What book are you reading now/have finished?

General
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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.

East of West Covers
East of West Covers4438×987 875 KB

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369

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.

370

https://www.bookdepository.com/We-Found-Hat-Jon-Klassen/9781406347517?ref=grid-view&qid=1630552294974&sr=1-5

I kind of want to see how this series ends…

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371

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.

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Who’s up for a free book?

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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:

375

My boss bought me a copy of this book, totally unsolicited. I guess I’ll read it eventually.

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Wheel of time tier list with the author.

I swore it was a book club, I can’t find the thread.

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You got to search for Robert Jordan not Brandon Sanderson. And the old forum:

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Thanks I thought I was missing something.

379

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.

380

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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381

How do her Temerare books compare to her the other works? I’m always a bit trepidatious about getting into a big fantasy series :sweat_smile:

I really liked Uprooted and Spinning Silver (also how they feel like fairy tales, and move quite quick), and loved The Scholomance trilogy, which I immediately burned through, as soon as a book came out :smiley:

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I’d say Temerare is a little slower, and not quite as tightly written as her other books, but definitely still good. I think the first couple are the best. Give it a try, the series is done and won’t leave you hanging :stuck_out_tongue:

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The Temerare books were pretty good up to a point, but then they became extremely bland and I lost interest. The specific moment was when they head to France with The Thing related to The Plague. It’s all downhill from there.

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I’m reading the Old Man’s War series and on The Ghost Brigades. I wanted to talk about how you can see Scalzi’s style developing here or how he’s trying to be inclusive in his writing but a seen in the book I’m in just keeps sticking with me more than those thoughts. War is ugly and, no matter who may be on the morally high ground overall, both sides can commit despicably evil acts to win. I don’t know if I want more or less war books to show that but if feels important to mention.

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386

Something called Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution won the Nebula.

So I know what I’m reading next I guess.

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387

Just started reading In Ashes Born. Which is, I think, the 17th book in Nathan Lowell’s Solar Clipper series/anthology. I took several years off from his work, but I really really enjoy his writing and the world he created for this series. I would compare it favorably to The Expanse, but less politics and guns, and more shipping logistics and trade economics…in space. Very detailed, nerdy and fun.

One of my favorite things about this series is an odd meta detail I know from being a fan from the early days. After book 1 or 2, the author received a lot of criticism for writing the main character in a way that came across as chauvinistic or sexist. After some reflection and talking to his fans, Nathan made getting over personal biases and petty hang ups a very significant part of the main character’s development and a central part of the story overall. The main character was still on a trajectory of greatness, but now with a lot more humility and self reflection. Traits which influenced many other characters in the books. I always wondered how different the story would have been if the MC had kept the standard sci-fi hero traits.

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I’ve been on a queer history binge lately so I’m gonna share my thoughts on a few of those books.

The Lavender Scare by David K Johnson
This is the best queer history book I’ve read so far. It’s very clear in it’s scope – a history of the blanket ban on gay people working for the Federal government that lasted from 1948 until 1969. It does a great job of highlighting the ways that the Lavender Scare paved the way for McCarthy’s Red Scare and persecutions via HUAC, as well as the toll it took on gay lives, and the various forms of resistance to it that existed at the time. It makes a very compelling case that modern queer history does not, in fact, start with Stonewall, but with the Lavender Scare, as that was the first time LGBT people thought of themselves as a minority who could organize and advocate for rights, and many of the groups formed in this period (most notably the Mattichine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis) retained their relevance into the early 70s. 5/5 can’t recommend enough.

Transgender History by Susan Stryker
I don’t think this book was for me. It was a little bit too short for how broad the scope was IMO. It documents the development of institutional transphobia across the 20th century, as well as the resistance to it, as well as philosophical shifts both in how cis people viewed trans people and how trans people viewed themselves. It’s an ambitious project but with only 208 pages to cover it and a solid quarter of that being taken up by an autobiography of the author and definition of terms, it ultimately focuses way more on the philosophy than I’d like and falls short as a social and/or political history of transgender people. 3/5 for me personally but 4/5 if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
I’m not done with this book yet but fuck this fucking book. It’s less an actual history of LGBT people in America and more a long list of pieces of trivia about instances of homosexuality in literature and some historical figures that could have been gay. It does nothing to put these individual instances in a broader cultural context, a particularly heinous crime for the first section of the book. The fact that 19th century attitudes towards intimacy and affection were dramatically different from our modern ones may have been used by previous historians to straightwash queer history, but that doesn’t mean we should apply our modern notions to historical figures. It’s worth really interrogating how these attitudes towards intimacy were different, the ways they shifted, and why they shifted, but to simply go “look, there were people writing gay sex scenes in the 1800s” is hardly an insightful or even helpful way to go about recording this history. Also he deadnames and misgenders Public Universal Friend the whole time he’s talking about Public Universal Friend so fuck him.