What are you reading in 2024?

[Ralif Redhammer]

One of the hallmarks of her sf is that alien species have alien impulses, emotions, or drives that never quite map onto human ones. We see the Chanur novels through the eyes of the hani, so they map very closely, but the kif (explored in later books) have no comprehension of affection, love, or friendship. They have other ways of relating status that have more to do with power and ability, and are instinctual to them, so navigating kif society and politics is fraught. The knnn, tc'a, and chi are methane-breathers - the knnn are extremely advanced but can't speak to the oxy-breathers and can barely speak to the tc'a, who in turn can barely speak to the oxy-breathers - so usually knnn just do whatever and you've got to adjust. No one knows what the deal with the chi are; they hang with the tc'a is about all that's known.

I'd recommend her stuff without question. I like her early fantasy and most of her sf, though the Foreigner series is like, insanely long (like 8 trilogies?). Also, be prepared, she doesn't like to let her protagonists sleep for some reason.

I have two of her sci-fi novels, The Faded Sun and Voyager in Night. One day I will get to them.

 

[WayneLigon]

​

Norylska Groans by Michael R. Fletcher - low-magic Russian-inspired industrial fantasy. Their magic consists of placing skills and personalities into stones that, when worn, give you that ability. It also comes with partial personality traits as well, so many users have a group of stones giving them desired traits. They are almost exclusively the purview of the military. Anyone caught with one outside their official capacity is assumed to have stolen State property and immediately executed. (And get used to that phrase - they execute people at the drop of a hat).

Katyushka Leonova applies to the Norylska police force as a secretary but is dragooned into investigative work; the war has killed off many, many young men so now they must ape a horrible practice of the soutthern cities: the hiring of women. No, worries, this necklace of stones will give you the skills and mental fortitude you need to survive on the tough streets of the city.

Genndy Antonov, broken and battered by his time in service, is fired from his job of cutting apart megafauna corpses, and falls into the arms of a criminal syndicate that only has his best interests at heart.

Rough grimdark fantasy with some fascinating low-magic goings-on.

After that, I needed a palate cleanser so I read the third book in the Founding of Valdemar series. The cover does spoil the major deal, however; this is 10 years after the first two books and the nascent city of Haven is starting to come together. Duke Kordas' now-adult son is starting to learn the business of being a ruler, and then we get the introduction of the Companions and the founding of the Heralds. The B-plot is Valdemar facing the first real challenge to it's existence. In the C-plot we get the real story behind ShadowDancer and SunSinger; by even Vanyel's time they are the equivalent of Romeo and Juliet, the greatest tragic love story of their age. The reality is somewhat different.

 

[Cadence]

Have started reading the Continental Op short stories that are in the Dashiell Hammett Omnibus from the University library. My copy of the "Big Book of the Continental Op" should be arriving today (so I've liked them a lot more so far than many of Hammett's novels).

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

My exposure to CJ Cherryh is mostly through her contributions to Thieves World. Which certainly are quality. In general, I think one of the qualities of Thieves World that gets overlooked is that it contains a high percentage of women-written Sword and Sorcery.

You'd probably enjoy her shared-world Merovingian Nights series as well, which shares some contributing authors with TW. Despite being explicitly set in her general Cyteen-Union-Compact-etc. scifi universe the tone and tech levels are closer to Sanctuary (sans actual magic) than anything, with a dollop of historical Italian city-state parallels on top. I think I actually prefer them to Thieves' World at this point, partly because there's no Marion Zimmer Bradley contributions to make me feel bad about liking (why oh why did Lythande have to be one of the most intriguing TW characters?).

But Cherryh's pretty great overall, so there really are no bad choices when it comes to reading her, just slightly more or less polished ones.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Norylska Groans by Michael R. Fletcher - low-magic Russian-inspired industrial fantasy. Their magic consists of placing skills and personalities into stones that, when worn, give you that ability. It also comes with partial personality traits as well, so many users have a group of stones giving them desired traits.

That's an interesting approach, something more commonly seen in cyberpunk stories with skill chips and the like. Assuming the skills and personalities come from a person (the creator, or someone else), does binding them to a stone harm the contributor, or is this more of a "we can copy our best general's strategic skills repeatedly" kind of thing? That latter could be neat if two people who both have stones created from (say) the local James Bond equivalent faced off against one another - if the stones were made at different points in the donor's career the more recent one might have the experience edge but more emotional baggage from a long career.

Have started reading the Continental Op short stories that are in the Dashiell Hammett Omnibus from the University library. My copy of the "Big Book of the Continental Op" should be arriving today (so I've liked them a lot more so far than many of Hammett's novels).

I find I prefer his short fiction myself, although I can't call anything he wrote bad. Just less amazing.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

One of the hallmarks of her sf is that alien species have alien impulses, emotions, or drives that never quite map onto human ones. We see the Chanur novels through the eyes of the hani, so they map very closely, but the kif (explored in later books) have no comprehension of affection, love, or friendship. They have other ways of relating status that have more to do with power and ability, and are instinctual to them, so navigating kif society and politics is fraught. The knnn, tc'a, and chi are methane-breathers - the knnn are extremely advanced but can't speak to the oxy-breathers and can barely speak to the tc'a, who in turn can barely speak to the oxy-breathers - so usually knnn just do whatever and you've got to adjust. No one knows what the deal with the chi are; they hang with the tc'a is about all that's known.

I'd recommend her stuff without question. I like her early fantasy and most of her sf, though the Foreigner series is like, insanely long (like 8 trilogies?). Also, be prepared, she doesn't like to let her protagonists sleep for some reason.

Same. Personally I think Ann Leckie is the author who comes closest to Cherryh's excellence with aliens, but whose work is a tiny bit more accessible.

 

[Autumnal]

The Maya Book of Creation, by Joaquin De La Sierra. This is an amazing book, with two very different parts, both excellent. In the first sixty pages, Joaquin De La Sierra provides a compact introduction to the Mayan peoples, their lands and cultures, their encounters with conquistadors, and their survival since then. In the next one hundred eighty pages, he provides a new translation of the Popol Vuh, a Mayan epic poem mostly about the exploits of the heroic twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

Both parts are lavishly illustrated with well-chosen pictures, presented either thorough captions that explain just why they belong where they are. I came away with a good feeling for what traditional Mayan lands are like, aspects of their ways of life, and how they told stories in art and text.

The Popol Vuh is a densely packed story full of mythic adventure. There’s an overview of cycles of creation and destruction leading up to the world and humanity as we know them and the lives, victories, and defeats of heroes before the hero twins. Some events explain why animals, aspects of the weather, etc are as they are; mostly, though, the story is just itself. The hero twins advance against increasingly powerful adversaries including the lords of the realm of the dead. They use trickery, loopholes in obligations, and superhuman derring-do - every tactic is fair against evil gods, apparently.

After the twins’ exploits, we learn about the ancestral tribes of the Maya and their leaders. They had a tough start, the god making them deliberately weak in various ways. They needed to seek out a divine patron and help from various powerful voices in the surrounding world. Flourishing took a long time.

The Audible edition, read by Jeffrey Schmidt, is a marvel of its own. He brings great pacing and dramatic flair to the text, along with meticulous pronunciation. I struggle a lot with various Mesoamerican words, and it’s such a pleasure to him them said by someone with many more clues than me. He made the story exciting even with its many repetitions and parallelisms.

This would make an excellent first book about the Maya, for those who’ve never studied them.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

The Maya Book of Creation, by Joaquin De La Sierra.

I'll have to see about reading that one if the local library can turn up a copy. I've read the Popol Vuh many years ago (I forget the translator but it wasn't De La Sierra) for a college class but it was rather dry and stilted despite some epic elements shining through. A better attempt would be welcome.

A refresher on Mayan culture and history wouldn't hurt either, now that I think of it.

 

[RuinousPowers]

Just did my first complete run through the Wheel of Time books. Now I'm taking a little breather going through some horror novels (The Troop, Final Girl Support Group, The Others, Cthulhu Reloaded, The Only Good Indians) before trying to tackle the complete Gaunt's Ghosts series.

 

[Nellisir]

Same. Personally I think Ann Leckie is the author who comes closest to Cherryh's excellence with aliens, but whose work is a tiny bit more accessible.

I've read the Ancillary books and The Raven Tower, but don't recall aliens - which likely has more to do with my memory than anything else. CJ is just so EXTREMELY psychological in her writing - I honestly can handle the SF, but some of her fantasy was just beyond. I read Fortress in the Eye of Time and by the end had virtually no idea what was going on. (I've since acquired another copy and most of the sequels, so someday...challenge on!) Accessibility is definitely an issue with her.