What are you reading this week? [7/09/23]

I'm currently reading Dune by Frank Herbert. I tried to read it once when I was in my early teens and didn't finish, but I figured I'd give it another go with all the hype over the recent TV adaptation. I've just passed the point where I gave up before (~150 pages) and I'm kicking myself, because it turns out I stopped just short of where all the action seems to really get going. The book is front-loaded with a lot of worldbuilding by way of sci-fi/fantasy terms presented without much context, so I can understand why my younger self got bored and gave up. I'm really enjoying it this time around though, I think I'm a lot more patient as a reader now than I used to be.

I am also reading through dune right now, I'm enjoying it so far. I was fine with the world building, partly because I really liked the sets in the movie and also because I found it novel compared to the very generic space faring stuff or Tolkien rip-off you get as a backdrop in sci-fi and fantasy respectively.

I'm also really enjoying a lot of the environmental musings in the book, after I finish it I will look up more about Frank Herbert's relation to these topics, I get the feeling there's something about it.
- Environmentalism and colonialism are definitely interesting lenses to look at the story through. It also deconstructed white savior and heroes journey tropes. All of this is explored more fully in the sequel, which I also really enjoyed.
- This is a pretty interesting article that talks about a story that Herbert worked on as a journalist that ties in directly to some of the ecological concepts covered in Dune: https://niche-canada.org/2020/04/24/frank-herberts-ecology-and-the-science-of-soil-conservation/
Oh, power through for sure! Dune is one of my all-time favorites. When you're finished with the book, be sure to stop over at the wiki and read about the lore. The lore is deep in Dune and not a lot of it makes it into the movies and doesn't shrine through in the first book. Especially check out lore on the various factions.

The Bene Gesserit for instance seem like a cult of witches at first read, but they are much, much, more with a 10,000+ year history of eugenics.

Personal reading: Models of the Mind by Grace Lindsay

Good take on the history and current state of modern neuroscience and its interconnectedness with modern machine learning and data science.

Reading to kiddo: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

I have a sore throat already from doing all the voices, what with all the shouting from Uncle Vernon and Hagrid in the first few chapters.

Models of the Mind by Grace Lindsay

Thanks for this. I read everything I can find in those areas that looks reasonably coherent and it's hard to find more without a bunch of fake nonsense drowning it out a lot of the time.
How old is your kid? I want to read Harry Potter but I don't know if my son is quite ready yet.
- Close enough to Harry's age in the first book. Old enough that we can successfully contextualize the bad behavior depicted in the book.

Currently reading: Mort (Terry Pratchett) - fantasy/comedy. The story of Death taking on an apprentice. I'm enjoying it so far and would recommend. I'm a later arriver to the Discworld novels. People have been recommending Pratchett to me for years but I made the mistake of trying to read Discworld in release order (which I later realised isn't at all necessary) and really struggled to get into The Colour of Magic on previous occasions. Finally clicked with it earlier this year and then started moving onto other novels based on recommended reading lists.

Currently listening to: Star Wars: Ahsoka (E K Johnston) - space-fantasy/sci-fi (let's not get started on the debate about what genre Star Wars is...). I'm not far in but I'm a big Star Wars fan and Ahsoka Tano is one of my favourite characters, so I'm excited to see how it goes. Also the audiobook is narrated by Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ahsoka on Clone Wars and Rebels).

Pratchett did a collaboration with Steven Baxter called The Long Earth that was kind of interesting. I don't think the characters were super memorable, but I found the premise and the ways they explored it really compelling.

I just finished the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I can absolutely recommend it if you love fantasy, mystery and horror. I didn't not make up my mind what to read next, but the Witcher books are already on my Kindle.

I know King is popular, and I liked a lot of the ride, but he always seems to go out of his way to write the darkest "there's no point to anything" anticlimactic endings. It was definitely an interesting premise and world, but the conclusion was super unsatisfying.
- It's one of only a few books of his where I actually loved the ending (well, not those last few pages, but the ending before them, if you know what I mean). Usually I think his endings are pretty underwhelming at best.
- I loved the ending. I think it perfectly symbolizes, how the journey is more important than the ending in stories.
I just finished The Witcher books yesterday. They don't have the same depth and mystery of the Dark Tower, but they are a fun read.

I'm juggling a couple.

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. Historical fantasy / horror about a fallen knight crossing a plague ridden France in what feels like the apocalypse, and dealing with demonic entities that mar his path. Really evocative descriptions and concise prose. It feels a bit like Berserk: a novel.

The Way Inn by Will Wiles. A professional convention surrogate is attending a convention for convention organizers, when he becomes trapped in an endless fractal of nondescript corporate mediocrity. Not sure how this one will end up yet, so far it's a delightful satire with a really dry wit.

I put the Stormlight Archive 1-3 (as one book on kindle) onto my reader and after a solid week of camping with at least a few hours a day it says I'm 16% of the way in. Holy F this is long. I check goodreads and it says 3800 pages.

It's compelling, though. There are times when I want to know what's going on in another arc and they take a little while to get there, but from a character receiving ethics lessons while contemplating betraying the teacher to a powerful lord contemplating whether he's receiving divine guidance or going insane, I never quite know what anyone is going to do. The cultures are weird (though you can see parts inspired by various cultures around the world and historically), and the magic is building out nicely.

I’m a huge fan of Sanderson, especially his Stormlight Archive books. I’ve read them all and am going back piece by piece to re-read them.
- I'm really enjoying it. It's just a touch too much for me to follow at my typical 2x speed audiobook rate, so I'm reading it as an ebook instead and I have a lot less time I can read that way. It's going to take me a fucking while to get through. But of the characters we've seen depth with so far, I really can identify with a lot of them. Maybe not Sadeas (I can "see", but also not), but Kaladin, Dalinar, Adolin, Jasnah, Shallan, I can see where they're all coming from and why they see the choices they do.
  
  Also I really want to play a video game as whatever Szeth is called. It would be tough to execute but it could be really fun.

I've been reading The Unbroken by C.L. Clark. It's well written and I like the worldbuilding, but it's a bit of a slog because I'm having hard time actually liking any of the main characters.

I looked this one up, seems like others agree with you, but apparently it picks up soon?

Loveable characters? It's complicated: 49% | Yes: 36% | No: 14%

I'm curious what gives a book a lgbtqia+ tag though...
- I'm curious what gives a book a lgbtqia+
  
  Strong female characters and romance between them
  
  The story pacing definitely picks up after the first half, but it's hard to care about the faith of the characters when you're constantly annoyed by their decisions :)
  
  The world building, culture etc is very much on point though.

Currently reading The Haunted Forest Tour by James A Moore. The premise is a safari thru a forest filled with horror creatures that goes wrong, and I am LOVING it so far! I’m still pretty early into it, but so far so good. After this, I think I’ll go back to another Agatha Christie whodunnit

That sounds really cool and unique. If you're interested in joining another book community, you should share a quick review of that with us on m/horrorliterature. Trying to gather us horror fans together!

The Bobiverse books, if you enjoy Sci-fi at all this series is a great read!

The Wanderers by Chuck wendig

I’ve been on a huge post apocalyptic/apocalyptic kick this year (15 novels and counting!)

Liking it so far!

I literally just finished The Silence of Bones by June Hur. It's about a 16 year old Damo, or female police servant, who becomes wrapped up in recent murders involving Catholics in 1800s Joseon Korea. I quite enjoyed it, in spite of the main character being a little idiot sometimes.

I just started Spice Road by Maya Ibrahim, so I don't have much of an opinion yet. I like the wiring so far, as well as the middle eastern magic vibes.

Just finished “god is disappointed in you” by Mark Russell which was very good and am now about 1/3 through “dark matter” by Blake Crouch which I’m enjoying a lot so far.

That is an interesting book by the description of it. As someone completely devoid of religion, I still find that an intriguing concept to just summarize the entire bible. Do you know if it is new/old testament? Pre/post Constantine?
- It’s basically a synopsis of the 66 books/letters that make up the Old and New Testaments, each given a few pages or even just a few paragraphs. I’m not religious myself but I would only recommend it to a person of faith with a sense of humour; parts were pretty blasphemous but very funny.

The Annotated Brothers Grimm Bicentennial Edition Edited by Maria Tatar Fairytales I’m loving it. I’m heading to Efteling later in the year and want to remind myself of all the stories

Highly recommended

I read a bunch of the Brother's Grimm fairy tales with my son when he was younger, but I didn't know there was an annotated version. Are the annotations 'inline' or is there a glossary of some sort? I'm just wondering if it translates well to a kindle.
- I wouldn’t fancy this version on kindle, not sure how it would work. The main stories are footnoted with the comments to the left and right of the text. I’m away for the next week but I’ll take a few pics when I’m back and share em!

After wrapping up book 6 of Murderbot Diaries I started in on A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I've heard the wayarers series was good, have access to the first book so I am checking it out. So far it's okay.

I really enjoyed the first book, but I was sad to find out that the second book in that series is a whole new set of characters. :-(
- Oh well that's unfortunate. I like series because I like to stick to characters on long journeys, getting to know them and care for them. Only the first book is available on Kindle Unlimited so I guess I just won't bother reading past book 1.
  
  (The one exception to this so far is Malazan, which has so many characters and so many times those bounce around from being in a books to disappearing for 3 books, only to resurface again later. Malazan is fantastic though, and totally worth it. Erikson managed to make me care deeply about characters that we only saw for half a book. It's ridiculous.)

Began The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin before moving out to a new rent. With all the fuss with relocation I hadn't had time to sit down and continue it, but I look forward to do that asap. I really like Liu's style and how easy to read it is.

I just finished Caliban's War [James S.A. Corey] and All Systems Red [Martha Wells] last night. (thanks for the Murderbot recommendation @fax_of_the_shadow and @windchime) Both of these are sci-fi, however the Murderbot stories appear to be more dystopian future sci-fi than 'high science'. I'd recommend both! All systems Red is a really quick read too, and they even have an audiobook series!

Just started on Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Unfortunately I'm only about 10 pages into it so I can't recommend it just yet. Just it has incredible mentions by sci-fi fans.

Yeah Murderbot isn't heavy Sci-Fi, they're more interesting stories told in a futuristic setting. I finished the 6th one last night and can't wait for the 7th to come out later this year. I am hooked.

"Human need not apply" and "The fourth turning"

The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes. It's a pretty good sci-fi set in space. I am about 40% complete and so far I have been enjoying it. At this point, I would recommend it.

I just finished the Witcher books yesterday and haven't started the next one yet, but it is already out and ready to go.

Next is The Croning by Laird Barron. He writes cosmic horror. I can't review it yet, but I've enjoyed the couple of his works that I've read in the past.