Ok so I cracked after all the Gideon the Ninth chat here. 8 chapters in and it seems really good, I need to get used to the slight dissonance of the setting compared to the style of dialogue but I am looking forward to reading more tonight.
I feel like I'm the only one who read Gideon the Ninth and thought "Eh." It was good enough...just didn't grab me wholly. I guess it's just an indicator that everyone is different...
Ok so I cracked after all the Gideon the Ninth chat here. 8 chapters in and it seems really good, I need to get used to the slight dissonance of the setting compared to the style of dialogue but I am looking forward to reading more tonight.
Go ahead and grab Harrow and Nona while you are at it. You will want to keep knowing what happens next. I seriously hope the author does a Palamedes + Hect book after Alecto releases. And there is no reason not to write books on each of the other houses as well. Oh god I could go on with books about some of the OG lyctors...
bbk1980 wrote:Ok so I cracked after all the Gideon the Ninth chat here. 8 chapters in and it seems really good, I need to get used to the slight dissonance of the setting compared to the style of dialogue but I am looking forward to reading more tonight.
I feel like I'm the only one who read Gideon the Ninth and thought "Eh." It was good enough...just didn't grab me wholly. I guess it's just an indicator that everyone is different...
You're not alone. I mostly enjoyed Gideon, but it was never keeping me at the edge of my seat, desperate to see what came next. I picked up Harrow and have read exactly 36 pages. Occasionally I glance at it and think "I guess I should read that," and then I don't.
Ditto. I read Gideon and it was ok. A bit too much of the "oooh mysterious I'm going to leave vague references and unanswered questions on purpose" from the author for me, and a bunch of unlikable characters. I haven't bothered with the second book, maybe some day if I run out of things to read.
Yeah same. I found it weirdly hard to follow with zero characters I gave a crap about.
But hey, I'm glad for all you folks who love it!
Another vote for Master and Commander! (But still, Wolf Hall is *amazing*.)
For “a historical fiction novel set before 1900” I chose to re-read “Shōgun” by James Clavell. First, because I was still impressed by Netlix’s ”Blue Eye Samurai” (which is set a couple of decades after Shōgun but touches on similar beats that feel as if they were directly taken from Shōgun like, for example, the employment of western weapons in Japan or the focus on showing Japan’s openness towards sexuality in contrast to Christian values) and secondly, because I saw the trailer for the FX show that will air in February. I remembered liking this novel a lot when I read it the first time a long time ago, but wow… this is just brilliantly crafted. Yes, historically there are inaccuracies (names, chronology of events) to give the author more creative freedom, but starting from the cleverly employed omniscient narrator, that is able to present the story from both Japanese and Western perspectives in a surprisingly respectful way, to the presentation of the story that is - at least in broad strokes - a true one, this is just a fantastic novel. The novel is quite a beast with its roughly 1,100 pages but it’s really worth it. There are parts that romanticise early 17th century Japan, but it surprises me again and again that this novel was released in 1975 by a British author, as this approach to understanding a foreign culture feels decidedly modern at times. If the FX mini series turns out to be any good, I wouldn’t be surprised if Shōgun ends up on this year’s bestseller lists again.
Thank you for this! A great reminder of both the book and the series.
Yeah same. I found it weirdly hard to follow with zero characters I gave a crap about.
But hey, I'm glad for all you folks who love it!
A lot of those characters are kind of tsundering because it's a society that has them naturally pitted against each other. But some are exactly the raging asshole that they appear to be.
I enjoyed those books, though I fell off pretty hard with Nona. I do think it might be a bit more difficult to make them stick if I encountered them now. The contemporary-for-publication-date dialogue does make them age a little poorly.
Whereas I'm listening to the Locked Tomb audiobooks for the 5th time because I love them so much. They really improve on reread due to all the foreshadowing (especially if you're an inattentive reader like me who misses everything). They're my favourite audiobooks - the narrator is fantastic and really makes the dialogue pop.
I was really surprised when my 14yo boy finished the Windup Girl this week. He never read anything I previously pushed like Abercrombie or Cook.
Any thoughts on other dystopian or survival genre works which might tickle his fancy?
On the one hand, that's some meaty (and adult) reading for a 14 year old.
On the other hand, I relished reading books above my maturity level at that age so i get it.
Same author's The Water Knife is similarly excellent. He also did a YA post-apoc trilogy starting with Ship Breaker - I haven't read it but i assume it's great based on his other work
Get him going on William Gibson too. He's probably ready for it. Iain M Banks too?
River of Gods by Ian McDonald gave me Windup Girl vibes too
I haven't read the books, but based on the show maybe Altered Carbon. Definitely Neuromancer. Absolutely blew my f*cking mind when I was 13 or 14, and still my favorite novel to this day. It's also really short and fast, so good for the shorter attention span. Maybe A Brave New World.
Altered Carbon (and the rest of Morgan's books) is very gorey and sexy and decidedly not PG-13. But then again, the Windup Girl is about a sex worker, so maybe that's not an issue.
William Gibson is a good pull. The Windup Girl is pretty cyberpunk, which isn't something a whole lot of people are writing right now. And most of the cyberpunk oevre has aged kind of oddly, though not necessarily badly. But Bruce Sterling is the only real standout I can remember other than Gibson.
My 14yo nephew is really into Scythe, which is a YA book that may fit the bill.
Brainsmith -- For historical fiction prior to 1900, I very strongly recommend the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien that starts with Master and Commander. Those books cover life in the British Royal Navy around the turn of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars.
My dad had liked those and I loved the movie so I'll have to check them out at some point. Also, for historical fiction, The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell (and follow-up books) are fun so far. It is about the the forming of England in the late 800s with all the power struggles, backstabbing, battles, and Vikings that went with it. There is a Netflix show that had a few good seasons too.
Edit: It looks like the first 3 "Master and Commander" books are "free" for Audible subscribers.
Daemon by Daniel Suarez is a good cyberpunk tale, and don't forget Snow Crash by Stephenson
speaking of The Water Knife i just recently reread it and it seems much more relevant. First time i read it i was thinking it was a near future tale that could take place 50+ years from now. Now i'm thinking more like 20+
For historical fiction that goes further back, I remember I really enjoyed Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire about ancient Sparta, and I also really liked his Killing Rommel. In fact this reminds me I should really check out his other books or even re-read these since it has been at least a decade...
I'd suggest some old school Frederick Forsythe, perhaps starting with "The Day of the Jackal". And maybe some Agatha Christie? Those are surprisingly lively and interesting without being "lite". A good frame for later genres of mysteries.
On the one hand, that's some meaty (and adult) reading for a 14 year old.
On the other hand, I relished reading books above my maturity level at that age so i get it.
Same author's The Water Knife is similarly excellent. He also did a YA post-apoc trilogy starting with Ship Breaker - I haven't read it but i assume it's great based on his other work
Get him going on William Gibson too. He's probably ready for it. Iain M Banks too?
River of Gods by Ian McDonald gave me Windup Girl vibes too
I really enjoyed Ship Breaker and just now found out it’s part of a trilogy so I might revisit it.
firesloth wrote:Brainsmith -- For historical fiction prior to 1900, I very strongly recommend the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien that starts with Master and Commander. Those books cover life in the British Royal Navy around the turn of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars.
My dad had liked those and I loved the movie so I'll have to check them out at some point. Also, for historical fiction, The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell (and follow-up books) are fun so far. It is about the the forming of England in the late 800s with all the power struggles, backstabbing, battles, and Vikings that went with it. There is a Netflix show that had a few good seasons too.
Edit: It looks like the first 3 "Master and Commander" books are "free" for Audible subscribers.
I tore through all of the Last Kingdom books. I kind of loved them in a guilty pleasure sort of say. They’re not nearly as well written and crafted as the O’Brien books, but who cares? They’re fun and interesting.
Last Kingdom is Bernard Cornwell, right? The same guy who wrote the Sharp's books. Only issue I have with them is the cost is consistently high for each one.
EvilDead wrote:firesloth wrote:Brainsmith -- For historical fiction prior to 1900, I very strongly recommend the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien that starts with Master and Commander. Those books cover life in the British Royal Navy around the turn of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars.
My dad had liked those and I loved the movie so I'll have to check them out at some point. Also, for historical fiction, The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell (and follow-up books) are fun so far. It is about the the forming of England in the late 800s with all the power struggles, backstabbing, battles, and Vikings that went with it. There is a Netflix show that had a few good seasons too.
Edit: It looks like the first 3 "Master and Commander" books are "free" for Audible subscribers.
I tore through all of the Last Kingdom books. I kind of loved them in a guilty pleasure sort of say. They’re not nearly as well written and crafted as the O’Brien books, but who cares? They’re fun and interesting.
Yeah, that's how I feel about them. And lots of battle porn! I downloaded Master and Commander and might start it on my upcoming trip.
Last Kingdom is Bernard Cornwell, right? The same guy who wrote the Sharp's books. Only issue I have with them is the cost is consistently high for each one.
Yep, the same guy. I haven't read those books though. You are right that each series is quite the investment! I just picked up his Grail Quest series which is short for him being "only" 4 books.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I dumped the Three Body Problem on the boy earlier this week so I'll see if he reads it. Another hard to digest book but if he was fine with Windup Girl (and he plays stuff like Red Dead Redemption and a smattering of the Witcher), I think he'll be OK from a maturity perspective.
Part of my problem is that our local libraries in Sydney won't always have a lot of the texts that are en vogue so it can add up a lot to curate books for the kids.
Having watched Altered Carbon, I'd probably say it's a tad too much for him this year but in a year or two it should be ok. I borrowed the books on which the show was based; I don't remember finishing them all but yeah Neuromancer is probably a good one as it's not as graphical as say the Cyberpunk anime on Netflix.
I think I started a few chapters of Snow Crash (was that the pizza delivery one) but will have to refresh my memory. I've been reading more Chinese / Korean webnovels as trash reading junk food but haven't got the energy for a serious text at the moment.
All of Richard Morgan’s books (Altered Carbon) have very explicit sex scenes and most have a decent amount of drug use. Up to you of course at what age you are ok with your kid reading that stuff, to me they are definitely adult books.
I think I started a few chapters of Snow Crash (was that the pizza delivery one) but will have to refresh my memory.
Snow Crash is definitely the one that starts with cyberpunk/technothriller pizza delivery and gets weirder from there.
On another subject entirely, I'm looking for library recommendations. These days I'm living in the remote northern Great Plains, where the local libraries have... limited collections. I'd had a non-resident card for the Brooklyn library until they stopped offering those, and then tried virtually moving next door to Queens only to find that although they had a similar number of total ebooks on their Overdrive/Libby site, they didn't offer as much of what I wanted to read and the books I was interested in came with longer wait times.
Are there libraries that have good SF/general-nerdy ebook collections and still offer non-resident cards?
When I moved to Colorado and got a Denver Public Library digital card (don’t live in Denver) I expected to have a wide variety of stuff available. But the Cincinnati Library has a much better selection.
I don’t know if they offer non-resident cards but it’s worth checking out.
All of Richard Morgan’s books (Altered Carbon) have very explicit sex scenes and most have a decent amount of drug use. Up to you of course at what age you are ok with your kid reading that stuff, to me they are definitely adult books.
YMMV on this stuff. Like Jonman, I was reading stuff well beyond my early teen age bracket. There is a line to draw (I suspect the Witcher books, Altered Carbon) and the harsh reality is that unless you're policing their devices like a hawk they are already accessing stuff you don't want them to.
Personally I'm not going to bury my head in the sand on consumption of literature. It's better I think to traverse in dystopian speculative fiction than seeing some of the vile crap going around on YT/TT.
Think I'll grab Neuromancer for now, then see if that and C X Liu stick (all a gamble given Windup Girl was not expected to be finished).
Neuromancer is a weird one, I feel like it missed its place in the zeitgeist. It was hugely formative for me, and obviously genre-defining, but some years ago I was talking to a group of recent college grads and none of them had ever heard of it, or of Gibson. And they were programmers working on a science fiction game!
Similarly I loaned it to a 30ish guy recently, who had just read Snowcrash and was looking for more in the genre, and he gave up halfway through. (I think he couldn't get a grip on Gibson's way of narrating "around" the story.)
Are these outliers, or have others noticed this?
Just my personal feeling, but I think Blade Runner and other media have more of a spot in people's minds than Neuromancer at this point when it comes to cyberpunk. While he's a stellar author and his books are great, they've never felt mainstream to me, despite how influential they are.
Just my personal feeling, but I think Blade Runner and other media have more of a spot in people's minds than Neuromancer at this point when it comes to cyberpunk. While he's a stellar author and his books are great, they've never felt mainstream to me, despite how influential they are.
I think you're right, mostly because of the movies. Also, Gibson has very much a "writer's writer" style of no hand-holding, which many people bounce off of. Neuromancer might be the best, weirdest heist story ever, but it's not easy.
Pages