages and the whole thing is a bit…weird. It’s a bit of a head scratcher and it makes you think; at least it did me. I won’t say anymore about the series. I thought it was great, so check it out.
Click to expand...

I really enjoyed that series as well. It's like a blend of science fiction, mystery and existential horror.
 
JayUtah said:
Starting now on a re-read of the Hornblower series.
Click to expand...


I re-read it about a month ago. After I finished that series, I remembered Alexander Kent's Richard Bolitho series and started to re-read those books. At about the third one, I concluded that there is a reason C. S. Forester remains popular.
 
Last edited:
Besides the book I'm reading, I'm listening to Gateway, by Frederick Pohl. I've found it rewarding to revisit books I read in my youth, as audio books.

This one I read as a teenager. The therapy chapters were a meaningless slog for me. Now they're some of the most fascinating parts of the story. The whole concept of before and after narratives, converging on a central, still hidden event, "brings me joy" as they say. Choosing to tell a space adventure story as a psychological study of the space adventurer seems like a bold decision, especially for the era in which it was written.

The 1970s idea of future tech is also fun. We can add Pohl to the list of venerable futurists who did not predict the cell phone. Though he does predict large flat-screen arrays, roll up keyboards and earbuds. He even mentions something we'd recognize as a wireless network connected PDA. But it's only a convenient throwaway prop to get through a minor scene. The implications are not explored. Overall, the book is cassette futurism at its finest.
 
I just finished Squeeze Me, Carl Hiaasen's first adult novel since Razor Girl in 2016. The first edition came out in August 2020, but I read the updated paperback version from May 2021.

Dedication:
In memory of my brother Rob​

Here's a sample from Chapter 5 that won't spoil much:
At first, she had disliked the code name chosen for her by the Secret Service. Then she'd watched a YouTube video about actual mockingbirds, which were crafty, graceful, and melodious.

Like me, she thought. Once upon a time.

The President's Secret Service code name was "Mastodon." He loved it.

"Perfect!" he'd boomed when he was told. "Fearless, smart, and tough."

And enormous, she'd said to herself. Don't forget ******* enormous.

On only his second day in the White House, the President had ordered his chief of staff to arrange a trip to the National Zoo for a close-up look at a real mastodon....
Click to expand...
 
Dawn Raffel's book on the Coney Island baby incubators:

The Strange Case of Dr Couney - How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies
 
Reminds me of the wonderful novel by Marina Lewycka:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Tractors_in_Ukrainian


Nikolai, a former engineer who emigrated to Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War, is writing a history of tractors in Ukrainian, translated extracts from which appear throughout the novel. In the process of sorting out Nikolai's marital entanglements, Nadezhda also uncovers secrets from her family's history and learns about their experiences during the Ukrainian famine and Stalin's purges.
Click to expand...

For anyone who wants to take their mind off world news whilst still keeping in flavour and up to date with recent history.
 
JimOfAllTrades said:
I'm now reading the Odd Thomas series of books by Dean Koontz. There are eight books:
Odd Thomas
Forever Odd
Brother Odd
Odd Hours
Odd Apocalypse
Odd Interlude
Deeply Odd
Saint Odd

These were written over 10 years or so beginning in 2003. I'm told there is one more shorter novel, but it wasn't in the collection I bought.

I've read the first two, and I enjoyed them and am looking forward to the rest.
Click to expand...

I finished the eight books two or three weeks ago. A pretty good series but had some weaknesses. The main character, Odd Thomas, is 21 years old, but in many ways acts like a world weary 50- or 60-year-old. Complains about how the world has gone downhill, how people don't interact as they should and prefer their TV, movies, and the internet, and just about everything else except going outside and yelling "Get off my lawn!". Granted, he's written as a special type, with knowledge beyond what you'd expect a normal person to have, but it gets to be a little much in some of the later books.

On the other hand, his character is trying constantly to do the right thing, striving against some pretty terrible things and people. And some of the supporting characters in the last couple of books are pretty cool, even if not explained much.

All in all, worth reading and pretty entertaining to the end.
 
Last week I read two books, "The Ark" and "The Anvil", both by Christopher Coates. These are parallel novels, taking place over the same time span starting in the very near future but follow two different groups of people.

They are end of civilization stories and follow the various characters in the run up to and in the aftermath of the event that kills almost everyone on the planet. They're both fairly short and read quickly, I think I read them in a long evening each.

I liked the characters and the technology, and the setting (especially in "The Ark") was pretty interesting. It kind of felt like the endings were a little rushed, but in the context of the stories I think it worked, and honestly it felt right to wrap the stories instead of drawing them out.

Worth reading.
 
JimOfAllTrades said:
I finished the eight books two or three weeks ago. A pretty good series but had some weaknesses. The main character, Odd Thomas, is 21 years old, but in many ways acts like a world weary 50- or 60-year-old. Complains about how the world has gone downhill, how people don't interact as they should and prefer their TV, movies, and the internet, and just about everything else except going outside and yelling "Get off my lawn!". Granted, he's written as a special type, with knowledge beyond what you'd expect a normal person to have, but it gets to be a little much in some of the later books.

On the other hand, his character is trying constantly to do the right thing, striving against some pretty terrible things and people. And some of the supporting characters in the last couple of books are pretty cool, even if not explained much.

All in all, worth reading and pretty entertaining to the end.
Click to expand...
That's Koontz leaking through.
 
catsmate said:
That's Koontz leaking through.
Click to expand...

That seems very possible. I know nothing about Koontz, I've read several of his books but never seen or read an interview with him or anything about him that I recall. But it seemed out of character enough for this character (that sounds weird, somehow) that I thought it might be the author's views.

That was the biggest problem I had with the books; it was enough to pull me out of the stories at times. But I might be more needled by that than some, I suppose many people would think it fit in fine.
 
Lennart Hyland said:
[/B]

To honor the genius Hilary Mantel I will try her french revolution book A Place of Greater Safety.
Click to expand...

The swedish translation is divided into three books. They're called Liberté, Égalité, and Franternité. I've finished the first two. Quite different from her Cromwell trilogy but still entertaining.

Though I'm gonna take a break and continue with Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad instead.
 
Re-reading The Day of the Jackal, some Solar Pons, plus Leif and Caldwell's The Devil's Advocate's.
 
Russ Jones's 'The Decade In Tory' a fairly large expansion and compendium of his long-standing tweets covering 'The Week in Tory'

https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire

Hilarious and depressing at the same time, and a real monster at over 500 pages (plus about 150 pages of references).

As it was crowd funded through Unbound, it's even got my name in the back :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom