I finished Children of Ruin last week. It’s weird but the story ends on such an optimistic note, and honestly both books are so full of optimism that we can rise above ourselves, I actually teared up I was so moved.
We’re going on an adventure!
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The last half of Death’s End is like 15 deus ex machinas in a row.
By that point in the books, humanity is dealing with god-tier civilizations, so… sure. It felt like the book was ending for about 300 pages.
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Re-read Ancillary/Imperial Radch series while in hospital purgatory (with covid we were locked in the entire time till discharge for my son’s birth). I definitely enjoyed some of the foreshadowing/careful laying of plot pieces ahead of time with my foreknowledge this time through and together the story really feels like 1 mega novel than 3 separate novels in the singular character focus and the timeframes involved (each novel immediately follows the first with little time gap).
https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Radch-Boxed-Trilogy-Ancillary/dp/0316513318
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That’s a good way of summarizing the last half of that book.
I liked the ending fairly well, even though it certainly was extremely protracted. Then again, I consumed it via audiobook so (a few odd artifacts of that process aside) it definitely made the ending go by in a way that I don’t know it would have had were I physically reading and turning the pages.
Over the past couple of months I’ve been reading The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue back to back, the first two novels of Charles Stross’s The Laundry Files series. I say months here because I took lengthy breaks while reading them, being occupied with other interests. That is not a slight against the books, who are really good as you would expect from a series that was as a whole legitimately nominated for a Hugo Award and some of the shorter writings in it won. It’s just my personal reading habits and interests.
Considering the acclaim and subject matter, I feel kind of like I’ve been living under a rock for not having found out about the series earlier. They actually only popped onto my radar because the author was a guest on a podcast I listen to a while back, and a short description of the universe made me want to check it out. Churba apparently mentioned the series a while back, but until I searched for the name of the series I didn’t even realize he had.
The Laundry Files is an amalgam of spy-thriller, eldritch horror and work comedy. The hero is “Bob Howard”, a cover name that only is evocative in how nondescript it is, thus fulfilling an intention that the name “James Bond” failed despite having the same goal. The character has more in common with Arthur Dent than Ian Fleming’s creation, and thank goodness for that. He is a computer programmer turned field agent for a british government agency that has no official name and is simply referred to as “The Laundry” because it is their job to clean up, which in this case means keeping the public from finding out that the world is part of a multi-dimensional reality with all sorts of Lovecraftian beasts on the other side of a thin membrane that can be pierced by applied mathematics, with not a few careless script-kiddie or math student having their soul devoured by said horrors from beyond.
It is mostly told from Bob’s first person perspective as he has to both engage with the mentioned dangers but also a lethargic bureaucratic culture where political infighting and jockeying for positions and promotions often causes neglect and jeopardy of others, which isn’t great when training exercises can go pear-shaped and result in an unlucky participant becoming host to a minor demon. Thankfully the series isn’t trying to say that the private sector would be better at this (quite the opposite actually) but rather that it would be nice if people could put aside their personal ambitions and that a “thank you” and some extra resources would be nice for the people who actually keep society running.
I really enjoy the series and the juxtaposition of mundane work troubles with extraordinary dangers from beyond. Of course I am a prime target as a computer nerd, with the series littered with reference to geek culture, though unfortunately sometimes they can drift into a bit too overt stuff. The series borrows liberally from Lovecraft, which is quite deliberate, but also can be a bit cliched at this point. Then again, these novels came out in 2004 and 2006 respectively, so maybe that’s just the intervening time playing a trick on me.
My favorite part of the series has been the short story The Concrete Jungle which is included in the paperback volume of The Atrocity Archive that I bought, which I think could be a good entry point for the not-yet convinced. I think it has the best mixture of the aspects of the series of what I read so far, is short, and doesn’t require any real preexisting knowledge about the series itself.
I gave up on reading Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren and am working on Swati Teerdhala’s The Tiger at Midnight. I think Dhalgren was the wrong book to read with 2020 brain and I’ve decided to move past it for now. The Tiger at Midnight is quite good so far. I think it may be the first fantasy novel I’ve read based on Hindu mythology, at least primarily.
I just finished reading the East of West comic by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta.
I have to say, this was one of the best comics I’ve read in a long long time. East of West is only 45 issues, but every issue was excellent. Hickman’s plot and Dragotta’s artwork are amazing and really propel the story forward.
I find that in a lot of comics, at some point, the author starts to get tired of writing it, or the story wasn’t plotted out well, and the conclusion just feels rushed and somewhat unsatisfying. Not so with East of West. I thought that 45 issues was the perfect number for this series. Not too long, but also not too short. I loved the story and the ending was excellent. Dragotta’s art is amazing and a lot of the story is able to be conveyed simply by the art alone without dialogue or explanation.
East of West is a dystopian science fiction Western which follows the years leading up to the apocalypse. In 2064, three of the Four Horsemen — Conquest, Famine, and War — resurrect and set out to bring an end to mankind. The fourth Horseman — Death — doesn’t die and resurrect when his comrades do. A lot of the story concerns why Death, previously one of the Horsemen, is no longer with them.
I absolutely love the worldbuilding in East of West. East of West takes place in an alternative history of the United States. During the Civil War, a comet strikes in Kansas. This ends the hostilities between North and South and causes the formation of the fictional Seven Nations of America — Armistice, The Union, The Confederacy, The Republic of Texas, The Kingdom (of New Orleans), the People’s Republic of America (The House of Mao), and The Endless Nation.
It’s the last three nations that really make East of West unique and interesting: The Kingdom of New Orleans covers the area of Louisiana west to the border of Texas and is comprised of Africans who were once slaves in the Union and the Confederacy. The PRA is a nation of Chinese exiles. Basically, Mao lost the Chinese Civil War and escapes to the West Coat of America, setting up his own nation in San Francisco, which eventually spreads throughout California, Oregon, and Washington. The Endless Nation consists of Native Americans united under one tribe. What’s great about the Endless Nation is that it’s the Native Americans who are the most technologically advanced nation in East of West. They’re the superpower of the world.
I really cannot recommend East of West enough. Everything about it was just outstanding. The story, art, character designs, and overall world were outstanding.
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Just finished reading Meltdown by Deidre Langeland about the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Aimed at younger readers, it is still a good book for anyone wanting to better understand the events that led to the disaster. She does a good job of explaining the science behind it without dragging the reader down. Also, for a young reader’s book, she doesn’t shy away from the casualties caused by things. Overall a good read for anyone that wants details of the disaster, but doesn’t want a dry read.
I kind of want to see how this series ends…
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We got the whole series for our son and it’s all just as good. Be sure to check out This Is Not My Hat too for the full saga. His new book, The Rock From The Sky, while not hat related, is also excellent.
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Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan.
Duncan is a history podcaster. His previous project was The History of Rome (what it says on the tin) and his current project is Revolutions, where he covers the events and ramifications of several (political) revolutions. Having covered the American Revolution and French Revolution, he decided to discuss the Marquis, who featured in both, even travelling to France for his research.
I’m enjoying the book, Duncan is a great writer, and I can imagine him reading it aloud for me. But I’m now so easily distracted that it will take me weeks to finish the damn thing.
Who’s up for a free book?
I have read… none of these. But I like the gimmick:
I keep hearing about Tomorrow/Tomorrow/Tomorrow. I think I’ll give it a go. Cool cover too:
My boss bought me a copy of this book, totally unsolicited. I guess I’ll read it eventually.
Wheel of time tier list with the author.
I swore it was a book club, I can’t find the thread.
You got to search for Robert Jordan not Brandon Sanderson. And the old forum:
Thanks I thought I was missing something.
I read it. On the surface level, there’s a lot of stuff that matches the Apreche character sheet:
- Jews
- Korean stuff
- Old video games
- Physical weakness
But I wouldn’t call it a very Geeknights book.
I’ve been reading a whole bunch of Naomi Novik lately. I started with the Temerare books, which are Horatio Hornblower with dragons, and just kept going. I’m in the middle of the last of her books I haven’t read yet, spinning silver.
Interesting, good fantasy. Real page turner’s, and I really appreciate that she’s finished all her series with real endings!
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