Wow, pretty good textual image, neh?
1st up, "January Fifteenth", by Rachel Swirsky, 2022, 147 pages, 40k words. I really liked some of Swirsky's early stories. I was excited for this collection of stories based in a near-future world where everyone receives UBI (Universal Basic Income). In her world, it happens annually every January 15th, which seems stupid to me. My Social Security comes every month, I pay Medicare every month, my annuities pay every month, I cannot imagine why a UBI program would pay annually. So I guess it is just a (stupid) literary device.
We follow 4 different UBI recipients, including a slave teenage wife in a polygamous (Mormon) society. Ugh, ugh, & ugh. Way too much domestic detail. I was glad when it was over. So something you should read, but maybe not particularly enjoyably.
So, after that, I regressed. I reread the "Tbe Pandora Sequence", by Frank Herbert & Bill Ransom, a trilogy, total 1340 pages, 388k words. A reissue of 3 novels:
- "The Jesus Incident", 1979, 445 pages, 129k words.
- "The Lazarus Effect", 1983, 493 pages, 144k words.
- "The Ascension Factor", 1988, 430 pages, 124k words.
The 1st novel was especially memorable. A hell world, horrible predators populate the surface, what was Ship thinking?
The 2nd novel, more Ransom than Herbert. The 3rd novel, all Ransom, a poet, as Herbert had died.
"Jesus Incident" is the best of the lot, mostly because Ship is still around & messing with people. The 2nd reads like a 2nd novel, i.e., transitional. The 3rd novel seemed to be mostly just plot waiting to be inevitably resolved. Yawn. Still, not bad for a reread.
I then tried something very random. My oldest daughter Erica in Brooklyn passed on a recommendation to me (yay!): "Reclaimed", by Madeleine Roux, 2021. I read the 1st chapter, and was like, "Noop". Not good writing. I tried to analyze why I concluded that. I think, in that 1st chapter, the banality was overwhelming: 2ndary character wants to kick traumatized protatagonist out of her apartment because she & her boyfriend want to have a baby. And, while she is discussing this w the protagonist, she of course spills her Starbucks on her cashmere sweater. Because, she hasn't wasted nearly enough of my time already ...
This surely must be a generational thing of some sort ...
So, alarmingly, I regressed yet again, and read another old Frank Herbert: (should I wish they would quit offering these to me to buy for $1.99 or $0.99???) "The GodMakers", 1972, pieced together from stories going back to 1958! 200 pages, 58k words. Some Dune tuneup material here, on the nature & meaning & utility of Religion. Dated but interesting.
What to read next? Totally not sure. Certainly something newer ... We'll see, I guess.
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