What are we reading in SEptember 2024?

Share your plans to read down that tottering TBR in Sepyember.

Dusty's TBR for September
Bob Shaw - Who Goes Here?
Jim Butcher - Storm Front ✔
Robert Heinlein - Assignment in Eternity
Jane Austen - Mansfield Park✔

In Progress
The Dispossessed

On Deck
Beasts
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence
Sindbad: The Thirteenth Voyage

I have in hand Exadelic, The Secret of Abdu el Yezdi, The Stardust Grail, A Flame in the North, and Matriarch for the month.

Still working on Dick's The Father Thing. Hopefully will finish tomorrow.

Most of my planned reads for September are non-sf/f, but I do plan on:

Pebble in the Sky - Asimov
Malice - Gwynne

Still reading Earth Abides. After that it will be The Glass Hotel. I also hope to join the LT Bradbury book club which is reading The October Country this fall. But I am still waiting for my ordered copy to arrive at our local bookstore.

I've started A fire born of exile, my first read in the Xuya Universe.

>8 Sakerfalcon: Nice! I am very fond of Xuya universe, but I haven't read this one. It will be interesting to see what you think.

Just starting a reread of Redemption Ark . Loved these books the first time. They are just as good the second time.

Not reading any sf at the moment, other than catching up on my fanzines, specifically Bruce Gillespie's long-running SF Commentary from Australia. In June's SFC116, I found this gem of wisdom from Vladimir Nabokov's Lectures on Literature:

"Read books not for the infantile purpose of identifying oneself with the characters, and not for the adolescent purpose of learning to live, and not for the academic purpose of indulging in generalizations ... read books for the sake of their form, their visions, their art."

Someone once said that all wisdom was in fanzines.

I finished The Dispossessed and posted my review. I've gotten Beasts off my shelf, and I note that it was published just two years after The Dispossessed. I am momentarily stuck in the 1970s.

I finally finished Earth Abides. It was a worthwhile read. It was quite introspective and so reminded me somewhat of Dying Inside. On to The Glass Hotel.

>12 paradoxosalpha: Being stuck with Ursula Le Guin and John Crowley, in any decade, sounds good to me! :-)

>12 paradoxosalpha: I finally got around to reading The Dispossessed two years ago & it was my favorite read of the year. She managed to accomplish something rare - an exploration of opposing ideologies without preachiness.

>15 ChrisG1:
I agree. I think her sympathies are plain though.

It's fascinating to me how varied are the reactions in LT reviews.

Just finished a re-read of Ian Sales' The Eye With Which the Universe Beholds Itself.

Next up is Noumenon on e-reader and Elantris in print. Also, dipping in and out of Bradbury's The October Country collection, also in print.

On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden. Not just the first book I've read by her, but actually the first graphic novel I've ever read (excluding things like Captain Underpants, read with my sons when they were learning).

>17 ScoLgo: I'm also reading The October Country one story per week as part of the Bradbury Readalong on LT.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/363023#n8614639

>19 Neil_Luvs_Books: Me too.

I finished Foundation's Fear, the first of the 'fill-in' trilogy by the B's. I thought it was good, but very much un-Asimov like. I really enjoyed Asimov's quote about the Foundation trilogy in the epilogue - apparently reading it later he was horrified by the lack of action in the trilogy.

>19 Neil_Luvs_Books: I've been meaning to acquire The October Country for a long time now. That read-along thread is what prompted me to finally purchase a copy. Now I just have to make time to start reading it! ;-)

Edit: Coincidentally, The Weird Tradition is currently reading another Bradbury story: A Touch of Petulance, which I have in both The Toynbee Convector and Dark Forces, so I'm reading that one first. It's short so I expect to also get to The Dwarf tonight.

>18 PocheFamily: Ooh, I like Tillie Walden. Do you think you'll read more graphic novels, then?

Skimmed through Exadelic, which reads like something Charley Stross or John Scalzi would write, minus the irony, the humor, and the skill of those authors. Give it a hard pass unless you like to read authors who really don't have a clue about how to use the tropes they're playing with.

>23 Shrike58: Ouch!
The description does read like The Laundry Files minus a few degrees of clever.

>23 Shrike58: >24 paradoxosalpha:

I read Exadelic just before xmas 2023 because Jo Walton highly recommended it in her TOR blog. I was disappointed in both the book and in Walton for praising such a mediocre piece of writing.

>25 ScoLgo: Boy, Walton *really* liked it. There's always a danger in
reviewing something by a friend, but her enthusiasm goes beyond the usual "highlight the good bits".

>26 ChrisRiesbeck: Walton's review might have been at the back of my mind when I put that book on the TBR list.

I've started A Matter of Oaths, for my book club. It seems to be a pretty good space opera so far. The universe is interesting.

>22 karenb: wellll, no. Not likely to read more graphic novels. I never had the urge to pick one up previously, and it was a bookgroup that got me to try this one. In other words, it's me, not the book! It was beautifully drawn, panels were easy (for a novice, at least), but it just didn't strike a chord with me story-wise. In full disclosure, this isn't my fave type of SciFi either - it was basically a story about maturing relationships and young adults in an other world setting with spaceships.

I haven't read enough SciFi to know what I like best, but I tend to enjoy classic SciFi, the Andy Weir-type (adventure and explanation of the science), and stories about the possibilities of a future world (especially with AI and robots). I'm trying to broaden my experience, so I'm glad I read it. Maybe I'd process it differently if I had a broader reading experience before reading it.

Not to discourage you though - it's a highly polished work and shows a great deal of a talent.

>29 PocheFamily: having grown up in (well, mostly in, if I could help it) libraries stocked with the cream of the crop of European graphic novels of the later half of the 20th century, that sounds really unusual to me.
To this day I love more literary series such as Corto Maltese, Linda og Valentin, Jagten på tidsfuglen, but also graphic novels originating in the comic strip space, such as Franka.
Impressive you gave it a try, and a fair evaluation, even if it wasn’t ultimately for you.

I have started another Eddie Robson novel, Tomorrow Never Knows. I didn't really read the blurb, so I don't know what it's about yet. Fifty pages in, and it seems to be parallel narratives about various people on and around Jupiter.

Finished The Long Sunset, started The Innkeeper's Song.

Finished A Matter of Oaths. It was entertaining, but not amazing. I liked that it was so progressive, having been published in 1988. It tries to do too many things, though.

Finished Beasts and posted my review. Now it's back to our current decade (publishing-wise) for Babel.

Currently about 12 books into F. Paul Wilson's Secret Histories. Just finished Gateways

I finished The Glass Hotel. It’s a very good book but not SF which I thought it was. On the other hand, these three books by Emily St John Mandel, Station Eleven, TGH, & Sea of Tranquility (which I started today) use some of the same characters but in different situations as if they are inhabiting parallel universes. So maybe there is an ESJM multiverse making TGH SF? 🤷‍♂️

>36 Neil_Luvs_Books: Yes. Emily St. John Mandel says that her books are something like a simulation hypothesis, much like David Mitchell.

Finished Pebbles in the Sky by Isaac Asimov. This was Asimov's first published novel (1950) and it shows. Some of it is eye-rollingly bad. It is set squarely in the middle, chronologically, of his Robot/Empire/Foundation sequence. Worth reading only if you're working through this sequence, as I am.

Knocked off The Stardust Grail; pretty good second novel. I wasn't sure what to make of Kitasei after her first novel, regarding her as a mainstream author dipping their toe in genre fiction. But, being able to draw the beginnings of a curve, she does seem to fit into modern trends in SF. If you're reading authors like Becky Chambers, Malka Older, and Mur Lafferty, you'll probably enjoy Kitasei too.

Finished Sea of Tranquility. An interesting take on the trouble with time travel. Reminded me a little of Heinlein’s Door into Summer. I particularly enjoyed the threads Emily St John Mandel pulled from her previous two books Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel.

Next up, The Postman. It’s been on my TBR list for years.

>40 Neil_Luvs_Books: Enjoy The Postman! Probably a bit dated by now, but one of my favorites.

I did a re-read of Farmer in the Sky, which while it wasn't bad, felt very dated. I also read Pirate of the Prophecy, by Jack Campbell, which you could argue is either fantasy or sf, but I have a feeling Campbell is going to take it in more of a sf direction in later books.

Not SF as such, but I've made a start on Dave Langford's Don't try this at home, a collection of his convention reports from the 1970s up to the London Worldcon in 2014. I appear in an early report, briefly and disreputably.

I've started The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, trying to work in some classics or old school works.

Finished the Linesman series by S K Dunstall. Very nice science fiction. Sentient alien ships, warring human factions. Well written.

Polished off Don't try this at home pretty quickly. As good as I expected; many of the earlier con reports I remembered from the days when I used to get a lot of fanzines, and it was good to have those collected in one place. Some of the later ones were new to me, and caused me severe laughter issues. I was also surprised to find myself quoted in a report - I'd forgotten that I'd made the relevant comment to Dave.

Dave Langford jointly holds the record for the most Hugos won (29) with the late Charles N. Brown, founding editor of Locus, though one of Langford's Hugos is for a short story (2001's Different Kinds of Darkness).

Made myself finish The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi, the fourth book in a series that has lost its charm for me. I'll probably glance over the fifth and sixth books, but that's looking like a chore. Call it a combination of not really liking time wars and that the attractions of steampunk really have become dead to me.

Finished The Innkeeper's Song and started a re-read (after half a century of Nova.

Finished Babel: Or, the Necessity of Violence and posted my review. I had a little less to say about this book than I thought I might, and I notice that there are some very substantial discussions from other reviewers.

So far this month l finished
Project Hail Mary👍 and
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, also 👍😀

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath was a Lodestar Award (not a Hugo) finalist this summer, and I liked it enough to circle around and read the first book in the series, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. This made clearer some stuff I hadn't figured out from the second, but I also feel like the books are good but not as a good as they could be. Need more feelings of magic, less action.

Finished Malice by John Gwynne (my goodness, there are a LOT of books with that title). The first of a 4 volume epic fantasy with roots in Norse & Anglo-Saxon mythology. It's definitely scratched my itch for escapist adventure.

Now reading Annie Bot
by Sierra Greer

Finished up Matriarch. I can no longer remember why I side-tracked this series for so long. Probably a sense that the author was getting bogged down in details and that there was something more bright and shiny to capture my attention.

>53 Shrike58: I enjoyed Traviss's Star Wars work; I own the Wess'har Wars but have never gotten around it.

Still wading my way through The Big Book of Science Fiction by the Vandermeers. I was largely disappointed with the first quarter of the book (I'm 58% of the way through now), but there have been some great gems from authors I've never heard of, mostly from outside the United States.

Also reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

I'm reading Meru, about humans and post-humand co-existing uneasily in a far future universe. It's very good so far.

I completed Brin's The Postman. I enjoyed it but it did feel a little dated with the gender binary and disparity.

I am now starting to read Gibson's Agency. Last year, I really enjoyed reading his The Peripheral and was sad to hear that the streaming series was not picked up for another season.

Finished Elantris yesterday and posted a review. Now re-reading The Emperor's Soul to find connections, which thus far are tenuous at best. Still enjoying Soul more than Elantris as the novella feels a bit less YA-ish than the novel. Both are good reads though.

Reading a couple of short story collections: Gene Wolfe's posthumous The Wolfe at the Door and Bradbury's The October Country. Both are excellent so far.

Next up: going to Thailand next week so a re-read of The Windup Girl seems appropriate. Also have Wylding Hall and I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself loaded up on kindle.

Finished re-read of Nova, started Demon Blues.

Starting the YA fantasy novel Sheine Lende today, a prequel to Elatsoe, which I read several years ago and really enjoyed.

>59 ChrisRiesbeck: What did you think of Nova? I read it last year for the first time and thought it was ok. A few months ago I read Triton and thought it was a stronger novel. At some point I will reread Dhalgren. I read that the summer before I started my undergrad degree in the early 80s and thought it excellent even though I didn’t get all of it. I am curious if 4 decades passage or time changes my perception of that novel.

I too anticipate a Dhalgren re-read after about four decades. It's been a while since I read Nova, which I thought was good, but maybe not quite as exciting as Babel-17 (which I read in the lovely tête-bêche edition with Empire Star). I thought Triton was a very different and better read than either of those.

More recently, I read all four volumes of Return to Nevèrÿon, which was terrific, and took on challenges in a "heroic fantasy" setting comprable to those that Triton had addressed in an interplanetary sfnal one.

>60 Stevil2001: Oh yay, a new book from Darcie Little Badger! I hadn't seen that it was out; thank you.

Currently reading The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei.

>63 karenb: It must be pretty recent because my library copy still has the "new book!" sticker on the spine. I'm about a hundred pages into but really enjoying it so far.

Wrapped up A Flame in the North; not bad, but it seemed to run on a bit long. A hardcore fantasy fan might disagree.

>61 Neil_Luvs_Books: Reading it again 50 years later, what seemed innovative in the language seems pretty simplistic now, and the plot, which meant to be mythic, seems more like a comic book. That may be in part because of how comics have evolved. I think it's more "still early evolving Delany" than how it was reviewed at the time.

I think comics have always been pretty "mythic," although they've gotten very self-conscious about it in recent decades. I agree that the Delaney of Nova was pretty green in hindsight, although he had come a long way from The Jewels of Aptor!

Oh dear,what a shocking reading month I had.On 2nd Sept Mr Dusty had a terrible seizure with bleeding on the brain.He was in hospital 2 weeks and has deteriorated a lot,now he needs lots of help with physical tasks,and his language skills have almost gone. Apart from myStorm Frontreread and Mansfield Parkand a couple of light fluff read,the only stuff I have read are a couple of M R James tales,The Mezzotintand Casting the Runes.
I think I will stay with the early 20th century authors of weird tales,but as and when I can.Cant commit to much really,I'll take it as it comes

>69 dustydigger:

Very difficult to read of your September, hoping some form of solace comes your way in October. Sometimes reading is my respite, and other times it very much is not.

>69 dustydigger: Yes, with times like that it's time to head for the light reading, old favorites and fluff. Sounds awful -- wishing you strength to deal with it.

>69 dustydigger:
Wishing you strength under these difficult circumstances.

>69 dustydigger: Very sorry to hear of Mr. Dusty's troubles. I hope you are getting assistance with his care and that you will find better days ahead.

>69 dustydigger: I'm sorry to hear this. I hope October will be a better month for you both.

>69 dustydigger: I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope you find some respite in some lighter reading.

I finished Meru and really enjoyed it. Character-driven SF with human vs posthuman politics in the far future.

>69 dustydigger: so terrible to hear that. Go easy on yourself; no expectations here.

>76 Sakerfalcon: On my list.

>69 dustydigger: I am very sorry to hear that. I hope you can take care of yourself too. Sending you strength and hugs.

>69 dustydigger: Oh no, dammit.

Reading the long awaited City of the Dead. Decades after his only Conan Novel John C. Hocking has finally released the follow up to Conan and the Emerald Lotus. I find Hocking's Conan second only to Robert E. Howard himself. The book is nicely packaged. Emerald Lotus is included with Conan and the Living Plague

>80 Joligula:

I liked Emerald Lotus, although I wouldn't rank Hocking quite as high as you do among Conan writers. I'm a little annoyed by the decision to bind Conan and the Living Plague with the earlier book, and wondering if that means that the sequel is slight.

The non-comics Conan books under the Titan imprint are news to me, too.

>81 paradoxosalpha: I really liked Sean A. Moore Sadly he passed away. I believe it was in a car accident. Jordan is a good writer but I find him very sterile and it seemed like did not want to get his hands dirty with the character. The Titan Comics are done nicely.

>82 Joligula: Jordan is a good writer
Eh, I wouldn't go that far, despite having enjoyed some of his Conan stuff.

My favorite non-REH Conan writers are Karl Edward Wagner and Leonard Carpenter. I haven't read Moore, and I'll give him a try at some point.