literature.cafe chat

Having been sick and in and out of hospital for the last month I've churned through a few.

I've re-read the City Watch sequence from Pratchett's Discworld. Which is "Guards Guards", " Men at arms", "Feet of Clay", " Jingo" , "The fifth elephant" "Night watch", " Thud" and "Snuff"

I don't think I can say anything more perceptive than a thousand reviews have but it was wonderful watching both the development of the main character (Sam Vimes) and the author himself. There's about 20 years and probably 40-50 books between Guards which was about his 4th book, and Snuff which was released in 2011 while still at his peak and before Alzheimers claimed him.

His writing style becomes more assured but also more incisive, more cutting, and to some extent his anger at the injustices in our world that he satirises in the discworld domain becomes more forceful, more pointed.

Sam Vimes progresses through a beautifully relatable growth cycle but remains a deeply flawed real character. Never a perfectly buffed and grommed character he does strive to be the best he can be.

Highly recommended.

If you've never read Terry Pratchett he's a satirist and humourist. He uses the device of a fantasy world to reflect the issues of our world back to us in a form that allows him to skewer the hypocrisies and mental double think we allow ourselves. All his books are onions. At the first layer is a light read any teenager can get a giggle out of, but there's always more layers: puns and plays on words, references to "roundworld" (our existence) and philosphical analysis.

I was in the mood for a) something that won't require a lot of thinking and b) something high fantasy. So... I started The Way of Kings. I'm not Sanderson's biggest fan, but I can't deny that it's a very quick and fun read (despite its monstrous size). No thoughts, just get swept up in the world and enjoy.

The storm-based worldbuilding is very cool. Coincidentally, I've been playing Against the Storm a lot. Very interesting how a similar base idea (what if we had a world ruled by a cycle of storms?) can go in such different directions.

Spoilery thoughts:

Still Under the Dome, only ~30% in. It creates such an interesting and chaotic little diorama of a town, I love how events overlap in time as you hop around heads

I just finished Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. It describes the WW2 from German and Russian point of view, especially about the Stalingrad battle.

It makes me see war as something absurd. People were constantly dying, by fighting or because of inhumane life conditions.

I wouldn't recommend it if you are extremely sensitive to violence and death.

@Bookworm @chat Reading Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, which I grabbed from the library totally judging the book by its cover (art)

I finished all of The Queen’s Thief series, so now I’m back trying to finish out my Bingo Card from r/Fanasy. I finished the second Murderbot Novella by Martha Wells and The Haunting of Tram Car by P. Djèlí Clark. I’m on to Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike.

I thoroughly enjoyed murderbot and am excited to focus on it.

Currently reading Godkiller. About halfway through and really liking it. Quite a short read for a new fantasy (clocks in at 300 pages), but the worldbuilding is really well interspersed through the story and dialogue.

Blood Meridian. My 2nd Cormac McCarthy novel, I read all the pretty horses many years ago. Not gonna read the road, seen the movie, too depressing.

Looking forward to getting back to sci-fi, I'm halfway through the expanse series and loving it!

The Magnus protocol

It isn't technically a book, more of an audio drama but I am listening to it

since last I've read Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology by Valentino Braitenberg. The first half is a thought experiment about building consciousness (hence synthetic psychology) with the titular vehicles and that was fantastic, the second part was 40 year old neuroscience which I a) didn't care much about, b) didn't understand much of.

Then I read Sculpting in Time by soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. Had really high hopes for it because I love everything else he's made, but I didn't like it very much. For Tarkovsky fans I think it's definitely worth a read, but a lot of it is kinda stupid, my least favorite point one being that artists who make art that's not "their own" (e.g. commercial stuff) will forever lose the ability to make art that's "their own".

Right now reading Melancholia I-II by last year's nobel prize winner Jon Fosse. My very first book in Norwegian, which is very exciting (I'm Swedish, so it's not a huge achievement, but I like it). About half way through and liking it a lot so far. It's incredibly strange in a very good way.

Been reading Oswald Spengler's Man and Technics. Interesting read so far, reminds me a lot of C. S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man, about how human scientific rationality ends up sort of out running us such that we turn it upon ourselves.

Doing a reread of Villette by Charlotte Bronte.

I have read Jumper series by Steven Gould

I liked it, not for plot, comedy or characters but because it was fresh after couple of years reading mainly fantasy Light Novels.

It got everything at acceptable level and it has been simillary easy read to Light Novels. I think it came at the perfect time for me to distract me from reality.

I would love to read more of Cent's adventures but realistically there wouldn't be any conflict that would be a driving force for the plot without introducing cosmic horrors.

Forth book had some confusing moments but it could be just sleep depravation.

I would give it 7/10