Surtac wrote:

starexplorer wrote:

Anyway, not bad. I see why people like it, and why my friend gave it to me. Not sure I would recommend it, unless someone was considering reading it already. Its not River of Gods, for example. 

Funny you should mention that.  I see McDonald has just released his latest book, which looks like it might be another relatively short work in a new setting for him.  It's possibly another YA coming of age tale a la his earlier Planesrunner sequence.

I might slip it into my reading plan before starting McAuley's Loss Protocol.

I've just finished a re-read of Le Carre's Karla trilogy, ending with Smiley's People.  It's fascinating to see just how much those books have influenced later works in other genres, from Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe near-future SF dystopia to Mick Herron's Slow Horses contemporary dysfunctional spies to John Birmingham's Axis of Time alternative history.

 

I must read those Le Carre’s!

Well, I didn't return to the plan immediately.  I went to one of my British police procedural series for a palate-cleanser, before returning to SF/F with Dave Huchtchinson's The Essence, his latest standalone tome.  

It's a diffferent sort of book from Dave.  From the start, it looks like it's going to be your standard literary fiction type - middle-aged widower goes home after months of recuperation in a sanatoriom after some sort of public breakdown at work (he's an economics analyst/researcher) and tries to restart his life.  He gets sent over the Channel on an overnight trip to take a meeting and essentially health-check a glitch in his team's relationship with some Dutch counterparts.  So far, so predictable, right?

Wrong.  Michael's job is on the outside edges of Britain's intelligence community, and pretty well from the time he takes his Amsterdam meeting, he spirals into a hidden world of conspiracy theories about something called the Essence, that may or may not be capable of manifesting miracles.  It gets even stranger from there.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Once I got to Amsterdam, it had me by the throat and dragged me along inexorably, page by page.  It's quite prescient in terms of contemporary world politics, and hides some wickedly sly humour in places.  Highly recommended.

I'm now about a quarter of the way through Paul McAuley's Loss Protocol and enjoying this one a lot too.  So far, it's a little reminiscent of Ken MacLeod's recent Beyond trilogy.

 

Surtac wrote:

Well, I didn't return to the plan immediately.  I went to one of my British police procedural series for a palate-cleanser, before returning to SF/F with Dave Huchtchinson's The Essence, his latest standalone tome.  

It's a diffferent sort of book from Dave.  From the start, it looks like it's going to be your standard literary fiction type - middle-aged widower goes home after months of recuperation in a sanatoriom after some sort of public breakdown at work (he's an economics analyst/researcher) and tries to restart his life.  He gets sent over the Channel on an overnight trip to take a meeting and essentially health-check a glitch in his team's relationship with some Dutch counterparts.  So far, so predictable, right?

Wrong.  Michael's job is on the outside edges of Britain's intelligence community, and pretty well from the time he takes his Amsterdam meeting, he spirals into a hidden world of conspiracy theories about something called the Essence, that may or may not be capable of manifesting miracles.  It gets even stranger from there.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Once I got to Amsterdam, it had me by the throat and dragged me along inexorably, page by page.  It's quite prescient in terms of contemporary world politics, and hides some wickedly sly humour in places.  Highly recommended.

I'm now about a quarter of the way through Paul McAuley's Loss Protocol and enjoying this one a lot too.  So far, it's a little reminiscent of Ken MacLeod's recent Beyond trilogy.

 

This sounds right up my alley

Now wait a minute, I have never read SS-GB, and I just looked up what it’s about. This is also right up my alley. Aside from this not being the time for you ‘tac, do you otherwise recommend it?

I noticed that, and considered watching it immediately. But then I held myself back, advising that I really ought to read the book first. I liked Fatherland a lot btw.
I’m debating ordering SS-GB vs kindle.