I just read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. He's not quite Kim Stanley Robinson, but that's both good and bad. He has elements of KSR's hard sci-fi skill, but less of his "big picture" thinking. I can't quite decide between thinking it's a good thing that the story is quite tightly focussed and wanting to know more about the wider context and consequences. Weir also has more of a sense of fun and absurdity than KSR, which is definitely a positive, and lacks KSR's endless ability to disappear up his own fundament.
I think Project Hail Mary is fantastic, the best of Weir's novels so far. He is really a throwback to traditional hard sci-fi circa 1950s and his human-human interactions are no great shakes (this was the problem with Artemis which was much inferior to The Martian for that reason). Instead the protagonist's dealings with technology, problem-solving and his alien buddy are to the fore and this is all to the good. Being a Victorian prude-fish I also appreciated the arbitrary plot button that makes him much less sweary...
With Andy Weir, I really enjoyed The Martian and Project Hail Mary; could not get into Artemis at all. Apart from the plot of Artemis not being that engaging, I think Weir is one of those male authors -- not true of all men -- that should not try to write from a woman's point of view. The main character's voice was very unconvincing to me in that novel. However when he writes from the pov of a male science nerdy guy, as in his first and third novels, I find it quite believable!
Also to comment on David Copperfield and Demon Copperhead, I think I said on an earlier iteration of this thread that my reaction to Demon Copperhead was just about the opposite of Nenya's (which would make for a fun real-life book club conversation if we were in the same book club, I imagine!). For me, in a re-telling of a classic story, I like it when characters and plot points stick close to the original, because what interests me (if it's well done, and "well done" is obviously a matter of taste) is "how would all these familiar elements look if one or two things about the story were slightly different?" The big takeaway that I got from reading those two books back to back was how although many surface things have changed between Victorian England and modern-day America, so many things -- generational poverty, the horrors of a child being caught "in the system," debt, illness, untimely death -- remain hauntingly similar. Society has changed but there are some striking ways in which it seems there hasn't been much progress.
I'm sorry to say I have been saving Conclave -- first the book, then the movie -- for a time when I thought they might be sadly appropriate reading/viewing, and that time has now come. So when I finish the book I'm currently reading (and not enjoying much, but it's hard for me to give up on a book as it might always get better) Conclave is next on my list to read.
With Andy Weir, I really enjoyed The Martian and Project Hail Mary; could not get into Artemis at all. Apart from the plot of Artemis not being that engaging, I think Weir is one of those male authors -- not true of all men -- that should not try to write from a woman's point of view. The main character's voice was very unconvincing to me in that novel. However when he writes from the pov of a male science nerdy guy, as in his first and third novels, I find it quite believable!
Agreed. I don't know whether it is just because the central character of Artemis is a woman though. She is also supposed to be from a Middle Eastern Islamic background and this doesn't really seem to be done convincingly either. I think Weir just has difficulty writing a central character who thinks very differently from how he, Andy Weir, thinks. This goes all the way back to his webcomic days I would contend (by the way I was astonished when The Martian came out that the guy who wrote this occasionally entertaining but basically terrible webcomic back in the early 2000s had become a successful author...)
My most recent read has been The Deadly Dispute by Amanda Hampson, yes another cozy mystery. At the end of the previous, book tea lady Hazel lost her job due to the introduction of coffee machines in offices and factories. Some of the tea ladies jobs were saved by an inner city march and strike, but not Hazel's. The new book opens with Hazel being given a new job by a man she knew when he was a child, now working for one of the maritime unions and located close to Sydney Harbour. Meanwhile Irene is still working for a Madam in return for accommodation and is worried that her boss' expansion into a more affluent error will tread on the toes of some gangs who run other brothels in that vicinity.
As things hot up for the tea ladies, they also need to continue their fund raising efforts for the local Orphanage who are in need of new beds for their expanded facility. Can the Tea ladies work out what is going on down at the docks?, is Hazel's new employer corrupt (or not)? , will Irene's boss be chased off from her new premises by the Maltese mafia? When Hazel goes missing will Betty be able to find her friend and will she be alive?
A really good read consistent with the two previous books and only one question outstanding - Where is Merl? Is she just absent because she's offended with the other tea ladies about the fund raising for the Orphanage, or is she missing because her son in law is a corrupt cop and this question will be answered in the next book - I assume there will be one?
If you like Richard Osman, you will probably enjoy the Tea Ladies. Putting the mystery aside I enjoy the Tea Ladies, remembering that my most recent workplace still had 2 tea ladies when I began work in the mid 1990s. We would drive through the suburbs mentioned in the book when we went into town, and back again when Cheery son was unwell and we stayed in Sydney for months on end. I love those older suburbs with their narrow streets and mix of terrace houses, renovated and not. I can exactly picture the events of the books in my mind's eye and enjoy the ladies with their different lives and back stories.
I'm sorry to say I have been saving Conclave -- first the book, then the movie -- for a time when I thought they might be sadly appropriate reading/viewing, and that time has now come. So when I finish the book I'm currently reading (and not enjoying much, but it's hard for me to give up on a book as it might always get better) Conclave is next on my list to read.
I was wondering about it, and then on Wednesday morning Dad and I were watching the BBC coverage from St Peter's Basilica and he said a lot of the shots reminded him of the film Conclave. (We did speculate if someone was using shots from it in the coverage, or just being inspired for camera angles 😋). He was strongly recommending both book and film, and since he has a copy of the book I'll borrow it next time I'm at the parental abode.
@Sparrow : I found it in her collection of short stories, 'Buried deep' which was published last year. There's another Temeraire-universe story in there about how Marc Antony acquired a dragon.
I’ve been feeling a need to get out and reread C. S. Lewis’ excellent Pilgrim’s Regress, one of his earliest books, and in many ways an allegorical description of how he came to faith himself.
I’m reading Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz, the third in the Magpie Murders series. The plot is much easier to understand than the previous two stories which I watched on telly. They all have a double timeline with parallel characters with the older mystery being investigated by Atticus Pünd and the newer story being edited by Susan Ryeland.
I’m lapping this up, it’s an excellent read.
@Sparrow and @Jane R thankyou! Having had a glance at the Wikipedia page, I'm pretty sure the Temeraire stories are the ones an acquaintance was recommending to me some years ago. Since we were at a beer festival, he couldn't remember the title or author, so my note of what to look for was simply Napoleonic dragons... now I just need to see if the library has them!
@Sparrow and @Jane R thankyou! Having had a glance at the Wikipedia page, I'm pretty sure the Temeraire stories are the ones an acquaintance was recommending to me some years ago. Since we were at a beer festival, he couldn't remember the title or author, so my note of what to look for was simply Napoleonic dragons... now I just need to see if the library has them!
I couldn't get into the Temeraire books, despite having liked other books by Novik and enjoying both historical fiction and fantasy ... but I think they are my husband's favourite books of all time, and he has reread them a couple of times!
I think they're wonderful, but some are better than others--so you really want to start with the very first in the series, and don't miss the last. Some of the middle ones resemble "filler"--quite decent filler, but you could miss them out of the whole series without noticing.
Ever since I read (and hated) Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead for my real life book group I've been promising myself a reread of David Copperfield, which I've finally started on and am loving.
I really love David Copperfield! Absolutely brilliant.
I haven't really been keen to read the Kingsolver, tho I have heard some people admire it hugely...all I've read of her, ages ago, is The Poisonwood Bible, which I quite liked, and admired its ambition, but found a bit too didactic. Can you say why you "hated" Demon Copperhead ?
It was - in my opinion - far too long - I can deal with lengthy novels when it comes to Dickens because he writes so beautifully, but the same can't be said for Kingsolver. All that happened in it was so unremittingly (but predictably - "Hey ho, how long before this goes wrong?") awful and I didn't like any of the characters in it. And it really annoyed me she so shamelessly copied Dickens' novel, even down to messing about with all the names. I'm sure she has original ideas of her own, and she should stick to them!
All my opinion, of course - I know some people loved it, and love her as an author. I also read The Poisonwood Bible years ago and was horrified by it on a number of levels; the horror remains with me now when I think of it. I didn't want to read another of hers, but the book club chose Demon Copperhead, so I did.
Sorry I'm seeing this quite a while after you replied, Nenya, about why you don't like Demon Copperhead. Thanks v much for explaining, it sounds even worse than I feared, and I certainly won't be reading it! Now I'm puzzled as to why it's been so acclaimed...
You all have given me so many books to try that I probably wouldn't have otherwise picked up. @Arethosemyfeet and @Sarasa mentioned Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and it is my latest book. Very much enjoying it so far!
I'm currently reading Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. It's fairly gritty sci-fi at the space opera end of things. The central conceit of the "Expendable", a person whose physical form and memories have been backed up and can be recreated if they die (and hence the person can be sent on suicide missions) is an interesting one, and the book does a decent job of exploring it. I am 2/3 through the book, however, and don't quite feel I've got into it yet. It's entirely possible I'm just picky but it doesn't feel like the storyline is quite strong enough to do justice to the (excellent) premise.
'Six Wakes' by Mur Lafferty explores a similar idea, although in this case the focus is more on the moral and legal implications of being able to prolong your life indefinitely.
Sorry I'm seeing this quite a while after you replied, Nenya, about why you don't like Demon Copperhead. Thanks v much for explaining, it sounds even worse than I feared, and I certainly won't be reading it! Now I'm puzzled as to why it's been so acclaimed...
I have read both and found them brilliant. Which is why it has been so acclaimed (no, not because my opinion counts more, but because some people do love it.)
They are both grinding tough novels. Totally get that some people don't like that, but then, I am a fan of Dostoevsky so I like my reading depressing and miserable and long.
I think the fact that is divides opinions makes it noteworthy.
Sorry I'm seeing this quite a while after you replied, Nenya, about why you don't like Demon Copperhead. Thanks v much for explaining, it sounds even worse than I feared, and I certainly won't be reading it! Now I'm puzzled as to why it's been so acclaimed...
I have read both and found them brilliant. Which is why it has been so acclaimed (no, not because my opinion counts more, but because some people do love it.)
They are both grinding tough novels. Totally get that some people don't like that, but then, I am a fan of Dostoevsky so I like my reading depressing and miserable and long.
I think the fact that is divides opinions makes it noteworthy.
Interesting, Schroedingers Cat. Hmm...potential for a discussion about which 'grinding tough novels' are nonetheless satisfying to read...not sure this is the time or place. Some defiinitely...eg Bleak House....
Perhaps it depends where you are in your life when you read them. I read a lot of Dickens when I was in my teens but haven't felt the urge to reread them. Too much like real life nowadays. Yes, Mr Gradgrind, I am looking at you.
I'm currently reading Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. It's fairly gritty sci-fi at the space opera end of things. The central conceit of the "Expendable", a person whose physical form and memories have been backed up and can be recreated if they die (and hence the person can be sent on suicide missions) is an interesting one, and the book does a decent job of exploring it. I am 2/3 through the book, however, and don't quite feel I've got into it yet. It's entirely possible I'm just picky but it doesn't feel like the storyline is quite strong enough to do justice to the (excellent) premise.
Update: it got better towards the end and the sequel Antimatter Blues felt a lot more solid to me as a story. Some similarity to the Murderbot series, with a dash of Adrian Tchaikovsky's "what might life look like elsewhere".
We have a free bookshelf locally, and I recently picked up a copy of Granta's New Nature Writing from 2008, which has turned out to be excellent.
There are articles from Robert Macfarlane (who I'm going to see at Hay Festival soon), Jonathan Raban, Richard Mabey, Seamus Heaney, Roger Deakin, and several other people I hadn't heard of. Now I've typed this list, I realise how male-centric it is! Two women are included - Kathleen Jamie and Lydia Peelle.
I've just finished a couple of novels of the fashion of continuing to put Jane Austen characters into mystery settings.
The first was the second in the Miss Austen investigates series, being A Fortune Most Fatal, by Jessica Bull. It was fun, with the usual deception and misjudging people based on half overheard conversations, putting two and two together to make five. It was a pleasant, but not overly challenging read, that helped to amuse on Mother's Day. I enjoyed it, but I always get cross when the twists of the plot are able to picked out by the reader. I do prefer to be surprised.
The second was Miss Caroline Bingley, Private detective by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar. I thought the story was very interesting, but for the life of me I could not get with the idea that Caroline Bingley would have any interest it looking for a missing maid. I quite liked the way the authors were able to make Caroline a very independent woman and able to make decisions and strike out on adventure, I just didn't know that she'd actually care enough to do so. However, another light weekend read but I'm not sure whether hard-core fans of Jane Austen would find them pleasurable.
Comments
I think Project Hail Mary is fantastic, the best of Weir's novels so far. He is really a throwback to traditional hard sci-fi circa 1950s and his human-human interactions are no great shakes (this was the problem with Artemis which was much inferior to The Martian for that reason). Instead the protagonist's dealings with technology, problem-solving and his alien buddy are to the fore and this is all to the good. Being a Victorian prude-fish I also appreciated the arbitrary plot button that makes him much less sweary...
Also to comment on David Copperfield and Demon Copperhead, I think I said on an earlier iteration of this thread that my reaction to Demon Copperhead was just about the opposite of Nenya's (which would make for a fun real-life book club conversation if we were in the same book club, I imagine!). For me, in a re-telling of a classic story, I like it when characters and plot points stick close to the original, because what interests me (if it's well done, and "well done" is obviously a matter of taste) is "how would all these familiar elements look if one or two things about the story were slightly different?" The big takeaway that I got from reading those two books back to back was how although many surface things have changed between Victorian England and modern-day America, so many things -- generational poverty, the horrors of a child being caught "in the system," debt, illness, untimely death -- remain hauntingly similar. Society has changed but there are some striking ways in which it seems there hasn't been much progress.
I'm sorry to say I have been saving Conclave -- first the book, then the movie -- for a time when I thought they might be sadly appropriate reading/viewing, and that time has now come. So when I finish the book I'm currently reading (and not enjoying much, but it's hard for me to give up on a book as it might always get better) Conclave is next on my list to read.
Agreed. I don't know whether it is just because the central character of Artemis is a woman though. She is also supposed to be from a Middle Eastern Islamic background and this doesn't really seem to be done convincingly either. I think Weir just has difficulty writing a central character who thinks very differently from how he, Andy Weir, thinks. This goes all the way back to his webcomic days I would contend (by the way I was astonished when The Martian came out that the guy who wrote this occasionally entertaining but basically terrible webcomic back in the early 2000s had become a successful author...)
As things hot up for the tea ladies, they also need to continue their fund raising efforts for the local Orphanage who are in need of new beds for their expanded facility. Can the Tea ladies work out what is going on down at the docks?, is Hazel's new employer corrupt (or not)? , will Irene's boss be chased off from her new premises by the Maltese mafia? When Hazel goes missing will Betty be able to find her friend and will she be alive?
A really good read consistent with the two previous books and only one question outstanding - Where is Merl? Is she just absent because she's offended with the other tea ladies about the fund raising for the Orphanage, or is she missing because her son in law is a corrupt cop and this question will be answered in the next book - I assume there will be one?
If you like Richard Osman, you will probably enjoy the Tea Ladies. Putting the mystery aside I enjoy the Tea Ladies, remembering that my most recent workplace still had 2 tea ladies when I began work in the mid 1990s. We would drive through the suburbs mentioned in the book when we went into town, and back again when Cheery son was unwell and we stayed in Sydney for months on end. I love those older suburbs with their narrow streets and mix of terrace houses, renovated and not. I can exactly picture the events of the books in my mind's eye and enjoy the ladies with their different lives and back stories.
I was wondering about it, and then on Wednesday morning Dad and I were watching the BBC coverage from St Peter's Basilica and he said a lot of the shots reminded him of the film Conclave. (We did speculate if someone was using shots from it in the coverage, or just being inspired for camera angles 😋). He was strongly recommending both book and film, and since he has a copy of the book I'll borrow it next time I'm at the parental abode.
I’m lapping this up, it’s an excellent read.
I couldn't get into the Temeraire books, despite having liked other books by Novik and enjoying both historical fiction and fantasy ... but I think they are my husband's favourite books of all time, and he has reread them a couple of times!
Sorry I'm seeing this quite a while after you replied, Nenya, about why you don't like Demon Copperhead. Thanks v much for explaining, it sounds even worse than I feared, and I certainly won't be reading it! Now I'm puzzled as to why it's been so acclaimed...
@Arethosemyfeet and @Sarasa mentioned Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and it is my latest book. Very much enjoying it so far!
Yes, I remember finding this stunning many decades ago as well—but have a feeling there was lots I didn't understand...perhaps should re-read too!
I have read both and found them brilliant. Which is why it has been so acclaimed (no, not because my opinion counts more, but because some people do love it.)
They are both grinding tough novels. Totally get that some people don't like that, but then, I am a fan of Dostoevsky so I like my reading depressing and miserable and long.
I think the fact that is divides opinions makes it noteworthy.
Interesting, Schroedingers Cat. Hmm...potential for a discussion about which 'grinding tough novels' are nonetheless satisfying to read...not sure this is the time or place. Some defiinitely...eg Bleak House....
Update: it got better towards the end and the sequel Antimatter Blues felt a lot more solid to me as a story. Some similarity to the Murderbot series, with a dash of Adrian Tchaikovsky's "what might life look like elsewhere".
There are articles from Robert Macfarlane (who I'm going to see at Hay Festival soon), Jonathan Raban, Richard Mabey, Seamus Heaney, Roger Deakin, and several other people I hadn't heard of. Now I've typed this list, I realise how male-centric it is! Two women are included - Kathleen Jamie and Lydia Peelle.
The first was the second in the Miss Austen investigates series, being A Fortune Most Fatal, by Jessica Bull. It was fun, with the usual deception and misjudging people based on half overheard conversations, putting two and two together to make five. It was a pleasant, but not overly challenging read, that helped to amuse on Mother's Day. I enjoyed it, but I always get cross when the twists of the plot are able to picked out by the reader. I do prefer to be surprised.
The second was Miss Caroline Bingley, Private detective by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar. I thought the story was very interesting, but for the life of me I could not get with the idea that Caroline Bingley would have any interest it looking for a missing maid. I quite liked the way the authors were able to make Caroline a very independent woman and able to make decisions and strike out on adventure, I just didn't know that she'd actually care enough to do so. However, another light weekend read but I'm not sure whether hard-core fans of Jane Austen would find them pleasurable.