Reading The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson. His fourth and final standalone Cosmere “secret project” novel.
I am about 1/4th through, and it’s interesting to see how connected this is with Cosmere, unlike the first 3 books. I think this book should be read after you have read at least 1 book of The Stormlight Archive. Looking forward to seeing if we learn anything else in it.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Just finished Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami.
I really enjoyed it - it’s maybe not up with his very best stuff, but it still has that familiar slightly unreal tone, and some wonderful moments.
I’m now onto If On a Lonely Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. Very weird so far, but enjoying it!
I have seen “Haruki Murakami” mentioned a few times, any recommendation for which one to start with?
Hard to say - I’ve read quite a few of his books, but not all of them (yet).
The one that got me started was a short story collection, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, and I just fell in love with his writing.
My favourite so far is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but others are pretty great too, Norwegian Wood, 1Q84, Sputnik Sweetheart, and Men Without Women (another short story collection).
His work sometimes gets kind of weird and unreal and unsettling, but in a good way, kind of like David Lynch’s best work, at least in terms of the feelings of unease it can provoke. Or, if you’ve ever seen Meshes of the Afternoon, that’s got a similar eerie feel.
Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for the reply. Will check which ones are available at my local bookstore.
20% through Schilds Ladder from Greg Egan now. It’s like Gregs other works, it’s good.
Just finished Trust, by Hernan Diaz. I read it without looking up at summaries or so before and at first I was a bit disappointed by the first part (and even asked myself if it would not be a dnf). But when I discovered there was 4 parts in this book, progressively revealing the facts, I told myself “what a great piece of literature it is”. This is just a real performance for the author to write in 4 different style as if the part were written by different people with the key markers of each type of writing.
Just started The Whisperer, by Donato Carrisi.
From DNF to a “great piece of literature”. Should add it to my list.
I finished the Classic of Tea, but am still struggling through The Legend of Darkness. As my backup brain-resting book I’ve now got The Thirty-Six Strategems on the side. It’s an interesting new edition that has all the strategems and classic commentary examples but also adds more modern ones from around the world and from spheres other than the military. It is, as so many of my books in this vein are, trilingual: the original text and commentary are in Classical Chinese, modern vernacular Chinese, and English. The examples are bilingual vernacular Chinse and English.
Heh, The Thirty-Six Strategems is a brain-resting book? 😀
Well it’s a lot less brain-smashing than Laozi or Yijing… 😱
I just finished Alien III by William Gibson.
It is a script for the third movie but was not used. It was later turned into a novel.
I listen to an audio book version and I am pretty sure it is was the movie script not the novel.
Is it better than the second one?
To clarify are you asking if the script was better than Aliens?
No, not at all.
It is very good and a continuation of the Aliens storyline. The narrator of the story is Ash and the story starts when he is torn in half during the final battle on the Sulaco.
Yes, that’s what I was asking. And thanks for the clarification.
I just finished Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud, a collection of short stories about hell. Holy fuck, Skullpocket is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. I starts kinda silly and then… damn.
Most of the way through Tilt by Emma Patee. A story about a woman who’s nine months pregnant in Portland when the Big One hits the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Massive Earthquake.) It’s a fast, easy, insanely emotional read. Not a favorite, but I’m hooked.
Do “Wounds” have some relation to The Visible Filth? Just looked up the book and it seems author’s another book The Visible Filth got made into a movie “Wounds”, so wondering if there’s any relation to these two books, or it’s just random naming.
Wounds is a collection of short stories. The Visible Filth is included.
Ah, okay. Thanks for clarifying.
Currently reading Consider Phlebus. Read the entire series years ago but thought it was worth re-read. Just as good as my first time!
Excession and Player of Games are my two favourite Culture novels.
Seconding these, The Player of Games is my favorite book and I love to see it called out.
I liked these the best. They are also among the more accessible books in the series.
I just started Polostan (2024) by Neal Stephenson. I saw an interview where he said he’s been sitting on the idea for a new trilogy for years and finally sat down to start it with this book.
How is it? It is on my to buy eventually list but I haven’t even read Termination Shock yet.
I’m only 60 pages in now but good so far. If you like his writing, he’s still got it.
Next on my list!
“Harlem Shuffle” by Colson Whitehead.
It’s the 1960s and this dude is trying to make a go of a furniture store on 125th Street. He’s an honest businessman who wants to help people in the community get good products at a reasonable price, and provide for his wife and kids.
Of course, being an honest businessman in 1960s Harlem is a bit different from being an honest businessman in say Darrian, CT. So what if he’s doing a little fencing; hanging out with stickup men; aiding corrupt police, and suchlike?
Great depictions of the neighborhood with lots of action.
Sounds pretty interesting.
I finally made it to book 2 of Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives.
How are you liking it so far?
So far, good. Not great, but quite good. It feels like a lot of setup and teasing of things to come without actually getting there, which is fine for the first book but I am 2/3 through the second book. Still, the writing is enjoyable and the books, although long, are not boring.
Sundial by Catriona Ward. No spoilers but its a very dark psychological horror. I’m not far into it but I’m already hooked.
I picked up Project Hail Mary from the library this week. Only just started but I’m enjoying it so far.
Great read. Have fun !
I just finished Stephen Baxter’s World Engines: Destroyer and while it was OK, I have the uncomfortable feeling that I’m discovering unsavory things about Baxter. There are commonalities in his main characters that are… unattractive? One main character, fine. But when the main character is basically the same character in different settings and with different names; and when the story literally contains “and then, everyone clapped”… well, I don’t know. The writing is better than I could do, and I’m interested to see where it goes, but I don’t know if I can enjoy the libertarian fantasy overtones. I’m torn.
I’m a couple chapters into A. Tchaikovsky’s Shroud, and have great expectations. I know I like Tchaikovsky’s world building and writing, and this looks so far like another novel (innovative?) premise from a great author.
Yeah, Stephen Baxter is somewhat sus. I liked his collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, and I really liked reading his books when I was a kid who couldn’t really understand the politics. He has some really interesting concepts (Manifold: Time fucking BLEW MY MIND when I was like 12), but yeah, he has some very libertarian politics that lead to some, uh, interesting plot points.
Whew, it’s not just me. I’m always cautious about assuming things about authors.
Having recently finished Stormlight, I am very curious to read the Sunlit Man now!
I just finished Assassin of Reality by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko (book 2 of Vita Nostra). It honestly kind of felt like an afterthought to capitalize on the popularity of the first book. I didn’t feel like it added much and preferred the open endedness of the first book.
Now I’ve started Wool by Hugh Howey, the first of the books the Silo show is based on. Too early to give my thoughts but the first few chapters were very closely followed in the show.
Hm, interesting. I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first, but I jammed through Vita Nostra, and didn’t realize there were already published sequels until a few days ago, when I immediately moved them to the top of my TBR pile. I’ll try to lower my expectations to be more in line with reality–thanks for the heads-up!
I’m listening to Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson after finishing Red Mars
