So it's been a while. I actually didn't get much of a chance to read all that much throughout September. We were having construction done to remodel the entire first floor of our house, and just trying to survive in the unholy mess that was our limited living space was hard enough. I didn't have a place where I could read at all except in my bedroom and that was tough because my wife's schedule for work means she needs to go to sleep pretty early most nights. Despite that, I was able to get a few books in. I finished Project Hail Mary a while back. I really enjoyed that book - I know a few people that read it and I think I may have enjoyed it more than anyone of them. I just thought it was a very well-done story. The sci-fi is imaginative without being too out there. I'd definitely recommend it. I haven't read anything else of Weir's, so I don't know if it compares to The Martian or anything else, but I just simply enjoyed it start to finish.
After that, I read
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook. I actually picked this up while waiting for my wife at a B&N. It was in the general fiction section and it just seemed like an interesting premise - in a world where people have been reduced to living in a single (massive) city, a group of people are allowed to live primitively in a nature preserve that covers the majority of the rest of the continent. It's never expressly stated that this is the US or anything, but I just kind of pictured a situation where the city was like LA and the wilderness was the entire surrounding country - all of the Southwest on up to the Pacific Northwest. Again, never expressly stated, but that was the image I had in my head as I read it. The interesting thing about this book was that while I actually did enjoy the story very much, I - and I can't say this strongly enough -
HATED the main characters. Everyone of them was a terrible human being upon whom I wished only the worst. The only one who comes close to a pass is the daughter who grows up in the wilderness after he mother makes the choice to join the test group in order to save her from the pollution of the city (which is killing her slowly.) That may seem like a heroic action on the mother's part, but it doesn't play that way. The mother comes across as someone who holds that fact over her growing daughter's head even without ever saying anything to her about it (until it's too late.) The other characters are all terrible people who seem to be playing a bad game of "Survivor" more than trying to live together for real. It's hard to describe simply because, again, I actually liked the writing and the plot. It was just the people, and since this is more or less a character study, for that reason I can't say I really liked it. I think Cook's goal is to address the strained relationship between a parent and child as a child grows up by placing them in a situation that strips them bare, but honestly it came across (to me) as an inconsistent story that illustrates just how awful human beings at their very core.
After that, I read "
Shards of Earth" from Tchaicovsky. It's the first in his "Final Architecture" trilogy and only recently published. I pre-ordered it before its release because at this point, I think he's my favorite author. I haven't read anything by him that I didn't throughly enjoy. And this was no different. It's much more of a "space opera" than his other works - kind of the "ragtag fugitive crew on the run from everyone" vibe that has been done in stuff like "Firefly" and even "Star Wars". But Tchaicovsky's imagination is unparalleled and he pulls off something new and unique even from a tried-and-true sci-fi trope here. His alien beings are interesting creations, and I liked that his main character is nothing like a traditional hero - he's actually a very weak, pale shrinking violet whose "gift" as a heroic military figure makes him a weird freak in real life who others feel the need to protect. I look forward to the next in the series.
After that I moved on the "
A Memory Called Empire" by Arkady Martine (aka Dr Annalinden Weller, a climate and energy policy scientist.) I'd say this book is only marginally a "sci-fi" story and that only as a world in which to play out what it really is: a political thriller. It's pretty interesting how it manages to parallel the types of divisions that exist in society today but does so on an "intergalactic" scale. I enjoyed it, even though it's not exactly my usual thing. But be warned - the majority of the "action" here is secondary to the Machiavellian workings of the empire government. That's the arena where the real story plays out.
I next read Cixin Liu's earlier work,
Supernova Era. I am definitely a fan of Liu even if there is quite often some translations issues that make his books read a little clunky in English. I think there was some of that here, but I'd also say this was my least favorite of his books so far. The premise is that a distant supernova acutely bombards the earth with radiation that causes cellular degeneration in all living things. The means death to everyone who cannot recover from the exposure, and it turns out only children 13 and under have the natural processes to regenerate damaged cells as they are growing. Ultimately, this means that everyone over the age of 13 will die, leaving the earth world ruled by children. It's a fascinating premise and an interesting idea to explore. But - and maybe this is just my own prejudices - it all rings a bit unbelievable. Personally, I think if the world were left to children, it'd end pretty quickly. They're just not smart enough or emotionally stable enough to maintain a world. And Liu imbues them with a self-awareness of the differences between themselves and adults that in my mind comes across as complete nonsense. But the story is pretty good, and the segue in the end makes for an interesting statement on the nature of possibility without going into specifics. In that last section, the book is at its best. Overall, I'd say I liked it but didn't love it.
Finally, I just read a very weird story called "
I'm Not Who You Think I Am" by Erik Rickstad. Apparently, I ordered this a while ago and it was delivered to my Kindle last week. I don't remember doing that, but whatever. I checked my order history and sure enough I did order it. Anyway, it's a small-town dark history mystery story about a kid whose father kills himself and leaves behind only a one sentence note (the title of the book.) Eight years after witnessing the suicide himself, the kid comes to question everything about it and ends up investigating it, in the process ripping open old wounds the town only wants to keep buried. Kind of a standard small-town thriller, but it was okay. I read it in about two days, so it's an easy read. Not a lot more to say about it other than the fact that the main character himself kind of seems to be a bit of a sociopath, and I'm really not sure if that's intended or just handy plot device to move the story forward. There are a few scenes where he does something that, in a normal person, should illicit deep concern and introspection but he only seems to pay lip service to this notions before moving on to some other terrible decision. And why no one seemed to notice or question why a 16 year old was always walking around with a gun in his pocket seems a bit odd if I'm being honest.
Anyway, that's the latest list. Some good, some okay. I'm also really into the FOUndation series on AppleTV, if only for the effects. It's just amazing to watch in 4K.