10 Billion Days and 100 Billion Nights

Ryu Mitsuse, 1973 [Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander, 2011]

(August 2015)

  

I invite you to marvel dumbfounded at the depth of my ignorance and the height of my hubris, as I attempt to mix it with people far, far smarter than me over at the Strange Horizons Book Club.

Sorcerer to the Crown

Zen Cho, 2015

(October 2015)

  

Delightful. As with her short stories, Cho has a rare and unerring ability to do charming without tripping over into twee, and witty without falling into smug.

Very Short Introductions

Postcolonialism

Robert J.C. Young, 2003

Game Theory

Ken Binmore, 2007

(October 2015)

A pairing prompted by absolutely no good reason whatsoever, but one which did at least serve to emphasise that I'm better with the big ideas than the tedious business of actually backing them up with numbers and evidence. But then we knew that already, didn't we?

Archivist Wasp

Nicole Kornher-Stace, 2015

(September 2015)

Brought this without realizing it was YA. Heart sank a bit when I realized it was YA. Heart sank even further when I realized the protagonist was a teenage girl caught in a dystopian society and which compels her to fight her peers in an annual match to the death.

The Book of Phoenix

Nnedi Okorafor, 2015

(September 2015)

Never let anyone tell you that twitter is worthless. In addition to the massive box of books I scored a couple of years back based on nothing more than a cheap seasonal pun, I'm now in possession of a gorgeous hardback copy of The Book of Pheonix, thanks to the fact that the good people at Hodderscape (or at least their social media managers) have a surprisingly similar taste to me for dubious mid-90's RnB poetry mash-ups.

The Fifth Season

N.K. Jemisin, 2015

(August 2015)

  

Fantasy like I remember it when I first discovered it. Fantasy that keeps you turning the pages until the small hours of the morning. Fantasy with wit and grace and grime and agony. Fantasy with characters that matter, and relationships that matter, and stories that matter.

Fuck me but this is good.

Saga, Vol. 3 and 4

Bryan K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, 2014

(August 2015)

The Southern Reach

Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance

Jeff VanderMeer, 2014

(August 2015)

Where to begin with this? Let's start by acknowledging that, like Lord of the Rings, this is best considered as a single book that just happens to be published in three volumes. If nothing else it'll help you get you over the hump that is Authority. Difficult Middle Volume syndrome in full effect there, otherwise.

Bonjour Tristesse

and A Certain Smile

Françoise Sagan, 1954, 1956 [Heather Lloyd, 2013]

(August 2015)

Oh so very Gallic. Gamine young women; passionate affairs with older men; existential ennui: it couldn't be more French if it created continent-wide wide travel chaos through aggressive industrial work-stoppages whilst eating a wheel of cheese and listlessly smoking a Gauloises inside a Gitanes.

The Secret Agent

A Simple Tale

Joseph Conrad, 1907

(August 2015)

  

A slightly bizarre reading experience, this. While continuing the slow migration of my library from the UK to Japan (i.e. going through boxes of books in Mum's loft) I found an old copy of this with a bookmark wedged about forty pages from the end.