What are you reading in 2023?

[the Jester]

Currently reading:

The Trouble with Peace (Joe Abercrombie)
California Foraging (Judith Larner Lowry)
Keys from the Golden Vault (various)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm currently re-reading Terry Pratchett's Jingo and listening to the audiobook of Erin Morgenstern's Starless Sea.

Jingo is, of course, great, a stone cold classic, and it again makes me want to see an Australian fantasy setting from Australian creators.

The Starless Sea I'm having a little trouble with. It feels very self-consciously like an attempt to do Neil Gaiman-style literary fantasy, but while Gaiman is very good about getting readers to go, go, go through the novel, the Starless Sea is more difficult to get into than it probably ought to be, given that its book-centric mythic underworld is a pretty fun and approachable idea. Hoping it picks up soon.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished Herbert's Children of Dune. Grand stuff. It felt just as deep as the previous novel, very thought-provoking. And massively influential on sci-fi tropes. I then read Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link. Still fun, but the anthology format wasn't quite as enjoyable as previous tales.

Now I'm re-reading Abraham Merritt's The Moon Pool. I found some descriptions hard to follow the last time, and I'm wondering if a re-read will help with that (alongside reading in print format rather than Kindle, and a greater familiarity with Merritt's work).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I finished Herbert's Children of Dune. Grand stuff. It felt just as deep as the previous novel, very thought-provoking. And massively influential on sci-fi tropes.

I really enjoy where Herbert takes the Dune series, even the later, somewhat divisive books. I'm not sure if the movie studios have the courage to back the franchise down the wild rabbit holes it eventually goes down.

 

[overgeeked]

Got about halfway through Howard’s Vale of Lost Women before having to put it aside because of the racism. Again, the author of the intro failed to read the stories contained in the anthology. The premise of this one is a white woman is the prisoner of black men, so Conan, purely due to his sense of racial unity, frees the white woman. After the 5th or 6th paragraph of the two white characters talking about how no matter what white people should stick together I was done. I’ll give a lot of leeway to early 20th century pulp writers, but damn. There are less racist H. P. Lovecraft stories.

 

[trappedslider]

I've finally gotten around to reading The Handmaid's tale

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I've finally gotten around to reading The Handmaid's tale

I have never read, a bit of fear of getting super pissed off tbh

I have read some of her Oryx and Crake novels, and enjoyed - but my sense is they are not as on the nose as tHmT

 

[Nellisir]

I have never read, a bit of fear of getting super pissed off tbh

I have read some of her Oryx and Crake novels, and enjoyed - but my sense is they are not as on the nose as tHmT

Its been a while since I read The Handmaid's Tale, but it wasn't as "on the nose" then as it probably is now. Reality is unfortunately converging with a dystopian novel.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Its been a while since I read The Handmaid's Tale, but it wasn't as "on the nose" then as it probably is now. Reality is unfortunately converging with a dystopian novel.

Chat GPT disagrees

As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to make judgments or predictions about the future. However, it is important to recognize that dystopian novels often reflect the concerns and fears of the societies in which they are written. While some aspects of reality may resemble elements of dystopian fiction, it is up to individuals to take action to create a better future. It is important to focus on the positive and work towards building a better world for ourselves and future generations.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I really enjoy where Herbert takes the Dune series, even the later, somewhat divisive books. I'm not sure if the movie studios have the courage to back the franchise down the wild rabbit holes it eventually goes down.

As it gets weirder, I'm digging it. However, it's hard to imagine the Dune series 1 - maintaining public and studio interest long enough to get there and 2 - Them having the courage to go that far, that strange.

That being said, I really hope we get to see Hayt on the big screen.

Got about halfway through Howard’s Vale of Lost Women before having to put it aside because of the racism. Again, the author of the intro failed to read the stories contained in the anthology. The premise of this one is a white woman is the prisoner of black men, so Conan, purely due to his sense of racial unity, frees the white woman. After the 5th or 6th paragraph of the two white characters talking about how no matter what white people should stick together I was done. I’ll give a lot of leeway to early 20th century pulp writers, but damn. There are less racist H. P. Lovecraft stories.

I'm guessing that the author of the intro read the stories, just not recently. Because I've been slowly re-reading REH and yeah, it's way more racist than I even remembered it being some 20 years ago when I had last read them. Stuff that I didn't even clock, or just was able to write off, back then stabs out painfully from the page.