Shejidan / What have you been reading lately?

**Posted by Kokipy** 10/12/2021 1:55 pm

So many excellent recommendations! I have to go buy them all now

**Posted by Surtac** 10/12/2021 7:19 pm

Kokipy wrote:
So many excellent recommendations! I have to go buy them all now

Yes, I've been making a list of my own based on what I'm seeing in here. I'm not sure where to start though - so much of my reading this year has been impulse and opportunity driven.

**Posted by Surtac** 10/20/2021 8:25 pm

After some tartan noir palate cleansers (Stuart McBrides' most recent Ash Henderson and William McIlvanney's second Laidlaw book, if you're curious), I came back to some serious SF with Adrian Tchaikovsky's BSFA Award winner Children of Ruin, his sequel to his earlier Clarke Award winning Children of Time.

Highly recommended, both of them, for those who like their SF hard and thinky without being explicit space opera. It's probably not strictly necessary to have read Time before approaching Ruin, but if you do, you'll get a better understanding of the Human and Portiid species relationship as shown in Ruin. And Ruin will give you a whole new appreciation of the phrase "we're going on an adventure."

Following that, I went on to Susanna Clarke's Piranesi. I knew almost nothing about it going in, but having finished it yesterday, I can see how it ended up with all the disparate award nominations it did. It's a beautifully written story that goes in a very different direction from what I thought might happen when I started. I won't say more for fear of spoiling it, but it also comes highly recommended by me.

So - what to read now?

**Posted by Surtac** 10/30/2021 5:53 pm

I finished Martine's A Memory of Empire. It was slow going at first and it took me quite a while to get caught up in the story before the action started to carry me along with it.

Has anyone else hereabouts read it? It has lots of obvious points of comparison, echoes, resonances - call them what you will - with Herself's Foreigner books while still being very different and its own self and setting. But I could swear I also found at least one example of a direct, albeit subtle, reference (or nod, or wink even) to Cyteen when I was least expecting it.

And now for something completely different to read next - Mike Harrison's' The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again.

Last edited by Aja Jin (11/02/2021 12:18 pm)

**Posted by Kokipy** 11/01/2021 8:59 am

I read and enjoyed A Memory of Empire, Surtac. Like you i found a took a bit of getting into but well worth it. The sequel is also good, imho.

**Posted by Surtac** 11/01/2021 9:34 pm

Thanks Kokipy. I was somewhat in two minds about tackling the sequel to A Memory of Empire, but I'm happy to take your recommendation and will add it to The Virtual Pile.

**Posted by starexplorer** 11/01/2021 10:12 pm

I had the same experience, or similar. I had some trouble getting into it, but thought it was good enough to finish. However I have yet to do so 🤔

**Posted by Griffinmoon** 11/02/2021 9:53 am

I've got a library book called The Kingdoms/Natasha Pulley. A time warp gate affecting Napoleonic history.

**Posted by joekc6nlx** 11/02/2021 10:57 am

Went looking on Gutenberg Press for some vintage H.G. Wells, found "The War in the Air". Almost a prediction of World War I, especially with the types of aircraft he used in the story. Only 1/3 of the way through it, so can't say much more, yet.

**Posted by Aja Jin** 11/02/2021 12:19 pm

I enjoyed Empire a lot, but missed the Cyteen reference (and I agree with influences/homage to CJ). The sequel was, to me, quite different. I enjoyed it, perhaps not as much as the original.

Can you find the Cyteen reference ?

Just did a re-read, for the first time in ... 20 years ? more? ... of The Faded Sun. Set late in the A/U timeline, and written early in CJ's career, there are certainly differences from the later-written mainline books. The hyperdrive works differently; although one could propose simple technical advancement. And there is no way the Regul would have gotten the drop on Mallory like they did on Koch.
The treatment of the Mri and Regul, both very non-human, is outstanding, among her very best.

**** Appologies to Surtac, I edited his post instead of replying ********

Last edited by Aja Jin (11/02/2021 12:20 pm)