50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Ten

Kindle using folks, I've just caved & bought myself a paperwhite. Do I need a cover? Would rather have less weight if not needed, but maybe best to have one & avoid scratching the screen?

The Book of Chamelons and The Living and the Rest. Those were the only two they had plus A General Theory of Oblivion. I would have bought whatever they had to be honest.

Ohh which did you get StColumb? You’ve reminded me I’ve got the Book of Chameleons, bought years ago, somewhere in the house.

Bought, thanks for the heads up.

In fact, I loved it so much that I have just left Waterstones with two more of his books.

A General Theory of Oblivion, José Eduardo Agualusa, trans by Daniel Hahn

This was gifted to me by a work colleague this Christmas. The blurb starts ‘On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years.’ This is my stand out read of the year. It’s violent, witty and there were sentences that just made me stop and stare at the wall for 10 mins whilst I contemplated what had happened. Utterly sensational and I will seek out anything Agualusa has written. I haven’t come across a writer I’ve felt this strongly about since Louis, so this is BIG for me.

It looks like I’ve saved the best for unless I manage another before Sunday night. Not having work or any plans has done wonders for my reading. One more will see me hit 45.

Hi Chessie. Those Year of Wonder books had the potential to be truly special but they were just disappointing. I was left with the feeling that, while she seems to enjoy listening to it, the author just doesn't know much about the pieces she wrote about.

27... Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This was another brilliant book, a fitting sequel to the author's masterpiece Children of Time.

Thousands of years after the fall of humanity's empire, the multi-species collective of the previous book continues on with the few remaining humans who found their way there. When they receive a signal from another of humanity's terraforming projects from aeons ago, they must investigate and meet their distant cousins.

These two books were a total of +1200 pages and they left me wanting more. There is a 3rd and final book but I can't bear the thought of reaching the end of their fascinating journey just yet.

Highly recommended.

26.. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Whoa! This was outstanding (And it is 99p on the Kindle at present. Don't miss it!)

I have been reading SF since my early teens and this book is head and shoulders above the top 10 masterpieces I can think of in terms of worldbuilding, plot, character development, and creativity. It is breathtaking in its scope and breadth.

Humanity starts a project to nurture life on another planet with a virus engineered to accelerate cognitive development, just as armed conflicts with anti-science factions bring about its near-destruction. The apes that were supposed to benefit from this virus are destroyed en route to the planet and completely unrelated species start developing - getting more and more intelligent, developing language albeit unspoken, technology, and building their societies. As centuries go by, their only external influence is the AI in orbit that incorporated the consciousness of the scientist who was in charge of this experiment.

Which species will triumph and how? The author's genius takes us on this ride in a completely believable tale of a species's evolution.

Highly recommended. Don't miss it at 99p.

Hi Cote. It’s a shame about the Year of Wonder book - I have both on my wish list and would have expected to learn something about the composer/music style from the intros. Like you I’m not really interested in how it makes her feel!

I saw 'Had to give up' and thought I'd have to come on here and fight you. So glad it's the reading and not the words that are the problem. I'd say it's worth every penny in book form, even at full price.

Had to give up on The Worst Journey In The World on Audible because I hated the narration - it sounded like a posh man reading a telephone directory very quickly. I will seek it out in book form later this year though.

25.. Another year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill

This was hugely disappointing. If she publishes another one for next year, I don't plan to spend any time reading it.

Selecting a piece of classical music from varied eras and composers for every day of the week and writing a 1-2 page introductory piece on it is a marvelous idea. The pieces are also interesting and varied, I like how they introduce people to music with styles and from eras that they may have never listened to.

However, the execution was terrible. Much of what she writes is about the personal lives of the composers, so the whole book reads like a superficial gossip magazine on the lives and times of classical composers. Worse, some of it is verifiably false.

Even where she writes about the music itself her comments are irrelevant like what she feels about the world when she listens to it, and they miss the most important points she should make when introducing and explaining these pieces to her audience. For example, you can't talk about a Leçon de Ténèbres without mentioning the rather special circumstances in which these -IEEE's were performed.

You also can't talk about Biber's Rosary Sonatas ("Mystery Sonatas") without mentioning scordatura but she does, somehow convinced that the reader should read her musings such as "with the right balance of virtuosity and soul, I find it's spare, clear lines have the defect of a mental detox; I listen and it's as though my brain is somehow re-wired. Incredible."

Nobody cares, Clemency.

Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy is 99p today. Extremely well reviewed, I've just started it and it may end up as one of my books of the year.

Just got Penance by Eliza Clark for 99p.

Devils Breath - Jill Johnson I bought this after it was raves about on Between the Covers. Overall disappointing. Annoyingly quirky main character and a big reveal that really wasn't.
Onwards...

I listened to Hello Beautiful- quite enjoyable but not a standout.

DNF - The Lemon Tree Hotel, Rosanna Lee

I bought this when I was going through a light reads in Italy phase. I’ve been at 48% for months and thought I’d just finish it to count it, but I’ve been only tracking on goodreads and tried to read what I want rather than for numbers this year, successfully so I have deleted it.

It’s boring, not very well written, the characters are all so bland. Not for me, even the Italian countryside couldn’t save it.

"I mean the dolphin rape was a bit much and the whole trans fish story didn't really do it for me"

What happened to this thread? I was only away for a month or two 😅

I quite liked Pod. I mean the dolphin rape was a bit much and the whole trans fish story didn't really do it for me, but I think it was a really interesting, original narrative highlighting environmental issues. I found it was quite a page turner, a solid 4.

Prophet Song is good but pretty traumatic as a warning. Steel yourself for the read. I've picked up Hello Beautiful in the deals too which I don't think has been that favourably reviewed on here but seems to be quite popular.

118. The Mysterious Case of The Alperton Angels - Janice Hallet. More of the same from The Appeal writer. This one was the weakest so far for me. It follows the same pattern of What's App, transcripts and this time scripts and chapters of fiction around the case. I found it all a bit silly and unconvincing.

24.. Critical Mass (Delta-V #2) by David Suarez

This was the sequel to Delta-V which was about starting up an asteroid mining operation - years before AppleTV's For All Mankind - and quite an interesting book on its own. This sequel picks up the story with shenanigans on said asteroid leaving people dead and abandoned, and others back on earth trying to salvage the operation and perhaps even their colleagues during the asteroid's next passing.

I do like this author and I have previously enjoyed many of his books such as Daemon, Freedom, and Kill Decision which raised pertinent questions about the future of AI. Some of the political wrangling was interesting but it seems he just didn't have much to say in this sequel.

Belated merry Christmas, everyone

23.. Abandon by Blake Crouch

A journalist and her estranged father go off to investigate a remote town where everyone has disappeared overnight about a century ago.

I had high hopes for this one, having enjoyed the author's previous books Dark Matter, Recursion, and Run but it was ultimately very slow and dull despite the literary gimmick of running the story on two timelines.

I know but I was trying to start the habit early! Failed already 🤣

Prophet Song is 99p on Kindle today, for those who haven’t read it, like me.

It isn't 2024 yet!