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Post by scrubb on Aug 26, 2017 11:51:06 GMT -5
#68) Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House. I liked it even more than the first one.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 26, 2017 14:16:30 GMT -5
33. Octavia E. Butler, The Parable of the Talents
Sci-fi from the 1990s set in the 2030s in which climate-change-induced chaos has fractured US West Coast communities. In this setting there's a young African-American woman with a clear vision of a society, in which the religion holds that God is Change and human destiny is to colonize other star systems. How she goes about doing this, and the terrible things she and her community undergo at the hands of the Christian fundamentalist government of the time, forms the plot of this novel, which is actually a sequel of another novel which I guess I'm going to have to read as soon as I find a copy.
This is a great but terrifying novel. Well, I probably wouldn't have been quite so terrified if I'd read it when it first came out, but in this current context the horrible evangelists she describes seem altogether too plausible. Their leader even uses the catchphrase "Make America Great Again" - when I read that, I nearly threw the book across the room, like, yikes.
I loved the "God is Change" idea; it echoes things that I think of, though I prefer to say "an emergent characteristic of complex systems" rather than just "change." But anyway, these religious ideas were part of what I really liked about the book.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 27, 2017 2:28:53 GMT -5
"An emergent characteristic of complex systems" doesn't quite have the same ring to it, perhaps? 😀
I'd like to read some Octavia Butler, she sounds fascinating.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 27, 2017 5:55:54 GMT -5
That's fair (guess that's why I haven't had success in founding a cult). I've read two of her books so far and thought both were great - it's wonderful to find sci-fi written from an African-American woman's perspective.
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Post by mei on Aug 27, 2017 6:50:43 GMT -5
yup, also adding Octavia Butler to my reading list!
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Post by Queen on Aug 27, 2017 9:12:25 GMT -5
The Orange one wasn't the first to use "make America Great again" but you knew that.
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Post by Queen on Aug 27, 2017 9:25:10 GMT -5
#40 Oddjobs Heide Goody & Iaian Grant
Dr Who meets Monty Python?
It's a dysfunctional future with an evil alien wanting to take over the city and kill mankind and a small group of resolute fighters are stopping that happening.
Except that there are malevolent but stupid half human half alien fish people, weird stuff in the Balti triangle, a fish porn industry and some bureaucrats trying to come up with a marketing plan to help people get over the end of the world.
It's more funny than scary although there are some pretty graphic violent bits.
The writing is a bit dodgy at times but overall funny and goes at a cracking speed.
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Post by Queen on Aug 27, 2017 10:03:05 GMT -5
#41 The Olive Branch Jo Thomas Standard rom com. With a drongo Aussie dude thrown in as a red herring. Set in Italy (yeah!) and around olive oil industry so that bit was interesting. Not usually a rom com fan but I really needed something pretty and from this century
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Post by scrubb on Aug 27, 2017 12:10:50 GMT -5
I read a collection of Octavia Butler short stories a couple months ago and she is really, really good. I definitely want to read one of her novels as she considered herself a novelist first and foremost.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 27, 2017 12:12:53 GMT -5
#59 Elena Poniatowska, The Skin of the Sky Poniatowska is a Mexican writer I've been meaning to read for a while. This novel started with such a bang for me - an incredibly evocative description of a rural childhood which is then horribly interrupted, going into a section about a teenage boy and his gang of friends. I thought, "wow, this is going to be AMAZING!". Unfortunately the book then somewhat sagged in the middle, for me. It's actually based on the life of Poniatowksa's ex-husband, an astromonist, and features a large cast of real people involved in the development of astronomy as an academic discipline in Mexico from the '40s onwards. The main character, Lorenzo de Tena (based on Guillermo Haro) is not necessarily likeable - in particular he's a major hypocrite as far as women are concerned, visiting prostitutes but then being disgusted when his sister gets pregnant out of wedlock - but you feel his ambition. It doesn't tie up in a happy ending; rather like a real life often doesn't! I enjoyed Poniatowska's writing style, even though I didn't love the book as much as I thought I was going to at the beginning. I have no idea how this novel reflects the rest of her work, but I would like to read some more.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 27, 2017 17:19:45 GMT -5
The Orange one wasn't the first to use "make America Great again" but you knew that. True, but still, aaaaaaaah
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Post by scrubb on Aug 27, 2017 22:15:25 GMT -5
Today I finished Last Exit to Brooklyn, by Hubert Selby Jr. Not a very happy book. Also, very of its time, I think. Mostly stream-of-consciousness, glimpses into the Projects, a portrait of a repressed homosexual, some despairing people, some slightly-hopeful people, a lot of assholes, all people struggling to get by, and almost no one who's even likeable, let alone admirable.
I think I'm done with Hubert Selby Jr., after 2 of his books. Worth reading, but I've had enough.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Aug 28, 2017 1:10:18 GMT -5
#40 Oddjobs Heide Goody & Iaian Grant Dr Who meets Monty Python? It's a dysfunctional future with an evil alien wanting to take over the city and kill mankind and a small group of resolute fighters are stopping that happening. Except that there are malevolent but stupid half human half alien fish people, weird stuff in the Balti triangle, a fish porn industry and some bureaucrats trying to come up with a marketing plan to help people get over the end of the world. It's more funny than scary although there are some pretty graphic violent bits. The writing is a bit dodgy at times but overall funny and goes at a cracking speed. Free on amazon at the moment so I've downloaded it.
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Post by Queen on Aug 28, 2017 10:13:22 GMT -5
HalcyonDaze I think you might enjoy it. Fingers crossed!
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 31, 2017 4:58:56 GMT -5
34. David Williams, When the English Fall
Story in diary form of an Amish family in central Pennsylvania USA during a massive crisis in which a solar electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electrical machinery in the US, and all of the non-Amish (the "English," as they call them) go berserk. The crisis eventually threatens the Amish, who of course had been doing just fine without the electricity since they don't use it. I found this book gripping and hard to put down, but a little disappointing. The characterizations were all pretty simplistic, and some clear sources of conflict that loomed were never dealt with. And this one character was precognitive - it lent an interesting tone to the novel but was kind of unnecessary to the plot. But despite that, I found it a worthwhile read; it's a slim volume, so the missing content wasn't replaced by crappy filler or anything. The descriptions of the protagonist's family and their daily chores were so peaceful. The overall effect was of dystopian rural nostalgia.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 31, 2017 9:24:46 GMT -5
#60 Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory This is Banks' first novel, written in the early '80s. I've read a couple of his others and very much enjoyed them. If this had been the first I had read, I would probably never have picked him up again. It's a biting satire of Religion, among other things. Banks has a really engaging style and a black (VERY black) humour. But the descriptions of animal torture and child murder weren't really for me...! Hard to stomach.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 31, 2017 11:12:52 GMT -5
lillie, I haven't read anything by him since I tried reading "Consider Phlebas" and couldn't continue with it because of the descriptions of torture and cannibalism. I've heard he's great, but it was nauseating, so nope.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 31, 2017 16:03:37 GMT -5
Interesting.
I liked the Crow Road and Whit a lot (although the latter is generally agreed to be one of his weaker works I believe).
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Sept 1, 2017 9:28:32 GMT -5
51. The Boy's Tale, Margaret Frazer. Another excellent medieval mystery. Dame Frevisse is the female counterpart of Brother Cadfael. They both solve mysteries without any modern electronics or forensics. This book gave a fascinating insight into the politics and intrigue of the British ruling class of the period, while most of the action took place within the walls of a convent. My last book for the month, finished last night. Until this week, I had no idea that one of the creators of this series also writes one of my favourite cozy mystery series, under the preudonym Monica Ferris.
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Post by scrubb on Sept 1, 2017 21:33:35 GMT -5
lillie, I'm really glad to read your post - because The Wasp Factory was the first Iain Banks that I read, and also the last. But now I know to try Crow Road and Whit. Thanks.
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Post by lillielangtry on Sept 2, 2017 0:33:19 GMT -5
I posted a question about him on the Guardian books page and discovered that I'm certainly not the only one put off by The Wasp Factory!
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