On a Roll

It seems like I'm tearing through books lately. I got a unwelcome boost this past weekend, when my youngest daughter & her 3 boys stayed with us and gave me and my wife a very nice cold. I went through 1/2 box of kleenex Wednesday and had a nice scratchy cough and achiness yesterday. Today I'm feeling like I'm over the worst of it.

1st up, "Escape from Yokai Land", by Charles Stross, 2022, 65 pages, 17k words. I thought, maybe based on the price ($10.99), that this was a novel. No, it is a novella, and a fairly short 1 at that. Our 1st view of Bob Howard, the original protagonist of The Laundry series, in several books. The story seems to end very abruptly. I seemed to me that it could have used a little follow up to the main action.

2nd, "Lord Quilliver", by Walter John Williams, 2021, 612 pages, 166k words. The 3rd in the series. Our butcher's son here is now a lord and the queen's favorite. He continues to confound and outthink the upper-class twits of this oh-so-feudal society. It is an engaging read. It's too bad it forced me to ignore my "no feudalism" reading guideline.

3rd, "Galaxias", by Stephen Baxter, 2021, 530 pages, 144k words. I have liked a lot of Baxter's novels - definitely very sciency science fiction. Some interesting speculations about what a galaxy-spanning intelligence would look like. Plus, great plotting, interesting characters, etc. I'll have to review his stuff, see if I can harvest any I missed.

4th, "The Sins of Our Fathers", by James S.A. Corey, 2022, 74 pages, 20k words. Billed as "the last novella of The Expanse", it looks at a character from early in the series in his advancing years. I have liked these novellas, I think it is a good way to flesh out a fictional universe. Note, this novella was slightly longer than the Charles Stross 1 ($10.99), but was only $2.99.

5th, "The Kaiju Preservation Society", by John Scalzi, 2022, 292 pages, 79k words. More LOLs than anything else I have read lately, from the King of Snark. Who knew that nuclear blasts weakened the barrier between our world and an alternate earth populated by Godzilla and his ilk? A rousing story, plenty of action, "movie" written all over it.

6th, "The Book of All Skies", by Greg Egan, 2021, 265 pages, 72k words. Egan again gives us a world with some way weird physics: a world with 1 giant ring at each end, passing through which takes you to a different world. Repeat as often as desired. An interesting concept, a nice tale of adventure & trying to return home. This one also seemed to end rather abruptly. Since I've been talking about $$$, I should note that this was a good value, a full length novel for only $2.99.

7th & last, "Zeroes", by Chuck Wendig, 2015, 414 pages, 120k words. The government forces a group of 5 losers (2 hackers, 1 con man, 1 troll, 1 aging cipherpunk) to hack for them. But, oops, little do they know that their work is freeing an AI who will rule the world in the name of security. Well paced, good characters.

1 thing I have not been doing much of is watching TV or films. The new Matrix movie I found meh; "Nightmare Alley" was engaging, but the irony was way heavy-handed. (Word to the wise - do NOT betray the carnie code). I can't think of anything else I've watched recently, much less a movie I have really enjoyed. Oh well, there're plenty of books out there.