Book Recommendations?

Spin is very good! The sequels are not.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Spin is very good! The sequels are not.

I had heard that...and decided to stop. Sometimes when you get done with a book, you have a hangover, a warm glow, and you decide to hop right into the sequels. I decided just to enjoy the ending of Spin and stop.

Ditto! Glad I made the right call.

Almost all of the Black Company books are Kindle daily deals today.

Thank you Michael! It's a bit weird, since the first one is still $9, but the other 8 are like $3 each. Good time to get the collection.

From that June article:

Brief Cases by Jim Butcher

The author’s latest entry in his Dresden Files urban fantasy series

Wow, cool!

is a 12-part short-story collection that includes classic tales as well as a brand-new novella

Argh. So it's mostly there to take up shelf space. I think he must be used up on that series.

Got a used copy of Far Tortuga by Matthielson I'm working through now.

Just finished Will Wight's latest novel in his Cradle series, Ghostwater. Pretty decent popcorn stuff, it is the fifth book in the series so more of the same if you liked the others. I swear though each book is shorter than the last, I was done with this one in three days. Free on Kindle Unlimited.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Just finished Will Wight's latest novel in his Cradle series, Ghostwater. Pretty decent popcorn stuff, it is the fifth book in the series so more of the same if you liked the others. I swear though each book is shorter than the last, I was done with this one in three days. Free on Kindle Unlimited.

Yeah, took me a couple hours. Second or third best in the series I think, certainly better than the 4th book which was just... not good.

A few years ago, I read and enjoyed Orconomics, by J. Zachary Pike. It's a delightful and charming book set in a D&D inspired universe that has a lot of fun with fantasy tropes while simultaneously pulling a LOT of inspiration from Terry Pratchett (not derivative, but definitely inspired by). I liked it a lot, while seeing a lot of the hallmarks of a newer writer.

The second book in Pike's series, Son of a Liche, is now available, and damn, what a difference a few years make. Son of a Liche is everything I loved about Orconomics, but richer and more ambitious, with Pratchett's influence still there but Pike's voice now distinct and welcome. It's a book that folds in class struggles, family dynamics, and more while effectively satirizing the mortgage crisis and fantasy tropes. It's nearly three times the length of Orconomics, but it's better in every way. I highly recommend it.

"The Dark Profit Saga." Ouch!

Thanks for the heads-up that the sequel is finally out. I liked Orconomics well enough, but felt it could have been developed more so I am interested to see what the second book brings to the world.

Maybe it's time to read Kitchen Confidential again... Bourdain had such a great writing voice.

I read The Windup Girl right before Three Body Problem and I think the latter suffered from it.

The former, dystopic near-future Thailand, felt so much more vibrant and real than the latter, which was based in (mostly) real world China. And I don't think it was a matter of translation. Possibly a matter of culture.

Windup was an impressive work. The clash of many plots, many characters, many cultures.

Problem had a video game as part of the central plot, only one so bizarre and opaque that I wonder if the author has ever played a video game. It ended with some really really weird takes on advanced technology and physics.

Both are Hugo winners. The Windup Girl would have been the clear winner had they been released the same year. (And Windup was better than The City & The City, which shared its Hugo win that year.)

I'd say culture. I found so many elements that I *knew* only made sense because I've read a lot of modern Chinese history. The characters literally don't think in a Western style, so I had to keep puzzling through their motivations until I could find a tie-in to Party thinking. I suspect it would have put me off if I was not fascinated by the different perspective.

I'd say culture as well. I found the characters very strange, their motivations and relations to each other totally alien to me. The whole series has a certain cold, almost nihilistic undertone that's quite unique in my experience. The story gets a lot clearer in later books. All in all a very worthwhile read I think.

I started following a bunch of writers and poets on Twitter, with the consequence that I grabbed Peng Shepherd's dystopian "The Book of M", which just came out. I'm only 45 pages in, but it's pretty intriguing and there are some wonderful passages.

"The Book of M" caught my attention too.
I am position 17 of 26 on the hold list at my library, lol.

Looks interesting. I added myself to the hold list. (I'm second in line, for a single copy, which means it ought to be ready when I get back from my trip at the end of June.)

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Both are Hugo winners. The Windup Girl would have been the clear winner had they been released the same year. (And Windup was better than The City & The City, which shared its Hugo win that year.)

As someone who just finished The City & The City consider it wishlisted.

My problem with The City & The City was

Spoiler:

just why? What was the point of maintaining this ridiculous separation? Maybe I'm just too literal.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

My problem with The City & The City was

Spoiler:

just why? What was the point of maintaining this ridiculous separation? Maybe I'm just too literal.

Ask Berlin?

Yeah, it struck me as a period piece. To someone who lived through the Cold War for much of my life, it showed the ridiculousness of the time, the excess of dogma and artificial separations that become tradition.

I'm going to do a rare thing and agree with Q. The premise of the book was dumb. And I did live through a good chunk of the Cold War, I saw the analogy, it was still dumb.

Everyone's entitled to their stupid poopyhead opinions.

Michael wrote:

Maybe it's time to read Kitchen Confidential again... Bourdain had such a great writing voice.

Try the audiobook read by the author. I re-listen to it at least once a year. Immensely enjoyable. I miss the guy.

Robear wrote:

Everyone's entitled to their stupid poopyhead opinions. :-)

Absolutely. But I came along and tried to set you straight.

Waaahhhhhh!!!!

Tanglebones wrote:

Ask Berlin?

But I know why Berlin was divided.