Once again a follow-up post, because I've just realized that I've forgot to report several books I've read. I read too much and too fast and can't keep up the pace with the forum!! ^_^

The Black Unicorn - Terry Brooks

Wizard at large - Terry Brooks

Second and third books of the Landover series. I must say that, contrarily to the first book of the series, I wasn't thrilled by those stories. The main character is quite unlikable, in fact, very passive, and the plot always resolves in a strange, rushed way, as if the author kind of gave up. It's not uninteresting, but quite disappointing.

Cruel and Unusual - Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell's character Kay Scarpetta is, in a way very like Terry Brooks' books main character: quite unlikable, very passive, and while the stories are supposed to be thrillers, the main plot is solved in a kind of off-handed way when the author pushes forwards the inner torments of the heroine...

I'm wondering if I shouldn't just give up on those two series and try to find somthing a bit more interesting...

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

Blood Music by Greg Bear
A rogue researcher engineers and nurtures 'biologic' lymphocyte computers that turns intelligent and self-aware. They soon multiply and turn out of his control.

The Complete Nebula Award-Winning Fiction by Samuel R. Delany
A collection of short novels and stories. They are:
Babel-17
A Fabulous, Formless Darkness; I kinda like this one
Time considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones
Aye, and Gomorrah; I wasn't expecting this one. A story about neutered astronauts.

The Soviet Experiment: Russia, The USSR, and the Successor States by Ronald Grigor Suny
Starts with the last Tsar and ends with Boris Yeltsin.

Harem: The World behind the Veil by Alev Lytle Croutier
It mainly focuses on the Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire.

Books read in 2018

Nazis dans le métro - Didier Daeninckx

Another volume of the "Le Poulpe" series, this time by a master of the thriller genre.

Le poulpe is diving in the putrid world of the far-right political parties. Very interesting!

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

Fast One, by Paul Cain. I'd heard a lot about this one over the years, so I finally got around to reading it and...it's okay.

Gerry Kells is a former mob gunman relaxing in California, raking in a lot of gambling winnings when he's framed for a murder because of tensions between rival gangs. He runs off to clear his name and then take over a gang/political machine for his own so he can squeeze out even more money, which gets everyone coming at him before long. If you've read some of these stories, you can probably guess how it ends.

On the positive side, it's full of action and really hard-boiled, and for a book written in 1932 it's remarkably raw in its language. Lots of cursing that wouldn't be a big deal now but was very uncommon even in the raunchiest pulps back then. If the book had been a breakout hit, watchdog groups probably would have tried to burn it.

On the down side, the plot isn't actually very interesting. I've learned from reading lots of hard-boiled stories that it's unproductive to try and follow the plots. Just go with the flow and accept the labyrinthine twists as part of the atmosphere of paranoia and you'll be happier, but even with this in mind, Fast One is full of new developments and characters that just make you think "where the hell is this coming from?" Characterization mostly doesn't exist in the book, so I kept losing track of who everyone was and what their relationships were (I caught on that Kells's right-hand guy Borg is fat but that's about it). Kells himself is one of those crime novel protagonists whose thoughts can't be seen, so you're just watching him do and say stuff and trying to figure out WTF he's up to. It's really disarming when the book tells you he actually likes this one boxer who shows up for a couple of chapters because Kells's feelings (and most everyone else's) about literally everything, even the femme fatale, are hidden from the reader. Just a little more would have gone a long way.

The World Inside - Robert Silverberg

Imagine if the Earth's population was around 75 billions persons and still, there was room for everybody. In towers, 3 km high, 1000 stories. Highly controled environment, with a focus on a biblical "grow and multiplicate". Making babies is a duty, and all sense of "personal belongings", including the wife/husband has vanished.

Paradise ? Hell on earth ?

A S-F classic. And under the very futurstic premises, Robert Silverberg achieves a superb social study, because all is not play and laughs in the urban monads!

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

*shudder* It's hell, just for this reason more than anything else, even with a tenth of that.

so why don't you go away and make the world a little better?

Without spoiling the book, some characters might think the same! ^_^

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Refreshing willingness, even desire, to challenge and disturb, and nice writing style. Great start, and excellent point about sapiens having always been walking doomsday devices for the other species. Continues just as well, listing mistakes made through time, population growth negating any gains and creating more problems, loss in quality of life for most, the dreadful life of most domesticated animals, imagined order and all its traps and trappings... Good point about sapiens ending up ruled by what they mean to control or even create to aid themselves, and also about imagined order being used to justify power, privilege and the subjugation of others. Baffled by cognitive dissonance being seen as "a vital asset" instead of a flaw though, and the bits about retreating nationalism and safeguarding human rights and the interests of the entire species sure don't match current events, and neither does that supposedly probable green global empire.
Many good points about religions, best perhaps being that if one omnipotent God exists, He must be evil. Also well said that the Scientific Revolution was actually one of ignorance, being triggered by the admission of ignorance. Then, the chapters on imperialism and capitalism and the second half of the Industrial Revolution one provoke shudders and ought to do worse, the benefits being no excuse for the litany of evils. And, while we can't go back, the author's wrong to say we can't do without capitalism. We must find a way past, go forward, immediately.
The following chapter, about social order on all levels, does generally point out good developments, albeit still far from what should be. But then, after a pretty annoying chapter about happiness which rather misses the point and doesn't quite fit, comes the truly terrifying final one, for reasons that are to some extent spelled out in the book's afterword, and which are also those why I won't be reading Homo Deus: Our power grows exponentially but our wisdom, our capacity to use it right, does not, and any plausible future created by "irresponsible gods who don't know what they want" can be nothing but horrifying.

Rating: 4/5

Have you read Margaret Atwood? She’s one of my absolute favorite authors and I particularly love Oryx and Crake and The Blind Assassin by her. And she’s having something of a renaissance right now because of The Handmaid’s Tale, which I feel like you might be interested in! I plan to write my argumentative essay about one of her books.
I find that her language is so intriguing and smart and lush, but also playful, and she examines social issues and gender roles in society with a rather delicate touch. She’s also one of my favorites because I feel she elevates speculative fiction into the realm of “literary” fiction through her writing and skill, but most of her books are not speculative/science fiction at all.
Anyway, I have lots of other favorite books–I’ll come back with a proper list after I get some sleep!

*Waves* Can I ask, is this strictly a book thread for finished books that you've read, or could you generally talk about books that you are interested in?

If it isn't, are there any other book threads here in the forum? I can't seem to find any particular on-going threads, except this one.

Americus by Reed and Hill. It wasn't very good, I thought. Art was nice, but the writing was pretty one dimensional and interesting plot threads weren't really used. Bonus points for having (broken) finnish for magic words.

Push by Sapphire.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/what_are_you_reading

The crime at lock 14 - Georges Simenon

Orginally named "Le charretier de la Providence", it's the second volume of Simenon's Maigret books. In the same kind of unique style that was his in his first book, Maigret tries to solve the strange case of a woman found dead at a water lock somewhere east of Paris.

Once again, it's not the crime itself that is interesting, but all the characters involved. Theya re deep, multidimensional and there's again a kind of study of the society of his time. Very interesting read!

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9