Book Review – Titan

05 Feb 2024 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Titan by John Varley is a book that I read for a recent book club meeting. I had never read anything by this author until now. This is the first book in the Gaea trilogy. Read on to see what I thought (paid links).

I read an e-book edition of this.

I had a hard time finding a blurb for this one, but eventually located two short versions:

The first one: When Cirrocco Jones, captain of the spaceship Ringmaster, and her crew are captured by Gaea, a planet-sized creature that orbits around Saturn, they find themselves inside a bizarre world inhabited by centaurs, harpies, and constantly shifting environments.

And a second one: It begins with humankind’s exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling—because it is a mind. A mind that calls out to explorers, transforming all who enter.

Those blurbs don’t really explain much of what this book is about. In many ways, it reminded me of Ringworld by Larry Niven (which I didn’t like) (paid links). Like that book, the story in Titan follows a group of explorers as they travel across a toroid-shaped artificial world. In Titan, this party is all human, but they are scattered when they enter Gaea and have to search for each other while exploring the place.

I did like the characters in this book (definitely better than the ones in Ringworld) and was pleasantly surprised to find that the protagonist was a (mostly) well-drawn female character written by a male author in the 1970s. Not that there weren’t some missteps, but overall Cirrocco Jones was a daring, gutsy, and believable heroine.

The opening chapter with the emphasis on relating how all of the astronauts on the Ringmaster had all had sex with each other over the course of their journey to Saturn was a strange way to start the story, and I think this could have been worked in better in another way. The relationships were important to the story, but I didn’t need it spelled out up front.

This is the first book in a series, but did reach a satisfying conclusion and could be read as a stand-alone tale. The other books finish out a trilogy and are Wizard and Demon (paid links). I’m undecided about whether I’ll read them.

Have you read Titan or any other novels by John Varley? Which would you recommend? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

January 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

31 Jan 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The first month of 2024 is nearly over and it’s time to look back at what I read, as well as what’s coming up next. Overall, January was a strong reading month for me, mostly because I was sick and stuck on the couch for more hours than usual which resulted in extra reading time. Here are the seven books that I finished in January:

I have already written reviews on some of these, which you can find here:

I had hoped to also finish Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon, the second book in the Outlander series (paid links). However, it took me longer to finish the first book than I had thought it would, so the second one got pushed back to February.

I started the 4th book in the Dune series, God Emperor of Dune, in January, as well as The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, but these books were too dense to rush through and finish at the end of the month (paid links).

Looking ahead at February, here is what’s up next for my reading plans:

Hopefully I can read as much as I did in January (minus the illness though). What are you currently reading? Let me know in the comments (above).

Book Review – Starter Villain

29 Jan 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I picked up the latest novel by John Scalzi for an upcoming book club discussion. Starter Villain is a stand-alone novel, and honestly, I was sold on this one by the cat on the cover (paid link). Read on to see what I thought of the story.

I read a physical copy of this book.

Here is the blurb:

Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world…be a cat.

I have only read a couple of other books by John Scalzi prior to this (Old Man’s War and Redshirts, neither of which I reviewed here), and I have followed his blog. His writing style is generally light and humorous in the works I’ve read, and this novel follows that pattern.

Starter Villain was a lot of fun and was a quick and easy novel to read. The story is exactly as described in the blurb above and follows Charlie as he fumbles his way through his newfound responsibilities. The only disagreement that I had with the description in the blurb was that his henchperson didn’t terrify me at all, but she was a terribly competent woman which might be frightening to some people.

The intelligent spy cats were great and they gave plenty of opportunities for the author to insert some humor. Given the dangerous business that Charlie has entered, the humor throughout the story is essential to making this book enjoyable.

When I first read the blurb I had wondered how innocent Charlie was going to manage this transition into evil. However, the villainy that ensues pits him against the competing supervillains rather than against civilians. Much of their activity involves making threats and using their power to keep the others from calling their bluff. This keeps Charlie from doing anything truly evil in the book, which helped to keep him a likeable character.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will continue to pick up John Scalzi’s novels when I have a chance. Have you read any of this other books? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Not Like Us

24 Jan 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , ,

Not Like Us is a stand-alond science fiction novel by Doc Honour, an author who I know through an online critique group (paid link). While I wasn’t one of the participants who reviewed an earlier version of this book, we have given mutual feedback on each other’s shorter works. It is the first book in the Empathic Humanity series, but this first book wraps up a single story.

I read this as an e-book.

Here is the blurb:

How do you escape from total socialism? Jake Palatin is forced to develop an antimatter bomb on the planet Verdant, where global war using his technology is terrifyingly close. Zofia, a woman with a secret, tempts him to resist. She also has a solution, a new technology to save humanity.

Fleeing in desperation, they confront a powerful foe who holds everything in totalitarian control. They must learn to trust each other while facing oppressive police, devious leaders, and a war that could break out at any instant. Danger looms at every step, while love threatens to derail all their plans.

Success is crucial. One mistake, and Verdant will go the way of a dozen other worlds, including old dead to everything.

Humanity destroys every world it touches, because those other people are “Not Like Us.” Jake and Zofia discover the key.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but that was mostly because I tend to read too many books at once. After I finished some of my other commitments, I was able to dedicate more attention to this novel. The story is mainly told through Jake’s point-of-view, but we do get to see the world through the perspective of a few other characters.

The set up is compelling–Jake’s attraction to Zofia gives her an opportunity to get him to question why the society established in Solity functions as it does. Once he discovers these problems with the current system, his thoughts spiral into rebellion and soon he is all in, leading to a thrilling sequence of events.

This book kept me engaged and I particularly liked how Jake’s recent work project becomes a direct conflict to his new goals. As an engineer, he had never given serious thought to the goals of the Solity government, but simply does his job. When tasked with the creation of an anti-matter bomb and then taught to think about the consequences of his government’s project, he realizes that he cannot follow through with this work.

While the ending doesn’t resolve the larger conflict between the nations of the planet Verdant, it does wrap up the immediate conflict and the story for these characters, making this a reasonable read as a stand-alone novel. I believe that Doc Honour is at work on the next book, and I’m planning to read that when it is done.

Have you read any books with a similar theme? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Books to Read in 2024

01 Jan 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

It is a little after midnight on New Year’s Day as I’m starting to write this post. I have been cramming books onto my 2024 to-be-read list in a mad rush, like there is some sort of rule that once the ball drops in Times Square, I won’t be allowed to add any more for the year. I mean, that’s not true at all, but part of me feels like I have to have a plan for the year finalized by January 1. Well, here is my (once again) very unrealistic list of 113 books I plan to read for 2024:

How did I come up with this list? There are several considerations that go into this (paid links below):

What else goes into my choices? Well, I am trying not to start any new series. But on the list above, I also have several new series… what can I say? I am inconsistent. To be fair, some of the series on here are ones where I read the first book many, many years ago but was unable to finish the series (because it hadn’t all been published yet or because I got distracted by other books).

In that vein, I’m going to continue on my read-through of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I’m also going to read Dune #4-6, which I had put aside after reading #1-3 in 2022 (paid links).

As the year goes on, I’ll add even more books to this list, perpetuating my never-ending pile and pushing more of these off to 2025. I need more hours in the day.

Of all these books, which ones are up first for the year? Well right now, I’m already reading the first of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series in audiobook format. I’m also about a third of the way through Not Like Us by Doc Honour, a writing critique partner (paid links). After that, here is what I have planned:

Let me go back to the numbers now. I have 113 books on my list for 2024. Even given that some are shorter novellas or graphic novels, that still comes out to about 9.5 books per month, or more than 2 books per week. And some of these books aren’t short, so what is realistically going to happen?

I usually end up reading somewhere between 40 and 50 books each year. I tend to read several books at once, so one goal I’m making for this year is to try to minimize how often I start a new book without finishing others. I feel like I’ll be more engaged in a book if I’m not splitting my attention between several of them. (However, I will still have an audiobook going while reading something in print).

Off to do some reading now…

How do you choose which books you’re going to read? What books are you most excited about reading in 2024? Let me know in the comments (above)!

Book Review – Planetfall

01 Dec 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

I’ve had Planetfall by Emma Newman on my shelf for a few years and kept meaning to start it (the story of my reading life, but that’s a separate topic). It is the first book of four in the Planetfall series, which was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2020 (paid links). Read on below to see what I thought.

I read this in trade paperback format.

Here is the blurb:

Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi’s vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown.

More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony’s 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.

Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi.

The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart…

While this book is part of a series, it looks like the other books are only set in the same universe and do not involve any characters from this volume, so it could be read as a stand-alone. Planetfall set up a mystery involving a religious-like calling, a troubled colony, and an alien city but then failed to give me enough of an explanation or resolution at the end. Even so, most of the book was great and other readers may enjoy the ending.

Renata is one of those guilty characters who has been hiding a secret for so long that by this point it is impossible to think of revealing it to others. The stable life of the colony on this alien world is uprooted when a descendant of another group of colonists thought to be long-lost arrives on scene. This visitor causes some colonists to rethink an annual tradition tied to one of Ren’s secrets, propelling the main plot of the novel. Ren’s other secret is that she never lets anyone see her home because she is a hoarder. This created a situation that was unique in the science fiction that I’ve read, and ultimately ties together with the rest of the conflict as the book progresses.

The action and stakes increased toward the conclusion of the book, and while I don’t want to give any spoilers here, the ending was one in which I had expected a greater reveal and explanation and was left sort of scratching my head.

Have you read any of the Planetfall books? Have you read any of Emma Newman’s other books? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Quantum Curators and the Faberge Egg

29 Nov 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , ,

This is another book that was suggested for one of my book clubs and it sounded intriguing. The Quantum Curators and the Faberge Egg by Eva St. John is the first book by this author that I have read. It is also the first book (of five) in The Quantum Curators series (paid links).

I read this as an e-book.

Here is the blurb:

When a priceless Fabergé egg comes to light everyone is after it. Neith Salah is a quantum curator. It’s her mission to get the egg; she doesn’t know what it looks like, or where it is, but she knows it’s not on her earth.

Julius Strathclyde lives on a parallel earth. He’s a Cambridge professor and an archivist; he loves tea, research and a quiet life. It’s a pity then, that he’s the only person alive who knows where the egg is.

She has guns and attitude, he has a fountain pen. Together they are going to have to race against time to save the egg, before a hidden enemy gets there first.

This book was the start of a series, but could be read as a stand-alone novel because it does wrap up the main events of the Faberge egg plot by the end. Not every detail is resolved though which leaves something for the next book to presumably explore. I did enjoy this book, but I’m not sure if I’ll read the rest of the series. I didn’t identify with the characters enough to put this on my must-read-more list.

The story is mainly set on our Earth, but the characters that are seeking the Faberge egg are from a parallel Earth, so the book felt a lot like a time travel novel. Of course these technologically advanced treasure hunters meet up with the professor, Julius, on our Earth and he is swept up into the search with them as different factions compete to find the egg.

I liked the plot twists and the action scenes were well-done. The idea of the parallel Earth where relics from our world are saved from destruction and stored for everyone to be able to enjoy and cherish them was something unique in this story. I’m curious to know more about how that world developed.

Have you read any of the Quantum Curator books? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Many-Colored Land

27 Nov 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , ,

The Many-Colored Land is the first book in the Saga of Pliocene Exile by Julian May (paid links). I had never read anything by this author, but this book was proposed as a selection for one of my book clubs, so I picked it up. This book was nominated for a Hugo and a Nebula Award and won a Locus Award.

I read this in e-book format.

Here is the blurb:

In the year 2034, Theo Quderian, a French physicist, made an amusing but impractical the means to use a one-way, fixed-focus time warp that opened into a place in the Rhone River valley during the idyllic Pliocene Epoch, six million years ago. But, as time went on, a certain usefulness developed. The misfits and mavericks of the future—many of them brilliant people—began to seek this exit door to a mysterious past. In 2110, a particularly strange and interesting group was preparing to make the journey—a starship captain, a girl athlete, a paleontologist, a woman priest, and others who had reason to flee the technological perfection of twenty-second-century life.

The group that passes through the time-portal finds an unforeseen strangeness on the other side. Far from being uninhabited, Pliocene Europe is the home of two warring races from another planet. There is the knightly race of the Tanu—handsome, arrogant, and possessing vast powers of psychokinesis and telepathy. And there is the outcast race of Firvulag—dwarfish, malev-o olent, and gifted with their own supernormal skills.

Taken captive by the Tanu and transported through the primordial European landscape, the humans manage to break free, join in an uneasy alliance with the forest-dwelling Firvulag, and, finally, launch an attack against the Tanu city of light on the banks of a river that, eons later, would be called the Rhine. Myth and legend, wit and violence, speculative science and breathtaking imagination mingle in this romantic fantasy, which is the first volume in a series about the exile world. The sequel, titled The Golden Torc, will follow soon.

While the concept of this novel was quite intriguing, this book was challenging for me to enjoy. The story is told through numerous points of view, and at the beginning of the book I struggled to keep each character straight and to understand how they related to a coherent story. Eventually it is clear that these are the characters that are going to travel back in time to the Pliocene, but I think it would have been easier to follow this opening if the story had started closer to the point at which they begin their journey.

Once they arrive in Pliocene Europe, the book was better, but I still found it hard to identify with the characters. They encountered some difficult conditions there and each character’s personality created different responses to this unique world state, but I also found that I struggled to like or care about any of the characters.

Some positive aspects of this book were that the idea of traveling back in time on a one-way journey is always fun to explore. Part of me does want to discover what happened to this Pliocene land and how the alien Tanu and Firvulag arrived and made it their home. I’m not sure that’s enough to convince me to invest the time to read the next book (The Golden Torc), but I’d consider a different series by the author (paid link).

Have you read any books by Julian May? Which ones do you recommend? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

10 Authors I Haven’t Read Yet

20 Nov 2023 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I had the idea for this post from another book blog that I follow and I thought it would be an interesting topic in regard to my own reading. My goal in creating this list was to think of ten authors that I am dying to read, but haven’t had time to get to yet. I started with a longer list and then pared it down to just these ten:

  1. Iain M. Banks – I have read the blurb for the first book in this author’s Culture series (paid link) and I honestly can’t tell what it’s about other than something with a sprawling intergalactic story which is something I generally love. This is a series with 9 books so far.
  1. Pierce Brown – this author is best known for the Red Rising Saga (paid link) which started out as a trilogy and has now grown to six books. Caste warfare on a dystopian Mars????? Yes, please!
  1. P. Djeli Clark is an author that I was not terribly aware of until I listened to him talk in a writing class sponsored by Orbit Books. He spoke about scene structure and sounds like an author who writes diverse and compelling stories (paid link).
  1. James S. A. Corey is a pen name for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck who are best known for The Expanse series (paid link). This science fiction epic was the basis for the television series on Amazon Prime of the same name which is currently in my queue to finish. I plan to read the books once I’ve finished the show.
  1. Diana Gabaldon is best known for writing the Outlander series of historical time-travel romance novels (paid link). I watched the first season of the television show and loved it (but then got distracted – I don’t stick with tv very well). My mother is a huge fan of both the books and the show and if I don’t read this series soon she’ll probably disown me. It currently sits at nine books and is supposed to be complete with the tenth volume.
  1. Ann Leckie wrote the Imperial Radch trilogy of science fiction novels (paid link) that won the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards and was also recommended to me by friends. I picked up the first book but haven’t had the time to start it yet. So many books, so little time…
  1. Sarah J. Maas – I’m torn on this one because I’ve heard mixed reviews of her writing. I first heard of her Throne of Glass series, and now the author’s more recent series (A Court of Thorns and Roses) (paid links) has been added to the list of banned books in some conservative parts of the country – which makes it crucial to read it, right?!?! These are fantasy romance with faeries and probably some magic and swords. As long as the writing isn’t too painful, I’ll probably at least have fun with these.
  1. Seanan McGuire has written a ton of books. Her series include the October Daye, Wayward Children, and Alchemical Journeys books (paid links). The good news is that I’m planning to read Every Heart a Doorway for a book club discussion in the next few months. This series involves children and portals.
  1. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has written several stand-alone novels. Many appear to have a more gothic flavor to them, which is something that I have not read a lot of. I don’t know if I’d like these, but she has received awards and acclaim, so I’m open to taking a look. I already picked up Gods of Jade and Shadow a few years ago and haven’t had time to read it (paid link).
  1. V.E. Schwab is the last author on my list. She has written the Shades of Magic trilogy which explores parallel Londons in a threatened multiverse. Her more recent book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue looks like a stand-alone novel about a woman who wins immortality but, in exchange, is forgotten by everyone she meets (paid links).

Have you read any of the authors on my list? Which one should I read first? What authors would be on your list? Let me know in the comments (above).

What to Read Next?

27 Oct 2023 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

As the year approaches its end, I find myself looking back at the books I’ve read in 2023 and wondering how I became so distracted from my plan for the year.

Actually–this happens every year.

I start out with a shiny perfect to-be-read list that, while it might be overly ambitious, is orderly and logical. Then sometime around February I add books to the list. These might be a novel for one of my book clubs, a new release by a favorite author, or a book that was gifted to me. Other times I might read a description of a book that really grabs me and–wham! That’s another addition to the list.

A portion of the books I had planned to read for 2023.

Thinking about my book chaos made me wonder how I decide which book I’m going to read next. Sometimes it’s a deadline – like for book club or a review that I want to coincide with a particular date. Often I’m just excited about delving into a particular story. Or I’ve been staring at a book that I left out on a table or desk.

I also have a dilemma when it comes to what format to read. I’m usually reading a physical book, an e-book, and an audiobook all at once. If I finish the audiobook, then I need another audiobook after that. And if I already have that book in another format, I’m not going to also buy it as an audiobook. Or for books that are part of a series, I try to keep with the same format for the whole thing, especially if I started it as an audiobook and really liked the narrator.

Books on my October to-be-read list.

I will try to control the chaos by breaking my gigantic to-be-read list down into smaller pieces by each month. Above is an example of those books sitting on my October list, none of which I have started and it is nearly the end of October. I do have to start On Fragile Waves for a book club meeting so that one will have priority over the others. Oh – and I should go back to look at the four books from my September list that I didn’t start yet.

As an aside, I did some work updating this blog last week and now you can see what I’m currently reading in the Goodreads widget in the sidebar on the right (scroll up from here).

How do you decide what to read next? Do you have an organized list? Do you stick to that? Let me know in the comments (above).

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