What are we reading in August 2024?

Oh-oh,that TBR pile looks rather shaky. What are you going to read this month to pare it down?

Dusty's TBR for August
Roger Zelazny - This Immortal✔
Clifford D Simak - Why Call Them Back From Heaven?✔
Bob Shaw - Palace of Eternity✔
John Russell Fearn - Before Earth Came✔
Simon R Green - Hellworld✔
Charles Dickens - The Signal-Man✔
Harlan Ellison - Paladin of the Lost Hour✔
Philip Jose Farmer - Riders of the Purple Wage

Will mostly be finishing titles not completed on last month's TBR,and a couple of famous stories from Ellison and Farmer.
Especially looking forward to Bob Shaw's highly recommended Palace of Eternity

In Progress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

On Deck
The Diamond Age
Simak
The Dispossessed
Radon Daughters

Ordered/Requested
Beyond the Hallowed Sky

I plan to complete Return to the Whorl in the next few days. Then next up is Earth Abides. After that The Glass Hotel has been looking longingly at me from my bookshelf so I think I may need to read that one next. But Pattern Recognition also wants to be read!

Hmmmm….

>3 paradoxosalpha: Some good reading on your horizon!

>4 Neil_Luvs_Books: I'm looking at different titles - but am facing the same conundrum! ;)

Currently struggling through The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. It's not living up to the hype for me.

Next up will be Selkie Summer. Not sure after that... maybe Maul or perhaps Elantris or The Extremes...?

>5 ScoLgo: I gave up on The adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, and am giving you permission to do the same:^)

Ordered book two and three of the linesman series, so looking forward to finishing the trilogy.
Othello than that, a whole bunch of librarybooks, which may pr may not get read depending on my mood.

I have in hand Echo of Worlds, Annie Bot, Escape Velocity (first up), Saevus Corax Deal with the Dead, and The Road to Roswell.

Currently Reading: Ancillary Sword

Finished:
Children of Time
A Talent for War
All Systems Red
Golden Son
Morning Star

Finished The Clockwork Rocket and starting The Unholy City.

Finished The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov. Continuing his Robot/Foundation sequence. I don't see any connection to the series here, but perhaps it will come together in the next volume.

>10 ChrisG1: The Stars, Like Dust was the second installment in Asimov's "Galactic Empire Trilogy," which is set a millennium or two before the "Foundation" Series. The Empire Trilogy consists of "The Stars, Like Dust" (1951), "The Currents of Space" (1952), and "Pebble in the Sky" (1950, his first novel). However, they were not originally intended to be a series and they are only loosely connected to each other. In truth, each book in the Galactic Empire Trilogy can be read separately and in any order. I don't think they were originally intended to be part of the Robot / Foundation series, either. Asimov tried to tie together many of his Robot and Empire novels only late in life, via retconning in his later works.

Wrapped up Escape Velocity: File under mean-spirited fun with a fistful of possible trigger warnings. I'm probably more impressed with the book than it deserves, which might be a commentary on how none of the genre books I read last month are going to make it into my "top ten" for the year.

>12 Shrike58:
The book description, largely in terms of movies and dropping other media buzzwords, does not tempt me. I suppose the author aspires to transmedia implementation, and maybe I'll watch it on a screen someday.

I've wrapped up my read of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and posted my review. Having just read Job: A Comedy of Justice about six weeks earlier, I think I'm done with Heinlein for a little while.

Making a go at Shadow and Claw, but really it's just making me want to reread Too Like the Lightning. Plus, the descriptions at the beginning of chapter 3 are...a lot.

Things I've read lately -
Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson. I liked the interior illustrations? Otherwise just ok. I'm going to have to take a break from Sanderson for a while, something about his writing annoys me and I can't pin it down.

Witch King by Martha Wells. Would have been better if it hadn't covered the same ground twice, literally.

Shadow and Claw - the first 2 books of the Book of the New Sun. Haven't read it in ages so I don't really recall the plot, but so good.

Starting in on Eddie Robson's new novel, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words.

>15 Watry: I just finished reading Return to the Whorl. What a challenging enjoyable read! This was a very nice way to wrap up Wolfe’s Solar Cycle. I’m looking forward to rereading it in a few years so that I have some of the ambiguity inherent in the first read a little more clear. Really very very good series of 12 novels.

Now starting to read Earth Abides.

>18 Neil_Luvs_Books:
Yeah, it's reasonable to have some skepticism during the Long Sun that the Solar Cycle is really a single series of twelve books, but Return to the Whorl seals the deal.

>13 paradoxosalpha: Fair enough; not to mention that there have been more than enough "murder in space" books of late.

I admit that I've been a little distracted by events lately, and so I haven't read very much. I need to finish Translation state for tomorrow's book group. The siege of burning grass is next due back at the library, plus wrapping up A second chance for yesterday.

Finished The Unholy City, detouring to mysteries with P is for Peril.

Just finished The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin. The final installment in the Earthsea Cycle. Le Guin brought her fantasy world full circle, and in the process shined new light on all that came before. Until this last year, I had only read the original trilogy, but I can heartily recommend the later installments.

I'm only sixty-odd pages into The Diamond Age, but on the side this week I've read and reviewed the sf graphic novel Simak.

>24 paradoxosalpha: I’ve got The Diamond Age sitting on one of my many bookshelves waiting to be read. I look forward to hearing what you thought of it.

>25 Neil_Luvs_Books: I read it some six years ago; it was the first Neal Stephenson novel I'd read. My review (also posted to LT) is here: https://deepwatersreading.wordpress.com/2018/10/26/the-diamond-age-or-a-young-la...

I've just completed Iraq + 100: Stories from Another Iraq edited by Hassan Blasim. (I've listed this with the book's original subtitle, though I think it's worth noting that my copy, published by TOR bears the subtitle, "The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq.")

In 2013, "amid the chaos and destruction left by the U.S. and British occupation of Iraq," Iraqi writer Hassan Blasim sent out invitations to other Iraqi authors, inviting them to write and submit stories imagining the country 100 years in the future. The result is this fascinating volume, published in Great Britain in 2016 and in the U.S. a year later. (The quote is from Blasim's introduction to the collection, in which he also lays out the history of wars and destruction Iraq has endured since the British Invasion of 1914 as well as the reasons for the overall dearth of science fiction writing in Iraq specifically and the Middle East generally over the years.)

Almost all of the stories presented are dystopian in nature, and almost all of them are excellent. Here are a few of my favorites among them, along with the very brief notes I wrote as reminders as I read each:

"The Gardens of Babylon" by Blasim himself:
A video game designer either is or isn’t the writer who committed suicide whose life he must make a video board from. Or maybe that’s his grandfather.

"The Corporal" by Ali Bader
A corporal comes back 100 years after being shot by a sniper in the U.S./Iraq war.

"Day by Day Mosque" by Mortada Gzar
The world is being turned back to front, and snot has become a valuable commodity. Or as Dubya put it right after the U.S. invasion, “Day by day, the Iraqi people are closer to freedom.”

"Baghdad Syndrome" by Zhraa Alhaboby
Genetic mutations from chemical weapons used 100 years ago during the U.S. invasion are affecting Baghdadis, and one afflicted architect tracks down the legends of Scheherazade and her lover, and the statue of them that has disappeared.

I highly recommend this collection, and though it's accurately labeled a science fiction anthology, I don't think you need to be a science fiction enthusiast to appreciate and enjoy these stories. It is instructive to learn that of the writers included here, only Blasim himself was still living in Iraq at the time of publication. The others were in diaspora, for the most part due to the repressive nature of the Iraqi government.

Here is an article I found about the project, written upon the book's original publication:
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/this-radical-uncertainty-concern...

I have started The Alloy of Law, the first book of the second Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.

>27 rocketjk: Neat review, thanks. I've added to it my library list.

>27 rocketjk: Oooh, neat project, thanks for the pointer.

I finally finished A second chance for yesterday, which is about time travel in small increments. Protagonist manages a team of developers for a company that sells a device that lets you rewind your life in five-second increments. Takes place in a not-too-far-future San Francisco, still full of tech bros and homeless people (lots of climate refugees, now), car hires are usually electric, and remembering a hacker from college can be helpful. Especially when the next alpha release turns out to be glitchy, and you end up living life heading backwards, one day at a time. Some good tension in the plot, and a more positive ending than I expected.

>29 karenb: Interesting concept!

>30 vwinsloe: A quantum computer is involved. Forgot to say.

Wrapped up Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead, another sardonic character study from the author, who seems to be in a contest with Adrian Tchaikovsky for the unofficial title of hardest working writer in British genre fiction.

Another enjoyable reread of This Immortal,one of my favourite Zelazny novels.Then I finished off Simak's Why Call Them Back From Heaven?One of the most downbeat Simak novels I have read.And to cheer myself up from that I read a riproaring Simon R Green adventureHellworld about asurvey squad checking out a new possible colony world.They meet a myriad of nasty aliens,lots of killing,running around and hair raising escapes.Just good fun. I get the same sort of vibes from Green as I used to get from Alan Dean Foster,just pure fun,unpretentious adventure.....
A couple of short stories next,then I MUST get to Shaw's Palace of Eternity.
Very pleased with the amount of reading done this week. I spent 16 days glued about 10 hours a day to the Paris Olympics,interspersed with a fitter putting down new carpets,and getting new furniture. Madhouse of activity for weeks,so it was lovely the last 3 days just reading for once! :0)

Just finished Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn. The second in Zahn's Star Wars "Thrawn" trilogy. A decent light read providing fans the opportunity to share adventures with their beloved OG Star Wars characters.

Reading a book that's science (kind of) but not fiction: Primo Levi's memoir of doing chemistry in fascist Italy during World War II, The Periodic Table.

Just dropping by to invite any or all to join a Ray Bradbury Readalong scheduled to begin in September.

We will be reading The October Country, a few stories at a time, winding up at or near Halloween. (How's that for appropriate?)

Details can be found in Post 12 of the "Bradbury Readalong" thread in the 75 Books Challenge for 2024 thread ... or by following this linky.

We'd love to have your input!

>35 Stevil2001:, always wanted to read that, been keeping an eye out for it.

>37 Cecrow: It is very interesting so far! Not everything grabs me, but it's a series of linked but independent pieces, so not everything has to. My first experience with Levi. Quite funny at times.

Is it sci fi or fantasy? Finished The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England this morning.

Onto G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen. I am a big fan of her comics work but have not read her prose; my wife praised this book a lot when she read it.

>40 Stevil2001: I liked her The Bird King even better.

Made a start this morning on Beyond the Light Horizon. Already some four chapters in, so I'm clearly enjoying it.

>42 RobertDay:
Ken read from Beyond the Hallowed Sky on Sunday at the convention.

>41 vwinsloe: Thanks, I will check it out!

>43 pgmcc: Sadly, author readings weren't streamed.

>42 RobertDay: And an enforced reading day - my car went into the garage for a service, so I did my usual garage trip of a bus into Leicester, a visit to a bookshop and then a day spent noodling around cafés reading - meant that I finished Beyond the Light Horizon in pretty short order. Enjoyed it; I got a real "sense of wonder" vibe from the ending, whilst I found myself identifying with John Grant. Over the last ten years of my working life, I often found myself boggling over some colleagues' reactions to business situations, and thinking "I'm a grizzled old socialist, yet I understand the business dynamic at work here. Why can't you?". In the novel, John Grant often seems to adopt a similar position...

Knocked off The Road to Roswell. It didn't knock my socks off, and I didn't expect it to, but I've made enough personal acquaintance of Connie Willis to feel like I owe her the time of day. Her reputation as a charming and personable individual is all it's cracked up to be.

>47 Shrike58: Just finished her short-story collection, Impossible Things. It was fun to re-read "Ado", and a couple of the pieces were new to me. The Road to Roswell is on my Wish List. I've been a fan of hers since the fanzine days, but haven't had the pleasure of meeting her.

Just posted a review of Beyond the Light Horizon. Now moved on to The Quiet War. McAuley is writing in a rather different mode to MacLeod, and the first few chapters are doing a lot of establishing both characters and setting. He also gives full vent to his inner biologist as he describes a project to establish a working bioengineered environment in a human colony of the Jovian moon Callisto. And yes, we are talking about Outers - by that name - a few years before the first book appearance of The Expanse, and indeed the setting seems to foreshadow a lot of that series' setting, although Greater Brazil takes the place of the UN and human colonies of Mars have been destroyed in the McAuley book's backstory.

Read Fritz Leiber's "Mariana" earlier this week, a very nice piece of sf-horror.

Finished Project Hail Mary, starting Akata Witch.

Begun my long-considered re-read of Dune, and while my memory is infamously shall we say, "incomplete" in recalling plot and character details, I've decided to proceed without concern for spoilers. To that end, I deliberately began by reading through the Appendices as a means for better appreciating the world-building: not merely for Arrakis, which I generally recall Herbert doing well in the course of the novel, but for his spacefaring civilization and the political machinations within it.

The first thing to strike me, a short way into the book, is Herbert's rather specific ideas for terraforming Arrakis. I have little idea as to plausibility in terms of today's understanding of exoplanets or ecology, let alone in terms of that from the mid-20th-century when the book was written. That said, I am taking with a grain of salt that one person would be capable of leading such an effort, as Herbert posits: Pardot Kynes. On the other hand, this is a novel and the approach allows Herbert to focus this element of his already complex story and multitudinous dramatis personae.

Finished Gibson’s short story collection, Burning Chrome. It was good but not amazing. Clearly he was still honing his craft in the early 80s.

Back to Earth Abides. Still have more than half the book to go. Real life keeps getting in the way.

Started on Youngbloods, a continuation in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies universe. These books always leave me wanting new tech: hoverboards.

I finished The Diamond Age and posted my review. It's only the second Stephenson novel I've read (both this year) after decades of assurances that I would like his work. Sure I do.

>55 paradoxosalpha: Good review. I look forward to reading The Diamond Age. It’s been on my bookshelf for a few years now.

Starting the third volume of Philip K. Dick's collected stories, The Father-Thing.

I've started You sexy thing by Cat Rambo.

Finished The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence. I read a lot of fantasy in the 70's-90's & decided I need to catch up on more recent works in this genre. I'm glad I stumbled upon this one. It's highly original, while hitting upon classic themes. The first book of a trilogy (only the 2nd book is out, so not yet completed). But it works as a standalone. Recommended!

Knocked off Annie Bot, rather painful to read in terms of some of the themes of female degradation but I thought it was worth the effort; reactions are all over the place.

Began reading The State of the Art, in which I must guess whether each story is Culture-related or not.

>61 Cecrow:

Heh. I remember doing that very thing.

Finished Akata Witch, started The Long Sunset.

I was a little disappointed with Bob Shaw's The Palace of Eternity.So many rave reviews, someone even giving it 9.5/10.Very likely back in the late 60s it was new and innovative and amazing,but for me there were too many contrived character actions needed to further the plot which were unconvincing or too coincidental for my tastes.The emotional depths we expect from Shaw were there to some extent,but I couldnt really engage fully with the protagonist,and felt the aliens just withdrawing at the end pretty unconvincing. An OK read,but not as awesome as I had expected.
It reminds me a little of my reaction to Childhood's End,I never felt awe over the events,in fact I was a bit suspicious of those aliens and their intentions. Perhaps i am just too prosaic and mundane,not into books about glorious transcendence.lol.
All I have left on my TBR is Philip Jose Farmer's Riders of the Purple Wage

I read a couple of Alan Dean Foster novels this month. Relic is about the 'last' human in the galaxy, survivor of a killer plague. To the Vanishing Point is a fantasy novel, about a family road trip that ends up on a quest to stave off chaos. Both very Foster-ish. Currently reading Foundations Fear, which I'm enjoying so far.

Just finished Orbitsville by Bob Shaw. A vintage bit of sci-fi from 1975, it tells of the discovery of a Dyson sphere in another solar system, seemingly empty except for endless rolling plains, 320 million kilometers in diameter. The protagonist discovered it while escaping from Earth's wealthiest & most powerful capitalist. But the discovery simply draws all the more attention. Some interesting ideas explored, although the human story was fairly ordinary.

Wrapped up Echo of Worlds and enjoyed it as much as the first half of this duo. So far it's my favorite SF novel published this year; we'll see what the rest of 2024 has on offer.

Finished The Quiet War whilst away in the country. McAuley kerbed his enthusiasm for biochemical info-dumps a bit once I got past the first third, and the story was then able to move on. Still couldn't entirely shake the 'Expanse' vibe, though the next volume (Gardens of the Sun) may probably avoid that problem as the plot develops.