Finished Artemis by Andy Weir. It was a fun book, but a step below both The Martian and Project Hail Mary. Can’t point out why, though I don’t think it’s because protagonist is unlikable. Still, not a bad book, and an enjoyable read.

I did get some Skyward’s Spensa-like feel from protagonist. Maybe cause both of them were outcast, and has the attitude of being annoyed by the whole world.

Currently Reading The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Book 2 of The Passage trilogy. I am some 50 or so pages in, and I am not enjoying it much.

Slight spoiler about the setting so skip rest of the paragraph if you want to avoid it. The first book jumped some 100 years in the future after about 1/3rd of the book, and the future is now the “current” time. Book 2 started with a slight prologue of 4-5 pages, and then it jumped back to Year zero. Don’t really care about Year Zero now, specially any new characters. Want to know what’s happening in the “now”. Maybe they will have some important part to play, I don’t know, but right now I am not feeling much interested in the story.

Going to read at least 100 pages and then decide if I want to continue or not.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

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  • misericordiae@literature.cafe
    6·
    3 months ago

    Just started Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. I read somewhere that they purposefully wrote Stalker (which I’ve seen) as very different to the book, so it’ll be interesting to compare.

    –

    Finished Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. In the afterward, the author asked why a sword-wielding fantasy hero couldn’t exist in the US, which I think sums up the tone pretty well. Some fun body horror, while also touching on the real horrors of slavery and racism.

    Bingo squares: Award Winner (hard), Mashup, Minority Author

    –

    Also read Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, which was great. Sort of a mashup of lots of things (1920s in a mental asylum, on a version of the moon that has forests, with some gothic, medical, body, and cosmic horror thrown in). Sadly too short to explore the world, though I’m hopeful the planned sequels will rectify this. Avoid if you have arachnophobia.

    Bingo squares: New Release, Mashup (maybe hard?), Among the Stars (technically), (alt) A Change in Perspective. Not sure about Institutional (hard) since it’s a for-profit asylum.

    • dresden@discuss.onlineOPMEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      Will it give me arachnophobia, if I don’t like spiders, but am not at the level of full blown phobia?

      Ring Shout sounds interesting, but am not a fan of racism and slavery in the (fiction) books, specially the ones that go to dark places. Does it end well? 😀

      • misericordiae@literature.cafe
        2·
        3 months ago

        Will it give me arachnophobia, if I don’t like spiders, but am not at the level of full blown phobia?

        Mmm if they give you the ick, then maybe avoid it. I don’t think it’s too bad, but YMMV, and I’d rather not mislead you accidentally.

        Ring Shout sounds interesting, but am not a fan of racism and slavery in the (fiction) books, specially the ones that go to dark places. Does it end well? 😀

        The author actually uses a much lighter touch on the racism and mentions of slavery than I was expecting. It’s there, and it ties into the story, but the focus is really more on fighting literal demonic creatures. Like I said the other week, it’s really more of an action-adventure than disturbing horror. It ends mostly well, with room for a sequel.