Our reads in July 2024

Once again we can attempt to try to read down our tottering TBR lists. Whats on the agenda for you this month?

Dusty's TBR for July 2024
Larry Niven - Protector
C J Cherryh - Defiance✔
Bob Shaw -Palace of EternityC J Cherryh -
John Scalzi - Unlocked ✔
John Scalzi - Lock In✔
Simon R Green - Hellworld
Jeanne & Spider Robinson - Stardance✔
Clifford D Simak - Why Call Them Back From Heaven?
Elizabeth Moon - Hunting Party✔
Tove Jansson - Moominpappa's Memoirs✔
Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm✔

In Progress
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again

On Deck
The Deep
The Incal: Kill Wolfhead
Unconquerable Sun
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Ordered/Requested
Beyond the Hallowed Sky

I’m going to try and complete the three volumes that comprise The Book of the Short Sun. Also need to fit in Bad Cree for my family book club in a couple of weeks.

Planned July reads:

SF&F
The Currents of Space
The Eternal Champion
The Bloody Crown of Conan
Malice
Lancelot

OTHER
The Streets of Laredo
Other Men's Horses
The Orenda
All the Light We Cannot See

As I am on vacation for the next couple of weeks, I know exactly what my options are. Whether I’ll make it through all of them, or whether I will break down and try to order a few new releases to this address remains to be seen.

Currently reading: Ink blood sister scribe. So far very Alice Hoffman in a good way.

Brought along, and somewhat inspired by the Hugo’s, Nebula and Locus nominations, so almost all new authors that may well prove a bust:
Angel of the Crows
Shigidi and the Brass head of Obalufon
Chain gang all star
She who became the sun
Thr black tides of heaven
Alternate routes
The hollow boy

And if I am desperate my SO has a few C J Tudor I can borrow: The drift and The burning girls

This month the line-up on hand is Lyorn, Rakesfall, Jumpnauts, These Burning Stars, and Mirrored Heavens (which is first up).

>2 dustydigger: The Palace of Eternity is possibly my favourite Bob Shaw novel.

Finished The Sherwood Game and started Logicomix.

>6 amberwitch:

Shigidi and the Brass head of Obalufon looks interesting.

If you enjoy Alternate Routes, there are two more Vickery and Castine novels. I still think Alternate Routes is the best of them but the other two are also worth reading, especially for fans of Tim Powers. Each is pretty much a stand-alone adventure but the two 'sequels' call back to events in the earlier books so reading in order is likely the best approach, but not really necessary.

Currently reading Lake of Souls and Mirrored Heavens. I may also read Icehenge, Return to Mars, How Much for Just the Planet and Fen, Bog and Swamp. I just bought 5 books in the Scrapyard Ship series. I have never heard of these, but they look interesting.

Currently reading:

• About 1/3 of the way through Defiance, book #22 in the Foreigner series.
  
• Also just finished Dogs of War, (4.5 stars), and have moved directly to the sequel, Bear Head.
  
• And am dipping in & out of The Future is Female in my ongoing quest to reduce the pile of unread Anthologies and Collections titles.
  

I finished my read of The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again and posted my review, where I compare it to Lafferty's The Devil Is Dead. Despite some similar speculative content, I suppose both those books are classed as sf mostly because of their authors rather than their content. (Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think could be added in there too.)

On to the next: I've just read the Ken MacLeod introduction to my SF Masterworks copy of The Deep, and I'm psyched.

I'm on to my penultimate Hugo finalist, Translation State. Well written of course but I am halfway through and finding it a little slow.

Cracked open the PKD collection, Electric Dreams on a return flight yesterday, the first two stories suggest this will be a solid if unsurprising sally into familiar thematic territories. I only learned of the limited series from stumbling across the book itself, will see after finishing whether I attempt to screen it.

About half-way through Airside and enjoying it, though lot of that may be because I'm identifying a lot with the central film critic character. Definitely a "little jewel" as our own nwhyte said in his review recently. I'm beginning to see a whole range of connections in Priest's later novels, and I shall be interested to see how this one ends up.

Finished in July:
Kaiju Preservation Society - Didn't like it that much (2.5 stars)
On the Beach - very haunting (4 stars)
Yiddish Policeman's Union - cool change of pace (4 stars)
The Drowned World - slow first half but fantastical end (3 stars)
Ancillary Justice - awesome book! (4.5 stars)
The Fifth Season - Amazing new world to discover, loved it (5 stars)

Currently reading The Currents of Space as part of my read-thru of Asimov's Robot/Foundation sequence.

>1 dustydigger: Cold Comfort Farm is a long-time favorite of mine. Ooh, maybe I'll put that in the queue. Thanks! (You've seen the movie? It's good, but the book takes/lasts longer.)

Only definite book to read is Ann Leckie's Translation state, as I'm hosting a discussion for it next month.

Other than that, it depends on what the library hold fairy brings. And what free ebooks are on offer from Subterranean Press.

>20 karenb: Hi Karen.I finished Cold Comfort Farm,about my 4th read I think. Critics make much of it being a satire of Mary Webb and other writers of purple prose in the 20s. I would say D H Lawrence was a quiet target too in books like Women in Love and The Rainbow.But he was too much of a revered literary lion at that time to be a open target.
But what they rarely seem to comment on is the strong social satire thoroughly deriding those rich patronizing upper classes and the Bright Young Things.rather in the tradition of Howards End,but much much funnier!
Sheer delight.

I reread Unlocked,and decided to continue a mini Scalzi reading streak with Lock In. Good fun
Next up will be Elizabet Moon's Hunting Party.And Moominpappa's Memoirs
With all the UK election broohaha ending tonight with a Labour landslide,and the appalling state of US politics my mind is requiring nice enjoyable stress free reading,so lots of fun rereads are just what the doctor ordered. :0)

>22 dustydigger: Ah -- if we only had Moominmamma to comfort us in these troubled times -- or could just run away with Snufkin.

Finished The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov. Continuing through Asimov's Robot/Foundation sequence, this story moves beyond the Robot stories & brings us into the time of the expansion of the Trantorian imperial expansion. As with the Robot novels, the story has somewhat the form of a mystery involving a missing scientist. A solid, if unspectacular, read. Recommended for those interested in this sequence.

>24 ChrisG1: I read Currents of Space back in the 80s and remember it being interesting but not super engaging. I still intend to do the full reread you are doing going through all of the Robots, Empire, and Foundation novels. I think it will be a fun reread. Are you enjoying your Asimov reread so far?

>22 dustydigger: Thank you for reminding me about the Moomins! Library hold placed.

>25 Neil_Luvs_Books: I am - I've been reading one per month following Asimov's suggested order. It's fun to see the progression.

Now polished off Airside and picked an old unread anthology off the shelf of doom: New Worlds 2.

Finished Defiance yesterday and Bear Head this morning.

I enjoyed dropping back into Bren and Cajeiri's heads but the Foreigner series needs wrapping up soon, IMHO.

Tchaikovsky's duology is an excellent examination of near-future tech and distributed computing as it relates to uplift and the singularity. Highly recommended.

Next up is Pandora by Holly Hollander.

Finished up Mirrored Heavens; I liked it but didn't love it. My passing thought is that Roanhorse loved her Crow God anti-hero too much.

>1 dustydigger: Thanks for starting the thread again! >22 dustydigger: It is good that you read them in that order, I read them in publication order and Unlocked is mostly a waste of time that way.

I just finished Beyond the Reach of Earth, which was quite good, but reminded me a little too much of 2001, but I will definitely read the third book. Thanks to so many posts by folks here, I finally realized that I hadn't read all of the Culture novels, so I'm currently reading Surface Detail. So far, very typical Banks and I'm drawn right in.

I am reading The Wizards on Walnut Street, a small press fantasy novel I picked up because it's set in my hometown of Cincinnati.

>31 Karlstar:
I like Surface Detail a lot.

>33 pgmcc: Good, I expect I will as well.

>32 Stevil2001:

Curious how much the city appears as a character, and how you liked it. I have family there so more than an average interest in books featuring the town, especially if it teaches me a little along the way.

>35 elenchus: That is what I want to know, too! I grew up in Cincinnati, and I collect and read novels set in or near the city. Some have a lot of local color, some very little; some are very good, some are not. You can see my previous reviews of Cincinnati-set books on my blog here: https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/search/label/topic%3A%20cincinnati

>36 Stevil2001:
I'll check out your blog, thanks for that!

I just finished On Blue’s Waters. A beautiful novel, though confusing at times with the interweaving of the different timelines. I’m immediately starting the sequel, In Green’s Jungles. I’m hoping that some of the lacunae in On Blue’s Waters get filled in with this second volume of the trilogy.

But my experience with reading Gene Wolfe suggests some will be come clearer while others become murkier.

I just finished my read of The Deep and posted a review, including a comparison to Gene Wolfe.

Next is The Incal: Kill Wolfhead.

I'm reading Translation state and enjoying seeing the Raadch from outsiders' points of view.

>37 elenchus: There is a good joke about chili, so there's that much local color, at least.

Just finished The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock. One of numerous stories of Moorcock's heroic adventures. In this, he conceptualizes his hero as one of many manifestations of "The Eternal Champion" who lives unlimited lives, always fighting, rarely resting. All his other heroes are simply the champion in another body, location and time. Definitely has the feel of myth. Don't expect deep characterization, but Moorcock does use it to express his view of humankind, which is not optimistic.

Started my last Hugo finalist, Witch King. Almost done!

>43 Stevil2001:

Curious as to your reaction after reading. I've enjoyed Murderbot enough to think I should read something else of hers, haven't settled on which though.

>43 Stevil2001: I have this coming up next to read!

>44 elenchus: I thought other of her fantasy novels were stronger. But most are series, so maybe a bigger commitment.
For stand alone works I’d recommend Wheel of the infinite.

I liked it enough to upgrade from paperback to hardcover to make sure I didn’t wear it out:)

Had a couple of DNFs, The Worldship Humility and The Red: First Light so I've dug out an old favourite, The Malacia Tapestry to read. In my opinion Brian W Aldiss was a very underrated author and worth looking up.

>46 amberwitch:

Appreciate that assessment, I'm leaning toward a stand-alone but that wasn't top of my list mostly because other novels had a premise I found more intriguing. I'm also mindful she's written more fantasy than science fiction, and wonder if that might be a factor as I weigh reactions from readers who are partial to one over the other. (Writing this out, though, I now wonder if I'm making a mountain of a molehill.)

As someone who's more of an sf person than a fantasy one in general, I am finding it tough going. Lots of weird names and terms.

>48 elenchus:
I dunno. I am a Murderbot fan, but I've read a fantasy short by Wells ("The Dark Gates" in The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft), and I didn't care for it, so I'm not so tempted to tackle her fantasy novels. On the other hand, my reaction may have been colored by feeling like it was out of place in the weird horror anthology where I read it.

Finished New Worlds 2. To me, this seemed to capture the spirit of the '60s New Worlds very well, in that there were stories in it that felt to me redolent of the age. Which seeing as the collection came from the early 1990s rather than the 1960s was something of an achievement, though I'm unsure whether that was deliberate. I also felt that this spirit of the earlier age is something that wasn't in the first of these collections. Stories I noted were 'Innocent' by Ian McDonald (one of my favourite writers, but this felt inconsequential); 'Ratbird' by Brian Aldiss (a piece of 'indigenous peoples in touch with higher realities' fiction that referenced the Wallace Divide, something I'd read about in a book on Krakatoa only a few days before); 'Candy Buds' by Peter Hamilton (a story set in post-global warming England, where Peterborough is now a thriving coastal port; setting for his Greg Mandel novels); and Jack Deighton's 'Face of the Waters' (a sort of updated Bradbury-esque story about the high-tech colonisation of Mars and one old spacer's quest to build a real canal there).

Other stories were not so noteworthy. I also note that a number of them show attitudes now considered dubious at best.

The collection also includes a couple of previously unseen Philip K. Dick novel outlines which never made it into publication. They are both rather convoluted and baroque, and it's fairly easy to see why publishers looked at them and said "Thanks, but no thanks."

I finished The Incal: Kill Wolfhead and posted a review. Next on deck is Unconquerable Sun.

I find myself trying to remember a story, possibly associated with "Dangerous Visions," where a cadre of American anti-Vietnam War protestors get clobbered by blue-collar folks. I know there was a story of this flavor but it don't remember the details.

Wrapped up Space Craze, which turned out to be a pretty good history of how "media" SF has interacted with American attitudes over time.

Finished Cauldron and started Giant's Bones.

I'm reading Machine and remembering how much I like Elizabeth Bear's characters.

>51 RobertDay:
I think "Candy Buds" is in the same universe as Hamilton's The Night's Dawn trilogy not the Greg Mandel stories. It also appears in A Second Chance At Eden which is all set in the Confederation Universe (as is the The Night's Dawn trilogy).

>57 andyl: That shows me how far behind I am on reading my Peter Hamilton. (And how long ago I read the Greg Mandel books.) I only picked up on Hamilton's home turf of eastern England being submerged through global warming, which is definitely in the Greg Mandel stories; but if it appears elsewhere, I wasn't aware of that.

>58 RobertDay: And now I look at my own copy of A Second Chance at Eden (which is still on the lower slopes of Mount TBR) and see that Candy Buds was a stand-alone story that was written for David Garnett's New Worlds 2 anthology and formed the nucleus of the ideas that went into Night's Dawn. The submerged eastern England is merely an idea in common with the earlier trilogy.

Every day's a school day, as they say.

Just finished Chill by Elizabeth Bear. I quickly realized it was a sequel, but I was on a canoe camping loop, backcountry, & it was the only book I took. So I read it. Luckily she gave a lot of backstory fill-in as it went along. I like her stuff.

>59 RobertDay:

Yeah I live in Peterborough and Peter Hamilton lived not too far away at the time (he has since moved). Peter Hamilton often had local signings too. So I took quite an interest in his Peterborough and environs stories.

I finished Rocannon's World as the first part of Worlds of Exile and Illusion. Not the best Le Guin but probably my favorite adult book from her so far.

Just finished Self portrait with nothing, which is technically science fiction, although it would probably be more accurate to call it speculative fiction.

The debut novel of Aimee Pokwatka, it did have its moments, and actually kept me quite engaged, but it did suffer from belaboring its themes quite a bit too much.

>62 Watry: Agree it's not her best, but is a necessary read for those of us who want to complete her Hainish novels...

Knocked off These Burning Stars: Come for the strong characters, spend time wondering when you're going to be ambushed by the next deus ex machina. I actually did like it but I have a hard time seeing how Jacobs is going to be able to sustain two more novels of this melodrama.

Just about to start John Guy Collick's Slaves of Titan, a tongue-in-cheek title for his continuing tale of a Bolshevik commissar and an itinerant Yorkshire ship's engineer of distinctly non-PC opinions battling alien intervention in 1930s Morocco. Who will get them first - the aliens or Stalin's NKVD hitmen?

>62 Watry: I picked up that same volume of three novels by Le Guin a few months ago. I plan on reading the entire Hainish cycle next year.

This summer my reading project has been to complete Gene Wolfe’s Solar Cycle. Just finished In Green’s Jungles and really enjoyed it. But … it is probably one of the most challenging books I have ever read. Wolfe is clever in how he writes, writing from the point of view of the protagonist who themselves are unclear on who they are, where they are, and sometimes when they are. I have read that there are clues in the style of the narrator’s dialogue, and I do notice subtle changes in tone but I am often too slow to realize that something has changed to be able to correlate that with the change in the setting of the narrative. So a challenging yet enjoyable read. I should probably have Gate of Horn, Book of Silk beside me while I read this.

Just read The Cormorant and The WoodWitch by Stephen Gregory and at the moment I am quite stunned and speechless.

Stumbled upon a copy of the Lexicon Urthus, which I've promptly begun reading.

In part sort of pointless now - if you want to know what an arquebus is, you're better off with Wikipedia - but there's much of interest nonetheless, not so much in the definitions themselves as the context they bring. I hadn't noticed, frex, that an awful lot of characters are named for obscure saints.

And I'm kicking myself for not having realized that Baldanders name is simply the German phrase bald anders "soon different" run together.

>69 AndreasJ: Baldanders

Ha! I didn't catch that either!

Currently reading Light from uncommon stars. I’ll keep of any judgement until I’m finished, but this morning it made me miss my stop in the metro….

I'm finally reading Project Hail Mary. Love it so far.
I was a big fan of The Martian.

>72 nrmay: Fantastic book. (JAZZ HANDS) Looking forward to the movie. But sadly I have heard they changed Rocky drastically.

>72 nrmay: Awesome, awesome book, one of the best scifi novels of the last 10 years, if not the best.

>71 amberwitch: Oh good, I just picked that one up.

I took a break (only so much Le Guin I can handle in one go), but am back with Planet of Exile, the second book of the omnibus I mentioned in 62.

ETA: That went super fast, I'm finished with it and on to City of Illusions.

Read Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki for my local library's Sci Fi bookgroup. Really enjoyed it, but wow it tried to cover an awful lot in one book! There were some good characters (the aliens were a little weak perhaps), the donuts sounded delish, the violin sub-culture bits were interesting (having recently read The Piano Shop it was fun to learn something about another instrument), and I never anticipated which way the story would turn next. I get why it earned so many awards!

>77 PocheFamily: I agree - never boring or preachy, and had a lot of heart. But anyone looking for hard science fiction would be very disappointed.

I was reading Niven's Protectorand Simak's Why Call Them Back From Heaven?,hoping to get through them before concentrating on Bob Shaw's Palace of Eternity,but I have put them aside since at last I have a copy of C J Cherryh's Defiance.
I usually have to wait a full year to get the paperback.I was shocked at the cost now ,the paperback was £13.99,used to be around £8.99.
But it was amazon Prime day.and the hardback was going for £12.99,instead of £23.99,so now I will put everything else aside till I've had my atevi fix.,two months early. Cool
Not happy with the Jane Fancher imput,it is simplistic,linear and not very well written IMO.Gave a sigh of relief as I have come upon some of Carolyn's complex,skilful descriptions of all the twisty complicated alliances and cultural minefields that I love so much. :0)
I may be some time before I return.....

>69 AndreasJ: Lexicon Urthus is something I’ll pick up and read on the side when I do a 2nd read of The Solar Cycle. Just starting the last volume, Return to the Whorl for the first time.

I took a Gene Wolfe break to read Bad Cree for my family book club discussion this weekend. It’s a good book. I would classify it as fantasy bordering on horror (not quite sufficiently horrific for me but some scary stuff) that is based in Cree mythology. Fun stuff.

I got the Chinese/English sf anthology Adventures in Space from the library in order to read some Hugo finalists before the packet came out; now that voting is over, I'm reading the other stories in the book.

Finished Rakesfall and found it interesting, but just interesting; I suspect a case of a problematic book being pushed forward to strike while the iron is hot.

>79 dustydigger: 22 books in the Foreigner series!! Whoa.

I finished Finder by Suzanne Palmer, which was a real treat for me. Repo man!

Finished Giant Bones and detouring to Wodehouse with Quick Service.

Finished (and reviewed) Slaves of Titan, next up is the Expanse short story collection Memory's Legion.

Just finished The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown. A debut novel, and a delightful surprise. The protagonist comes into possession of a magical book - "the Book of Doors" - for which every door can become any door (and even at any time). Of course, such a book is desired by people who want it for evil & here we go! Recommended.

Getting ready to start on the Adversary Cycle and Repairman Jack Series by F. Paul. Wilson.

I finally finished Surface Detail. I have to say, the ending was definitely memorable.

Finished Central Station tonight and posted a review.

Currently around halfway through The Margarets and about to start into The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.

>72 nrmay: >73 Joligula: >74 Karlstar:

I have Project Hail Mary on hold at the library. Trying to keep expectations low to avoid disappointment, (you all are not helping... ;-)

>83 Karlstar: Yep. And since the overall arc consists of sub-trilogies, there are two books to go in this latest set. I enjoyed Defiance but expect a long wait for the next one as Cherryh's next scheduled release is another Alliance-Union book, coming out later this year. Perhaps we'll get another Foreigner installment in early-ish 2025?

>84 majkia: Thanks. Finder looks interesting. I've added it to my Overdrive wish list. I think it was you that also got me with Noumenon, but that may have been over in your GD thread...?

Knocked off Lyorn and found it a solid installment in Brust's "Dragaera," as he shares more lore and background as things speed up approaching the climax of this series.

>92 Shrike58: I'm hoping to get to that one soon.

Started The Clockwork Rocket.

Every year, after I vote in the Hugos, I read the oldest Hugo-winning novel I haven't previously read. This year that's Roger Zelazny's ...And Call Me Conrad, famously the novel that's exactly as good as Dune.

>95 Stevil2001: I'm a big Zelazny fan & yet haven't gotten around to that one yet. Sigh...

And now onto the novel version of Flowers for Algernon. (I have read the novella at least twice, but never the expansion.)

>97 Stevil2001: I watched Charly, the film adaptation, recently. Hadn't seen it before. Not sure it holds up very well; Cliff Robertson is making some very big choices in the lead role.

I finished reading Unconquerable Sun. I don't think it's really my sort of book, but I ended up enjoying it anyhow, and I've posted my review. (I've also recently reviewed a non-fiction book of possible interest to sf readers: Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (And Who Would We Be Without Them?).)

>95 Stevil2001: ,>96 ChrisG1:
This Immortal or ...and Call me Conrad is one of my fave Zelazny books,and co-incidentally I am rereading it,(3rd?,4th?reread) for a challenge in August.
My poor old very battered brown paged copy from the 80s will hopefully survive one more read,though the spine is looking very dodgy. Fingers crossed it wont disintegrate.
I think I had better take advantage of Open Library's extensive collection of Zelazny titles while they are still available.I have read 27 titles so far,still some way to go,he was so prolific. Over half a million titles have been stripped from the site as a result of the publishers court case.I'm a bit surprised Zelazny is still there,so many authors have been ripped away. I have only managed to read so many SF titles to tick off on the WWEnd lists because Open Library was there. :0(

>100 dustydigger: I just managed to pick up a copy of This Immortal at an estate sale yesterday. The deceased had literally hundreds of sci-fi paperbacks - wahoo!

Just finished Waylander by David Gemmell. I've seen his books recommended for years & finally gave him a try. Good solid fantasy adventure fare.

>101 ChrisG1: "The deceased had literally hundreds of sci-fi paperbacks - wahoo!"

That's a sentence that belongs in a sentence museum. Thanks for the laugh!

>103 vwinsloe: Lol - unintentional humor is some of the best!

Speaking of unintentional humor, I washed my hands of Jumpnauts. Once the author played the "ancient astronauts" card, there was really no coming back from that, and I made a quick skim of it. An anime farce might be carved out of this novel, except I have no doubt that the author was trying to write a serious piece of modern speculative fiction; the farce comes from the probable aspirations of the author, and what the result was.

>101 ChrisG1: 😁
I hope someone is this happy when my books get sold off (many years in the future).

Having finished the Science Fantasy Web of the Witch World -- enjoying my revisit of the series many years later -- I went on to the unambiguous Science Fiction Translation State by Ann Leckie. I found it more accessible and enjoyable than the last couple of Radch books. As mind boggling at times, but I thought the story line went better. Somehow the multiple Radch rulers wore on me after a while. And it was interesting learning more about the Presger Translators.

>107 rshart3: I enjoyed those when I re-read the first two last year. Super dated, but still enjoyable.