My January Sci-Fi (and Fantasy) reads...
I'll preface why I'm doing this with: I haven't been much of a reader for almost all my life. I'd read every now and then, but probably averaged one book a year, if that, between the ages of 18-43. I upped that the following year, reading all Asimov's Complete Robot and four Robot novels in a year, then upped it again reading all 7 Foundation books in a year. The upturn of pace was largely due to my daughter. She's 11 and LOVES books, and has done for quite a few years now. She reads every night and has probably already read more books in her life than I have. While I've been actively encouraging her reading as much as I can, promising her that she'll never run out of books, so even if she gets through a lot in a short space of time, I'll have bought her more ready for when she's running out; I want to be a better role model for her so have started reading a lot more now too. After the Foundation series, I read 13 books between Oct to end Dec. last year, which was more than I had read the previous two years combined.
My daughter and I are having a challenge to see who can read the most this year, so, so I can document what I'm reading, keep track of my thoughts on the books and possibly enjoy the journey more and any related discussion, I'm wanting to give mini thoughts on each of my month's read every month.
My daughter won this month 7 books to my 6!
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Started the month with Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, a 668 page book about the colonisation of Mars, from the first 100 settlers through to mass colonisation across the planet. I knew this was hard sci-fi, but I didn't appreciate that it would be so involved with the resultant politics of the colonisation. The story moved further than I was expecting and while I feel I had to suspend my disbelief concerning some aspects of the story, most parts were convincingly played out and gave a worrying look at a possible future. The book focuses on the developing stories of those who have emigrated to the red planet, and how they going about their lives in the various time frame snap shots that are each section of the book. Each section is told with a different character as the focus, so you get to learn more about who they are. It was quite heavy going at times, but definitely a book I enjoyed reading!
Cthulhu Fishing off the Iraq Nebula by Chris Meekings.
After the fairly heaviness of Red Mars, I fancied something a bit more light hearted. This 94 page novella hit the bill. It's about a guy flying through space in his house, chasing after the legendary Lovecraftian Cthulhu monster to get revenge on it after it destroyed Earth. It is as silly as it sounds, with plenty comical moments throughout. Only got this as it was something like £1.83 on Amazon and for that price I thought I'd give it a go. It won't be on your best reads list, but it's entertaining for its short duration!
The Humans by Matt Haig.
After the silliness of Cthulhu, it was on to the book I ended up reading by accident. In the last month or so I was searching on Reddit for recommendations of books, and amongst many ones that sounded good was one that was about dogs remembering back and telling stories of beings called Humans, well after the extinction of humanity. I loved the premise of this, then when going to buy books I saw The Humans by Matt Haig, which had a picture of a dog on the front. That must be it, I thought, so I bought it. Coincidentally, The Humans was another book I'd seen recommended, which is why no alarm bells were rung. So I read it, and after about 5-10 pages I realised it wasn't the book I thought it was going to be. The book I was thinking of was City by Clifford Simak, but The Humans was still a fun and extremely easy read. For my general reading pace, I flew threw the 291 pages of this one. It's about an alien that replaces a human who has made a mathematical break-through that the alien species does not believe humans are ready for. The alien lives the life of the human he has replaced, but in true Dances With Wolves, Avatar etc style, from initially detesting the ways of humans, he warms to them and sees the way he is changing as a result. I don't think the ending was as satisfying as I would have liked, but the book was nonetheless enjoyable.
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
I'd read a lot of good things about the Wayfarers series so I was very keen to make a start on it this month. While utterly different in style, tone and content, a bit like with Red Mars, there was no real running plot in this 402 page book, it just tells the stories of the characters and the events that take place while they are on their way to a distant destination. That doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the book, as I thought the characters were well written and as you learned more about them as the book progressed, you could appreciate the situations they were in all the more. It did mean though that there was no real ending to the book, as throughout the story many largely unrelated things happen on their journey, some good, most bad, they get to their destination and more things mostly unrelated to everything before, happen on a more significant scale, then after that they come to terms with what happened and that's pretty much were it ends. This is very much a character book, and I enjoyed it a lot!
Jingo by Terry Pratchett.
My horrendously slow progress through the Discworld has got me to book 21 in the series. This one sees a mysterious piece of land rise out of the ocean between Ankh Morpork and Klatch and the two nations trying each to lay claim to the land. The Night Watch and Commander Vimes end up being right in the middle of it all as they try to prevent all out war from breaking out. What can I say, it's Terry Pratchett and the Discworld. I've never read a Discworld book I didn't enjoy. Some are better than others, but in the previous 20, I didn't find any of them to be bad. This one was no different. I didn't find it amazing, but I certainly enjoyed it throughout its 414 page duration as much as all the others. The Patrician certainly moved up my imaginary list of favourite Discworld characters from his performance here!
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
The last book I read in January is about a man going to any lengths to save his daughter. It just so happens that the man is a kick-ass mercenary, and member of the most famous band in history. Or at least he was, and they were, 20 years ago, and a lot has changed in that time. In this world, a band is a group of mercenaries that team together to take on monsters and whatever else they are hired to do. The man, however, is not the main protagonist of the story. That role falls on Clay Cooper, the strong and silent type, but also the glue that holds everyone together. The book is funny, extremely violent, poignant and generally very entertaining over its 492 pages. Due to the use of phrases like "I'm/we're getting the band back together", I just couldn't help but think of the Blues Brothers very frequently while reading this, and trying to make analogies between the two. It doesn't hold up completely, but that added a bit more unintended entertainment value for me!
Jingo is missing from the picture as I'm in the process of replacing all my Discworld collection!