Book 'Em Danno! Reading Record 2021 - The Bear and Badger

Gremill

12. The Player of Games (Iain M Banks)
Fantastic stuff, with a lot to say about the state of our world (even more relevant today than it was when it was written) through the lens of the corrupt and decadent Empire of Azad. Can't believe it took me so long to get into this series.

Raiziel

26. Avilion by Robert Holdstock. The final book in Holdstock’s Mythago series and a direct sequel to the first book, written 25 years after he published the award winning Mythago Wood. I wish I had nice things to say about this final entry, as the author sadly passed away shortly after the book was published, but unfortunately this book has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It’s hard for me to believe this mess was written by the same man who wrote the preceding books. The story is virtually nonsensical, the characters are bland, and the dialogue is often excruciating. The first two in the series are unforgettable; this is one I’ll be only too happy to forget.

Gremill

13. The Problem with Men (When is International Men's Day and Why Does it Matter?) (Richard Herring)
Short essay style book about the last 10 years of his epic Twitter crusade to answer every cunt on the world who asks "When is there going to be and international men's day??!' on International Women's Day. Thoughts on toxic masculinity, male insecurity and the drive for equality. Funny and thoughtful, worth a read.

davyK

Finished Vol.5 of Churchill's The Second World War. This brings the reader up to the eve of D-Day. The volume covers the long and bloody Italian campaign - Anzio , Cassino et al and the taking of Rome - which happened the day before D-Day.

The first meeting of the big 3 in Tehran is covered. And there are supporting sections on the fringe parts of the war such as the quite stirring efforts in Yugoslavia.

There are political machinations re creation of government in Italy post surrender in late 1943 with Mussolini still hanging on in Salo in the North. The Greeks caused fun and games too - with an armed mutiny against the exiled government in Cairo to quell.

Churchill continues to be a ball of energy despite illness , travelling almost constantly with an eye on most aspects of the war. He parachuted his son into Yugoslavia with another British senior officer to set up a liaison unit with the partisans there (who were keeping 20 division of Germans busy and away from the main theatre). He certainly didn't believe in keeping himself or his son cosseted.....during the week before D-Day he caused much alarm when he had arranged to be on one of the ships taking part in the pre-invasion bombardment before a letter from the King persuaded him otherwise.

One volume to go.

Raiziel

27. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Read for book club

28. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and translated by Antonina Bouis. This is a Russian science fiction story, regarded by many as a classic. It’s about a site near the town of Harmont (possibly in the US?) where aliens once landed. They did what they needed to do, paid the human population no mind at all, and went on their way, leaving behind scraps of technology that is mostly so far in advance of our own that it’s incomprehensible to us. The site is also incredibly dangerous, with weird shit like random gravity wells that’ll kill you in a heartbeat. So it’s mostly left to “stalkers” to brave the site in an attempt to salvage the alien detritus and if they get back out alive they can sell it on the black market for big bucks.

I love stories where alien intelligences are things far beyond human comprehension, so things like 2001, Solaris and Roadside Picnic are totally my bag. Incidentally, Andrei Tarkovsky, who had already filmed Solaris, went on to adapt this book as the film Stalker.

BONUS TRIVIA: The video game S.T.A.L.K.E.R is massively influenced not only by the setting from the book but also by plot elements.

davyK

@Raiziel you might like Gateway by Frederick Pohl for your next advanced absent alien race / tech kick.

Raiziel

Cheers, davy, will take a look at it.

acemuzzy

Ahahaha amazing scenes: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08933FN85/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_4X37BZ1N1NCZ9B7W242W

Lord_Griff

Eh?

acemuzzy

I assumed the 2035 release date was some kind of meta sci-fi gag. Or, they're trolling Amazon.

Raiziel

29. The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison. I’m not really sure what I read here, but I liked it. I’m still trying to parse after finishing it up last night, but I think the subtext is Brexit and climate change are bad. Maybe? I’m not even going to try and explain the gist of the story, but what I will say is that Harrison is a big fat show-off and I hate him because...the man writes beautifully; gorgeous, modern, intelligent prose. He renders his locations, both London and Shropshire, with poetic flair, and burnishes everything with Lynchian strangeness. It won’t be a story for everyone; those who like their narratives unambiguous and neatly wrapped will be frustrated by this, but for those with an eye for good prose and weird stylings this is a tale that’ll probably rattle around the noggin for weeks or months after reading. I’m a fan.

Raiziel

30. The Other Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos, translated by Gio Clairval. This 1967 novella starts out like a nautical, non-supernatural horror story before switching up a gear and becoming much more Lovecraftian. The prose is plain, the pace is brisk, and the story is my kinda weird. I enjoyed it.

superflyninja

Raiziel wrote:

27. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Read for book club

I loved Strange & Norrell back in the day. This in the same league?

Raiziel

I think so, yes. I loved Strange & Norrell too, and Piranesi did not disappoint.

djchump

Nice bit of sci-fi for any fans of the Greg Egan/Philip K Dick style: https://qntm.org/mmacevedo

Raiziel

31. The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. Ehh...I don’t know about this one. On the one hand the characters are off-the-shelf fantasy clichés, the world is derivative, and the story uninteresting, and on the other hand the writing is really great. It’s like a gifted painter or sculpturer has dedicated their considerable talents to the rendering of an incredible bland and uninteresting subject. The pace is also languid, and for all that’s going on it feels incredibly undramatic, which probably has a lot do with how unengaging the characters are. Speaking of characters: Binabik the troll...urgh. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a protagonist to either walk out of the story or meet a good death quite as much as this guy. His relentless Yodaisms really grated, and the guy has sooooo much dialogue. It’s not hard to read, it’s just annoying to read. If you really must give one of your characters silly speech patterns, saddle them with a bit-part character, not a main player.

So having said all this I am going to push on with the next book, partly because of the excellent prose, partly in the hope that the story might go somewhere interesting.

davyK

And thus ends my reading of The Second World War by Winston Spencer Churchill.

What a literary achievement this is. Six volumes. 1.5m words (1.9 with the appendices). A herculean task of documentation and historic endeavor - especially given his bitter disappointment at how things ended in Europe and how he couldn't finish the job when barely a year after D-day he was booted out of power.

Of course this is very much a single person's view of events and even though the majority of events are illustrated with transcripts of speeches/memos/letters/telegrams at the time one always has to take a view of the war through that lens. But what an effort this man put in over the 5 years. I know he had his faults but this war was in his opinion avoidable (the 1st volume covers the multiple occasions when in his opinion it could have been pre-emptively killed off) and his efforts playing his role in the multi-theatre conflict - for a man of any age never mind his - will in all liklihood never be repeated.

This account is mainly in the European theatre but there is good coverage of the exploits on the Pacific rim and the Americans' fight in the Pacific albeit with less detail - so it remains a brilliant account of the war and a unique view of it as its taken by the one leader who was there from start to finish - a man who took part in cavalry charges and ended up having his finger in the UK nuke button when he was returned to PM in the 50s.

The man was great with a pen (though his method of "writing" was dictation) and his turns of phrase at times are superb. When he relates little asides where humour shines through he becomes eminently quotable. There are some gems of passages throughout this. He also describes some of the events resulting in the distruction of enemy ships etc with relish. The man had the stomach for it - no doubt about that - and maybe that is just as well.

A unique piece of work I'd recommend to anyone who has an interest in the second world war. The first volume can be hard to wade through as it is largely all about the politics and Churchill's exasperation at the appeasement of Hitler and the resistance to begin the building of arms.

I think it's time for some fiction now.

b0r1s

@Raiziel finished Foundation last night and you were spot on with your take on it. It really is pretty much talking. I like the feel of it and can imagine some of the worlds he invents but dramatically it just does nothing. Will definitely be interesting to see how they pull something together for the show.

Gremill

14. Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee)
Set in an empire that derives its technological power from a combination of mathematics, faith and a very specific calendar of observances and rituals, this was quite a thing. It never really explains much to you and is at times borderline incomprehensible, but I ended up really enjoying it.

In order to crush a calendrical heresy occuring at a heavily defended nexus fort in deep space, the Hexarchate send a military maths prodigy possessed by the ghost of a 400 year old insane genocidal legendary general. They have a variety of extremely nasty sounding weapons at their disposal (carrion bombs, threshold winnowers, amputation guns etc) to do so, but is the spirit of Shuos Jedau, the undead madman, as crazy as he seems? Or is he planning something bigger? Daft as fuck but well written and didn't take itself too seriously.

Raiziel

b0r1s wrote:

@Raiziel finished Foundation last night and you were spot on with your take on it. It really is pretty much talking. I like the feel of it and can imagine some of the worlds he invents but dramatically it just does nothing. Will definitely be interesting to see how they pull something together for the show.

If I was adapting Foundation for the screen I’d be inclined to run with the big idea of the book and throw away almost everything else. If nothing else the Apple show looks visually striking, and as long at it airs before my Apple+ membership expires in September, I’ll watch it.

davyK

Gremill wrote:

14. Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee) Set in an empire that derives its technological power from a combination of mathematics, faith and a very specific calendar of observances and rituals, this was quite a thing. It never really explains much to you and is at times borderline incomprehensible, but I ended up really enjoying it. In order to crush a calendrical heresy occuring at a heavily defended nexus fort in deep space, the Hexarchate send a military maths prodigy possessed by the ghost of a 400 year old insane genocidal legendary general. They have a variety of extremely nasty sounding weapons at their disposal (carrion bombs, threshold winnowers, amputation guns etc) to do so, but is the spirit of Shuos Jedau, the undead madman, as crazy as he seems? Or is he planning something bigger? Daft as fuck but well written and didn't take itself too seriously.

That reads like the storyline behind a modern Japanese 2D bullet hell shooter.

davyK

Completed my first pass through A Brief History of Time

Took me all this time to read this. Hawking is a good communicator but it does get a bit heavy in places - but never for too long. Even if knowledge has moved on it's still worth a look as it covers the history pretty well.

Raiziel

32. Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon. This is a sort of folk horror where a nice city slicker family want a change of pace in life and move out of New York City to a quaint little upstate farming community. Everything’s swell at first, and the family are enjoying discovering and deciphering the strange ways of the townsfolk, but of course it all goes to shit in the end. There’s strong strand of Wicker Man’s DNA in this book, but for a good part of its considerable length it’s really just a subtle domestic drama with a side order of sleuthing as the protagonist investigates the death of a girl who once lived in Cornwall Coombe. Tryon certainly doesn’t hurry his narrative, but he’s great at writing dialogue and I found myself swept up in the story, even if I did have a pretty good idea where it might be going. A Thumping Good Read™️.

acemuzzy

Free with Prime reading

Raiziel

Yeah, I should’ve mentioned that. I was intending to read it this coming Halloween (along with Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge), but when I saw it was on Prime Reading I brought it forward.

Raiziel

33. Unfinished Tales by J. R. R. Tolkien. Finally, after all these years. I bought this book as a young teenager, but it just seemed so dense and fragmented for my puny adolescent mind to properly engage with, so I never got very far with it. The book collects together fragments of tales and essays from across the 1st, 2nd and 3rd ages of Middle-earth, each extensively annotated by Tolkien’s son Christopher, and as such it’s a mixed bag. Folk will take away different things from this depending on their interests. There’s a chapter here that describes the running battles between Sauron’s orcs and the Rohirrim before and during the events of The Two Towers which I found quite dull. But then there’s the tale of Aldarion and Erendis, the story of a prince of Numenor caught between his love for a woman and his yearning for the sea, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s just a damn shame it doesn’t have a proper ending, being unfinished and all that. I also particularly enjoyed the essay about the Istari, the five wizards that came to Middle-earth in the 3rd Age. I imagine this tome makes for a good primer for the forthcoming Amazon show.

Raiziel

34. Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier. So this is a fun little romp around Venice as a couple, grieving the loss of a child, encounter a couple of strange old ladies and find their holiday take a turn for the strange. I think there might be film adaptation, but I’ve not seen it. Excellent prose, reminds me a bit of Shirley Jackson.

Lord_Griff

davyK wrote:

And thus ends my reading of The Second World War by Winston Spencer Churchill.

What a literary achievement this is. Six volumes. 1.5m words (1.9 with the appendices). A herculean task of documentation and historic endeavor - especially given his bitter disappointment at how things ended in Europe and how he couldn't finish the job when barely a year after D-day he was booted out of power.

Of course this is very much a single person's view of events and even though the majority of events are illustrated with transcripts of speeches/memos/letters/telegrams at the time one always has to take a view of the war through that lens. But what an effort this man put in over the 5 years. I know he had his faults but this war was in his opinion avoidable (the 1st volume covers the multiple occasions when in his opinion it could have been pre-emptively killed off) and his efforts playing his role in the multi-theatre conflict - for a man of any age never mind his - will in all liklihood never be repeated.

This account is mainly in the European theatre but there is good coverage of the exploits on the Pacific rim and the Americans' fight in the Pacific albeit with less detail - so it remains a brilliant account of the war and a unique view of it as its taken by the one leader who was there from start to finish - a man who took part in cavalry charges and ended up having his finger in the UK nuke button when he was returned to PM in the 50s.

The man was great with a pen (though his method of "writing" was dictation) and his turns of phrase at times are superb. When he relates little asides where humour shown through he becomes eminently quotable. There are some gems of passages throughout this. He also describes some of the events resulting in the distruction of enemy ships etc with relish. The man had the stomach for it - no doubt about that - and maybe that is just as well.

A unique piece of work I'd recommend to anyone who has an interest in the second world war. The first volume can be hard to wade through as it is largely all about the politics and Churchill's exasperation at the appeasement of Hitler and the resistance to begin the building of arms.

I think it's time for some fiction now.

I will pick the collection up at some point. Nice write up.

acemuzzy

Raiziel wrote:

34. Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier. So this is a fun little romp around Venice as a couple, grieving the loss of a child, encounter a couple of strange old ladies and find their holiday take a turn for the strange. I think there might be film adaptation, but I’ve not seen it. Excellent prose, reminds me a bit of Shirley Jackson.

There is indeed a movie. Tis decent, some (not me) would say a classic.

Raiziel

35. The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard. Classic post apocalyptic sci-fi with a heavy emphasis on climate change. It’s terrifying, really, and although in this story the climate change is not man made but rather brought about by the sun being a dick, it still feels like a really relevant read today. The absolute star of the story is the world itself, which has seemingly reverted to the Paleozoic Era, a world in which most humans on earth have fled to the poles in order to survive and reptiles are in the ascendant. Ballard’s prose is often beautiful and sometimes opaque (to this reader at least), but I have to admit that I was a tad disappointed that the story settles into something akin to a conventional thriller with “a bad guy” to contend with. There’s a subplot at the beginning of the story where some of the characters are experiencing psychological changes; that just as the environment around them is reverting to a previous era, so too are their psyches. Personally I’d have much preferred it if the story had followed that strand of the storyline down its particular rabbit hole. On the whole though, I still enjoyed the story quite a bit.

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