been a bit
Apr. 7th, 2021 04:39 pmWhat are you reading?
A little ways into Thirteen Storeys, by Jonathan "Magnus Archives" Sims. It's intriguing, so far: the prologue is a gossip-column about a zillionaire who bought a new apartment building and moved into the penthouse, becoming a hermit there; then had a party with thirteen seemingly-unrelated people and died mysteriously and messily. Partly through the first of the stor[e]ys and it is atmospheric and creepy and intriguing.
Ebook, the second of John Scalzi's Interdependency trilogy, The Consuming Fire, in which the evil character from the first book tries to weasel her way into a career as an ongoing villain instead of being imprisoned for life, and the emperox (also head of the church) has Religious Visions in the hope that those will convince people that there's an actual problem. Fluff but highly enjoyable fluff; ebook is the correct way for me to own and consume Scalzi's stuff.
What did you just finish reading?
Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World, for the first time in probably twenty years. I have no idea why I liked this so much in college: it doesn't really have a plot or a resolution as such and the main character is aggressively passive. But it's got some neat worldbuilding to it. Likely it was the first time I'd seen the "explicit alternate-world psychodrama" bit played out, too. And it's well-written, both halves: the alternating breathless Raymond-Chandler noir style neatly complements the dreamlike End Of The World chapters. It's a keeper, but it was a close call.
Also Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire, in which the Interdependency is about to become a whole lot less Inter-dependent as the space travel lanes fail. To quote James Nicoll's review of the sequel: "Unsurprisingly for a John Scalzi novel, this is a John Scalzi novel." I'm glad I picked these up.
What do you think you'll read next?
My SubPress copy of Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms came in today, so, that, and also The Last Emperox.
A little ways into Thirteen Storeys, by Jonathan "Magnus Archives" Sims. It's intriguing, so far: the prologue is a gossip-column about a zillionaire who bought a new apartment building and moved into the penthouse, becoming a hermit there; then had a party with thirteen seemingly-unrelated people and died mysteriously and messily. Partly through the first of the stor[e]ys and it is atmospheric and creepy and intriguing.
Ebook, the second of John Scalzi's Interdependency trilogy, The Consuming Fire, in which the evil character from the first book tries to weasel her way into a career as an ongoing villain instead of being imprisoned for life, and the emperox (also head of the church) has Religious Visions in the hope that those will convince people that there's an actual problem. Fluff but highly enjoyable fluff; ebook is the correct way for me to own and consume Scalzi's stuff.
What did you just finish reading?
Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World, for the first time in probably twenty years. I have no idea why I liked this so much in college: it doesn't really have a plot or a resolution as such and the main character is aggressively passive. But it's got some neat worldbuilding to it. Likely it was the first time I'd seen the "explicit alternate-world psychodrama" bit played out, too. And it's well-written, both halves: the alternating breathless Raymond-Chandler noir style neatly complements the dreamlike End Of The World chapters. It's a keeper, but it was a close call.
Also Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire, in which the Interdependency is about to become a whole lot less Inter-dependent as the space travel lanes fail. To quote James Nicoll's review of the sequel: "Unsurprisingly for a John Scalzi novel, this is a John Scalzi novel." I'm glad I picked these up.
What do you think you'll read next?
My SubPress copy of Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms came in today, so, that, and also The Last Emperox.