Thought it'd be fun to share what everyone has been reading. I'll try to include titles and authors to make finding more information on them easier as well as a brief synopsis and my thoughts.
I had a lot of travel this week and speed through "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Great read with very interesting ideas and payoff that had me hooked. Covers human uplifting of other species, their development, and interactions afterwards.
I've also been working on "Strontium Dog" from 2000 A.D. comics (hey, it's sci-fi and it's printed) and made it through most of Vol. 3. In short, the main character Johnny Alpha is a mutant who's only available employment is as a bounty hunter. Very fun read in general, although part of the main beats in this volume are sad.
Started a new novel and continued working on my audiobook but I'll save my thoughts on that for next week / when I finish them.
I'm currently reading Snow Crash. I got to the part where YT and Raven meet for the first time. Things have got pretty weird... I'm really enjoying the whole Sumerian mythology stuff, though.
I started and finished the first two Murderbot books from Martha Wells (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition). Reading the ebooks I didn't realize how short they were until I got to near the end. I guess they count as novellas? But it's nice to have something fun and easily digestible now and then so I'll start the third tonight.
Children of Time was very good. There is a sequel, no? But I never read it.
Two sequels! I'll get around to reading them but have a stack to read through first. The murderbot books have been my audiobook listening since they were in a humble bundle a few weeks ago. Got to the 5th one (network effect) and still enjoyable and engaging.
Made some progress on Malazan, book 9 (of 10). Still early, but we're past the initial set up and now it's clear everyone is heading off to the wastelands for some sort of showdown.
Well, not scifi but I read this book called Wages of Rebellion this week, by Chris Hedges. Good reminder of the atrocities and tyranny the US has committed globally and domestically, often in the name of capitalism.
In terms of scifi, I'd recommend A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr. It's a collection of post apocalyptic stories set on a monastery in the desert that serves as the only source of preservation of material from the "old world." Good themes in this one.
Just started Excession by Ian M. Banks (culture series). Finished Matter about 6 months ago and have been slow to pick another book up, but hope I can make it stick.
Had been re-reading the Bobiverse in the meantime (was nice to have something quick and easy to rip through).
Is this your first Baxter? I'm a little envious. Figuring out his physics+ scenarios are always fun. Usually they're quite well conceived. Raft and Flux are two of my favourites.
It is! I've heard only good things about the series after hearing recommendations on the old site, so I decided to pick up Raft and see what all the fuss was about. After getting a general overview of the series, it seems right up my alley. Any other Baxter's you'd recommend outside Xeelee Sequence?
The Empress of Salt and Fortune, a short novella by Nghi Vo. Some of the imagery is lovely and colourful. I'm expecting a journey but I'm finding there isn't really one in this story.
I'm revisiting my old friend Palmer Eldritch. It has been a long time, and I am thoroughly enjoying the familiarity. Kind of like going to mom's house in your 40s and eating the same cookie recipe she has always made.
Had a big day of travel so I read through all of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Some of the humor didn't really land but overall it was great. Such a cool take on a first contact situation where the human and alien have no choice but to work together to save both their planets.
Joe Abercrombie's First Law series. It's decidedly not science fiction, but you gotta take a break sometimes. I'm enjoying it enough, but I do find the characters that were initially interesting are falling into some pretty tired tropes close to the end of the second book. Still, Abercrombie's prose is super neat and readable.