Several somebodies here recommended Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief to me recently. I just finished it, and–thanks! Just what I needed. I especially liked the artful lack of exposition, which always stands out in a genre known for the opposite.
But it got me thinking about doing another book recommendation thread. I think this Saturday seems good. There was a suggestion to focus on a narrow genre, and was wondering if anybody had thoughts. Thoughts?
The Quantum Thief also got me thinking about Cowboy Bebop, probably due to the preponderance of artful Martian capers. I kept hearing this song in my head.
Thanks for reading. You may now have a picture of Samwise, who likes to sit on rectangles.
Open thread!
p.s. Anybody pick up Battle for Azeroth?
AJ
Hey M4. Am enjoying your posts.
Trying to stay away from BfA as long as I can. WoW correlates strongly with isolation and depression for me.
Gnight all.
Major Major Major Major
@AJ: it’s always good to know such things about yourself. Night!
Adam L Silverman
Favorite military doctrinal manuals.
What?//
MisterForkbeard
I read a book recently where I was REALLY impressed with how they just jumped into the world, and kept obliquely referencing things for all the major characters that had happened recently but never directly explaining it, or the world, what the major antagonists were doing, etc. It was incredibly interesting and was a fantastic sort of… detective process within a normal fantasy novel.
Turns out it was book 2 in a series. D’oh.
NotMax
What have read/heard about BfA not conducive to my purchasing it. Like Legion, too much geared to forcing people into group play for my solo play tastes. Maybe later on down the line.
Yarrow
Samwise is so gorgeous.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: by all means go on.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I’m pretty sure the last thing anyone here wants is an in depth discussion of military doctrine.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: I could nerd out about soil science but i doubt anyone wants that either.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
A list of recommended books/papers would be appreciated, and some of us would read some of them (shortest-first for me.)
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: I have done the exact same thing! Most recently Empire Games by Charles Stross. I’d accidentally stepped into like book six! I kept thinking, “wow, he’s really put a lot of thought into this universe.”
Major Major Major Major
@Bill Arnold: “A list of recommended books/papers would be appreciated, and some of us would read some of them (shortest-first for me.)”
Exactly. This is the nerdy open thread, after all. (Jocks’ open thread is downstairs.)
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: Clausewitz or GTFO.
Also: Yoko Kanno is a fucking genius.
Bill Arnold
@Major Major Major Major:
He did. For starters, there’s a reasonably worked out history for each timeline.
NotMax
@NotMax
The pre-drop event (Darnassus, Lordaeron) was kind of interesting, albeit heavy on the cinematic interludes (and thank Blizz that there was an option to skip most of it and go right for the denoument for alts once one of your toons had completed going all the way through). My folks picked up some decent gear from the dailies in Darkshore while the event was active.
Major Major Major Major
@Bill Arnold: right, but I thought it was all for a single book.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: And it’s so disappointing when you realize that it’s just a normal series, too. Ah well.
There are a few books that do well with this, though. The Quantum Thief is one. I seem to remember that Altered Carbon does this too, but I can’t really be sure. There are also some old Asimov books that do this too, though I can’t remember the title of the specific one I’m thinking of. Sometimes I really like books where they just drop you into the universe and sort of let you feel your way around. Not in media res in the sense of dropping you into an action scene, but in the sense of ‘this world and story has been going on for a long time and we’re not going to pause to explain it to you.’
Done properly, it’s fascinating. Done badly, it’s incredibly confusing.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: William Gibson does it well.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Okay, actually: I have a game recommendation on this same idea. “Unavowed” is an adventure game that just came out (https://store.steampowered.com/app/336140/Unavowed/) and the game literally starts with you coming out of an exorcism after having been possessed by a demon for the past year or so.
You have to pick up the rules for the magical side of the universe as you go along. Really excellent storytelling in general. In fact.. if anyone wants a copy, I’ll totally sponsor a copy for anyone who wants to try an interesting adventure game.
@Major Major Major Major: True. Though Gibson sometimes skirts “incredibly confusing” very closely.
NotMax
@MisterForkbeard
Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun” tetralogy.
’nuff said.
MisterForkbeard
@NotMax: I’ll have to check that out. Thanks!
Viva BrisVegas
Does the Battle for Azeroth have anything to do with the Fires of Azeroth?
Wich brings me to my book recommendations: The Gate of Ivrel, the Well of Shiuan and the Fires of Azeroth by C.J.Cherryh.
Mary G
If you use painter’s tape and lay out a rectangle on the floor, the cat will sit in it.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Let me think about it.
Major Major Major Major
@Mary G: I have tried this and it is true!
Ramiah Ariya
Hi, I enjoyed the last Book Recommendation thread. Bought one of the books recommended – “The Last Policeman” and it was excellent. I am right now trying to complete “Seveneves” and everything is getting over-apocalyptic for me.
Would absolutely welcome a recommendation thread on the weekend. I am trying to get back into reading, after trying to disengage from social media (which is toxic, and plays hell with attention span). Have read about 10 books in the past 3 months, of which I am very proud.
I live in India, but I am curious as to the reading habits of the natives of USA – it appears to me there is an over-emphasis on sci-fi/fantasy/graphic books types? I have been published myself, but it appears there is a preference for weird premises (such as the Last Policeman, above). My own book had a weird premise of international IT conspiracies mingled with sorcery, but aren’t there “normal” fiction books – on life in America (or the world) in present time?
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: I’m more of a Sun Tzu, Musashi, Yagyu, Takuan kind of guy.
Major Major Major Major
@Ramiah Ariya: there are many such books but I don’t generally read them. The closest I’ve been recently to such a book was Spaceman In Bohemia, which is a very interesting look at what it means to be Czech in the modern era, but also has a giant alien spider.
Seveneves should have stopped before part three; the last part ruined it for me.
NotMax
@Ramiah Ariya
Am in a distinct minority in the U.S. as it’s a toss-up as to which genre is #1 for me, history or biography (which is, of course, a subset of history).
Chetan Murthy
@Ramiah Ariya: Oh, Americans read all sorts of books. People on this blog read all sorts. I got turned on to Dorothy Sayers “Lord Peter Wimsey” mysteries by people on this blog. 1920s. You’re right, that SF&F comes up here a lot, but I sure don’t think of this commentariat as particularly biased toward that genre.
Ramiah Ariya
Right, I will look up that Dorothy Sayers book today. Completing Seveneves seems like a chore.
Mnemosyne
@Ramiah Ariya:
Nah, that’s just the preference of many of the people who post here. The New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists will give you a better idea of what general fiction readers prefer.
I have a recommendation for you that will probably make a lot of people here groan and hold their noses: Jodi Picoult. She writes mainstream fiction that’s usually based in “ripped from the headlines” stories that she thinks about and fictionalizes. She goes pretty deeply into American mores and ethics, usually in the setting of a family that’s been affected by a tragedy.
One of her most famous books is My Sister’s Keeper, about a girl who was conceived to be a tissue donor for her chronically ill older sister. It’s (very) loosely based on an actual family that was in the news, but Picoult invents her own characters and family dynamics.
Mnemosyne
If you really want new genres, M^4, I’ll send you a list of three romances that I think people would enjoy. ? I know two of them for sure, I just have to decide on the third one.
MobiusKlein
@Major Major Major Major: 7eves had good points, even in part 3.
If you suspend even more disbelief than t he first two parts.
Ramiah Ariya
@Mnemosyne: Thank you. I have heard of Jodi Picoult. I will pick up that book.
In India, the commercial publishing scene in English started with a lot of promise some 10 years back, but the reading population is relatively small. For some reason, some 90% of the books I see in the store are about re-telling of mythologies, and a big list of Da-Vinci Code copycats. There is not that much excitement about publishing now.
I read NY Times book recommendations, from time to time. That should help.
Jay
@NotMax:
Military history for me.
Chetan Murthy
Anybody here read any Michael Dibdin? He wrote a series of detective mysteries set in Italy — the protagonist is named Aurelio Zen. He seems to really capture the sense of decay and … ripeness that we associate with Italy somehow. And he really has a way with words. The beginning of _Cosi Fan Tutti_, he describes a murder as if it’s an act of an opera. It’s really beautiful. I’ve read all his Zen novels, and am saddened that there’ll never be any more, b/c Dibdin died a while back. More than for the mystery, I re-read them for the atmosphere ….
Robert Sneddon
@Major Major Major Major: Empire Games is volume 1 of a new trilogy, basically “Merchant Princes” The Next Generation. Volume 2 is out (and the mass paperback edition came out in the US recently), volume 3 is done and dusted and in the hands of editors, publication due some time next year. Charlie is decompressing after slogging his way through writing this series, it’s been quite a trip.
Charlie is a friend of Hannu Rajaniemi — they’re both members of the Scottish Socialist Vanguard SF Writers Party despite Rannu being Finnish, he lived in Scotland for a while — and actively pushed his first book, The Quantum Thief to various publishers and agents after reading it in draft.
Mary G
Oh, look, the “battle rifles” must have been a bridge too far:
Slap on the wrist. Jack Dorsey is a menace to society.
EBT
Today was my birthday (doing a combined birthday thing, mine and Miss Gwen’s, tomorrow when there is some cash). A friend bought me a sealed booster box of Return to Ravnica. Also got a nice little mechanical keyboard, A Kumara Reddragon.
Redshift
I agree, The Quantum Thief is the best book I have read recently. It is a very interesting meditation on some concepts that are highly relevant today (science fiction isn’t about the future, it’s about the present, as the old saying goes), but none of that interferes with a great plot.
Mnemosyne
@Ramiah Ariya:
Americans still read a LOT of British authors, so that may be confusing the issue. Hillary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” books were bestsellers here.
I actually think that Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is one of the best books about America written by a non-American. He doesn’t even pretend to understand us, but he points out many of the reasons to both love and hate us.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Chetan Murthy:
I read most of the Dibdin novels and liked them. They seemed to go out of print very quickly, and some were hard to find.
There was a short Aurelio Zen series starring Rufus Sewell in 2011. Pretty good, although great liberties were taken.
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
Think of dropping into a strange universe. Do you know all about it before you arrive? Doubtful. You might know the big pieces but the nuance? So fascinating or incredibly confusing, which is more likely? And yes I realize this is fiction but isn’t that supposed to make you feel a part of it or want to run as far and as fast as you can?
Mnemosyne
@Ramiah Ariya:
Okay, one more recommendation for an author you may find interesting: Sonali Dev. She’s an Indian-American who immigrated here, so her characters do a lot of navigating between the two cultures. She writes both romance and women’s fiction.
https://sonalidev.com
different-church-lady
If you had to choose between your car, your roof, or your teeth, which one would you go into serious debt for first?
Asking for an… enemy.
Major Major Major Major
@Ruckus: well, except the point is to tell a story, and the author is actually spoon-feeding you universe information the whole time. Or they’re supposed to be at least, you’re just not supposed to notice.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
Depends — how long is your commute, how rainy are your summers, and how much do your teeth hurt?
I would say teeth over roof over car, but I live close to work and I hate pain.
Ramiah Ariya
@Mnemosyne: Thank you. Will try the book out.
EBT
@different-church-lady: Teeth first.
Chetan Murthy
@Steeplejack (phone):
Oh, indeed. All the angst and agita around his relationships with women (including his mother) was completely lost. Completely. Lost. And what remained was so …. textbook romance. But it was still OK, b/c I really liked the books. The scene near the end of _Cosi Fan Tutti_ where his mother, his ex-wife, and his girlfriend all confront him, was just ….. delicious.
Chetan Murthy
@different-church-lady: teeth
Major Major Major Major
My husband won’t stop watching this awful “Love Island” show on Hulu.
@different-church-lady: I don’t see how the answer wouldn’t be teeth.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
Well I’ve spent a bit on my teeth and owned 3 houses and never had to reroof and a car does not need to be serious debt unless you are broke or an idiot, for the most part, so I’d say teeth. Besides it is somewhat difficult to eat without teeth, I can sleep without a roof and can walk to the store to get food to eat with my new teeth.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Chetan Murthy:
If you haven’t already, check out the Inspector Van Veeteren novels by Håkan Nesser. Very atmospheric, in the sense that you gradually realize they take place in a northern European country that is not any specific real country. And ripping good yarns with a good cast of well-developed characters
I think Mind’s Eye is the first one.
MisterForkbeard
@Ruckus: If it’s done right, it’s fascinatingly confusing. If done badly, it’s unpleasantly confusing.
While you can make an artistic decision to go for the latter (in the name of verisimilitude) it’s not actually something I usually enjoy as a reader. Ideally, they’re giving you just enough information to get by at any given moment and just letting you figure it all out as the story progresses, rather than either ignoring the thing entirely or giving you exposition blasts.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Car.
If the house collapses, you’ll have a means of decampment. And you’ll need the car to get to the dentist.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
Also, with teeth it’s a lot easier to get a good cost estimate from different providers than it is for, say, an MRI. Prices are a little more standard.
Mary G
@different-church-lady: Teeth; pain is painful.
Platonailedit
@different-church-lady:
Teeth. Someone has to pay off all those debts.
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
I know that’s the point of a book, I’m suggesting looking at it from a reality POV.
And really if I’m reading a piece of fiction, I want to be happy I picked it up, you know uplifted or surprised/confounded/amazed. Even I can write predictable.
Predictable is so….. fucking predictable. See you knew I was going to throw that in there didn’t you?
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne:
I freelance, and move gear around frequently. Vehicle = income.
This summer? We’ve been getting flash floods and our wicker chairs are growing mushrooms.
It comes and goes, but I haven’t done any significant chewing on the right side of my mouth in a long time.
L85NJGT
@different-church-lady:
https://www.hhs.gov/answers/health-care/where-can-i-find-low-cost-dental-care/index.html
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
So, a more difficult choice that any of us thought about.
But are the wicker chairs inside the house? Are you looking for a bigger cargo area to haul that stuff? Does it hurt to chew and you forget once in a while and try the right side to see if it still does?
If the chairs are inside then it’s roof, the pans catching the rain aren’t working.
If you need a bigger vehicle to make more money then that seems like the route to getting the other two fixed, unless all the new money goes to the vehicle.
If you are in pain then the water doesn’t really matter, you probably don’t sleep well any way and must be a pleasure to be around as a driver so it’s the teeth.
Which is why most are saying teeth, pain is a bitch.
EBT
Do the fucking teeth.
Jay
@different-church-lady:
Health first. The sailing rule is one hand for yourself, one hand for the boat.
Habitat second, but caulks, sealants and some heavy duty tarps, a couple hundred dollars of gunk, can hold a leaking roof watertight for several years. The material costs for a new roof are under $3k. Roofing’s hard physically, but not hard technically.
Dan B
@Yarrow: Wait! I nerded out to two friends / hosts for several days in Rajasthan. We had a driver and for hours driving across desert between towns I pontificated about soil science. They loved it. But they also love science. I know it’s not esoteric quibbles about political science or policy…. oh well.
Van Buren
@Mary G: I suspect a pentagram would also work.
dm
I was really expecting “Cats on Mars” as the Quantum Thief on Mars theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97xfV6yXcrk, though “Autumn in Ganymede” fits well, too.
Quantum Thief is the first of a trilogy. The other two books are just as good, perhaps better.
M.
In my own experience, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered “artful lack of exposition” done better than by Maureen McHugh in her first two novels, “China Mountain Zhang” and “Half the Day Is Night.” Near-future SF in a China-dominated world, and completely immersive. Her other novels are excellent as well.
mskitty
Blog just ate my in-process comment. (pout)
mskitty
Aaaand again: Jody Picoult has yummy prose, but … she will set up a moral problem and then have it be solved by fortunate chance or an Act of God, your choice.