What Have You Read Lately? Part 2, more rants, raves, reviews

As of today, this thread numbers a whopping 83 pages, 1243 replies, and 12,596 views. So, I'm splitting it, and locking part 1.

Computer: Take me to the last page of Part 1!

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Copied are the most recent Part 1 posts, to add continuity to the discussion:

Aja Jin posted on Aug 14 2008, 01:51 PM:

agreed, a very good book

have you read The Practice Effect ?

meersan replies, on Aug 14 2008, 09:21 PM:


I also love Kiln People. I'd love a sequel. I put down Rainbows End halfway through because it felt like it was getting too predictable. I just couldn't stand how the "innocent, but formerly a jerk" protagonist was set up to be sympathetic because his ex-wife and kin kept snooping on him expecting him to keep being a jerk. I probably have too many jerks in my family to feel much sympathy for him. Between that and Earth I'm becoming somewhat suspicious of female characters in Brin novels. Still I'll probably finish Rainbows End one of these days.


Recently finished:
Rimrunners: Compared to the other A/U books it had one of the least interesting plots. It's certainly daring to make your protagonist a cold-blooded murderer. I also thought it was interesting how Yeager glibly tells her new section head she doesn't steal when she'd been living off a dead man's bank account for most of the week. The plot involved Yeager worrying about a nutcase fellow employee without much change of scenery until the end. Happily the book was too short to get monotonous. Perhaps I'm betraying my personal background again, but it's a bad idea to get involved with people who have serious mental illness and think you can change them for the better. That's too much responsibility for one person with zero training. If you're family or have a prior relationship that's one thing, but sheesh. Yeager lacked strong internal conflict and the little that appeared at the end (when she was facing Africa) was not drawn as sharply as it could have been. I also don't quite understand how the subplot with the mean lieutenant was resolved. If the guy's a murderous sociopath I don't see how anything's resolved even if he now thinks Bet is a good crew member. Overall, however, it was a painless read and well-paced.

Both RR and Finity's End have the device of a crewmember trying to fit in on a new ship. FE comes across as the superior effort. FE's Fletcher (same given name as the doctor's surname in RR) had more clearly defined internal conflict than Yeager: "I love planets, I hate spaceships so get me outta here" vs "I used to fight you guys when I was a marine but I seem pretty cool with things overall". There might have been more suspense over Yeager's secret marine past, but it never seemed like something to be worried about. FE had gorgeous Pell-side interludes, frequent station visits to break things up, and plot twists that weren't telegraphed chapters in advance.

Pride of Chanur: I've a new appreciation for the atevi in Foreigner now that I've seen the kif and the t'ca and their pals. I thought this novel contained a more intriguing depiction of nonhuman intelligence, and that puts the atevi in perspective, for me. I confess I was far more interested in Tully than I was in whatever Pyanfar had going on. This novel would have made it to my favorites if it had a more interesting protagonist.

One thing I've noticed is a great many people in CJC's novels have blond hair. Tully, whose name is very similar to the also-blond Joshua Talley; and then there's Sandor Kreja and Bet Yeager and of course the fair-haired Bren Cameron.

I also reread Merchanter's Luck for the third time in a month. It seems a great deal of trouble would have been avoided if Sandor could have just sat everyone down and explained everything, and while of course there's excellent character motivation to explain why he doesn't, it's still a bit frustrating to have huge emotional misunderstandings simply because people are too wounded to tell anybody what's going on. I'm also curious to know what happens after ML, because we know from RR and other books that the big plan to trade goods from Sol through the Hinder Stars is doomed to fail. Four stations on the route get mothballed when a new jumppoint is discovered. Sandor says he'd never give Dublin a stake to upgrade Le Cygne's engines, so does he change his mind or what? Exactly what route and cargo do they end up using? I must know!

Xheralt continues the conversation on Aug 14 2008, 09:50 PM:

QUOTE (meersan @ Aug 15 2008, 12:21 AM):

And, as I commented about Angel With A Sword earlier (elsewhere?), Tom Mondragon is cut from almost exactly the same cloth. I hadn't lumped Bet in, because blondness and gender aside, she lacks the studied upper-class elegance of Tom/Bren/Tully. Merely being blond isn't that much of an identifier.

Aja Jin - yes, I read "The Practice Effect". THAT book seemed rather taken with its own clever plot-conceit: the reverse law of thermodynamics (apparently). Characters kinda...didn't...matter. But it's also been well over a decade, and re-reading a synopsis (in the Wikipedia? I can't recall for certain) makes me think I missed something in my last readthrough - so I'll probably go there again.

After "Kiln People" and "The Peshawar Lancers"...I'm not sure. I've re-read all of Bren's books this year, as well as Chanur and the books of the mri. I'm trending towards apocolypse scifi again - I'll have to see where that pendulum takes me. Perhaps to Vinge; maybe some Banks. It's been awhile since "Consider Phlebas"; "Matter" was brilliant.

Now, back to the claypeople.

ok, since last post here, I believe, I have read The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D; Watership Down by Richard Adams; The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian; Gilead by Marilynne Robinson; and I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers, by Tim Madigan.

neither The Art or I'm Proud of You was written by the great men themselves, but can I say that it is amazing how similar Fred Rogers and the Dalai Lama seem to be? I'm Proud of You touches the humanity of the reader by the way Madigan shares his sufferings and how he overcame them, whereas The Art discusses, often from a western psychological point of view, how to apply wisdom to your life and what it really means to have a common humanity.

Watership Down is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I immediately went out and ordered it in hardcover as I know I will be rereading it at least once every two years for the rest of my life. O'Brian never, ever disappoints even my outrageous expectations. and Gilead...

Housekeeping was a very haunting book. Gilead certainly seems haunting at times, and Robinson’s main character is leaving this life, which lends palpably to its ethereal quality. but Gilead seems more revealing and mature somehow, and, whereas I lent my copy of Housekeeping back out to the world, I’m keeping Gilead for a reread or two, right here on my shelf.

John Ames is a preacher who married young, but lost his wife and child young too. he remarried very late in life, and now he is 80 years old and dying, with a 7 year old son. this book is written as if a letter to that son, who otherwise will never know his father.

it tells about his [John Ames’] childhood, and his father the pacifist (who was also a preacher), his grandfather the radical abolitionist (who was a preacher as well), and his best friend (you guessed it- also a preacher)’s son, who was named John Ames in his honor and grew up to break the hearts of all who loved him. three wars are encompassed in this tale, as well as the Great Depression, the advent of television, and the ending of a way of life.

John Ames’ reflection on all of this, his personal struggles with all of this, and his all-encompassing joy and love of life, even with its terrible sufferings and inexplicable turnings, is highly original and ultimately universal at the same time.

Gilead is earthier and more hopeful really than Housekeeping, with greater insight (if possible) (some of which is due to the difference in the narrating character, of course, which also applies to the maturity, I'm sure), and evokes shades of Faulkner while written in that resounding poetic bliss that is Robinson’s style.

*thank you, Kokipy-ji!*

any takers on Brin's Uplift Series? I have some issues with Brin's writing/characters in general, but I still enjoyed many re-reads of Startide Rising, and the story arc was very inventive if a bit over-reaching...

I've read Glory Season, Earth, and The Practice Effect, but not The Kiln People.

Moira-ji, I am so glad you liked Gilead! I owe it to you because I would not have read it had you not recommended Housekeeping{which I also liked immensely but not quite as much as Gilead}. I think Gilead is the finest thing I have read in many a year. I liked the way the plot developed - for a while one did not realize there was a plot, it sort of crept up on you. And John Ames reminded me, very oddly but very truly, of my atheist father - I think they know all the same stories and all the same people.

In between addicted bouts of Desktop Tower I have been reading the sequels to M.A. Forster's Zan book. I think I enjoyed the trilogy more than any single stand alone one. there are always interesting twists. My favorite was the second, the Warriors of Dawn. I thought the resolution in The Day of the Kesh was a little weak, albeit novel.

one's old SFBC copies of "The Chronicles of Amber", volumes 1 and 2, have been located in the archives.... underway with the The Guns of Avalon

paperback copies are still missing

Moira, I'm game to discuss the Uplift books. Loved 'em....at least, Startide Rising and The Uplift Wars. I've read the subsequent trilogy, but.....maybe it's because I read the first two one after the other, and the trilogy spaced out according to publishing date, but they just didn't grab me the same way. I couldn't keep track of the characters and motivations. Someday, I plan to find where all three have got off to, and read them all again. Maybe I'll like them better, then.

Aja Jin, in my opinion, the Amber books rank up in the "better than sliced bread" category. And, as an extra bonus, the Diceless Role Playing Game based on it is very useful for making those miles just fly by on long trips and other long, dull times. Some people don't like the Merlin books as well as the ones starring Corwin, but I like 'em just fine.

My favorite part of the Amber books was the discriptions of 'world walking'. He never did enough of it after the first one. All that was in the first collection I gave away. *sigh*

"World Walking". Strange - I'm reading Charles Stross's Family books which use the exact same term. Alternate timelines?

No. Those of the royal blood of Amber called it "walking in Shadow", as all alternate worlds were actually "shadows" of Amber, the only true world.

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Recently, and at long last, I have acquired and read the final part of The Incal, the awesome graphic novel by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean "Moebius" Giraud.

On a related note: despite the authors' claims (and a lawsuit against Luc Besson which they lost), the movie The Fifth Element, despite having thematic and visual elements in common, is not just The Incal with the serial numbers filed off.

Just read Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population . Took a while to get into it. But when I did, I really liked it. Very different, both for sf and for Moon.No young girl in spaceships. Just an uneducated, but intelligent, old woman who manages to communicate with the aliens.

Still reading Pratchett - I just started Thief of Time this evening. Also picked up the illustrated Coraline by Neil Gaiman. It'll be interesting to see how the artist's version coincides with the one I carry in my head. Anyway it'll be good practice for when the movie comes out in 2009.

And speaking of Pratchett and Gaiman, have you read their Good Omens? It's one I always recommend to friends.