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Finished:
To be taught, if fortunate by Becky Chambers.
This was a very companionable read. It’s the sort of plot of a road trip novel in space, if the road trip had been funded by earth crowdfunding, which is sort of what’s happened here. The writing is a slight step below spectacular maybe (which is still head and shoulders above most works), but the world building is top notch, as is the feel of the science, and the depictions of the wonders – and traumas – of space and other planets. I found myself very faintly impatient with the ending while I was reading it, and then while I was drifting off to sleep that night, I found myself thinking of the ‘discoveries’ my mind thought we’d just learned we’d made, and then thinking ‘yes. Go on. Yes.’ – the story felt that real that it had just gently settled itself into my consciousness, and that’s unsettlingly cool. The quote that the title comes from was written at the end, and is fucking amazing.
Currently reading
The second mountain by David Brooks. Still reading. I feel like it’s starting to spin its wheels a little, 100 pages in, so I’m hoping for new material and ideas soon. ETA: true to form, the chapter ‘Vampire Problems’ was not at all what I thought it was going to be about (how to stop say, toxic people dragging you down), and was in fact about how to make a choice that was going to entirely change your identity and selfhood, when you only have previous/current self’s knowledge on how to make that choice. Fantastic concept, that then also slid back into repetitive examples. In theory persisting, in practice I’m putting off reading it, but I also feel like I’m putting off reading anything at the moment, so grain of salt.
The big book of post-collapse fun by Rachel Sharp. I was deeply charmed by what I read in the sample, and wanted to curl up in this world, with this character, enough to buy the book. The rest of the book is slightly more wobbly than that, but I’m reading along, gamely enough.
Time lapse (The 13th doctor short story) by Naomi Alderman. This reads very much like an episode. That’s…not a bad thing, I guess? And it’s a neat premise for an episode – everyone on the planet has forgotten the year 2004 – but I’d been hoping for a written story, something that showed me the inner thoughts of a particular character, say. I read an interesting post about point of view, and how basically ‘camera length’ away from the characters POV is an entirely valid point to write from, and it might be! It’s just not the version I prefer, and it’s the version I’m trying to write myself away from. There’s so little feeling or intimacy with it, and that’s what I realise I’m craving in my fiction.
Up next:
Um. Maybe T Kingfisher’s horror story? I dunno how wise a choice that is, though…
To be taught, if fortunate by Becky Chambers.
This was a very companionable read. It’s the sort of plot of a road trip novel in space, if the road trip had been funded by earth crowdfunding, which is sort of what’s happened here. The writing is a slight step below spectacular maybe (which is still head and shoulders above most works), but the world building is top notch, as is the feel of the science, and the depictions of the wonders – and traumas – of space and other planets. I found myself very faintly impatient with the ending while I was reading it, and then while I was drifting off to sleep that night, I found myself thinking of the ‘discoveries’ my mind thought we’d just learned we’d made, and then thinking ‘yes. Go on. Yes.’ – the story felt that real that it had just gently settled itself into my consciousness, and that’s unsettlingly cool. The quote that the title comes from was written at the end, and is fucking amazing.
Currently reading
The second mountain by David Brooks. Still reading. I feel like it’s starting to spin its wheels a little, 100 pages in, so I’m hoping for new material and ideas soon. ETA: true to form, the chapter ‘Vampire Problems’ was not at all what I thought it was going to be about (how to stop say, toxic people dragging you down), and was in fact about how to make a choice that was going to entirely change your identity and selfhood, when you only have previous/current self’s knowledge on how to make that choice. Fantastic concept, that then also slid back into repetitive examples. In theory persisting, in practice I’m putting off reading it, but I also feel like I’m putting off reading anything at the moment, so grain of salt.
The big book of post-collapse fun by Rachel Sharp. I was deeply charmed by what I read in the sample, and wanted to curl up in this world, with this character, enough to buy the book. The rest of the book is slightly more wobbly than that, but I’m reading along, gamely enough.
Time lapse (The 13th doctor short story) by Naomi Alderman. This reads very much like an episode. That’s…not a bad thing, I guess? And it’s a neat premise for an episode – everyone on the planet has forgotten the year 2004 – but I’d been hoping for a written story, something that showed me the inner thoughts of a particular character, say. I read an interesting post about point of view, and how basically ‘camera length’ away from the characters POV is an entirely valid point to write from, and it might be! It’s just not the version I prefer, and it’s the version I’m trying to write myself away from. There’s so little feeling or intimacy with it, and that’s what I realise I’m craving in my fiction.
Up next:
Um. Maybe T Kingfisher’s horror story? I dunno how wise a choice that is, though…
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