Reading Wrap-Up: September & October 2022
Nov. 1st, 2022 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
justanorthernlightThe Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks (Culture Series #9, or possibly #10?) - The Culture's neighboring sister-civilization the Gzilt is getting ready to Sublime (or ascend to a higher plane of existence) when competing factions in their government discover a secret that could, if it got out, make enough people change their minds to turn the whole Subliming into a disaster. The Culture, being the nosy neighbors that they are, decide to meddle.
Most of the story follows a Gzilt military reservist & musician who once met & received a mind-state copy of a Culture citizen old enough to have been involved when the original Big Secret happened, and her quest to track down his memories while being hunted by the governmental faction that doesn't want the truth to come out and aided by a group of sentient Culture ships.
This one didn't keep my attention that well, I have to admit. Throughout the story, there is an overarching question of how much the truth of the Big Secret really matters, how much anything matters with the Subliming coming up, and how much any civilization's actions matter in the galactic time-scale, which are interesting themes but also made a lot of the action and character deaths feel borderline like a shaggy dog story (I felt the same way about Matter in the same series). There are some very interesting/aesthetic locations introduced, which I always enjoy.
The Witness For the Dead by Katherine Addison (The Cemeteries of Amalo series #1) - Also a quasi-sequel to The Goblin Emperor, this story follows Thara Celehar from the first book in his duties as a Witness for the Dead, a priest who can communicate in a limited way with the recently deceased, as he tries to both navigate church politics and solve the murder of an opera singer.
This one was enjoyable and decently paced, but I did find the plot and worldbuilding a bit less rich and in depth than TGE was.
Star Wars: Dark Legends by Greg Mann - In the same vein as Mann's Star Wars: Myths & Fables, this is a collection of short stories for young readers set in the Star Wars universe and told in a fairy tale style. These ones are horror themed and focus a lot on the Sith and dark Force artifacts.
The audience for this one is pretty young, but I still liked it and plant to check out theChrstimas Life Day Treasury by the same author.
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2022 reading goal progress: Total books: 20 of 50; nonfiction: 3 of 7.
I'm currently reading The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite, 2 nonfiction books for school, and I started a reread of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
Most of the story follows a Gzilt military reservist & musician who once met & received a mind-state copy of a Culture citizen old enough to have been involved when the original Big Secret happened, and her quest to track down his memories while being hunted by the governmental faction that doesn't want the truth to come out and aided by a group of sentient Culture ships.
This one didn't keep my attention that well, I have to admit. Throughout the story, there is an overarching question of how much the truth of the Big Secret really matters, how much anything matters with the Subliming coming up, and how much any civilization's actions matter in the galactic time-scale, which are interesting themes but also made a lot of the action and character deaths feel borderline like a shaggy dog story (I felt the same way about Matter in the same series). There are some very interesting/aesthetic locations introduced, which I always enjoy.
The Witness For the Dead by Katherine Addison (The Cemeteries of Amalo series #1) - Also a quasi-sequel to The Goblin Emperor, this story follows Thara Celehar from the first book in his duties as a Witness for the Dead, a priest who can communicate in a limited way with the recently deceased, as he tries to both navigate church politics and solve the murder of an opera singer.
This one was enjoyable and decently paced, but I did find the plot and worldbuilding a bit less rich and in depth than TGE was.
Star Wars: Dark Legends by Greg Mann - In the same vein as Mann's Star Wars: Myths & Fables, this is a collection of short stories for young readers set in the Star Wars universe and told in a fairy tale style. These ones are horror themed and focus a lot on the Sith and dark Force artifacts.
The audience for this one is pretty young, but I still liked it and plant to check out the
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2022 reading goal progress: Total books: 20 of 50; nonfiction: 3 of 7.
I'm currently reading The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite, 2 nonfiction books for school, and I started a reread of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
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Date: 2022-11-01 09:44 pm (UTC)