Gav Reads

Author: gavreads

  • End of Feb 23 Round-Up

    NOTE: I wrote most of this at the end of February 2023.

    Welcome to my monthly round-up. I am planning on publishing them on the last Sunday of the month. They are primarily for me to look back on at the end of the year, but you’re welcome to come along for the ride.

    The Good

    I should be gentler with myself. I thought I had a terrible reading month. But I haven’t. I read Far From the Stars of Heaven by Tade Thompson and The Fifth Season (Broken Earth Bk1) by N. K. Jemisin (no review yet).

    I didn’t manage to finish anything else.

    I did try. I DNF’d my first book of the year. I am sure the book is fine, but I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough. What should have been a romp was an anxiety-producing misadventure. I haven’t mentioned the title, as I may try it again.

    I am currently reading Siblings by Brigitte Reimann. Fifty years after it was first published in German, Penguin Classics has translated it into English for the first time. It’s only 129 pages long, but I have to pause to add tabs to the pages and write notes in my reading-focused notebook. It is a powerful meditation on East Germany at the time.

    Both of these caused my reading to slow down, and I didn’t have the mental space to read any short fiction.

    I’m reading A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files as my ebook. It’s 275 pages long and could technically be described as short fiction. But it’s not what I meant when I said I wanted to read more short fiction.

    The Bad

    Just because I wasn’t reading didn’t slow my acquisition of new books.

    I picked up some £0.99 ebook bargains, including The Kaiju Preservation Society, This This, Juniper & Thorn, and Now She is Witch.

    I grabbed some anthologies: Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology and Unthinkable: A Queer Gothic Anthology from proud-geek.co.uk. I also purchased The Devil and the Deep, Far Out: Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy and Isolation: The Horror Anthology.

    I bought the entire series (so far?) of Wayfarers by Becky Chambers. I picked up the first book of The Founders Trilogy (Foundaryside) by Robert Jackson Bennett & The Outside Series (The Outside) by Ada Hoffmann.

    I also picked up a few standalone titles: Masks by Fumiko Enchi trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter, Lanny by Max Porter, Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher and Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner 

    That is not all of them. I’ve logged all the books I’ve bought this year and know exactly how much I’ve spent. I need to calm down!

    I am going to cancel my book box subscriptions. I have never been a hardback reader, and I know these are stunning, but they are expensive shelf-space-reducing objects.

    This was ‘The Bad’? What is the ugly?

    The Ugly

    Chasing new shiny isn’t good for me. New shiny is where most of the book talk is aiming towards. I thought about ramping up my reading and reviewing again. I imagined chasing the waves alongside other book influencers. Realistically, it’s not going to happen. I either can’t or don’t want to devote time to keeping up with the field and reading the required work.

    I must remember that I have moved on as much as the book-o-sphere has.

    I will sit back and enjoy the content of those with energy and joy.

    What’s the plan for March?

    I’m writing this on the 12th of March. I have finished Siblings. I am still reading A Book of Tongues. I have eighteen days left of the month. The plan is to read an additional novel. That’s the plan.

  • Review: Far From the Stars of Heaven

    The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having travelled light years from home to bring one thousand sleeping souls to safety among the stars.

    Some of the sleepers, however, will never wake – and a profound and sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel. Its skeleton crew are forced to make decisions that will have repercussions for all of humanity’s settlements – from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet of Bloodroot, to other far flung systems and indeed Earth itself.

    Blurb from Far From Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

    I’ve chosen to share the blurb as that’s more information than I had going in, and if you’re curious, I’d suggest going in coldish…

    I will say that what sold it to me was being told that it’s a horror in space, which it is. It also starts as a locked room mystery.

    Far From the Start of Heaven has many elements to enjoy, like the characters’ backgrounds and how they interplay, but the construction and the layering let it down.

    There are jolts in the narration to move it along rather than slick reveals. They felt jarring, and I was expecting better. The writing had me speeding along, and then a choice was made, and I got mentally shifted in a huh rather than an ahh way.

    There were some nice ahh moments too. That’s what makes this a complicated book to explain. It’s great until it’s not. It’s satisfying until it isn’t.

    Towards the climax, something about the writing shifts from clear to vague. This gave it an unfinished and dissatisfying quality.

    I did feel connected to the central character and her journey and got unexpectedly teary at the end.

    Overall, this felt like an undercooked and failed experiment.

    I really wanted it to be better than it was.

    As the author is a Clarke Award Winner, I’d still like to read Rosewater and/or his shorter works to see how he handles stories in general.

    Rating: 3.5/5

  • Review: Alien: The Cold Forge by Alex White

    Alien: The Cold Forge by Alex White

    I read the complete Salvagers Trilogy (A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe/A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy/The Worst of All Possible Worlds) by Alex White last year.

    I also read my first Aliens tie-in novel (Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay from William Gibson by Pat Cadigan). 

    And as I enjoyed both separately, I thought I’d combine the author and franchise in the form of my next Alien book. 

    [Spoiler]I was so gripped by this Alien story that, whilst reading it, I hunted down a great deal on a seven-book-set of other Alien tie-ins. Then when I fished The Cold Forge I ordered  Alien: Into Charybdis, which continues the story in some way. [/Spoiler}

    The Cold Forge starts when a callous auditor from Weyland-Yutani is sent to a secret space lab to assess the profitability of the various research projects on board. It ends with shock and horror. 

    I wasn’t expecting how much horror White weaved in. Their style for this story is dark. They managed to build a tension that made me want to know what could happen next to the scientists.

    The reader knows how dangerous the xenomorphs can be even if the scientists think they are safely caged up, but what becomes clear is that the Aliens aren’t the only thing to fear. 

    You can tell White is enjoying themselves. They go deep. There is no sugarcoating here. They also made a disabled character one of their main focuses. I wish more books would include disabled rep and make the characters part of the ordinary course of the story. 

    I am excited to read the post-2014 batch of Alien novels from Tim Lennon, James A. More, Christopher Moore, Keith DeCandido, Tim Waggoner, and others. White has set a high bar to reach. 

    Rating 4.5/5

  • End of Jan 23 Round-Up: Addendum

    In my End of Jan 23 Round-Up post I forgot the add the most important section, what I read in January, so here it is.

    The Burning God by R.F Kuang

    What I’ve finished reading in January

    I finished a book I started in December:

    • The Burning God by R. F Kuang 

    A novel from start to finish:

    • Alien: The Cold Forge by Alex White

    I am making reading more Alien tie-ins a priority and I’ve got Alex’s sequel, Into Charybdis, all lined up to read in Feb.

    I’ve only read on short story, OPTIMIST CLEAVER’S LAST TRANSMISSION” by J. C. Hsyu, which prompted some thought.

    And that’s it. Not as much as I’d hoped, if I am being honest.

    You can see what I’ve read in 2023 here.

  • End of Jan 23 Round-Up

    Welcome to my first monthly round up. I am planning on publishing them on the last Sunday of the month. They are mostly for me to look back on at the end of the year but you’re welcome to come along for the ride.

    The New Year always starts with the best of intentions, at least for me, but planning and doing are two entirely separate things.

    Playing Catch-Up

    I have set this year’s plan as ‘playing catch-up’ and that’s still my intention though as you’ll see the struggle is real.

    Currently Reading: The Fifth Season & Far From the Light of Heaven

    I said in my opening blog post for the year that I wanted have another go at reading N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy and after a few false starts I think finally I’m invested.

    The Fifth Season is told from the point of view (pov) of three main characters. Each gets their own chapter and Jemisin is swapping between them regularly. Every chapter swap between the characters but there is no order to it .

    Having multiple povs is standard but my brain doesn’t really enjoy the swapping and changing. I like consistency and so this tends to subtly kick me out of the story.

    In The Fifth Season one point of view is narrated using ‘you’.

    You are she. She is you. You are Essun. Remember? The woman whose son is dead

    The opening line to Chapter 1

    I really don’t think it helped me to settle into the book as I usually bounce straight off second person narratives. And then I say bounce, they make me incredibly frustrated.

    I wasn’t really feeling it on the second attempt either but I asked Mastodon for their views and I got two really helpful comments:

    And then there was this.

    So I am now listening to a mix of the audiobook and reading the text. Listening to The Fifth Season got me into the ‘you’ voice and combined with Robin Miles’s narration gave the voice of the story, which I’ve very grateful for.

    And I’ve settled in to each pov and the ‘you’ doesn’t seem jarring now I’ve got used to it. I am very curious what the payoff is going to be.

    I was listening to Runemarks when I tried the audiobook for The Fifth Season so I am balancing both books.

    I’m now at page 200 and I don’t think there is further DNF potential. So thank you Cina and Louise for the feedback to get me going again.

    I’m about 80 pages into Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson. I wasn’t sure what to read as my next ebook but someone mentioned that Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson. is a space horror book. And as it’s a book I already have, I have it a go.

    I also found out that it’s also a detective story. I love this combination.

    Tade has a storytelling style that had be invested from page 1. I am now on page 80 and I am curious to see where this is going as there is a lot of pages to go.

    Back to Runemarks, I’m about 2 hours (or 66 pages in) and as it’s a relisten I can take me time and enjoy it. And I am. It’s a fun take on Norse myth.

    For my own notes these books were published in 2007, 2015 and 2021.

    Reducing the overflowing physical and digital TBR piles

    I failed. I’ve failed so hard. It’s gone up. It’s gone up by quite a margin. I am keeping a spreadsheet of what I’ve bought but also how much I’ve spent. I’ve bought more books than I’ve set as my reading goal for the year. I need an intervention. Or better budgeting skills.

    Below are some of the highlights. And can you blame me? Look at them, they all come highly recommend.

    I dipped my two into these fancy book you can get with sprayed edges from Illumicrate last year getting the full package of book plus extras (Babel and The Book Eaters). I could see me accumulating lots of lovely items that stay in the box quite rapidly so I cancelled my subscription.

    I did continue to have FOMO so I’ve got a book-only subscription to both Illumicrate and FairlyLoot.

    My rationale is that I’ll pick up nice editions of new books. And this will scratch some sort of new book-itch… it’s not a very strong reason I grant you. But the two February books are high on my radar list. And the January Illumicrate (if I understood the teaser correctly) is a stand-alone I’m itching to read as well.

    Bonus Challenge of Reading More Shorter Fiction       

    If you check out my Read in 2023 page, you’ll see I’ve logged 1 short story. It was a short story that got me thinking but I need to get more shorter fiction under my belt in February, I think I’ve been distracted by acquiring new books…

    Plans for February…

    Finish the books listed above, get some shorter fiction read, and maybe start The Stand.

    Oh, and actually not buy that many books…

  • Thoughts On: The Poppy War Trilogy and Grimdark

    The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

    I have just finished The Burning God by R.F. Kuang. It’s the last book in The Poppy War trilogy. And I have thoughts.

    Currently, my thoughts centre around grimdark not being a genre I enjoy. I didn’t know that’s what The Poppy War was going to be when I went in. I just knew that a lot people on BookTok love it. And I was curious enough to pick up the series*.

    Don’t get me wrong the trilogy is outstanding, challenging, thought provoking, and emotive but it lives up to the definitions of Grimdark presented on Wikipedia

    Dr. Liz Bourke in her review of THE DARK DEFILES BY RICHARD MORGAN is used here:

    The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang

    Liz Bourke considered grimdark’s defining characteristic to be grimdark’s defining characteristic to be “a retreat into the valorisation of darkness for darkness’s sake, into a kind of nihilism that portrays right action … as either impossible or futile”

    Wikipedia’s Grimdark entry

    And there is a quote from page 42 of Adam Roberts’s Get Started in: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy:

    “where nobody is honourable and Might is Right” and as “the standard way of referring to fantasies that turn their backs on the more uplifting, Pre-Raphaelite visions of idealized medievaliana, and instead stress how nasty, brutish, short and, er, dark life back then ‘really’ was”

    Wikipedia’s Grimdark entry

    I didn’t know that A Land Fit for Heroes was considered grimdark…at least when I read (OK…listened to the audiobook) it didn’t strike me as darkness for darkness sake.

    The Burning God by R. F . Kuang

    But The Poppy War is a brutal story. And I think it falls with the definition provided by Adam Roberts.

    It’s relentless. The main character’s arc is extreme. She does terrible things and has terrible things done to her. And Kuang is great because when you reach the point that you can’t take any more, she shifts gears and the story moves along.

    But I don’t think it’s a style of story I’d want to pick up regularly. I read to escape the darkness and find hope.

    That’s not the point or aim of grimdark as I understand it. And The Poppy War is an exemplary example of the genre.

    I don’t plan on going back to grimdark consciously, at least not for a while, unless I read a series that is grimdark but I don’t realise it is.

    I’m though going to read Babel as I’m curious what Kuang will bring to dark academia… Maybe I’m a fool as I have a feeling it’ll be a dark tale…

    *I read the first two books back in April and May of 2022 before picking up The Burning God in December.

  • Critique: Optimist Cleaver’s Last Transmission by J. C. Hsyu

    I’ve just updated my Read in 2023 page (this has since been updated to move the commentaries) with a ‘hot take‘ review of Optimist Cleaver’s Last Transmission by J. C. Hsyu:

    A courier is late for a handover, and then their night gets worse. Interesting set-up but the payoff lacked sense. It fell apart when revealed. Had some nice SF elements.

    I also gave it a star review of 2/5. I am sort of uncomfortable with my score and I’d like to explore the score and the story in a bit more detail.

    If you plan on reading this story in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2022 issue please read the it first and then come back.

    Warning: Potential Spoilers Start Here

    (more…)

  • 2023: Playing Catch-Up

    The theme of 2023 is Playing Catch-up. I have this looming feeling of unfinished business where my reading is concerned as it feels like I’ve failed to keep promises to myself. And this weblog is part of my rebuilding trust with myself (deep or what).

    In this post I’m trying to get an overview of my reading intention for 2023.

    The question is, ‘How am I going to ‘catch-up’?’

    I plan on doing three things:

    1. Catching up on the books/series I’ve started
    1. Continuing with my Extended Dark Tower Reading Challenge 
    1. Reducing the overflowing physical and Digital TBR piles.
    2. Bonus Challenge: Read More Shorter Fiction
    (more…)

  • Best of 2022 by Others

    I have read 26 books this year (I may finish my re-listen of Hogfather by midnight on New Year’s Eve so I’ll have read 27 books) and only 2 (I am as shocked as you!) were published in 2022.

    I’m posting more about my reading plans for 2023 in my next post. But if you check out my A Curated TBR Selection & More Books? posts you should spot a few 2022 releases… which will include some of the ones mentioned below.

    If you are as curious as me as to what has risen to the top peoples’ conscious for their ‘best’ books of 2022 then this is the post for you.

    Of the lists I’ve seen, I’ve highlighted some that I’m interested in reading… at some unknown point in the future.

    This post is also a chance for me to reflect on my taste in books at the end of 2022, also at some point in the future, as well as actually go through the best of lists I’ve found.

    I’ve also noted at the end of this post some books from 2022 that I want to read that didn’t seem to come up.

    But let us begin going through the lists…

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  • Review: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal (2022)

    The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal (2022)

    Synopsis: Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is revelling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again. 

    One Word Review: Crochet!

    One Sentence Review: A fun and twisty tale of murders, honeymooners and cocktails. 

    One(-ish) Paragraph Review: The Spare Man’s contains lots of brilliant parts: there is the normalisation of a mix of gender and pronoun expressions; the main character’s real world experience of her physical and mental trauma; the different gravities for the different passengers throughout the ship; the dialogue that works deftly around a time delay (you’ll see); the unsettling nature of the narrative; And everything keeps moving and keeps the tension. But there was also some awkward parts, at least to me. There is a scene where the two main characters leave another person alone in the next room way too long and that felt unrealistic and jarring. And there are a couple of moments where I felt I’d lost the thread or questioned the character’s uncharacteristic actions. I also think I missed out by not knowing some romance genre cues.  With minor faults,  I found The Spare Man very enjoyable and the reveal was a clever surprise. I’ll definitely read more Mary Robinette Kowal. 

    Stars:  3.75/5