Finished reading Kindred by Octavia Butler. About slavery and its effects on everybody (but especially the enslaved), it’s brutal (but intentionally less than it could have been) and compelling, with a spare style that suits the story. You should read it, but only when you’re prepared.
Finished reading Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey. I had two major dissatisfactions with the book. First, one of the viewpoint characters made consistently dumb decisions, from before the book started to almost the end; I understand the arc the author wanted to draw, but it made a quarter of the book unpleasant. Second, two characters made a big deal about violence being a dead end and a last resort … but the book sure loves its military-grade ultraviolence, in precise detail. Which is exciting reading! But the author kind of wants to have their cake and eat it too, but really just wants to eat tasty cake.
The summary of the next book in the series promises more of the same, so I think I’ll take a break for a while.
Finished reading Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey. Focuses on PTSD and how three of the main characters deal (more or less successfully) with theirs. The storyline basically echoes the first book’s; I hope the third tries something different.
Finished reading Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. Competent prose, though wading through the early character introductions was a chore (“Joe Spaceguy’s square jaw set him apart from the other pilots”, etc.). The structure of the book made it quick and compelling: many short chapters, alternating between viewpoint characters, always ending where I wanted to read more.
Finished reading The Dragon Waiting by John Ford. I loved it; it felt like a mix of Tim Powers and Neal Stephenson … but sometimes with the attention span of Douglas Adams, or quite possibly I mistook oblique allusions for dropped threads. The book changed directions several times, and briefly became a murder mystery, but even when I wasn’t sure where it was going (or even that Ford was sure), I was happy to be along for the ride.