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davidgoldfarbJanuary:
Watership Down, Richard Adams. This was a favorite book of mine when I was small. I'd had a hold on the library's e-book copy, which finally came in. I was curious to see how it would hold up. Well, it was still an enjoyable read; I will say that when I was small I didn't see the anti-intellectualism expressed as a disdain for modern art. (The only acceptable form of art is storytelling: twice in the book we get poetry instead and both times it's a symptom of societal illness.) The hippie rabbits in one story who don't appreciate what their parents went through in the war, that also went by me.
Red Moon, Kim Stanley Robinson. This is another Stan Robinson near-future novel. If you liked New York 2140 or the Mars trilogy, you'll probably like it; and if you hated those, then you won't.
Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire. The latest "Wayward Children" novella, and again that probably tells you if you'll like it or not. I enjoyed it greatly, although partway through I found myself wondering whether the plot was really going to be as straightforward as it looked, or whether there was going to be some twist. Also the Doctor Who shoutout becomes all but completely explicit.
Becoming Superman, J. Michael Straczynski. I find JMS's prose to have a lot of I-want-to-read-it-osity, to the point where I bought his book about scriptwriting even though I have no interest in writing scripts. This book has that. It's also got a whole lot of pain and suffering, on the part of both JMS himself and his family. If, like me, you enjoyed Babylon 5 and want to read more about how it got made, that's in there (along with JMS's perspective on just why Crusade crashed and burned) but there's a whole lot more.
Standard Modern Precision, Daniel Neill. A specialized book about bridge bidding, of little interest to anyone who's not a tournament bridge player.
February:
A Mist of Grit and Splinters, Graydon Saunders. The latest Commonweal novel; and the first where I wondered whether Graydon was starting to resist his editor's influence. In all the others, I felt like I could keep track of what was going on and who was doing what. Here, not so much. There were conversations — several of them — that I had real difficulty following. Maybe if I'd borne down and read through the scenes several times I could have deciphered things, but I wasn't involved enough to feel it worth the effort. A bit of a disappointment.
The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman. Further adventures of Lyra as a grown-up. Lyra has a bit more internal conflict than she did in the original trilogy. Ends on a cliffhanger. (Naming your Ayn Rand expy "Brande" is a bit on the nose.)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine. Space opera in which the galactic empire is based on (or at least inspired by) pre-Columbian Meso-American cultures, which is certainly something different. I'd heard a lot of good things about it and wanted to see whether it would make my Hugo nominating ballot. It didn't, but I won't be surprised or displeased if it is indeed shortlisted.
Paladin's Grace, "T. Kingfisher". Another delightful fantasy romance in her "Anuket City" setting. According to the author, this was supposed to have been the sequel to Swordheart (it isn't) and the highest-level plot outline of both that book and this one are pretty similar. If you liked that you'll definitely like this.
Watership Down, Richard Adams. This was a favorite book of mine when I was small. I'd had a hold on the library's e-book copy, which finally came in. I was curious to see how it would hold up. Well, it was still an enjoyable read; I will say that when I was small I didn't see the anti-intellectualism expressed as a disdain for modern art. (The only acceptable form of art is storytelling: twice in the book we get poetry instead and both times it's a symptom of societal illness.) The hippie rabbits in one story who don't appreciate what their parents went through in the war, that also went by me.
Red Moon, Kim Stanley Robinson. This is another Stan Robinson near-future novel. If you liked New York 2140 or the Mars trilogy, you'll probably like it; and if you hated those, then you won't.
Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire. The latest "Wayward Children" novella, and again that probably tells you if you'll like it or not. I enjoyed it greatly, although partway through I found myself wondering whether the plot was really going to be as straightforward as it looked, or whether there was going to be some twist. Also the Doctor Who shoutout becomes all but completely explicit.
Becoming Superman, J. Michael Straczynski. I find JMS's prose to have a lot of I-want-to-read-it-osity, to the point where I bought his book about scriptwriting even though I have no interest in writing scripts. This book has that. It's also got a whole lot of pain and suffering, on the part of both JMS himself and his family. If, like me, you enjoyed Babylon 5 and want to read more about how it got made, that's in there (along with JMS's perspective on just why Crusade crashed and burned) but there's a whole lot more.
Standard Modern Precision, Daniel Neill. A specialized book about bridge bidding, of little interest to anyone who's not a tournament bridge player.
February:
A Mist of Grit and Splinters, Graydon Saunders. The latest Commonweal novel; and the first where I wondered whether Graydon was starting to resist his editor's influence. In all the others, I felt like I could keep track of what was going on and who was doing what. Here, not so much. There were conversations — several of them — that I had real difficulty following. Maybe if I'd borne down and read through the scenes several times I could have deciphered things, but I wasn't involved enough to feel it worth the effort. A bit of a disappointment.
The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman. Further adventures of Lyra as a grown-up. Lyra has a bit more internal conflict than she did in the original trilogy. Ends on a cliffhanger. (Naming your Ayn Rand expy "Brande" is a bit on the nose.)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine. Space opera in which the galactic empire is based on (or at least inspired by) pre-Columbian Meso-American cultures, which is certainly something different. I'd heard a lot of good things about it and wanted to see whether it would make my Hugo nominating ballot. It didn't, but I won't be surprised or displeased if it is indeed shortlisted.
Paladin's Grace, "T. Kingfisher". Another delightful fantasy romance in her "Anuket City" setting. According to the author, this was supposed to have been the sequel to Swordheart (it isn't) and the highest-level plot outline of both that book and this one are pretty similar. If you liked that you'll definitely like this.
