Which book are you reading now? Volume XIV

[tjs282]

Just finished The Fifth Season by N.K.Jemisin. Really good (took me only a couple of days). Have the sequels as well, so they will no doubt be consumed at least as fast.

Uhhh, yeah...

The Obelisk Gate was done in a day, give or take (over the Whitsun/Pentecost weekend).

Already some way into The Stone Sky.

 

[Paul in Saudi]

That new book about the US Secret Service.

 

[Kyriakos]

Roughly 1/4 into the DeLong book, and nearing the end of the Blackwood novelette.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Uhhh, yeah...

The Obelisk Gate was done in a day, give or take (over the Whitsun/Pentecost weekend).

Already some way into The Stone Sky.

That is a great series.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I have just finished reading:

Tempest

by

Julie Cross

Copyright 2012

that I picked up for a pound at Poundland.

It is a good time travel adventure novel, but slightly spoiled
for a purist Sci-Fi fan like me, by a too girly romance stance.

 

[Kyriakos]

Finished reading THE MAN WHOM THE TREES LOVED.
44 pages of next to nothing.
It is somewhat similar to Lovecraft's The Color out of Space, but at least the latter provides a reason for the inanimate objects to acquire some form of life.

 

[Kyriakos]

Started reading Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind.

 

[Narz]

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Really moving, never cried multiple times reading another book. I finished a month ago but it stayed in my mind for a couple weeks afterwards.

 

[Josu]

Ended Klara and the sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
3.5 out of 5.
The book introduces a future in which most of kids are genetically lifted to get better academic abilities.
This lifting causes some kids to be constantly ill. So they receive their schooling at home. As there is no socializacion some parents buy Artificial Friends as companion for their kids.
This starting point enters some ideas which would be a interesing for a philosophical and ethics debate.
Good book, all chapters but chapter 4 would be a 4 out of 5.

Spoiler :

Chapter 4 is the one in which Josie goes to the city in order to get a portrait
The portrait is not such portrait, they are making an Artificial Friend body where Josie will be bulked if dies due to her illness
It is the intriguing philosophical idea I was looking for when I choose this book, but IMHO is poorly driven, the author makes more emphasis in the disputation between Josies parents than in the idea.
Chapter also includes Rick's mother's try to convince his friend to help Rick.
It would be an interesting debate about if non modified people should have help to be accepted in the university, however the author, one more time, makes emphasis in the row between rick's mother and that university guy, than in the idea.
As consequence chapter 4 is more vague discussions than philosophical ones

Starting Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian

 

[Kyriakos]

Do artificial friends have to look good?

 

[EgonSpengler]

Just finished The Fifth Season by N.K.Jemisin. Really good (took me only a couple of days). Have the sequels as well, so they will no doubt be consumed at least as fast.

Uhhh, yeah...

The Obelisk Gate was done in a day, give or take (over the Whitsun/Pentecost weekend).

Already some way into The Stone Sky.

iirc, Jemisin was the first person to win 3 Hugo Awards in a row, and the first to win for all 3 books in a trilogy. There's a tv series in development, but God only knows how long that'll be.

Starting Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian

This is also in development (again), as either a movie or a series. I think I read that the screenwriter was going back to the first book, when Aubrey and Maturin first met, but wouldn't be able to call it Master & Commander because the Peter Weir movie used that title.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The Patrick O'Brian books would be awesome as a TV series. The books were so excellent!

Finished "Practical Utopia". Well written.

Spoiler :

• It posed a visionary look at how to restructure society to be more fair and more just.
• At a high level it was thorough it what it wanted to cover
• It scored points for outlining the the challenges of getting from here to there and the need for a plan.
• It presented a "perfect" end game for a worker's paradise stated in big chunks that were easily digestible as workable.
• It did admit that in this future a police force would still be needed
• Workers councils and caucuses can solve all problems better than smart people

• It ignored how to actually get there.
• It ignored any detail of what it would be like to live in such a state.
• It ignored all the trampling of rights and justice to make that vision happen.
• It ignored how people actually think and act and behave in the world.
• It pretended that religion does not exist now or in the future.
• Dismissed any benefits from markets or capitalism
• Ignored business realities and the issues of size.

As socialist propaganda: 8.5/10
As a way to think about workers' struggles: 8/10
As a help to understanding what living in a socialist nation would be like: 2/10

A useful guide for the already converted. Clear goals; thoughtful ideas for moving in that direction; practical tips. Seemed written with an understanding that it will probably never happen. It was mostly just more theory.

Thanks @Lexicus I would not have read this without your suggestion to do so.

 

[Synobun]

MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE by Kim Stanley Robinson. More of a series of essays about climate change than any sort of cohesive novel. I guess if you like being depressed with the facade of fiction covering it, this book is for you.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Just finished A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2019). Character-oriented sci-fi. Political intrigue. Good world-building. The blurb by Ann Leckie on the cover calls it "space opera", but I didn't think so. Strong elements of cyberpunk, but it's not exactly that, either. It's the beginning of a series, so it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. The second book, A Desolation Called Peace, was released in March.

(Book cover, not a spoiler.)

Spoiler :

 

[Synobun]

Just finished A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2019). Character-oriented sci-fi. Political intrigue. Good world-building. The blurb by Ann Leckie on the cover calls it "space opera", but I didn't think so. Strong elements of cyberpunk, but it's not exactly that, either. It's the beginning of a series, so it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. The second book, A Desolation Called Peace, was released in March.

(Book cover, not a spoiler.)

Spoiler :

Thanks for the rec.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Billions and Billions, by Carl Sagan.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Yesterday I finished reading:

Ten Low

by

Stark Holborn

Exclusive Interview: Ten Low Author Stark Holborn ... . (paulsemel.com)

Copyright 2021

that I paid list price for from Waterstones.

It was, as Adrian Tchaikovsy says:

"Fantastic, punchy SF action"

a western placed in a Sci-Fi context with invisible aliens selecting alternative probability.

Most of the heroes and villains were girlies, and chauvinist me noted its
extensive use of the woke style with "their" replacing 'his' and 'her'.

But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Synobun]

Most of the heroes and villains were girlies, and chauvinist me noted its
extensive use of the woke style with "their" replacing 'his' and 'her'.

Shakespeare was woke?

 

[Arakhor]

He probably was for his day. Plenty of female characters, some of whom are even strong characters.

 

[Kyriakos]

He probably was for his day. Plenty of female characters, some of whom are even strong characters.

Ever read Medea (or anything else by Euripides).
Strong female characters were the norm in greek tragedy. Often juxtaposed to other female characters with similar (or the same) situation and nearly antithetical behavior - for example, Antigone and her sister Ismene, in Sophokles' Antigone).