Following on from Part 1 (and just as timely as I was expecting), here are the books I read in the second “half” of 2022. The Goodreads links have been changed for Bookwyrm, cos I’m a dirty free-web commie.
You can follow reading updates on my BookWyrm profile, but like… why the fuck would you want to do that?
There seems to be some vague idea that this is set in the same universe as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. But if it is, well, it’s kind of irrelevant.
I usually don’t really like stories-as-diary-entries, but this wasn’t too bad. It helps that Piranesi is so very likeable. Clarke rides the line between naiveté and competence extremely well, with his obliviousness to his situation juxtaposed expertly with his skill at living in the weird world he inhabits.
It’s a very different book from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell so even if you were not sold on that, I would still recommend this. And it’s quick to read.
I feel like I’m cheating a bit putting this on the list, because I didn’t finish it. But I did get a fair way through it.
I eventually had to put it down because I just didn’t care. Maybe it’s my politics, but the intrigues of royalty, and the adventures of the privileged don’t interest me as much anymore. If there was something else to hang on to, that could get me though, but the characters were uninteresting and the setting was dull.
I know I’m the wrong audience for this. The main selling point is its supposed rauchiness. But I’d seen it on a bunch of “must read” fantasy lists so I thought I’d give it a go. And I really did, I just could not stick it out.
The second Hainish Cycle book I’ve read was at a disadvantage from the start, The Dispossessed was such a revelation that The Left Hand of Darkness could not hope to match it.
But it gave it a pretty good go.
Ursula K. Le Guin is now one of my favourite authors. The way she handles such complex topics in an approachable and casual way is mind-blowing.
I would even say it has a stronger story than The Dispossessed, though it doesn’t hit as hard. It also has a much less empathetic protagonist. Genly Ai is kind of a douche, and very sexist, so it’s much harder to root for him.
But regardless, the story itself is very compelling, being something of a road trip narrative, as well as an examination of Nationalism vs pride in ones origins.
I read this piecemeal on the tram to and from work (I guess it’s appropriate, somehow). And I don’t really get it.
Like the ABCs of Anarchism, it it mostly a critique of other forms of Societal movements, Though where ABCs focuses on all types, from Capitalism to Religion to Unions, The Communist Manifesto only seems to rag on other forms of Socialism and “faux”-communism and doesn’t seem to present any real alternatives.
Maybe I miss read something, maybe I missed a big chunk. Maybe the tram is not a good place to try and read century old political treatises, but this didn’t land for me on any level.
And I am NOT going to wade into Capital any time soon…
This is a step up from Tech Heaven in terms of style and flow. Being so removed from our own world means I’m much more willing to let a lot of slide. I am however a bit surprised how much of the high-tech stuff from Edges in in this book. Things I thought would be developed much more in the far future are here.
Overall it was a quick read, and enjoyable enough. I don’t think it adds that much to the greater story.
Wow, I hated this. It started out okay, but very quickly went in a direction that I just wasn’t feeling.
The writing is also pretty bad. I feel that I don’t really have the authority to say that, but there are just some glaring mistakes in the book that completely destroy any sense of flow, and the overuse of “scare” quotes all-the-fucking-time just ruin it for me.
If I hadn’t recently given up on Kushiel’s Dart I would have dropped this around the half way point, but I felt like that would reinforce a bad precedent so I was compelled to finish.
I wish I hadn’t of bothered.
The first of the Nanotech Succession books that really landed for me. There was still some awkwardness in the writing, and everyone referring to people over the age of 100 as “Real” and those under as “Ados” (adolescents) is a special type of cringe.
But the story does inform the later books and explains a lot of what is happening in Edges, especially regarding the antagonist.
Overall a good read, and one that has me excited to read Vast.
So that was 2022 in books. 2023 is looking to be a pretty slow year, as I have decided to start off by reading a massive non-fiction tome, and a Swedish YA book. Both of which are taking me forever, though for different reasons.