What are you reading in 2024?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just finished reading Asimov & Silverberg's Nightfall. It was meeh. Didn't seem to be going anywhere plot wise, ordinary characters and the idea that most people would go crazy (in bad stereotyped way) after suddenly seeing the stars for the first time in two thousand years didn't work over a novel.

To be fair, it'd be tough to beat Douglas Adams' take on that idea.

 

[John Lloyd1]

To be fair, it'd be tough to beat Douglas Adams' take on that idea.

I'm trying to remember what you could be referring to. Where did Douglas Adams do something similar?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm trying to remember what you could be referring to. Where did Douglas Adams do something similar?

He took two cracks at the idea, first as a never-filmed Doctor Who script (later made into a surprisingly decent posthumous novel) and between those two versions of the Doctor Who story, in his third Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy novel.

https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Everything-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-ebook/dp/B001ODEQ7A

https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Krikkitmen-Douglas-Adams-ebook/dp/B06Y5ZLB2S

In both cases, the people of Krikkit were isolated inside a cloud that prevented them from seeing any other stars in the galaxy. Once they became aware of the rest of the galaxy they decided "it has to go."

 

[John Lloyd1]

He took two cracks at the idea, first as a never-filmed Doctor Who script (later made into a surprisingly decent posthumous novel) and between those two, in his third Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy novel.

https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Everything-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-ebook/dp/B001ODEQ7A

https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Krikkitmen-Douglas-Adams-ebook/dp/B06Y5ZLB2S

In both cases, the people of Krikkit were isolated inside a cloud that prevented them from seeing any other stars in the galaxy. Once they became aware of the rest of the galaxy they decided "it has to go."

Aah, yes... the Krikkit players. I had forgotten their backstory.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Underway on The Night Watch in my Discworld reread.

Coming off of The Bright Sword, anything would be a step down, but this is arguably Pratchett's best Discworld novel (although probably also the one that most relies on readers having read others in the series, ironically) and it's as good as I remember. I'm probably unusual in that I like the Lancre Witches and Unseen University more than the Watch, but this is just firing on all cylinders.

Same here, especially the witches. Although Mort has the warmest spot in my heart.

 

[AK_Ambrian]

Currently about two-thirds of the way through Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Richards]

Another week-long business trip, so another 500+ page thriller by Lisa Jackson. This one is You Will Pay, about a bunch of teenage youth camp counselors getting into trouble 20 years ago, culminating in several deaths that resulted in the camp being shut down. Now, one of those counselors is a sheriff's deputy, and the discovery of a partial skeleton of one of the victims brings the cold case back into the forefront. The story continues to go back and forth from the past to the present, and the characters are interesting and varied enough, I suppose, but Lisa falls back on a frequent trope of hers: spending a whole lot of pages on having the characters brood over and over on what's going on and who could possibly be the cause of the various happenings. I'm about a hundred pages from the end and at this point I just want the book to be done with so I can move on to something a bit more interesting. Not one of her better works.

Johnathan

 

[ART!]

Tried to read Let Me In, and although I love the writing it is just too dark for me. You get inside the heads of very messed up, abused, disturbed people. Eegh.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Reading Davy by Edgar Pangborn. Hugo nominated, came out in 1964. He ended up writing a large portion of his fiction stuff in this post-apocalyptic setting. It's cute and raunchy. It takes place along the eastern seaboard of a continent where the Church of Murca is even worse than some churches now in terms of human rights. However, it is also posited that everyone's pretty much co-mingled in a way that the social construct of race isn't brought up at all. Instead, there's the concept of a "mue", which I expect is short for mutant - and they must be killed on sight. There are "slaves", which so far hasn't been explained how those folks come to be in that state.

I'd be interested to hear a woman's view of the novel. It feels like women in the society are very much like settler US; but also that they have some more agency out on the margins.

I don't know if I'll finish it. It's ok, but the plot hasn't kicked in yet, and I'm already on page 70. I guess it's a bildungsroman (a story about a youth growing into a man) and I'm not sure I'm that interested in the main character tbh...

 

[Clint_L]

Tried to read Let Me In, and although I love the writing it is just too dark for me. You get inside the heads of very messed up, abused, disturbed people. Eegh.

I love that book. I also love the Swedish film adaptation. There’s an American one as well, but it’s not as good.

Definitely a dark book, so not for everyone. The writing is just gorgeous, though.