mrsmr2 wrote:

Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

What a book. Proper sci-fi, made me think, and utterly compelling to read.

More of this please.

Spectacular work. Maybe the best sci-fi I've ever read. Certainly in term of scale and scope. Questions what it is to be alive, never mind what it is to be human.

Raiziel wrote:

44. The Descent by Jeff Long

Take the excellent British horror film The Descent, blow up the scale to World War Z proportions, season generously with Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth and you get something like Jeff Long’s 1999 door-stopper The Descent. The premise is that Hell exists in a very physical way, and it’s right where many religions and myths said it was all along: beneath our feet and deep in the earth. When this planet-spanning honeycomb of vast caves, tight tunnels and subterranean seas is discovered the powers-that-be just can’t wait to get down there to explore it and commercialise it, even if there are some very nasty things waiting for them in the darkness. I really enjoyed it. There’s a single sequel, and I’ll be getting around to that very soon.

19. The Descent (Jeff Long)
Really liked this - it's a page turning, pulpy as all hell, imaginative, gruesome and brilliantly staged horror-thriller that despite taking itself too seriously isn't afraid to lean into some very bonkers ideas. Great stuff.

Gremill wrote:

17. The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead)
This, on the other hand, is about as far from lovely as you can get - but may be one of the best books I've ever read. It's the story of the horrors of slavery era Georgia, the attempts of one girl to escape the plantation using the eponymous network of help and the mind-bending inhumanity of the times. It's absolutely incredible - at once both beautifully and poetically written, whilst using that gorgeous language to describe the worst that humanity can inflict on each other.

There's an Amazon tv show of this. I've heard it's quite good but I imagine it's hard going

The Little Prince is a lovely book.

Low Life by Jeffrey Bernard is a compilation of the "Low Life" newpaper column relating the life style of the creative community in Soho from the late 40s to the early 90s.

The author and his column was suitable material for a play "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell" which was quite a hit internationally. This makes for entertaining reading but it's dark in places too as the toll of the lifestyle is high and his later writing dealing with illnesses and the loss of limbs illustrates that. Still an excellent read though. This is a single volume version combining the two original books.

Smile - Roddy Doyle

This hits a little differently to his earlier work but the fingerprints are there, in the pub dialogue especially. Failed non-novelist splits from his celebrity wife and attempts to shape the new normal in his home town, a plan which mainly involves becoming part of the furniture in his local. Heavy in places as a supressed past starts to surface but tied with a natural humour. Really enjoyed this.

I read that last year, glad I did as the constant trickery was interesting but didn't quite work for me on the whole.  I remember being a little disappointed with how it all wrapped up.

Never Enough by Judith Grisel
Grisel is a Neuroscientist specialising in the science of addiction, she is also a recovered addict of alcohol and a good range of drugs, making her a two time expert on the subject.

Never Enough discusses the science of addiction, what it is, why it happens, who it happens to and what categories of different drugs do to our brains. This is punctuated from her own story using herself and others she met along the way as example cases. Its more a science book than anything but written for the most for the laymen (all be it with some big words), its no textbook or research paper. Touches on what can be done but avoids becoming a fully political book too, although Grisel being an American Reagan naturally gets a name check .

I found it fascinating. Confirmed or expanded on some things I knew and open my eyes to a lot I didnt.

55. Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite

This was so close to being brilliant. In a way it’s not a million miles away from The Last House on Needless Street, being a psychological drama. Two disparate people on the fringes of society come together in a small American town where one of them must overcome a terrible tragedy in his past that has affected him all of his life. The writing here is beautiful, by far the best I have read so far this year (excluding rereads). I could tell from the very first page that this was going to be a pleasure to read. The whole thing exudes quality. The way the author describes an open market or the headstones in a graveyard…*chefs kiss*. Not only that, but they have a firm grasp on creating characters with depth and nuance.

Where I felt this book fell massively short is in the story. In the first half of the book it is barely detectable, and is pretty uninteresting when it does show up in the latter half. Clearly the focus here is on the characters, but that just wasn’t enough for me to enjoy this book half as much as I initially thought I was going to.

I've started reading Best Served Cold and it is indeed good. This is the one y'all liked the most right?

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

I've started reading Best Served Cold and it is indeed good. This is the one y'all liked the most right?

Yeah, that's up there with his best. The Heroes is also amazing.

tigersgogrrr wrote:

I preferred Abercrombie's YA series (Half a...) over any of his 'standard' stuff, but Best Served Cold is a cracker.

Will check this out one day

The Big Short
Just brilliant.
One of my favourite movies. The book is just as good.
Obviously it doesn't have Margot Robbie in the bath yet manages still to explain the stupidly complex systems involved in an entertaining manner.
I'm not sure if there is more depth than the movie or just that the media allows more time and space to absorb it all but I felt like I picked up even more than the movie offered.
My jaw dropped multiple times while reading. It should be fiction it is that insane.

I'm reading The Sandman bk 1 (Preludes & Nocturnes). Early days but building.

Then taking my Kindle on hols, so whatever else I find lurking on there on Sunday the hundreds I've bought cheap over the years... might take a paperback it two alongside, we'll see. Will be nice to actually read, anyway, if I do manage it...

And then three weeks after I'm back I'll have a bit of a commute again, which I'm hoping will also mean more reading, as some kind of silver lining...

Subbax wrote:

I'm finally on Dark Age, the 5th book in the Red Rising trilogy and it's brutal.  I'm loving the series and I have to get the actual books.  Read most of them from the library but I'll read them again at some point.

The writer obviously needs to look up the meaning of 'trilogy'