I read and enjoyed #ChrisFlynn 's novel Mammoth, which is narrated by a wisecracking Mastodon skeleton. This short story collection is more of the same, with each story having animal or object narrators. Given that most of them also adopt the same quip-heavy voice, the effect is quite repetitive. The only story I liked was Shot Down in Flames, which mixes up the narration much more. The final story is also a bit different, but I found it unreadable. #Bookstodon@bookstodon#FinishedReading
#FinishedReading my favourite #AnnLeckie yet! Just so beautifully handled in its themes, its characters, and its wild and weird alien biology and culture, and with a streak of dark humour and even (sort of) romance to go with it. #Bookstodon@bookstodon#SciFi
#FinishedReading this slim volume of early 50s #SciFi by #AEVanVogt . The goofy title and stories of visiting inhabitable Mars and Venus makes this look like super old fashioned stuff, but that, like much else in this book, is an illusion. This is pure Cold War paranoia, with disorienting temporal and character shifts, mind control drugs, sinister conspiracies etc, and in general this feels like a bridge to the high points of Philip K Dick. #Bookstodon@bookstodon
#FinishedReading This book was pretty much the funniest thing ever when I first read it as an adolescent, and it's been fun to see my 11 year old son discover it. Re-reading it now is a rather different experience as the surprise of the jokes has mostly gone, but even that is testament to how effective #DouglasAdams was at inserting his gags into my long term memory. A comfort read for sure #Bookstodon@bookstodon
#FinishedReading#MichaelKing 's biography of Te Puea Herangi, indefatigable organiser of the Māori King movement in the first half of the 20th century. Her forceful charisma, flaws and all, pops off the page in the hands of NZ's most iconic historian. The scale of change in her lifetime for Waikato Māori and NZ is fascinating, as are the insights into other prominent figures like Apirana Ngata and Gordon Coates. #Bookstodon@bookstodon#NZHistory
#FinishedReading this collection of stories 1998 - 2009 by Australian #SciFi author @gregeganSF . Along with Crystal Nights, which I've read before in a different anthology, my favourite stories were three set in his vast utopian Amalgam universe. Egan combines an extremely high level of interest and knowledge of mathematics and physics with an ability to find beauty, drama, and emotion in worlds that have moved beyond war, scarcity, and aging. #Bookstodon@bookstodon
#FinishedReading my first foray into 18th century literature, although I doubt much of the rest of it reads like this, with its twisted structure, absurd digressions, and typographical jokes. Some of it is incredibly quotable, fresh, and fun; other parts border on incomprehensible as the centuries render the jokes obscure. #Bookstodon@bookstodon#TristramShandy#LaurenceSterne
Just wrapped up #sleepinggiants by #sylvainneuvel and absolutely loved it! I was a little hesitant to jump in when I learned it was done in an "interview the characters" style, but thankfully my fears were squashed quickly. It's a well written piece that explores the idea that we are not alone in the universe but also that something way beyond our comprehension was left for us to find.
#FinishedReading the followup to #AnnLeckie 's Imperial Radch trilogy. Although it is set in a different milieu, very much recommended to read the Ancillary books first because the conclusion of that series is a plot point here. Leckie is one of the best in #SciFi for inventing alternative cultures and seeing how they can clash or cooperate; here the high concepts are wrapped in a fun and twisty, somewhat noirish, tale of murder and politics #Bookstodon@bookstodon
I followed up #GeorgeOrwell's 1984 with #sandranewman's companion piece which retells the story of the original from the perspective of Julia. It's very neat to see more of this world and match events from a different pair of eyes. Still has that depressing overtone, still incredibly interesting and it adds a lot to the mix to help flesh out some of the world that the original didn't explore. #FinishedReading#reading#readingforpleasure#books#bookstodon#dystopian
#FinishedReading this #HistoryOfScience on the non- Western contribution to science from 1450 on; stories range from brutal exploitation of indigenous biological knowledge to scientists like SN Bose who worked in more collaborative and acknowledged ways. Prose is a little pedestrian and academic but the material is really interesting. Not impressed with the erasure of Rutherford's New Zealand nationality though! #Bookstodon@bookstodon
#FinishedReading a story of a Malaysian American woman returning to Penang with her parents and getting tangled up in the local ghosts, spirits, and gods. The dialogue is mostly Manglish (Malaysian English) whose distinctive syntax makes for quite a fun reading experience; I suspect #ZenCho has dialed it back a fair bit to keep it readable for non-Malaysian readers, mind. #Bookstodon@bookstodon
#FinishedReading (well, re-reading): I don't think these books are even close to as famous as Alan Moore's earlier more serious work like V and Watchmen, but I rate them just as highly; the sheer density of characters, interleaving subplots, and visual gags is incredible. #Bookstodon@bookstodon#comics#GeneHa#ZanderCannon
#FinishedReading This odd little #CarloRovelli book starts as a quite nice pop sci glance at time in 20th century physics, then shifts to speculations in philosophy of science. It comes with ecstatic blurbs from e.g. Phillip Pullman and Nick Hornby, who (like me) lack expertise to judge the meat of the book. Is it bullshit? Is it original? The whole package, including its sometimes strange language choices (who still uses 'Peking'?) left me intrigued but sceptical. #Bookstodon@bookstodon
#FinishedReading we picked this up because it was first in a series, but it turns out to be Book 9 of some giant metaseries! It seemed pretty accessible, and I loved the part of the book set in the 9th century, but I wonder if the 12th century part, which has more fantastical elements, might have been better with more context on the world. The book uses exclusively Celtic (mostly Welsh I think) language, culture, and folklore as its inspiration. #Fantasy#KatherineKerr#Bookstodon@bookstodon
#FinishedReading comedian #FernBrady 's autobiography. Don't be fooled by her day job and the silly Frankie Boyle blurb on the cover; although there's a lot of wit, this is a traumatic story about being an undiagnosed autistic girl and woman in a society that is often hostile to both autism and women. Not a light read but eye opening for an allistic dad of (thankfully, diagnosed) autistic kids, and definitely recommended. #Bookstodon@bookstodon#Autism
#FinishedReading on my beach holiday #GardnerDozois 's selection of short #SciFi from 1997. His collections seem to be always great although this is not his most diverse by authors or themes; a lot of uploading oneself into virtual reality in the air in 1997! My favourites were by @gregeganSF , Brian Stapleford, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Walter Jon Williams, Ian McDonald, and Gregory Benford & Elisabeth Malartre. #Bookstodon@bookstodon