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

Started Steinbeck's East of Eden, which I somehow missed in all the American literature courses I took in grad school. So far, the characterization seems heavy handed and the biblical parallels clunky, but I'll bear with it.
 
Well it's definitely not Funeral in Berlin, by Len Deighton.

I enjoyed The Ipcress File. I enjoyed the Game, Set, Match trilogy. I find Deighton's voice delightful. I think he complements Le Carre and Fleming nicely. I was excited to see there are three more books featuring the narrator from Ipcress. But it turns out half of the quadrology is not available in ebook format. The first and third are, but the second and fourth are not.

It's also not Spy Hook, Deighton's fourth of nine Bernard Samson novels. Because, again, only the first three books in the series are available in ebook format.

So instead I've pulled down a sample of Fast Charlie, by Victor Gischler, an author I've never heard of. But it's published by Hard Case Crime, which I know from other reads. HCC has been doing a pretty good business, in neo-pulp fiction. They're not publishing the next Elmore Leonard or Richard Stark, but they're also not churning out AI-generated bad trash. Not yet, anyway. The prologue to this one is promising; we'll see how it goes.

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In other news, I think I'm going to DNF Dr Adder, by K. W. Jeter. A couple chapters in, it's exactly the kind of dystopian sci fi that would have gripped me as a teen in the 1980s, when it was written. And when I was reading Neuromancer, and The Tommyknockers, and The Book of the New Sun.

But it's no longer the 80s. I'm no longer a teenager. Instead I'm a little bit saddened to realize that I've lost some of my emotional connection to that formative decade in my life. I'm no longer as gripped by visions from and of that time.

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William Gibson famously complained that readers of his novels didn't understand that (his) science fiction is more about the time period in which it was written, than it is about the time period in which it was set. The vision of the future he lays out in Neuromancer is informed by the late Cold War, politics and social issues of the 70s and 80s, etc. He was frustrated by all the people complaining he was getting the future wrong, rather than understanding that he was talking about the present.

Anyway, thirty years on, turns out I'm not really in the mood for yet another 80s sci fi dystopia period piece. I'm barely in the mood for contemporary sci fi dystopia period pieces. On the other hand, I'm not really into squeecore, and a little Becky Chambers goes a long, long way with me.
 
Heaven's River: Bobiverse, Book 4

I really enjoyed the conclusion of Book 3. It actually felt like the end of the series and it wrapped nicely. I don't mind the author continuing, as there are clearly more stories that can be told. Not sure how much I'm liking this, though, but so far I'm happy to trust in my author and continue forward.
 
75 Short Masterpieces.
I made it through about 20 of them. While there were a couple of gems, it's hard to get invested much in a story that's only two or three pages (which many of them are). But what made me put it down is that many of them were inconclusive and seemingly pointless, and just left me with "What was that all about?"
 
Russia: A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East, 2011. Martin Sixsmith: journalist and TV presenter (BBC correspondent for several years).

Only about half-way through, but a good, easy-to-read overview of the last millenium's history. Main takeaway so far: much of the last few-centuries' problems stem from the destruction (physical and psychological) wrought by the Mongol invasion.
 
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RobRoy said:
Heaven's River: Bobiverse, Book 4

I really enjoyed the conclusion of Book 3. It actually felt like the end of the series and it wrapped nicely. I don't mind the author continuing, as there are clearly more stories that can be told. Not sure how much I'm liking this, though, but so far I'm happy to trust in my author and continue forward.
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I read those books a while back. A rare good find on Amazon unlimited. Good old grand scale SF.
 
Spektator said:
Started Steinbeck's East of Eden, which I somehow missed in all the American literature courses I took in grad school. So far, the characterization seems heavy handed and the biblical parallels clunky, but I'll bear with it.
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Finished? Did you like it?

I've finshed Neuromancer yesterday and I thought it was quite tough to read... dense or how to describe it. I think the swedish translation could have messed it up a bit for me. Might read it in english again in the future.

Will start with No Country For Old Men tonight! Looking forward to it!
 
Lennart Hyland said:
Finished? Did you like it?

I've finshed Neuromancer yesterday and I thought it was quite tough to read... dense or how to describe it. I think the swedish translation could have messed it up a bit for me. Might read it in english again in the future.

Will start with No Country For Old Men tonight! Looking forward to it!
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About halfway through. It's not that long, but complex; stylistically, I think it's way better than The Grapes of Wrath, many striking phrases, figures of speech, and descriptions of the environs. The characters are mostly interesting, with the exception of one who is full of what one of my English teachers said about Iago in Othello: "motiveless malignity." OTOH, some other characters are too good to be believed. I'll keep going and let you know.
 
Spektator said:
About halfway through. It's not that long, but complex; stylistically, I think it's way better than The Grapes of Wrath, many striking phrases, figures of speech, and descriptions of the environs. The characters are mostly interesting, with the exception of one who is full of what one of my English teachers said about Iago in Othello: "motiveless malignity." OTOH, some other characters are too good to be believed. I'll keep going and let you know.
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It's worth finishing in my view: I re-read it every few years.

The ending (timshel) is debatable over its accuracy regarding the Hebrew translation, but I think even if Steinbeck wasn't quite right with the meaning as it is stated in the book, the point he makes is what's important in terms of the novel's theme of the chance redemption or not.
 
I just got the complete volume of The Mad Scientists Club stories. I had read a couple way back when when they were featured in Boys' Life magazine. They are mildly interesting, but not really that big on science and not at all on characterization, except for appearances and singular traits. I'll be finishing this one but putting it in the donation kiosk or handing it to my great-nephew rather than keeping it in my library.
 
Lennart Hyland said:
Finished? Did you like it?

I've finshed Neuromancer yesterday and I thought it was quite tough to read... dense or how to describe it. I think the swedish translation could have messed it up a bit for me. Might read it in english again in the future.

Will start with No Country For Old Men tonight! Looking forward to it!
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Finished No Country For Old Men yesterday and it was a great read! Having seen the movie, it felt like reading a manuscript or such sometimes. The Coen brother did a good job with the movie though they left out some important parts from the book which was nice to read about.

Started reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt yesterday.
 
The Senior Girls' Bayonet Drill Team and Other Stories, by Joe R. Lansdale.

A recent collection of works by this author. He tends towards pulp fiction, with a side of weirdness. Some of these stories are whimsical, some are weird, and some are pretty dark.

In the story notes, Lansdale says the title story is one of his favorites. This from a man who's published hundreds of stories. It's definitely a story that's going to stick with me for a long time.
 
theprestige said:
The Senior Girls' Bayonet Drill Team and Other Stories, by Joe R. Lansdale.

A recent collection of works by this author. He tends towards pulp fiction, with a side of weirdness. Some of these stories are whimsical, some are weird, and some are pretty dark.

In the story notes, Lansdale says the title story is one of his favorites. This from a man who's published hundreds of stories. It's definitely a story that's going to stick with me for a long time.
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It sounds like a fantastic read.
 
Currently reading Unsong by Scott Alexander. This book in amazingly good.

The story is set in an alternate history universe where Apollo 8 crashed into the celestial sphere in which the Moon is embedded, and in doing so broke the cosmic machinery. There are weird religious/magical consequences which are seriously explored.

The world building is incredibly good. The story is fun and exciting and the characters are interesting and real. Several of the characters are meant to be very intelligent but they are actually written as intelligent people, not the tropes and tricks you usually see in fiction. And their foes are also intelligent in ways that make sense. When the protagonist makes a mistake and his enemies pick up on it, it's not because he's stupid but rather because he was acting too quickly without thinking carefully, the reader likely made the same mistake, but when pointed out it makes perfect sense that his intelligent foes would have done exactly what they did.

It's hard to explain the premise of the book in a way that does it justice. I recommend reading the first chapter (the prologue is cool but chapter 1 gives a better feel for the tone of the book and its themes), if you're into it you'll love the book if not you probably won't. I'm currently on chapter 16, so about a third of the way through. Just loving it so far, highly recommended.

Free version here: https://unsongbook.com

Though here's a caveat about the free version from the author:
I think the published version is an improvement over the original. I rewrote three or four chapters I wasn’t satisfied with, and changed a few character names to be more kabbalistically appropriate. The timeline and history have been rectified, and there are more details on the 2000 - 2015 period and how UNSONG was founded. I gave the political situation a little more depth (watch for the Archon of Arkansas, the Shogun of Michigan, and the Caliph of California). And the sinister Malia Ngo has been replaced by the equally sinister, but actual-character-development-having, Ash Bentham.

All of the parts that were actually good have been kept.
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Have lately been reading The Good Doctor of Warsaw, by Elisabeth Gifford -- lightly-fictionalised true story (splendidly written, compulsively readable) of the heroic Dr. Janusz Korczak, who ran an orphanage for Jewish children in Warsaw, did all he could after 1939, to keep same going; when the kids were apprehended and sent off to be gassed at Treblinka, he chose to go there with them and share their fate; although he would have had opportunities to save his own life. Found telling-therein, of how things were there-and-then, so harrowing that I had to close the book and stop reading, some two-thirds of the way through. Found self vividly fantasising about how -- had I been there then, at WW2's end -- a Russian soldier or an ordinary Pole, in a position to be able to with impunity, harm Germans; I'd have delighted in going mad doing so -- Rwanda-style re decades later -- indiscriminately, victims aged 0 -- 100, as hand-to-hand cruelly and messily as possible -- overdue vengeance, hoping for an inadequate "a couple or so, for one" -- "those bastards have written themselves out of the human race" -- which is not the position that I truly take, with head or the better part of my gut. I was born three years after end of WW2; realise that people have the capacity to be varyingly, and taking conditions etc. into account, anything between fiends and saints; that Germany and its people have done much re repentance and atonement; and I've visited Germany, and liked it, and met many very agreeable and likeable Germans. A great book; but in interests of personal mental health, have decided, for me, "enough already", and put it down.
 
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