- starexplorer
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
82Eridani wrote:
Thanks for the recommendations! I've enjoyed N. K. Jemisin's books this last year -- wonderful world building and complex characters.
Yes, I also enjoy her work. And maybe I should try the NYC one, having spent many years there.
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- Kokipy
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
I’ve started the Life as No One Knows it - two pages in and it’s great. I’ve recommended it also to spouse, who is currently reading a book by Bill Bryson which he thinks might have some similar themes.
I just finished reading Pale Fire by Nabokov. I really loved it, although, based on my quick look at some on line sources, I may have missed the main joke 
- Kokipy
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
One point made in the very early pages of Life as No One just really struck me - she alludes to the need for our definition of “life” to enable us to discern “life” in alien environments. I don’t remember many if any science fiction books focusing on the brave explorers of the universe puzzled by this question - they seem to be using the pornography definition she alludes to even earlier - but surely an ethical spacer needs to be able to identify “life” so as not to squash it.
- Surtac
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
One thing about that book that grabbed me early on was the use of 'city' as an example of a dissipative structure that was also a form of life - I found that to be quite intriguing.
One minor irritant though about this book is her habit of introducing another scientist or physicist by their full name but then subsequently referring to them by their forename, making it harder for me to remember who she's talking about.
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
- starexplorer
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
One point made in the very early pages of Life as No One just really struck me - she alludes to the need for our definition of “life” to enable us to discern “life” in alien environments. I don’t remember many if any science fiction books focusing on the brave explorers of the universe puzzled by this question - they seem to be using the pornography definition she alludes to even earlier - but surely an ethical spacer needs to be able to identify “life” so as not to squash it.
Interesting. It seems like such a fundamental question as Walker poses it: why should we assume we will readily identify life when we encounter it? There is so much assumption and bias in the notion. And yet I too am scratching my head to think of a good science fictional example in which this difficulty is faced.
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Thread Starter- Surtac
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
One point made in the very early pages of Life as No One just really struck me - she alludes to the need for our definition of “life” to enable us to discern “life” in alien environments. I don’t remember many if any science fiction books focusing on the brave explorers of the universe puzzled by this question - they seem to be using the pornography definition she alludes to even earlier - but surely an ethical spacer needs to be able to identify “life” so as not to squash it.
Interesting. It seems like such a fundamental question as Walker poses it: why should we assume we will readily identify life when we encounter it? There is so much assumption and bias in the notion. And yet I too am scratching my head to think of a good science fictional example in which this difficulty is faced.
I'm having the same problem. I can't yet think of an example that doesn't involve us humans using their own innate or augmented senses. I'm also making slow progress on this book overall. Every few pages I have to stop and think hard about a new concept. It's a good thing that I can now read several different styles of book in parallel.
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
- Surtac
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
It has become clear to me lately that Real Life(tm) is not going to allow me to further elucidate on exactly why the following books were my favourite reads of 2024. So I'm just going to list them for you. I'm pretty sure I have talked about all of them individually in the various active threads of the Babbling Books discussion as I finished each of them. This year I'll be trying to consolidate those commentaries together so that I can produce a 2025 years best summary.
Machine Vendetta - Alastair Reynolds
Titanium Noir - Nick Harkaway
Beyond the Light Horizon - Ken MacLeod
The Music of the Future - Robert Barry
In Ascencion - Martin MacInnes
Cairn - Kathleen Jamie
The Wilding - Ian MacDonald
Alliance Unbound - CJC and Jane
Karla's Choice - Nick Harkaway
All are fiction except the Robert Barry and the Kathleen Jamie. Cairn is a tiny exquisite jewel of a book combining autobiography and peronal philosophy in a small number of perfect scenes and fragments of images. It's an astonishing work.
I have spent over six months now trying and failing to articulate and describe exactly why Robert Barry's Music of the Future detonated in my brain the way it did when I first read it. It seems there are simply too many cross-connections between the books and music I have consumed and absorbed over the last fifty years or so.
And it continues with books I've read since. Even in the list above, McDonald's the Wilding contains a sly, sly unmistakable reference to a 1980s one hit wonder that had me laughing out loud. And Karla's Choice, a Le Carre spy thriller set in 1963 gave me the original title source for AC/DC's song Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. I did not expect that one.
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
- 82Eridani
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
Thanks for the recommendations! I've enjoyed N. K. Jemisin's books this last year -- wonderful world building and complex characters.
Which Jemisin books did you read? My favorite is The Killing Moon + The Shadowed Sun duology, from 2012. I read the most recent "Great Cities" books. Enjoyed them, but struggled at times to get through. If I knew more about NYC I bet the books would be a lot more interesting.
Sorry for the late response, Aja Jin, don't get here very often.
* The Broken Earth trilogy -- probably my favorite
* The Dreamblood duology
* The Inheritance trilogy
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- 82Eridani
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Re: Favorite Reads of 2024
Thanks for the recommendations! I've enjoyed N. K. Jemisin's books this last year -- wonderful world building and complex characters.
Yes, I also enjoy her work. And maybe I should try the NYC one, having spent many years there.
I've hesitated to read that one. Might be too close to real life. Reading, like gardening, is an escape.
Let me know what you think of it.
The world isn't perfect,that's why it's beautiful
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