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What’s the best book you’ve read lately?
Any recommendations? I’ve been reading Maurice Druon’s Accursed Kings series, historical fiction about medieval political drama in France that precipitated the Hundred Years’ War. George R.R. Martin calls it “the original Game of Thrones”, and honestly, if you liked the political intrigue aspect of ASOIAF/GOT, The Accursed Kings blows it out of the water.
I've been strongly recommending The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi for the last few years. Bacigalupi writes really believable speculative fiction about stuff like biodiversity, climate change, or in the case of The Water Knife, fresh water availability. Think Phoenix running out of water. But, like, with secret agents and violence and chase scenes. It's like the perfect mix of a pulpy Tom Clancy-style bestseller with really convincing speculation about a real issue. Several characters in the book recommend the non-fiction work Cadillac Desert, which Newsweek (I think rightly) calls the "definitive work on the West's water crisis." I ended up reading it, and it's super fascinating. Definitely a "truth is stranger than fiction" situation though, so if you're going to read both, read The Water Knife first! (And yes, that includes the seemingly unbelievable first chapter, for those that have/will read it.)
Accursed Kings sounds interesting! I haven't read it myself, but it sounds like you might be interested in His Majesty's Dragons. My buddy who introduced me to GRRM and is a big history buff recommended it to me, so it's on my list.
Oh, those both sound interesting. I just checked out His Majesty’s Dragons, and that sounds awesome. I don’t typically go for straight fantasy, but the alternate-history twist sounds like fun. Thanks!
I read Ken Liu's short story collection The Paper Menagerie recently and really enjoyed it.
Yes! He also did an outstanding job translating The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which everyone absolutely should read if they haven’t yet.
Love this series! My landlord also just lent me an anthology of Liu Cixin's short stories, which I'm going to dig into soon.
I have been struggling, though, to get into Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings. I read one of Ken Liu's shorts in an anthology somewhere, and it was alright. I'll need to give him more of a chance.
I read this for a book club, and I am still amazed that I was able to finish it :P It was so cliche and boring to me. Liu shared my childhood. It was super obvious where he drew his inspiration from. I swear, he literally, had all the same Chinese textbooks, watched the same TV series, and movies that I did as a kid.
If anyone has a good silk-punk, they could recommend, that would be awesome.
Okay, I'm glad to know it's not just me. Did you read the entire trilogy?
The world building and where he's drawing inspiration from fascinate me, and I also like the use of dandelions (also my favorite flower for perhaps similar reasons?) but struggle to get into the book. Some of the conflict/characters just aren't grabbing me.
Nope, definitely did not pick up the next book. I was seriously craving a good "Asian" story, but when reading The Grace of Kings, I felt more like someone was giving me a summary of an epic story than actually telling one. He blew past a lot of plot and characterization, and it suffers from the same "misunderstandings" that a lot of soap operas use to drive plot.
Yeah, same. Had an itch for a different kind of medieval fantasy that takes place in... literally all the other places in the world. And I get the same feel at the moment from the book. Haven't quite gotten to any misunderstandings yet. I guess it also depends on how it's executed. I do love some soap operas (more like telenovelas) but... yeah. Didn't feel an emotional resonance.
Not fantasy but sci-fi, really love this short story from a Chinese economist, Hao Jingfang, called Folding Beijing. Also translated by Ken Liu :)
I have Three-Body Problem on my list! Lots of people really seem into it.
I honestly liked it right up until the guilt-tripping letter at the end. Writing felt a bit manipulative at that point for me. Otherwise I did enjoy it.
Interesting. Does he have a particular style or genre that drew you in?
One, while I haven't finished it recently, that I was rather surprised by was American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton. It's a rather good narrative of what went on before, during, and after Silk Road. If your looking for a solid non-fiction book, or are in anyway interested in technology, it's a pretty good read.
Oh that sounds interesting. Does it glamorize the protagonists, or does it really dig into the morality of online drug trading?
It really does neither, in my opinion it merely presents the facts of both perpetrators and law enforcement (which were sometimes the same people!) as they were shown in court, interviews and other research the author did, but the book does that in a narrative format, making it rather compelling.
Got it, cool. Thanks!
Yup, if you decide to read it, I hope you enjoy it!
The book that I've been recommending recently is Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. It's insane being able to read about the work culture and scheming that Theranos got away with for so long.
Not OP, but thanks for the recommendation, I was able to use an Audible credit so it was almost like it was free.
Oh man, I don’t know if I’d be able to read that without getting mad. Why didn’t I decide to come up with a bullshit company and see how far I could take it?
I've recently finished the Revelation Space novels by Alastair Reynolds, and enjoyed all of them quite a bit. An epic unfolding space opera, great concepts, characters, and prose. There are three novels in the main sequence, along with a sidequel between 1 & 2 and a collection of short stories. I found that the sidequel (Chasm City), and the short stories both greatly added to my enjoyment of the series and the universe Reynolds built. Top of the line scifi.
Oh, interesting. I’ll give it a look!
Reynolds writes some of my favourite scifi, I would also recommend his Poseidon's Children series. It's set in a different universe (I think?) and follows a specific family through three different generations.
Best I've read recently is The Putin Interviews by Oliver Stone. I think it's a book to be read with a healthy supply of salt grains on hand, but it also shatters some of the media-fed expectations I had of what kind of person Putin is. I was pleasantly surprised by his wit/humor several times over.
Currently reading The Wisdom of Pyschopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success by Kevin Dutton. Not quite half way in, but so far it has been a fascinating read!
That’s an interesting angle to take on psychopaths — in fact that may be one of the first times I’ve seen psychopathy portrayed as an advantage instead of a detriment. I’d like to know your thoughts on the book when you’re done :)
Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer - it’s the second book in the Terra Ignota series. The events of the book were built up so perfectly from the previous, that when everything really started to escalate I really felt the excitement along with that was happening in the story. It’s not often that a series can build up a plot line that gives me the same dramatic feeling as a long series of anime or a tv show might give me. But the way that the story is presented and the style that doesn’t hold the hand of the reader really got me.
Oh, interesting. What’s it all about?
It’s about a future where through a significant series of events, nations have dissolved and a new citizenship structure has arisen, where people are part of Hives. Organised religion is also banned, but then replaced by a conclave of ‘sensayers’ who preach all religions equally. The tale is about how this system changes once again through another series of significant events. (I’m trying really hard not to spoil here) Thematically it’s about human nature, identity, religion, gender and sex politics in a world that devalues suchs things. It can be quite heavy on the philosophy sometimes, but it’s a thrilling read, as well as being very thoughtful.
Oh, interesting. I first heard of Robinson a couple weeks ago when I was looking at a list on wiki of books that have been called a Great American Novel, and Gilead was on there. I’ll have to look into her work in more detail!
I'm currently reading The Vice-Consul by Marguerite Duras.
It's a novel set in Calcutta, and the focus goes back and forth between a group of European diplomats and a woman from Cambodia who begs in the street.
Only about half way through, but I'm really enjoying it. The language is very concise and to the point which I like, and the story telling in itself is very engaging too. She doesn't give too much away at once, revealing both the plot (if there really is a plot, I'm not quite sure yet) and the characters bit by bit.
It can be very blunt at times in describing gruesome things, but it always feels justified.
That sounds interesting. Thanks for the recommendation!