What are we reading in March 2024?

Another month,another pile of interesting books. Share your reading plans with the group

Dusty's TBR for March
SF/F reads
Clifford D Simak - Shakespeare's Planet✔
Clifford D Simak - Mastodonia ✔
Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword
R A Lafferty - Past Master
Paul V Dallas - The Lost Planet ✔
Robert N Lowndes - The Mystery of the Third Mine
from other genres
Dick Francis - Hot Money✔
Beatrix Potter - Tales of Peter Rabbit✔

I have been reading The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 7 since October (I read stories from it between other things) and it is my firm belief (perhaps I am wrong) that this will be the month I actually finish it!

In Progress
Veniss Underground
McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales

On Deck
The War Amongst the Angels
Revival
Titanium Noir

Ordered/Slated for Borrowing
The Martians

I’ll be finishing up my reread of the Dune Chronicles:
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse Dune

And then I plan to also read for the first time Brian Herbert’s and Kevin Anderson’s completion of the series:
Hunters of Dune
Sandworms of Dune

I know many denigrate BH and KJA’s contributions to the Dune universe but I don’t care. I am somewhat of a completist and I did enjoy their Dune: House trilogy. Very different style from FH but still enjoyable.

Currently reading Spin state by Chris Moriarty. I think I added it to the queue based on a recommendation here, and so far it seems promising.

>5 Neil_Luvs_Books:, God Emperor is the one I have the greatest nostalgic feels for.

My dislike of B.Herbert/Anderson goes beyond their poorer, ultraviolent style. Their chosen titles alone convey how poorly they grasp the world they're writing in. It isn't enough to capture the details, it also requires capturing the spirit. But I read them too, curiosity compelled me.

I'm reading The blighted stars by Megan O'Keefe.

I have in hand Constance Verity Destroys the Universe, The Tusks of Extinction, Lost Things, and Mechanical Failure. Slot five is yet to be filled by the Library Hold Fairy.

As of today, the fifth genre fiction book this month will be Exordia.

>7 Cecrow: The BH and KJA Dune books are certainly different. In addition to being ultraviolet I find them to be predominantly plot driven. Having said that I am finding that having read their Legends of Dune trilogy that I have a better sense of what the Butlerian Jihad was all about when that is referred to in FH’s novels.

I’ll finish reading God Emperor of Dune today. I’m enjoying it much more this 2nd time around than when I first read it in the 1980s. I just didn’t get it back then.

Finished The Separation this morning. Next up is Paul McAuley's Mind's Eye.

Princess of Dune - Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson
The Empress of Mars - Kage Baker
Menewood - Nicola Griffith
Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty
The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz
The Tusks of Extinction - Ray Nayler
Die Standing - John Jackson Miller

The library hold fairy outdid herself. Probably won't finish them all, but I will try.

Just finished The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. This is a reread for me - I had read it decades ago & hadn't really remembered much of it. I'm going through Asimov's Robot/Foundation sequence in his suggested reading order. As a novel, it's....okay. It has the form of a murder mystery, and also speculates on a future Earth with the "unthinkable" population of 8 billion people - a level we reached in 2023 (as opposed to thousands of years in the future - the book was written in 1953). He postulated that the only way to feed that population was mass-produced yeast vats. Ah well, things often don't go as foreseen. Still, the story provides a bridge to the future universe he's building & I'm looking forward to the next installment.

I have started The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth.

>13 ChrisG1: That’s also on my to do list: reread Asimov’s empire-robot-foundation series. But that probably won’t be for another couple of years. Gotta wait till I’m retired! 😀

I once thought I might re-read Foundation, but last year I re-read just the start of it as part of the Aldiss Galactic Empires collection, and it was not encouraging.

>16 paradoxosalpha: When the Foundation TV series started I reread the first section (sub-book?) of Asimov’s Foundation and found that it was better than I remembered.

>17 Neil_Luvs_Books: I agree, I read the first two Foundation books before the TV show and I thought it was still excellent.

I started Accidental war by walter Jon Williams, so far, so good.

>12 daxxh: Most of those are actually fairly quick reads, my suggestion for Griffith is that since it's more of an immersive type of book you should nibble at it a little bit every day while you have it.

Currently reading Babel and Slow Horses

>20 majkia: I liked Slow Horses. I read Kuang’s Yellowface a couple of months ago and quite enjoyed it so I look forward to hearing what you think of her Babel.

Not quite SF, but I'm reading Sidelines: Talks and Essays by Lois McMaster Bujold. I've also read some more Vorkosigan.

I finished Veniss Underground and posted a review.

Now it's on to The Martians. It's been an awfully long while since I read KSR's Mars Trilogy; I'll have to go back and read my reviews of those books before I dive in.

On to More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon.

>23 paradoxosalpha: KSR’s Mars Trilogy has been on my TBR list for awhile now. I gotta make time for it.

>25 Neil_Luvs_Books:
It takes some time, but it's totally worth it. I think it will loom as large in sf history a century from now as Verne and Wells do for us today.

Knocked off Constance Verity Destroys the Universe, and it's a perfectly acceptable entertainment. I think that Martinez is smart going forward in not writing another trilogy, as I don't think he had quite enough story to fill 900 or so pages. He also really needed a more convincing romance. Next up will be Mechanical Failure, another supposed comedic novel.

Finished Mind's Eye and started on Chris Priest's Ersatz Wines, a collection of early short stories with semi-autobiographical commentary which he hoped would give an insight into the early life of a burgeoning writer.

I'm two chapters into Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow.

>29 Stevil2001: There were a couple of "long" novels that really impressed me as above average for their time, despite some creaky bits. The Long Tomorrow was one and The Long Loud Silence was the other.

Finished The Technician, started The Farthest Shore.

>29 Stevil2001: I recognize the LOA volume you’re reading.

>32 jhicks62: Haha, yes! My wife got it for me for my birthday last summer, and I have finally gotten around to it. These LOA volumes are very nice samplers; I've enjoyed the ones I've read a lot.

Just finished Heretics of Dune. It was excellent. Not as good as Dune but I think it is better than the other three intervening novels in FH’s Dune Chronicles. But… there were a couple of things that confused me that I think I’ll post in a separate topic.

Finished Ersatz Wines, which isn't really about the short stories, but more of an exploration by the older Priest of his earliest writing career, and how he went from wannabe writer, through his first professional sales, to having the basis of his first novel (Indoctrinaire) in about five years.

>33 Stevil2001: Yes, they are excellent samplers. I bought all four of the anthologies, but haven’t finished them yet.

Started reading Chapterhouse: Dune.

>36 jhicks62: I read half of the American Science Fiction, 1960-1966 one and liked Way Station well enough... but ended up loving The High Crusade, a novel I probably would have never otherwise thought to read. I still need to finish that volume and do the American Science Fiction, 1968-1969 one. (I did skip American Science Fiction, 1956-58 because I already owned four of its five constituent novels.)

>38 Stevil2001: Thanks for the recommendations! I have not read those two, yet. Only read Flowers for Algernon so far.

>38 Stevil2001: I've read the novella original of Flowers but not the novel expansion so I am curious about it. Probably next year!

Gradually working my way through a re-read of The Pelbar Cycle, I read book 2 today, The Ends of the Circle. Good stuff.

>41 Karlstar:, only just discovered and read that series a few years ago, has its flaws but I really liked the post-apocalyptic world he created.

Read Chocky over the weekend. Quick read. Seemed like a trial run for The Midwich Cuckoos, but was actually written later.

Read All Systems Red and found definite interest in learning more about Murderbot.

>42 Cecrow: Same here, I'm enjoying the re-read. They are short, quick reads too.

And onto The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson.

>46 Stevil2001: The Shrinking Man is another on my TBR list.

Knocked off Mechanical Failure, which scratched my itch for an old-fashioned military satire. Next up: The Tusks of Extinction.

Finished Simak Shakespeare's Planet,a bit of a hodgepodge of disparate parts,but even weaker Simak has some good stuff. Not so much characterisation as he usually gives,so we cant fully care about the characters,and the philosophical musings dont meld completely with the tale,but I still enjoyed it. 3.5 stars
Now onto his Mastodonia

Working on MR Carey's Infinity gate.

I am reading Alasdair Gray's novel, Poor Things, the inspiration for the recent film that picked up a few oscars. It is very much Science Fiction in as much as Frankenstein is Science Fiction. Very enjoyable.

I read Fred Chappell's novella "Remnants" earlier this week, which I mentally filed as "weird fiction", but which I guess has a good claim to being sf: set in the future and featuring extraterrestrials and space travel.

Finished The Farthest Shore, started The Long Result.

Just finished Chapterhouse: Dune. I found it quite a slog until about 100 pages from the end and then the pace picked up quite a bit. Such an odd ending! Not sure what to make of it. Gods? Tleilaxu Masters or Face Dancers?

Well I’m going to finish this wild Dune trip as interpreted by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. Next up Hunters of Dune.

Finished The Tusks of Extinction, which is a very sober treatment of what initially sounds like a really far-fetched concept. Next up will be Exordia.

I wrapped up The Martians, about ten years after starting Red Mars. I've posted a review, and I'm pivoting to the non-sf novel Song of Carcosa.

Now started Chris Priest's The Islanders in my memorial catch-up read.

Enjoyed Clifford D Simak Mastodonia,originally called Catface. Catface,very much like the Cheshire Cat,is an alien who has been stranded on earth for a million years. He is a time engineer who can open up gates to the past. The story is a mix of dinosaur hunting,and a wry satire on big business and politics. Good fun,and of course delightful pastoral descriptions of rural Wisconsin.
I am reading at least one Simak a month on my ''Fill the Gaps'' deep dive into his works.
Now though its on to Poul Anderson The Broken Sword and some Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit stories for a challenge elsewhere! :0)

Finished The Long Result, taking an SF break with N is for Noose.

Completed Exordia: I'm highly impressed with Dickinson's ambition, but about half-way through I think he started loosing control of his material and the book finishes up in an indeterminate state of affairs with no guarantee of a sequel that will bring resolution. Still, I'm left with the sense that maybe I do have to read the "Cormorant Baru" series.

>60 Shrike58: "Losing control of his material" would be a good way to describe what happens in book 2/3 of Baru Cormorant as well. The first book, however, is excellent.

Finished The blighted stars. I don't think this was quite as good as her Protectorate books but I enjoyed it a lot.

Olympos Dan Simmons

>63 Joligula: Ilium and Olympos are two of my favourite books.

Finished Christopher Priest's The Islanders this morning; a very different sort of book but highly intriguing. Review to follow. Now started on Kameron Hurley's God's War.

>65 RobertDay: I think The islanders is my favourite of Priest's books that I've read. I love the way he tells the story through the unusual structure.

>66 Sakerfalcon: Yes, that's what resonated with me. Plus I'd just finished reading a biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor who devoted much of his life and writing to Greece - not specifically the Greek islands, but in any thinking about Greece, the islands and the sea play a large part, so the coincidence that threw these two things together was really quite remarkable.

Finished reading Hunters of Dune. It didn’t do much for me. But I am committed to completing this reading project. On to Sandworms of Dune and the conclusion of the Dune Chronicles.

I finished The Accidental War, which i really enjoyed. Good scifi, not a lot of science, probably borderline space fantasy, but still good.

I also read The Dome in the Forest, the third book in the Pelbar cycle. I think I enjoyed this one more than I have in the past, this book is really about the dynamics in societies and the need to adapt and change.

Apparently March was 'Read books by authors named Williams' and i didn't notice it until just now.

Finished non-SF N is for Noose, started Tehanu.

Starting The Kaiju Preservation Society tonight. Looking forward to it - I noticed a few other folks in this group have read it in the past year.

>71 PocheFamily: Its a fun read that doesn't take itself too seriously.

It's been ages since I completed a sf book and this one was rather turgid; but, it's both old and apparently untranslated, so maybe of interest to the historically minded.

Les hommes frénétiques, OPD 1925

A dystopia in which technological development far outstrips human ability to put it to good rather than bad use (check, level achieved!), resulting in almost total annihilation (check?), with a sliver of hope remaining with, as ever, "the savages".

I've just read the first chapter of The War Amongst the Angels, and I hope to finish it this month.

Now finished God's War. Impressive world-building, though I got the feeling that the narrative stalled a bit when the actual plot kicked in - hey, we're on a war-torn alien desert planet settled 800 years ago by mainly Islamic populations but we get a car chase - but it pulled itself back and I finished it with a better impression that I'd thought I was going to have. Having said that, I'm probably not going to seek out the rest of the series, but I'll happily acquire them if I happen across them.

The female assassins in the book are referred to as 'bel dames'; I got the reference, but there's no clues anywhere in the text or the world-building itself to point less knowledgeable readers in the right direction. (And I had to stop myself thinking of Michael Flanders gloriously mis-translating it as "the beautiful woman who never says thank you".)

Next up is Chris Priest's The Gradual.

Just finished two books during a short vacation trip. First up, Helm by Steven Gould. Well done lost colony novel, with the title object being one of the last repositories of tech knowledge. The ending was satisfying.

Then moved on to Deception Well where a whole world is at stake, threatened by viral biotech. I think I might have read this 25 or 30 years ago when it was just out. But it might as well have been new, and it's aged well. I think Nagata is underrated by many SF readers.

RIP Vernor Vinge https://www.wired.com/story/vernor-vinge-obituary-singularity/

>77 justifiedsinner:
Dedicated thread

Not (directly) SF, but I've just finished Achtung Schweinehund!, a funny and true account of a British boy's childhood in the 1950s and 1960s and the influence of war comics, plastic construction kits and wargaming on that childhood. I can relate to this a lot: that was my childhood. I mention it here because a surprising number of SF writers turn up in the text, including H.G.Wells, Fletcher Pratt and L.Sprague de Camp.

Now back to more serious stuff, with Chris Priest's The Gradual.

I don't tend to read much sci-fi but this month I did read A Pale Light in the Black (on recommendation) and The Guidal: Discovering Puracordis, which was an LT ER book.

>80 RobertDay: My childhood also. Sounds great, I shall have to look it up.

Finished Tehanu, started The Madonna and the Starship.

Finished Kronnus 13, a YA sci-fi and starting Red Mars.

I finished reading Sandworms of Dune. I was very disappointed. People in this group warned me about it, but I couldn’t help myself being the completionist I am. I was going to post my thoughts here but it ended up being a meandering rant too long to post in this thread. So I posted it as a review instead. For what its worth…

I am taking a break from SF and next reading Demon Copperhead which won the Pulitzer Prize this year (or was it 2023?). I have to read it fast. My family book club is discussing it next Sunday. I have a week.

Read Chindi by Jack McDevitt. Good, solid space adventure, refreshingly without genocidal/biocidal aliens/machine intelligences threatening human existence.

Now into The World We Make, which as others have noted, though good doesn't quite have the sparkle of The City We Became.

Wrapped up the month with Lost Things, which might have been better titled "Things that Should Stay Lost;" the execution was just sort of "meh."

>85 Neil_Luvs_Books:, I prefer to believe the "notes" that Frank left are so spare and lacking in detail, Hunters and Sandworms are not really his mess.

>3 Stevil2001: As I predicted, after six months of on-and-off reading, I finished The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 7 today, on the very last day I could slip it into my March count!

>88 Cecrow: you must be right. There were just so many nonsensical things at the end: axlotl tanks a good thing? Not for women I don’t think! Continue with a breeding program? Again not a good thing for women I don’t think!? Continue a tradition of colonization even when there is an apparent rapprochement between the opposing parties!? These are all supposed to be part of the glorious end of The Golden Path for humans!? BH and KJA really must not think much of the future for humanity - at the end we just continue a tradition of colonialism and treating women as incubators. 🤢

Frank Herbert had the right idea in the end that the "Golden Path" was basically the inability of another super-pre-cog being possible.

Spurred on by the Hugo nominations, I read The mimicking of known successes, as well as Ivy, Angelica, Bay.

And I have to say, although I am generally a big fan of Martha Wells, I rate both Translation state and Some Desperate Glory higher than Witch King.

>92 amberwitch: I think your touchstone for Some Desperate Glory is wrong

>93 justifiedsinner: Thanks - should be fixed now:-)

>80 RobertDay: Just adding a coda here. I've now read this book (Achtung Schweinhund!) and found it disappointing. Part one was as expected but I found the wargaming section more of a historical record of wargaming than an autobiographic account. I note that the blurb on the back doesn't refer to part two. Even the publisher knew that wasn't going to sell the book.

>95 UncleMort: I suppose there's not a lot of autobiographical mileage in Pearson's own story of wargaming campaigns; unless he'd rebuilt his life around becoming a wargames millionaire, such as Gygax or the founders of Games Workshop, there's not really a lot of story there. For me, I remember seeing many of the names he dropped on adverts in the modelling magazines back in the 1970s and 1980s; and the sorts of people he recalls were familiar to me from my own assorted fandoms. So agreed; part two was never going to be classic Pearson; it spoke to me, but it will never make it onto my list of life-changing books by any stretch of the imagination.

Gotta love the title, though.