And, onto Book One of #HaveRead for 2024 RF Kuang's The Poppy War: Woman, Warrior, Weapon, God.
Friend on Slack said she liked it but could not get through the darkness and violence. But much of that was real. It happened, but has been repurposed into this other tale. The characters are vivid and according to the acknowledgements there could have been many more...
How will Jiang resurface in the next volume?
Read after Yellowface which is so perfectly realistic, did not expect this vision.
And, now #haveread Books Two and Three of 2024 are also done. I stuck with the Poppy War through "The Dragon Republic" and "The Burning God." Glad I did in the end although there were a few points where the romance plots dragged, but the analogue history kept popping in often enough.
The outsider kid goes to school and discovers powers is better than HP. The military academy w/o anything like Ender's Game is good. War is worse than hell in these books ...
@gotanda
In rapid succession hit Books Five and Six for the year.
Five!
Becky Chambers' "A Psalm for the Wild Born" had a good pace to it. Sibling Dex is a relatable protagonist and Mosscap a good interlocutor. (Spoiler deleted) I really enjoyed Wayfarers, but this feels different without the family ensemble. World building is interesting but not sure how well the cosmology and philosophy will hold up. I hope they do. Looking forward to the next in the series. #HaveRead
Book Seven this year was "Crook's Manifesto" by Colson Whitehead. So much to say about this book. The episodes through a decade of a life was a great structure. Loved the Zippo interlude. Was reminded of Whitehead's anhedonia. Ray Carney shows no joy.
There is violence. There is trauma. But not as absolutely depressing as "Nickel Boys."
Highly recommend.
Have to ask my dad if he played ringolevio growing up.
Guess I am out of order and have to go back to "Harlem Shuffle."
The swerve into tight espionage and eastern Europeanish neofascist politics was not what I expected but was just perfect. Will be in Bucharest and Belgrade later this year.
The personal and sexual tension between the characters was done really well and complicated the plot in a rich way. It reminded me a lot of Le Guin in the best possible ways. Would recommend.
Book Twelve was Clifford Simak's "All Flesh is Grass." I *really* liked this and wish I had discovered Simak when I was a kid. None of his books were in the Lenox Public Library. I know. I read the entire SF section.
The premise is relatively simple. An invisible dome locks in a small village. Stephen King basically plagiarized the hell out of this.
1/
The novel works out feelings of loss as a small town disappears even before the dome. Aimlessness and dissatisfaction of never having left that small town. Perceived failure.
THen the SF elements are quite strong for a slim novel. A lot packed in here. Weird telephones that would not be out of place in PKD's Ubik a few years later.
Sensory disruptions and a horror out of space far better than HPL (and not super racist).
Simak is a very different writer from either of those two. 2/
#TheMountainInTheSea is near-future SF that will stand up to passing of time. The DIANIMA corp, robot slave fishing ships, ubiquitous drones are all pretty much happening now or close to.
It so obviously benefits from the author's depth of professional knowledge and experience. Need to get Eduardo Kohn’s "How Forests Think."
I may never eat #octopus again, though. #haveread twenty-eight
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