I’ll offer a slightly different opinion, in that I didn’t find Blindsight all that scary really. What I did find in what Blindsight offers is something preferable, in my opinion - existential dread. I won’t go into details, and I don’t want to oversell the book any more than I think we may have already done. But like I said, I felt this book stuck with me for a long time after I read it, in a way that not too many books have.
Agreed. It got me to read all of the rest of his works and go to his website/blog. His work is like a drug to me. I want more. I want it NOW.
I had read his Rift series. I also read The Things long ago, but didn’t realize it was him.
Well, I am glad you didn’t feel like spoiling any of the plot for me. Thank you.
Let me know before you see the next Avengers movie so I can tell you what happens.
Aw come on Rod, what’s a little elevated blood pressure in the interest of a new experience?
Sorry, I wasn’t thinking about spoilers in talking about a 25 year old book, but you’re right that was a bit much. Still, Stephenson books aren’t really that amenable to spoilers anyway. This is a novel in which the author takes a whole chapter off from the narrative to talk about this wacky theory of psycholinguistics.
I read The Deep Blue Good-by of the Travis McGee novels and really liked it. I then read Nightmare in Pink and wasn’t as thrilled. My library only has some of the ebooks for the series, and buying 21 of them is a little prohibitive.
I recently bought several Travis McGee novels used. One things I have learned over the years about detective novels, any detective, is that they tend to be enough alike and the genre is such that you should never read books about the same guy back to back.
I think the Deep Blue Good Bye is one I have already read. That one and the Tan and Gold ones, I think.
I agree with that completely. I read one of the Dave Robicheaux books by James Lee Burke and liked it so much I decided to read them all. That was a mistake, for exactly the reason you mentioned.
The Travis McGee books are even more self-similar than many other series. I always liked the non-thriller parts of these books way better than the mysteries or the inevitable torture/combat scenes.
Yeah, the second one has a weird situation that you know he is going to get out of, and I didn’t have any interest in how he got out of it. so I scanned ahead.
I read the Reacher novels all in a binge-read and didn’t have the same problem.
I have found this with both the Ross McDonald books and the John McDonald books.
Yes. But I think John more so than Ross. The Lew Archer books all have the same glum noir tone, but I think their plots vary more significantly.
I just finished up The Broken Earth trilogy. It wasn’t perfect, but it was so nice to see a new type of world.
Basically, the planet rips itself apart every 100 years, and societies breakdown while this disaster occurs, before rebuilding.
The magic system is new and refreshing and focuses on the ability of a few folks who can sense and control the earth.
It is like a primitive sci-fi world with some magic tossed in.
Also very modern. Strong, female characters. Themes around climate change.
Pretty good for sure.
It’s not as regular as that - the earth is in constant upheaval on a more minor level but the apocalyptic Seasons that drive everyone into survival mode are sometimes many centuries apart. But yeah, I’m two books in and it’s great so far. There’s a reason it won that Hugo.
I loved book one. It was nice to read some fantasy / sci fi that was actually written by someone who could write properly rather than just pander to the geek audience.
A great trilogy, well deserving of its acclaim and awards.
I am nearing the end of my re-read of The Quantum Thief. I never re-read anymore (no time!) but I loved this book so much and it holds up strongly the second time through. So much fun and so many neat and imaginative ideas…and at its core a lovely double or triple mystery story. I’m a sucker for a good sf mystery story.
I’ve ordered the second book…we’ll see. This one is fully standalone, enough so I was surprised there was a second.
After this is the sequel to Ninefox Gambit which was a lot of fun.
I bailed on book one halfway through - it is so well written and so brutal that I couldn’t take any more! Hell of a book though, maybe I will come back to it some day when I am less likely to be traumatized by it.
After finishing my re-read of The Quantum Thief I have no idea what I was thinking the first time, the sequel hooks are blatant. Still loved it though.
The Nightmare Stacks (audiobook) by Charles Stross. This is the seventh book in the Laundry Series.
In brief, great stuff. After the boring and disappointing Book 6, this seemed like a fine return to form… even if the main character of the series is still missing. This one was more of a war novel than a spy novel, and it had some fun romance elements thrown in as well.