Aja Jin wrote:

For some reason I don't understand, I didn't like Children of Time. I actually DNFed. It read like a summary of a book. It's something I should like, so I'll give it another try sometime.

I will say this because it’s starting to bug me. I’m 70 pages in, and there is not a character to care about yet. My interest in fiction without interesting characters is a fraction of what it once was.

The premise is promising, and no spoiler because it’s immediately obvious: small brained spider-like creatures are accidentally uplifted to some higher capacity for intelligence on an alien planet just as humans are arriving. But you need more than a premise. I’m still hopeful.

Surtac wrote:

starexplorer wrote:

Aja Jin wrote:

For some reason I don't understand, I didn't like Children of Time. I actually DNFed. It read like a summary of a book. It's something I should like, so I'll give it another try sometime.

I will say this because it’s starting to bug me. I’m 70 pages in, and there is not a character to care about yet. My interest in fiction without interesting characters is a fraction of what it once was.

The premise is promising, and no spoiler because it’s immediately obvious: small brained spider-like creatures are accidentally uplifted to some higher capacity for intelligence on an alien planet just as humans are arriving. But you need more than a premise. I’m still hopeful.

I am reminded of when I first read China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, and it seemed like the first 200 pages were worldbuilding before the atual story started.  Fwiw, the first sympathetic characters for me in Children of Time were certain individual spiders.

 

maybe I need to get to know the spiders better 

Recently, 

The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville. Ok, from one of the main "new weird" writers, this one is out there. It seems like CM took a lot of surrealist art, and wove them into a narrative. There are notes at the end adding some info on the art, as written by the narrator. I did find a website that tried to collect all the actual works referenced. Strange stuff indeed. 

Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. The first was the most interesting. It was worth reading but nothing was ever revealed. A slow-burn anti-climax, but written well enough to read and enjoy. A once and done. I might read the somewhat new 4th book, but will probably wait for #5 next year. One hopes he had something new to say,  not just milking the franchise.

Wolf Worm, T. Kingfisher. As a card carrying Kingfisher fan-boy, I read all her work. Another great read, lots of creepy biology set in early 1900 eastern North Carolina, and all that goes with that society. Many of the characters are sympathetic, and she really sticks the landing perfectly. Alway highly recommended, even before I read. 
 

I have that particular Mieville in The Pile as yet unread.  I'll get to it sometime.

I read Annihilation after seeing the film based on it, to try and get a better grip on the story underlying the film.  I enjoyed it but not enough to continue the series.  It did give me echoes of recent M John Harrison and Susannah Clarke books iirc.

My recent reading has been yet another distraction away from The Plan.  I blame Steven Wilson.  A throwaway comment from him in one of his Album Years podcasts with Tim Bowness led me to the Michel Faber book that was the basis for Jonathan Glaezer's film Under The Skin so I was diverted to read that ahead of starting Tchaikovsky's Children of Strife. 

I think I'll be reading more of Faber's work, but for now, back to the far-future spiders (and others) in space.

 

I’m not a completist, at all.  But I thought Annihilation was beautifully written and sublime.

Welcome in, btw! 🫖 🍰