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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Autumnal" data-source="post: 9679298" data-attributes="member: 6671663">For no particular reason, I decided to start one of Booktube’s 100-book challenges this month. This is about what the name suggests: read a hundred books you own before buying new ones. I picked up a few things on Audible’s sale this month and then started the clock. Dead Silence, by S.A. Barnes. My second or third Barnes book, more space horror. Pretty much Titanic meets Event Horizon, as she readily acknowledges. Not earth-shaking but very solid. Digital, first-time read. Polar Star, by Martin Cruz Smith. Last month, I reread Gorky Park, Smith’s story of  Moscow police investigator Arkady Renko, who in 1980 handles a case that escalates from three murders in Gorky Park to international complications and the ruins of Renko’s career and life. This, the first sequel, takes place in 1988, mostly on board a fishing factory ship in the North Pacific. The discovery of a body in the nets again escalates into trouble and dramatic changes in circumstances for Renko and others. Fully as good as the original, and capturing the feeling of perestroika in the midst of things. Digital, reread. The Void King, by Marc Collins. A Warhammer 40K novel, focusing on a dynasty of rogue traders who’ve just gotten the news that Primarch Guilliman is back and assembling forces for a new crusade. It was good but not great, overall. The first half is sort of sluggish and disjointed. When the real villains turn up, things get much better, with a deeply satisfying late twist. Then it grinds somewhat awkwardly to a hate. All will be forgiven if there’s a sequel. The reading was great. Audio, first time. How the Gospels became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths, by M. David Litwa. This was neat! Litwa analyzes recurring elements in what he calls mythic historiography - serious histories that include what we’d think of as mythic elements. How do authors like Herodotus, Seneca, and Cicero build up trust in their sources, distinguish their own research from what others say, mark out the limits of the possible, and so on? What sorts of stories are told of the recipients of divine favor? And so on. As he goes, he compares the canonical gospels and what we can tell about their writers to those. He also spends time on questions of intended deceit or not, and here his characteristic decency and charity come to the fore. Highly recommended, if this sounds interesting; Litwa’s become one of my favorite writers on early Christian matters. Audio, first time.</blockquote>

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