The Mote in God’s Eye, Niven ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Time Machine, Wells ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Starship Troopers, Heinlein ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Gas, Platt ⭐️⭐️ The Demolished Man, Bester ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Old Man’s War, Scalzi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Stars My Destination, Bester ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What did you read last month, and do you have any thoughts about them you'd like to share?
Whether you talk about books you finished, books you started, long term projects, or all three, is up to you. So for those who read at a more leisurely pace, or who have just been too busy to find the time, it's perfectly fine to talk about something you're still reading even if you're not finished.
(If you're like me and have trouble remembering where you left off, here's a handy link to last month's thread.)
The Mote in God’s Eye, Niven ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Time Machine, Wells ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Starship Troopers, Heinlein ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Gas, Platt ⭐️⭐️ The Demolished Man, Bester ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Old Man’s War, Scalzi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Stars My Destination, Bester ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
*Al Clark* by Jonathan G Meyer - this novel is a bit campy, having cavemen and dinosaurs juxtaposed with modern humans settling a new planet after things don't quite go right with their colony ship. It mostly follows an amnesiac man who must discover his own past to save the colony from destruction. Well written and engaging, its an exciting adventure with lots of open questions left for the sequels. "Imposter" and "King of the Elves" by Philip K Dick - knocked off two more of Dick's short stories. Enjoyed both, but no particular notes. *RAMmed: A Lifeline Novel* by James Belmont (ARC) - current read 50% complete - this is a sequel to Belmont's first novel, *Lifeline*, which was about a future London serial killer manipulating a global system tied into all aspects of life called Lifeline to stalk and murder their victims. This sequel shifts the story to a courtroom where a robot inhabited by an AI is seeking its freedom from the Lifeline corporation/government. If that sound a bit like one of my favorite ST:TNG episodes "The Measure of a Man", you wouldn't be wholly incorrect, but there a lot more going on. Not only is Phoenix's sentience questioned, but the manner of its creation and what ultimately its freedom, and very existence, portends for humanity.
Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl 8 books, with a psychotic AI (the only scific part) and his not quite follow up book Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinninan (the scific moral is on the last page, but don't skip to it.) Also N Joseph Glass 12 Plans from Outer Space, a riff on the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space Also K.S.Robinson's Ministry for the Future.
It seems like one of the major themes of Dinniman's work (and probably spec fic as a whole) is who gets to be a "person"- humanizing and de-objectifying marginalized groups (or standins for them) in a way that's approachable to the mass market. And I dig it! I have had Ministry for the Future on my TBR for a while, and I'm looking forward to it. Was it pretty standard KSR?
Interesting, I'd classify it all as 'scifi' while acknowledging that its a fluid definition. Everything in the story is presented as advanced alien tech.
The Ophiuchi Hotline -- Varley, John: 4/5, starts rather slow, but the worldbuilding eventually makes up for it, a pretty fun read eventually, though the lack of resolution means a star knocked down for me. Definitely going to read more from Varley, he seems just my kind of author.
Small Things Like These -- Keegan, Claire: 2/5, GR challenge read NOT a sci-fi in any way, shape or form. Meh. It tries to deal with those Magdalene laundry things, but it's pretty minimal and surface-level. Not the best execution.
Tatja Grimm's World -- Vinge, Vernor: 3/5. After enjoying A Fire Upon the Deep so much I decided to go back and read Vinge in the publishing order. This is a fix-up of his three previously published novellas; I found it very uneven and bearing many hallmarks of a first published work. The first story was very nice, the setting is pretty fun and the little twists were interesting enough, even if predictable. The others went downhill from there though.
I Who Have Never Known Men -- Harpman, Jacqueline: 3/5. Another GR challenge read. Even though it gets mentioned here pretty often, it's not really in my sphere of interest. There's next to no plot in this, but I found the exploration, both of the physical world and the inner thoughts of the MC interesting enough to make up for it, but not enough to really grab me. Didn't like some outdated takes on certain issues though.
Shanidar and Other Stories -- Zindell, David: 2/5, a free ebook from the author's mailing list, read in preparation for the Neverness. There's something in the author's prose that just doesn't work for me -- I get bored with it easily. Way too many pointless digressions, even in the short form. Some of these were his first published stories and it shows.
Neverness -- Zindell, David: 2/5, all the problems mentioned with the short stories exist in this, except upped to eleven. There's a lot of irrelevant to the plot, tedious infodumping, a lot of boring digressions. Which is a pity, 'cause I really liked the imagination that went into creating the world in this. But yeah, when I get a promise of a space pilot, I don't necessarily want to read hundreds of pages about daily life and customs of some neo-savage tribe or other. And the Marty-Stu type protagonist does not help. Nor does the bullshit ending. Won't be reading more from Zindell.
Moderan -- Bunch, David R.: 2/5, DNF about 40% in. Super interesting world and absolutely zero plot to go with it. It was way too tedious for me.
Inverted World -- Priest, Christopher: 4.5 rounded up to 5/5. This was a rare book that was interesting for me start to finish with almost no sections that could've been shortened (there were one or two, but generally there's no pointless padding in this,) there's no infodumps -- all the vital information's revealed just as the MC/POV character gets it >!or do they?!< and nothing's really over-explained. Pity the rest of his catalogue does not appeal -- I'd love to read more from this author.
The Summer War -- Novik, Naomi: 2.5 rounded up to 3/5, a GR challenge read. A fairy tale style fantasy thing with fairies and such, not necessarily my thing, but it was short and a quick read.
The Last Contract of Isako -- Lee, Fonda: 4/5. The setting is a fairly standard corporate dystopia with a little airlock-related spin. The plot did keep me interested, maybe not the edge-of-my-seat interested, but interested. Some sections could've been edited out/shortened though. But every time it was about to overstay its welcome, something engaging happened to pull me back in, so it never really got too boring. I also did enjoy that there was no magic fix of an ending in this. Probably that alone gained it a star.
Now reading: Tau Zero by Poul Anderson, but I am finding the incessant infodumps extremely tedious to get through, if it doesn't improve, I might just ditch it in favour of Samuel R. Delany's Out of the Dead City, which is next on my TBR.
Tau Zero shows up on a lot of "best of" and "top #" lists, but to me it was just a middling 3/5. That >!Sweden is the governing body of a post-nuclear earth!< is hilarious to me though.
I'm partway thought The Ophiuchi Hotline and was just about to give up, I guess I'll go on a little further. Right now it feels like a lot of interesting ideas that are barely touched on while the MC plods along.
I am slowly making my way through Book of the New Sun again. Currently towards the end of Sword of the Lictor. I have listened to the audiobooks 3 times, but this is my first time actually reading. It blows me away how these books seem fresh every time I approach them and how I am always seeing new things that I missed before.
Only got through a couple books this month, both well worth reading:
so I finally made it through TheRevelation Space trilogy plus Chasm City. This was my third try. The first two times I DNF’d because I really didn’t like any of the characters. I tried to set that aside for my third attempt and finally managed to get through all four books. The books were epic with lots of interesting ideas. I eventually grew to like some of the characters. I found them a bit depressing and I read a lot of dystopian books. I don’t think I’ll read any more in the series though. I do still have his Blue Remembered Earth series on my TBR.
“The Kaiju Preservation Society” by John Scalzi - 2.5/5 stars. It’s a fun read, and the fictional science behind the kaiju is really interesting. The novel falls down in several places, however. The descriptions of the kaiju themselves are vague and lacklustre, with Scalzi apparently satisfying himself with letting the reader know that these animals are really big and that’s all you need to know. With a couple exceptions, most of the characters are just the same character in different bodies, a character who apparently learned how to communicate with other human beings by browsing tumblr. Main character Jamie is absolutely insufferable, and almost every page does or says something that makes me think I’d actively avoid spending time with him if he existed in real life. Finally, Scalzi apparently has a vendetta against facial expressions. The phrase “My/his/her/their face did a thing” appears throughout the novel enough times that if I see it in any future book I read I’ll be forced to abandon it immediately. There are lots of fun moments and cool science here, which for me made it worth reading. But it could’ve been a great novel and instead it’s only fine.
Slow Gods by Claire North- I'm actively working on reading more "recent" books and have seen this recommended on this sub several times. I really enjoyed it. I had just read Embassytown by Mieville last month, so it was kind of funny to find myself in another story centering on an FTL pilot. I identified with a lot of the narrator's feelings of otherness. It was a pretty decent story! Bobiverse 3-5- I came back to this because my partner really loves it and I enjoy it, while not being a super huge fan. I am going to continue the series, as I'm interested in seeing where the story goes. I enjoy the competence porn for sure! Started the audio book for Gardens of the Moon (Mazalan 1) and realized it's something my partner will likely really enjoy, so I paused that to listen to together. The Scar China Mieville- originally started this right after Embassytown and decided I needed a mini Mieville break. As always, completely engrossed by his worldbuilding. Hoping to finish this one in August.
9 books and shorts finished this month.
Diaspora (Greg Egan) had been on my to-read list for a while and I finally got around to it. Fantastic, mind-bending book. Asks a lot of the reader but is very much worth it. Seeing >!Yatima gain self-awareness!< was a fantastic start, and really endeared the character to me for the rest of the book.
Five Ways to Forgiveness (Ursula K Le Guin) I’d read The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness previously, and had enjoyed both (the latter especially), and so I was eager to get more from the Hainish cycle. The interconnectivity of the stories was really well done, and seeing characters pop up in unexpected ways was great. To be honest, I think the original printing as Four Ways to Forgiveness would’ve been as enjoyable to me - the last story didn’t really grab me as much as the others, but it certainly didn’t detract.
The Player of Games (Iain M Banks) My first foray into the Culture series of books, and I’m really glad I did. The premise of the game and how it fit into the society of the empire Gergeh was visiting was really engaging, as was the meddling of the drone he was paired with.
Blue Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson) I’ve just hit the halfway mark, but so far so good. I’m enjoying the character development that Ann is having this time around, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the dynamic between her and Sax takes them.
Last month I read *Roadside Picnic* by the Strugatsky brothers which was fantastic and bleak. I hadn't ready any of their work before. Added *Hard to Be a God* on my TBR short list. Also finished up *Helsreach* by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Warhammer 40,000). It was good but not as good as other 40k readers had hyped it up to be. Started reading *Deathwatch* by Steve Parker which I'm enjoying significantly more thusfar.