A Cheating X

One has completed the latest in ones A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors being the "X" entry.

One's choice de jour, and a timely one at that, given there are televisual serials about it in the wild presently, was The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

As you can see, the rules had to be bent a touch to allow for this selection.

The Rules  

Titles should be in the sci-fi and fantasy realms, or speculative fiction if you prefer.

The Author's Surname should begin with the letter that One is upon, and they should be one who's wares one has not sampled before.

I found it interesting, with a little of the feel of a translated work, and also a touch of 'what the' weirdness.

Three and a half stars, and one will pursue the further pair of volumes in the saga.

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A Thriller of a Twitch-worthy Read

One has just finished reading Upgrade by Blake Crouch, an XMAS gift from Grannie A, and I found it to be a reasonably enjoyable techno-thriller worth a 3 star rating.

What I did love about it was the way it made me think about all the upgrades it proposed and their consequences. Which left me with several perplexations and frustrational feelings.

First is several times throughout proceedings where it seems highly implausible that acting faster can give the advantages the protagonist enjoys. For example, and I may be incorrect here but, I don't think being fast would mean one could fire twelve shots from a pistol within 1 second, surely the mechanical parts of the pistol would put a limit on such shenanigans? 
One believes this is a case of the author erring on being too specific here in order to push the upgraded nature of the protagonist, i.e. compare and contrast:

• I squeezed off 12 shots within a second before they could react
• I squeezed off 12 shots before they could react

The big one that got to me throughout the story is that it so totally buys in to the belief that everything we have ever experienced is saved in our brains in perfect 3D HD detail with surround sound and smellovision but is locked away somehow.
Now One could easily have accepted that "perfect" memory was achieved by the eponymous Upgrade and from that point onwards, but found it constantly irritating that the beliefs on memory ran so counter to current research that has memory being akin to storing a series of dot points about events that we update and change every time we review the memory.

The second big one involves the ending so spoilers ahead.

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(highlight to read)

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The Epilogue has several issues to it. Firstly there is the fact that we were earlier told his rapid upgrade would burn him out and kill him and yet here he is 3 years later all fine and dandy and overseeing the "correct" upgrade to humanity.

Secondly is the un-ironic (as far as I can read into it) horrific ending whereby he is force upgrading humanity, not with intelligence that will still leave people doing evil, which was the "wrong" way, but with empathy for all of humanity not just your closest 150ish people. The horror being that this is most likely going to leave humanity in empathic paralysis as they consider the impact of everything on everyone.

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Apparently hone of his other books - Dark Matter - is a currently a TV series (but not the good Canadian sci-fi Dark Matter series). One wonders whether it will also cause one to twitch throughout proceedings.

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A W in the Second Decade

No this is not about One's very own A W aka Hulk in her second decade - it is instead about entering Decade the Second of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors endeavour, and how One has completed the read of the 'W' tome.

This one had spent many years staring at One from the unread books shelf at home.

The tome in question is The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, the first of his Night Angel Trilogy.

I found it an enjoyable enough read and will likely get around to the other two volumes in the coming years. It did dabble in a bit of predictable fantasy fare, however it has been a while since one dabbled so it seemed a fun 3 and a half star read.

For those wondering about the letters missed in One's... interlude,

U was eventually skipped and put in the too hard basket,

V was the Planet of Adventure omnibus by Jack Vance

Next in the AtoZ series will be an X , or more likely, another skip as it does seem likely to be another troublesome letter, but we'll see.

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Time for T

Well it has taken more than 6 months for One to get to the 'T' of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors.

This one came from one's large to-read shelf and was Six Moon Dance by Sheri S. Tepper

If you fancy novels that begin as exploration of alternate societal gender role set-ups and then pivot effortlessly into mass mind sex with space moths then this is the story for you. Similarly, if you like getting to the end of the story and exclaiming how it has ended so far removed from the beginning, then this may also be the story for you.

For the rest of us, it will still be an interesting 3 and a half star read.

Next in the AtoZ series will be a U of which there are Nil on one's shelf, so a future crowd sourcing will be needed shortly (for values of shortly approaching 6 months). 

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The Fall of Troy

 So One has just completed the reading of Troy by Stephen Fry.  The tome was a birthday gifting from Grandma J that one had finally commenced a few weeks back and then completed a few weeks back. Of course in these times we are in, One glances at the calendar and espies that a few weeks is in fact nigh two whole months!

In any case the read was quite interesting... and informative, and flowed fairly well after the initial 50 odd pages of getting up to speed on past history bombardment of peoples and events.

My reading of it also fell at the right time for the regular Tuesday Knights gaming group had only recently commenced playing AGON the game where you play heroes of legend in an ancient Greece inspired setting.

I give it a solid 3 star rating as the end with the wooden horse seemed a little unbelievable.

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This S it

The other day One completed the read of the 'S' tome of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors.

This one is another slight deviation into the historical however reading it did lighten the load on one's to-read shelf, and the Roman empire has long been the template for many a fantasy and sci-fi empire, so I will allow it.

The volume in question is Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow.

It ended up being an okay read, but One found the anachronistic modern British squaddie presentation of the legionaries to be a bit grating after a while - too many 'get into it lads' and other sundry UK modes of speech, all the more weird as the legion proceeds to invade England in the latter half of the story.

Given all that, it was still an okay 2 and a half star read.

Next in the AtoZ series will be a T from one's shelf, so, once again, no recommendations needed. 

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R we there yet?

So One has completed the read of the 'R' tome of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors endeavour.

This one came straight off the unread books shelf at home and had been impatiently awaiting it's chance as it generally seems to be highly regarded.

The volume in question is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

It is the first "Day" in the Kingkiller Chronicle.

Now, whether it was: an over-anticipation thing; or a lack of long reading spells in these zero commuting days; or the simultaneous reading with Hulk of  "Born-special boy wizard goes to wizard high school" making the large segments of wizard university a bit too samey; this one didn't soar to great heights with me.

It was an enjoyable read, and I found no problems with the flow of prose, so I guess it was the plot which was lacking in the awe-inspiring realm?

Given all that, it was still a solid 3 and a half star read.

Next in the AtoZ series will be an S from one's shelf, so, once again, no recommendations needed.

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Joining the Q

So one has joined the Q and has to think about what to commence next.

The Q in question is, of course, the latest tome of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors endeavour, and it has joined the list of letters read.

Finding an author with a Q surname proved a difficult thing and so, unfortunately for all of the universe, Pirate Dave won with his suggestion of Soldier of Light by John de Lancie.

It was a strange and interesting book with an intriguing central idea, locations that seemed meaningful to the author, all delivered with much run of the mill dialogue and description.
So not bad but probably still best if I've saved you from reading it. Three and a half stars.

After such a hard letter the next few reads in the A to Z will be a doddle, and shall come straight off one's sagging to-read shelf without any need to risk another Pirate Dave recommendation.

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Les Misérables

So this long undertaking of One's has come to an end all of a sudden when the end still seemed quite far off. Still it can be quite hard to judge the length of these things when you are in the day to day of them.

M. Hugo's title itself may well be seen to be quite the apt descriptor for those who have been connected to this grand endeavour as it can be somewhat of a downer when the finish sneaks up on one.

I guess, after devoting so much of one's time to this enterprise, the one big question remaining is: what is next on one's agenda?

#BooksRead

Qing up the next read

We have come once again, dear readers, to the stage of selecting the next book of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors endeavour.

This time the letter that one's bookshelf shows a dearth of is "Q". It may well be that the genre shows a dearth as well but none the less we shall press on.


The Rules
Titles should be in the sci-fi and fantasy realms, or speculative fiction if you prefer.

The Author's Surname should begin with the letter Q and they should be one who's wares one has not sampled before.

Here is my Author list of already read Qs from the time span of The Tales:

Not a sausage from this small field.

Bonus points if the book is available in the work catalogue - which doesn't look likely.

Even more bonus points, and probably the win by default, if you place your recommendation into one's hands.

So better get to it Internet, and recommend away.
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A Need to P

We have come once again, dear readers, to the stage of selecting the next book of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors endeavour.

This time the letter that one's bookshelf shows a dearth of is "P".

The Rules

Titles should be in the sci-fi and fantasy realms, or speculative fiction if you prefer.

The Author's Surname should begin with the letter P, and they should be one who's wares one has not sampled before.

Here is my Author list of already read Ps from the time span of The Tales:

H. Beam Piper
Edgar Allan Poe
Frederik Pohl
Jerry Pournelle
Terry Pratchett
Philip Pullman

Bonus points if the book is available in the work catalogue

Even more bonus points, and probably the win by default, if you place your recommendation into one's hands.

Now young Badger has already paradoxically beavered away and returned some results - in physical form - along the lines of Pynchon and Peake, including multiple copies of one title he is yet to dip into to allow a two-person bookclub style read.

So better get to it Internet, and recommend away, if you want to avoid a Badger fait accompli.

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Proust In his first book wrote about...

Having been gifted a classic fiction calendar by Grandma J for Xmas One was inspired to attempt to read the monthly classic fiction.

January kicked things off with a doozy - In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

So dutifully I trotted off to Project Gutenberg to collect the ebook version of this. Upon arrival I found 7 volumes!! A quick redefining of One's self-imposed terms was undertook and the terms settled on as Volume one only (I also had February's 1984 already-read in one's past and able to be skipped so confidence was high.)

The astute amongst you gentle readers will note that it is now very late March. It was a long volume one and one suspects that the remaining volumes shall remain unread by oneself.

So what was it about?

That really is the question.
My entry in Monty Python's Summarise Proust competition:

There's a family who live in the French countryside and the young boy is concerned with how little his parents express their love for him, and the family is also rather obsessed with visits from the upper class neighbour, the titular Swann, until rumours of his wife concern them slightly, we then jump to Swann himself in Paris visiting through upper class society and falling for Odette whom becomes his lover but also has her own life which drives Swann to fits of jealousy and many stalking thoughts and events, and hijinks ensue to ensure coincidental appearances at her holiday destinations until we switch back to the young boy now older and moved to Paris and obsessing about a young girl who is revealed to be Swann's daughter and eventually we hear her mother is Odette and wonder if the middle section was a flashback as section one included the young wife, and if it really matters in the flow of the story which is not so much a story as a recounting of the week to week flow of times in the narrator and M. Swanns past, all translated in nice flowing prose but using altogether far too few full stops.

Vast by Linda Nagata

This Tome was the latest in ones A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors, and is, of course, the "N" entry.

Vast was provided by Sneaky Pete whilst one was still on the M portion of the undertaking and proved to be a complex tale of far future humans intertwined with their advanced nanotech.

I found it interesting, and a little entertaining but feel that perhaps the scale of it's future is too vast for one's tastes.

Three and a half stars.
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Gimme Shelters

So one recently finished reading the latest, and penultimate, Earth's Children volume - The Shelters of Stone by Jean M Auel. It is all Salsa Girl's fault having started me on the series and now it is a path from which One cannot turn away.

It was an okay read, with a fair amount of semi-interesting "look at the research I have done" and a slim plot in it's thick voluminous pages. I would say give it a miss unless you really need to know what happens to the characters or are one of those people who has to read the series to the end aka the Wheel of Tedium Time problem.



Speaking of shelter, One could sure have used more of it on Saturday when One attended the footy with The Great Sandro. In the arctic conditions I began thinking that I may have had to lose one of the expedition in order to have more of the fleecy blanket we spent the match huddled under.

Still at least the pies came alive at the end and One was able to perform many warming leaps and roars of celebrations.

And now the pies are in the finals - which should be a much appreciated warm living room in front of the telly type of experience.
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M, Part the Second

Today's post refers to the other "M" entry of One's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors -  Altered Carbon by Richard "I added the K later" Morgan.

It's provenance is that, upon being returned to me as One was already underway with One's legitimate M choice, one was nigh bullied by Pirate Dave and BestFriendSincePrep into replacing legitimacy with their forceful recommendation. However I was able to remain strong and extricate myself from the situation by placating them with making Altered Carbon one's next read.

So without admitting anyone was right or correct this was a fun 4.5 star cyberpunk detective read with it's only failing, in one's eyes - so therefore it's only failing, being a surprising lack of addressing the the issue of destruction of the true self and replacement with copies.

So I believe I shall be reading the follow up books at some stage and also embarking upon the eponymous televisual series in short order - lest Pirate Dave and BestFriendSincePrep come calling again.
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M, Part the First

Today's post refers to the "M" entry of One's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors -  The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt.

It is Part the first because, having chosen it from one's sagging unread shelf, and completing several day of reading, one had another M returned from loan to the shelf and the room declared that one should be reading that instead of, as put by Pirate Dave, THE ENGINES OF GOO.


Anyway, One found this to be far and away the best Space Archeology book one had ever read and it earns a solid four stars from me.
It does have the problem that when one investigates if he has written any more one soon discovers that there are approximately 80* more in the series.
* give or take several score

Luckily it stands well enough alone that one need not consider oneself to be uncharacteristically bound to yet another long series of books.
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An L of a Book

And the book in question is the "L" entry of One's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors -  Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.

I enjoyed it's small scale action with larger scale flashbacks, the cultural hints of clothing taboos and gender inconsequence, and the well flowing prose.

It ends up somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, and earns Badger a thank you for it's provenance oh so many months ago.

Up next in the A to Z is a still to be determined "M" that shall come from one's sagging unread shelf.
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The Book of Dust

One completed the reading of this book by Philip Pullman a good week or so ago but I have been sitting on this review as I seethe over the result of the reading.

It was gifted on the occasion of one's birthday by Grandma J and turned out to be a vexing 4 star read.

It is more properly titled La Belle Sauvage and is Part 1 of the Book of Dust trilogy - a prequel/during/sequel trilogy to the author's Northern Lights trilogy of which one has read not a skerrick.
After doing the research I determined that it was fine to commence reading and that one would not be lost in the middle of a story.

In the end it turned out to be an interesting story and world to explore and it appears that Grandma J has cursed me with a new series to read my way through and the first book of The Northern Lights is now on reserve at my library.
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An Okay K

One has finally finished reading the weighty tome that is One's "K" entry for One's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors quest.

The K in question was Kirkpatrick, Russell's Across the Face of the World.

It is the beginning of a trilogy inspired by the author's own map making interests.

Now you may think that this sounds like a perfect match for a map aficionado like oneself, however one did begin to tire of every character naming every geographical feature in sight every time they reached the top of a hill. Or walked through a valley. Or opened a window.

Still it was an okay story and earned a 2 and a half stars.

Next up in the AtoZ will be a recently published, and much lauded "L".

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Idle reading

So whilst one was laid up with deadly flu one managed to complete the reading of one's "I" entry in the A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors - The Road to Mars by Eric Idle.

This volume was placed - nay, snuck - into one's hands by Sneaky Pete and therefore nullified the requirement for any crowd sourcing.

It was a mildly amusing humourous sci-fi that took a while to get going and then rollicked along to a reasonable ending.

Three stars.
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