Eagle Time Reading List
11-07-2015, 05:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-07-2015, 05:45 PM by Jacquerel.)
Ok so I know we've got the book club thread already, but I am tired of relying on my Kindle's shitty "we think you'd like this" algorithm and I know a lot of people who have read some books in their time, so I wanted to make a thread that's less about reading a book communally and more about just telling people you read a cool book.
Tell me what good books you have read so I can also read them. I have been contented too long on books that are merely "sort of ok I guess", I can do better for myself.
I guess I'd better start, so here's what I've read in the last month or three that's worth passing on to someone else (it's fairly heavily slanted towards sci-fi/fantasy);
Ancillary Trilogy (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) by Ann Leckie.
This is technically three books and the third is the only one I read recently. It's also probably some of the best sci-fi I have read in a good while (I may even read them over again from the top, as it's been some time since reading the first). I know for a fact that some of you have also already read these books and may be able to provide a more eloquent recommendation than I did.
But that said, this book has an interesting perspective character and an interesting setting and interesting themes.
The main conceit is that the main character is essentially a very large space ship (or more accurately the intelligence controlling a very large space ship) who also has the capacity to use modified human bodies as "Ancillaries", essentially a bunch of convenient sets of limbs that can do tasks a very large space ship cannot, such as cleaning and maintenance.
Very quickly she finds herself in reduced circumstances as the ship itself is destroyed and her intelligence remains solely located in a single one of these bodies. Her adaption to this new role as a member of her creator society rather than as a tool and struggle to revenge herself on the source of her mostly-death forms the plot of the first book, with the more far-reaching implications of her existence on that society following up in the second two.
This series tackles a lot of fairly weightly themes like imperialism, slavery, disability, family and the old sci-fi chestnuts of free will and created intelligence in what I think is a pretty respectful manner.
Also the society that most of the book revolves around only uses the feminine pronoun for literally every citizen and member and doesn't really recognise gender much at all. I don't know exactly what you might think of that detail but I found it pretty interesting.
The series (more in the second two than the first) also does something I appreciate which doesn't happen enough in sci-fi in that there is an alien race involved in the plot, but they are so alien in their perspectives and thought-processes that they are never actually directly involved or portrayed, their influence coming about purely through modified human "translators" (who themselves are still fairly incomprehensible, giving a window into the idea of creatures whose brains simply operate on an entirely different level to ours and create an almost impassable communication barrier). It's really cool.
The Bees by Laline Paull is a book that I picked up because it's called "The Bees" and because it is chiefly about bees. Almost solely about bees, actually. Sapient bees.
I didn't expect a book where most of the characters are bees to be particularly touching, but it is. This book contains a lot of Bee Facts but it's a chiefly fantastical view of how bees work, that's fine though because it models a better sapient insect societal ecosystem than most fiction manages to create.
The perspective character in this book is (obviously) a bee, and she is adorable and will make you root for her throughout the narrative, which largely does not go in her favour. One of the biggest themes in this book is loyalty and labour committed towards a power structure that neither loves you in return nor particularly cares what happens to you, and our character struggling to find her place inside it as someone who doesn't really fit into any of the categories it tries to use her for.
The one demerit is that there are not really very many bee puns in this book.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is like, probably the least best book I am recommending but it's still nice.
It's essentially about the crew of a small interstellar vessel which is taking an unusually long trip in order to facilitate making a wormhole so nobody else has to take such a long trip (you need a ship on both ends), and how they deal with their interpersonal problems.
There's no real world-threatening threats or political intrigue in this story and it sort of reads in an episodic manner, giving each character their handful of chapters in turn to have their story and character resolution before tying them all up in a conclusion that effects the found family ship unit as a whole.
There's still parts where people are under threat, but compared to other things I have listed I would describe it as a nice sort of pleasant book that isn't terribly heavy. I enjoyed it.
Also (minor spoilers) the main character (or, first you are introduced to) ends up dating an alien lizard at some point which I wasn't expecting but think bears mentioning as a recommendation.
Final recommendation: The Just City by Jo Walton is the book I am actually currently still reading, so it's possible the ending may ruin it for me in some manner or present some unpalatable moral judgement, but so far I think it's a book several people here would enjoy.
It's also the most esoteric title on this list. The concept is weird and I was not completely sold on it at first (ok I guess I was because I bought the book) but it won me over after a couple of chapters.
So. The basic plot of this book is that the goddess Athene has gathered 300 people from across time who were big fans of the works of Plato, who have for some reason or another prayed to her (or someone similar to her) to be allowed to live in the ideal society described in Plato's "Republic", as an experiment, giving them a plot of land in ancient Greece (which will be destroyed by a volcano in a few generations leaving no trace) and some worker robots with which to do manual labour, to attempt to bring their idealised society into reality.
The main characters are Maia, one of the 300 scholars, philosophers, or readers who become the founders of the city (herself simply a girl who loved reading the works of Plato, but who lived in a misogynistic society that did not give her any hope of opportunity to her indulge her intellect), Simmea, one of the thousands of "freed" children they bring in from greek slave markets to mould into their ideal citizens, and the god Apollo, who has incarnated himself in human form as another child test subject in order to himself learn more about free will and freedom of choice in mortals.
Later, Socrates himself shows up and the children begin to question whether what is being done is correct or justified, and the shaky foundations of this "ideal" society start to wobble.
Please don't let the time travel/greek gods aspects put you off, they're present mostly as set dressing to make the conceit work but not really like... important?
This book is mostly about philosophy and free will but without requiring you to have actually read any philosophy to understand it? All of the concepts it covers are explained by or to characters in the book as natural parts of the plot, and it covers a lot of concepts (slavery, family, deception, relationships, and societal responsibility to name a few) as well as, mysteriously (making 3/4 titles on this list) the role of created intelligence.
I can't yet tell you if its eventual conclusion about human nature and how it interferes with well-intentioned poorly-executed plans for a better future is one I would agree with, but so far it's a book I was unsure about but it actually very well executed.
So that's enough about me, I'm quickly reaching the end of The Just City and while I have a couple of other books lined up, I would also like some that are recommended by people whose taste I trust more than that of a "other people who read this also read this" aggregation. Please rescue me from all the terrible guns & gadgets novels Kindle really wants me to read.
Tell me what good books you have read so I can also read them. I have been contented too long on books that are merely "sort of ok I guess", I can do better for myself.
I guess I'd better start, so here's what I've read in the last month or three that's worth passing on to someone else (it's fairly heavily slanted towards sci-fi/fantasy);
Ancillary Trilogy (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) by Ann Leckie.
This is technically three books and the third is the only one I read recently. It's also probably some of the best sci-fi I have read in a good while (I may even read them over again from the top, as it's been some time since reading the first). I know for a fact that some of you have also already read these books and may be able to provide a more eloquent recommendation than I did.
But that said, this book has an interesting perspective character and an interesting setting and interesting themes.
The main conceit is that the main character is essentially a very large space ship (or more accurately the intelligence controlling a very large space ship) who also has the capacity to use modified human bodies as "Ancillaries", essentially a bunch of convenient sets of limbs that can do tasks a very large space ship cannot, such as cleaning and maintenance.
Very quickly she finds herself in reduced circumstances as the ship itself is destroyed and her intelligence remains solely located in a single one of these bodies. Her adaption to this new role as a member of her creator society rather than as a tool and struggle to revenge herself on the source of her mostly-death forms the plot of the first book, with the more far-reaching implications of her existence on that society following up in the second two.
This series tackles a lot of fairly weightly themes like imperialism, slavery, disability, family and the old sci-fi chestnuts of free will and created intelligence in what I think is a pretty respectful manner.
Also the society that most of the book revolves around only uses the feminine pronoun for literally every citizen and member and doesn't really recognise gender much at all. I don't know exactly what you might think of that detail but I found it pretty interesting.
The series (more in the second two than the first) also does something I appreciate which doesn't happen enough in sci-fi in that there is an alien race involved in the plot, but they are so alien in their perspectives and thought-processes that they are never actually directly involved or portrayed, their influence coming about purely through modified human "translators" (who themselves are still fairly incomprehensible, giving a window into the idea of creatures whose brains simply operate on an entirely different level to ours and create an almost impassable communication barrier). It's really cool.
The Bees by Laline Paull is a book that I picked up because it's called "The Bees" and because it is chiefly about bees. Almost solely about bees, actually. Sapient bees.
I didn't expect a book where most of the characters are bees to be particularly touching, but it is. This book contains a lot of Bee Facts but it's a chiefly fantastical view of how bees work, that's fine though because it models a better sapient insect societal ecosystem than most fiction manages to create.
The perspective character in this book is (obviously) a bee, and she is adorable and will make you root for her throughout the narrative, which largely does not go in her favour. One of the biggest themes in this book is loyalty and labour committed towards a power structure that neither loves you in return nor particularly cares what happens to you, and our character struggling to find her place inside it as someone who doesn't really fit into any of the categories it tries to use her for.
The one demerit is that there are not really very many bee puns in this book.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is like, probably the least best book I am recommending but it's still nice.
It's essentially about the crew of a small interstellar vessel which is taking an unusually long trip in order to facilitate making a wormhole so nobody else has to take such a long trip (you need a ship on both ends), and how they deal with their interpersonal problems.
There's no real world-threatening threats or political intrigue in this story and it sort of reads in an episodic manner, giving each character their handful of chapters in turn to have their story and character resolution before tying them all up in a conclusion that effects the found family ship unit as a whole.
There's still parts where people are under threat, but compared to other things I have listed I would describe it as a nice sort of pleasant book that isn't terribly heavy. I enjoyed it.
Also (minor spoilers) the main character (or, first you are introduced to) ends up dating an alien lizard at some point which I wasn't expecting but think bears mentioning as a recommendation.
Final recommendation: The Just City by Jo Walton is the book I am actually currently still reading, so it's possible the ending may ruin it for me in some manner or present some unpalatable moral judgement, but so far I think it's a book several people here would enjoy.
It's also the most esoteric title on this list. The concept is weird and I was not completely sold on it at first (ok I guess I was because I bought the book) but it won me over after a couple of chapters.
So. The basic plot of this book is that the goddess Athene has gathered 300 people from across time who were big fans of the works of Plato, who have for some reason or another prayed to her (or someone similar to her) to be allowed to live in the ideal society described in Plato's "Republic", as an experiment, giving them a plot of land in ancient Greece (which will be destroyed by a volcano in a few generations leaving no trace) and some worker robots with which to do manual labour, to attempt to bring their idealised society into reality.
The main characters are Maia, one of the 300 scholars, philosophers, or readers who become the founders of the city (herself simply a girl who loved reading the works of Plato, but who lived in a misogynistic society that did not give her any hope of opportunity to her indulge her intellect), Simmea, one of the thousands of "freed" children they bring in from greek slave markets to mould into their ideal citizens, and the god Apollo, who has incarnated himself in human form as another child test subject in order to himself learn more about free will and freedom of choice in mortals.
Later, Socrates himself shows up and the children begin to question whether what is being done is correct or justified, and the shaky foundations of this "ideal" society start to wobble.
Please don't let the time travel/greek gods aspects put you off, they're present mostly as set dressing to make the conceit work but not really like... important?
This book is mostly about philosophy and free will but without requiring you to have actually read any philosophy to understand it? All of the concepts it covers are explained by or to characters in the book as natural parts of the plot, and it covers a lot of concepts (slavery, family, deception, relationships, and societal responsibility to name a few) as well as, mysteriously (making 3/4 titles on this list) the role of created intelligence.
I can't yet tell you if its eventual conclusion about human nature and how it interferes with well-intentioned poorly-executed plans for a better future is one I would agree with, but so far it's a book I was unsure about but it actually very well executed.
So that's enough about me, I'm quickly reaching the end of The Just City and while I have a couple of other books lined up, I would also like some that are recommended by people whose taste I trust more than that of a "other people who read this also read this" aggregation. Please rescue me from all the terrible guns & gadgets novels Kindle really wants me to read.