What fiction books are you reading currently?

[Connor]

Thought this would possibly be a good thread to share what we are indulging in at this moment in time!

Ill make a start..

The Silmarillion - J.R.R Tolkien

:)

[Shantsai]

I can heartilly endorse:

THE WEIRDNESS by Jeremy Bushnell- occult happenings in Brooklyn
CRY FATHER by Benjamin Whitmer- off-the-grid living in the Southwest US
NIGERIANS IN SPACE by Deji Olukotun- stolen moonrocks and conspiracies involving the Nigerian space program
HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE by Charles Yu- time travel via grammar
DARK ORBIT by Carolyn Gilman- SF with a Ursula Le Guin endorsement
KEYHOLE FACTORY by William Gillespie- the most innovative dystopian apocalypse I've read

[Connor]

I like the sound of Nigerian in space maybe ill look for that when I'm done reading my current book.

Many thanks

[sleepydumpling]

3 fictional books I enjoyed reading by Graham Hancock
War God night of the witch.
War God return of the plumed serpent.
Entangled.

[Roxann]

I'm usually too wrapped up in reading non-fiction, but I did read a fiction item lately, though it's so far back it's no longer resident on my Kindle: Mars and the Lost Planet Man by Lou Baldin.

[Zionbrion]

Child of Fortune
a 1985 science fiction novel by the American author Norman Spinrad. Like his previous book The Void Captain's Tale, Child of Fortune takes place three or four thousand years in the future in a fictional universe called the Second Starfaring Age. It is a coming of age story about a young girl's wanderjahr, a rite of passage that all adolescents in the Second Starfaring Age are expected to undertake before they become adults.

The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You
It deals with the idea of how the negation of dreams as a guide to life affects the real world.

Also two I recomend which aren't neccesarily fiction
Anastasia and The Return of the Bird Tribes.

[conk]

Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett. One of the best books I've ever read. About stone masons in the 10th century, church politics, everyday life of Earth's poorest tenants. Great characters, great plots.

[Philaletheian]

My Journey To Lhasa - Alexandra David-Neel. This mother is unreal!
Cant wait to begin Magic and mystery in Tibet.

[Ellisa]

I have just finished 'We are all completely beside ourselves'. It is a book with a brilliant twist early on so I cannot say too much--- but it explores what it is to be human.

In the same way the book 'The bees' does something of the same, I am an SF reader and this book about the organisation and structure of a beehive from the point of view of a bee was fascinating--- and appeared very alien.

I also re-read 'Salmon fishing in the Yemen' which I loved the first time--- but this time it wasn't so funny, and seemed quite sad. Overtaken by real life events I think.

[DNA]

I'm usually too wrapped up in reading non-fiction, but I did read a fiction item lately, though it's so far back it's no longer resident on my Kindle: Mars and the Lost Planet Man by Lou Baldin.

Lou Baldin is the guy who pretty much convinced John Lear that our souls get captured and recycled by the greys using technology on the moon. These same greys seem to be able to pull souls out of the body via a black cube and insert those souls into a new identical clone.
I'm just finishing Dr. Karla Turner's second book TAKEN, where she says a lot of the same through first hand human testimonials.
Linda Molten Howe has reported the same in some recent abductees testimonial.
It's times like this I ask myself WHY OH WHY DIDN'T I TAKE THE BLUE PILL?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6q51Htw5gY

[Pasang]

I'm reading (aside from non-fictional books) "The Bright Empire Series" by Stephen R. Lawhead.
This series contains 5 books, and I just started the second one "The Bone House".
It is a story about Ley-Lines which make the individuals travel through "time and space". In the second book it is stated, that they are not travelling through time really, they are travelling through different dimensions or multiverses.

[Avuso]

The Lone Gladio by Sibel Edmonds. Actually quite a good thriller that at the same time exposes the origin and current status of false-flag operations. I picked this up immediately after reading her autobiography. There is one line in the novel where the character resembling Sibel calls her FBI coworker cynical, while he thinks she's naïve, which really is true. She really was idealistic and believed somebody would help correct the wrongs she saw perpetrated- Congress, the media, someone! But unfortunately there really was no one, so now she's writing fiction, a trilogy in fact. Hopefully the next books are as good as The Lone Gladio!

[Fanna]

First Thunder by MSI is a great "fiction" to read during this time. Found it for a dollar at a local shop and was not disappoint :3

[onawah]

I've just finished Sea of Tranquility, a very unusual SciFi novel by Emily St. John Mandel. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2786093.Emily_St_John_Mandel
It's on the themes of time travel and the theory that we are living in a simulation.
Mandel looks quite young from her photos, but :
"She is the author of five novels, including The Glass Hotel (spring 2020) and Station Eleven (2014.) Station Eleven was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the Morning News Tournament of Books, and has been translated into 34 languages. She lives in NYC with her husband and daughter."

I've since checked out the two of her other novels (mentioned above) and look forward to two more good reads.

This is a very old thread, and I'm surprised it hasn't been getting more attention, as I'm sure I'm not the only Avalon member who is an avid reader!
But perhaps it needs to be made more inclusive, and not limited to fiction.
Anyway, time it got a jump start!

[Sue (Ayt)]

For some reason, I've had the urge to dig up and read the book "Swan Song" again. I may just pull it out, if I can find it. Does anyone else remember that book?

"Swan Song is a 1987 horror novel by American novelist Robert R. McCammon. It is a work of post-apocalyptic fiction describing the aftermath of a nuclear war that provokes an evolution in humankind. Swan Song won the 1987 Bram Stoker award"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Song_(McCammon_novel)

[onawah]

I'm on my second novel by Mandel, Station Eleven, a post-apocalyptic story about a near future in which over 90% of the world's population has died from a virus.
The other novel by Mandel I finished just before this one also featured a pandemic, though it wasn't that central to the story. (see post #14)
She's a good writer, but the theme is making me feel a bit morose.
The scenario that Station Eleven's depicts seems all too likely when taking into consideration the current vaccine depopulation agenda and the geomagnetic pole reversal --no more running water, electricity, functioning cars, planes or trains, no cell phones, etc. and the survivors having a very hard time adjusting to the new paradigm.
Someone needs to write a post apocalyptic novel about what happens to the people in the DUMBs versus what happens to Preppers on the surface, and what happens when they meet up.
With a prevailing theme involving some kind of justice...

[TomKat]

I'm reading Sara Paretsky's Indemnity Only. Prretty good so far.

[TargeT]

half way through the Dune books, always worth a re-read.

[DNA]

half way through the Dune books, always worth a re-read.

I loved the dune books. Read em as a teenager and later I would read the war of the roses which dictated the in fighting of the medieval royal houses of England.
I was blown away seeing in my opinion where Frank Herbert had gotten a lot of his ideas from.

Also
Later I would read Robert Jordan's wheel of time series and this guy loved Frank Herbert as he ripped off so much of his work and recast it as a work of fantasy rather than science fiction.

[TomKat]

I like to read cime fiction aka mystery/thriller
But I'm having trouble finding new stuff. I think the genre may not survive Gen Z. Writers should be readers foremost, but alas, too many are not. They make amateur mistakes like too many main characteers, or minor onese treeated like main characters. They don't know the rules and abuse the reader without knowing it because they don't read, themselves.

[onawah]

T.C. Boyle's new novel "Blue Skies", as ever, is brilliant, darkly humorous, very original and imaginative.
One of my favorite authors.
See:https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Skies-T-C-Boyle/dp/1324093021

"Boyle’s satire has lost none of its edge over the course of a nearly half-century literary career . . . [Blue Skies is] an expert blend of suspense, terror and, occasionally, very black humor . . . this fiercely honest writer shows us what he sees and invites his readers to draw their own conclusions." ―Wendy Smith, Washington Post

From best-selling novelist T. C. Boyle, a satirical yet ultimately moving send-up of contemporary American life in the glare of climate change.

“Boyle has long been one of the most exciting and intelligent storytellers in the United States.” ―Ron Charles, Washington Post

Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful fiancé, Cat suddenly craves a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry” to match her black jeans. But when the budding social media star promptly loses the young “Burmie” she buys from a local pet store, she inadvertently sets in motion a chain of increasingly dire and outrageous events that comes to threaten her very survival.

“Brilliantly imaginative . . . in a terrifying way” (Annie Proulx), Blue Skies follows in the tradition of T. C. Boyle’s finest novels, combining high-octane plotting with mordant wit and shrewd social commentary. Here Boyle, one of the most inventive voices in contemporary fiction, transports us to water-logged and heat-ravaged coastal America, where Cat and her hapless, nature-loving family―including her eco-warrior parents, Ottilie and Frank; her brother, Cooper, an entomologist; and her frat-boy-turned-husband, Todd―are struggling to adapt to the “new normal,” in which once-in-a-lifetime natural disasters happen once a week and drinking seems to be the only way to cope.

But there’s more than meets the eye to this compulsive family drama. Lurking beneath the banal façade of twenty-first-century Californians and Floridians attempting to preserve normalcy in the face of violent weather perturbations is a caricature of materialist American society that doubles as a prophetic warning about our planet’s future. From pet bees and cricket-dependent diets to massive species die-off and pummeling hurricanes, Blue Skies deftly explores the often volatile relationships between humans and their habitats, in which “the only truism seems to be that things always get worse.”

An eco-thriller with teeth, Boyle’s Blue Skies is at once a tragicomic satire and a prescient novel that captures the absurdity and “inexpressible sadness at the heart of everything.”

More about this novel and a weird, synchronistic event I had centerered around it here: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?113081-Mind-Blowing-Experiences-the-Unforgettable-the-Inexplicable-and-the-Weird.&p=1558779&viewfull=1#post1558779

[Ernie Nemeth]

I'm currently reading The Thomas Kydd series, by Julian Stockwin.

It's historical, being about the British navy in the 1800s. It's informative and interesting.

The series is about Thomas Kydd, who is 'conscripted' into the navy and through a bunch of adventures, and several books, manages to climb the ranks to become Captain of a ship-o'-the-line in HerMajesty'sService.

Not overly embellished and with a steady tempo, The Kydd series delivers solid entertainment, while managing to impart a bit of historical and nautical lore. Nelson's big win over the French at The Nile Delta is riveting, as is the siege of Acre by Napolean Buonaparte, while the recounting of the formation of the American Navy is surprising and unexpected.

nice, relaxing reading,
recommended

[Mari]

I'm getting through the fifth book, A Feast For Crows, on George RR Martin's Game Of Thrones series. I'm rather late to the game, but the purist me refused to watch the TV series, knowing it wouldn't be a patch on the books.
Splendid colourful writing of the characters and a deep, realistic flavour of the medieval world in all its gore and glory.

[palehorse]

I am reading "Burmese days", the very first novel by George Orwell from 1934. (Not really a fiction, it is about imperial bigotry!).

next books in line for me are:

Fiction

- Future shock (finally got my hand on the the real thing)
- Idoru (William Gibson)
- Pattern recognition (a more recent novel also published by William Gibson)


Non-Fiction

- The fire from within (by Carlos Castaneda - what is natural and logical?)

I like to alternate in between fiction and non-fiction, every 3 or 4 fiction books, I like to read something non-fiction to balance out a bit.

[Denise/Dizi]

Solar Warden books 1, 2 and 3. I read all 3 this weekend on a reading binge... Not bad books actually.... I believe Ian Douglas authored them...

[onawah]

I'm reading the remarkable and very current series of books by Raynor Winn, true accounts of her and her husband Moth's ordeal by fire.
True accounts, yes, but they are written to read a lot like fiction.
Some of the most moving and inspiring books I have ever read... Nature lovers love them, and those who believe in the healing powers of Nature and Hope.
Spoil alerts following, but knowing their story ahead of time only prompted me to read the books, and they've been helping me with my own physical and financial trials and tribulations, seeing how bravely they have endured so many of their own, and triumphed.

From: https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/raynor-winn/
"Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
The Salt Path (2018) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
The Wild Silence (2020) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Landlines (2022) Hardcover Paperback Kindle

Raynor Winn was born in 1962. She is a British writer and long distance walker. “The Salt Path” was a Sunday Times bestseller in the year 2018.

Raynor and her husband, Moth, who was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration, became homeless after a business deal with their friend went south and they decided to walk the 630 mile (1,010 km) South West Coast Path.

NPR’s Book Concierge listed “The Salt Path” as one of its Best Books of 2019. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Book Awards, and the Wainwright Prize in the biography category. The judges described the book as being an absolutely brilliant tale that just needs to be told about the human capacity to endure and continue putting one foot in front of the other. In May of 2019 it was the number one bestselling book in UK independent bookstores. 400,000 copies of the book have been sold worldwide.

Raynor also writes about wild camping, nature, and homelessness. “The Wild Silence” was published by Michael Joseph (which is a subsidiary of Penguin Books) in September of 2020. The book was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing in 2021.

“The Salt Path” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2018. The true story about a couple that lost everything and embarked on this transformative journey walking along the South West Coast Path in England.

Only days after Raynor learned that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their farm and house get taken away, along with their livelihood. Without anything left and little time, they make the impulsive and brave choice to walk the 630 miles of the sea swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset and on to Dorset, through Cornwall and Devon.

Carrying just the essentials for their survival on their backs, they live wild in the weathered and ancient landscape of sea, cliffs, and sky. But through each and every step, every test, and every encounter along the way, their walk becomes this remarkable and life affirming journey.

Unflinchingly honest and powerfully honest, “The Salt Path” is ultimately a depiction of home: how it can be lost, rediscovered, and rebuilt in the most unexpected of ways. Raynor delivers an astonishing narrative about two people dragging themselves out of the depths of despair along some of the most dramatic landscapes in the country, trying to find a solution to their problems and finding themselves, ultimately.


This book is a poignant and polished account and is an inspiring story of true love. Winn’s prose here is powerful, she excels at description, and her apt metaphors are all rooted in nature. This is an inspiring read, and reminds us that there really is salvation in nature, movement, and the out-of-doors.

“The Wild Silence” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2020. The incredible follow up to “The Salt Path”, the international bestseller, and is a story about finding your way back home.

Nature holds some of the answers for Raynor and Moth. After they walked 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living only on the wild and windswept English coastline; the sky, the cliffs, and the chalky earth now feel like their home. Moth has a terminal diagnosis, however together on the wild coastal path, with their feet planted firmly outdoors, they find that anything is possible.

Now, a life beyond The Salt Path waits for them and they return to four walls, however the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality proves to be difficult, until this one incredible gesture by somebody that reads their story changes it all. One chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep within the Cornish hills; rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows becomes their one saving grace and their new path to follow.

“The Wild Silence” is the tale of hope triumphing over despair, of lifelong love prevailing over everything. It’s a luminous account of the human spirit’s connection to nature, and just how vital it is for everybody.

Readers found this to be heartening and heartfelt. It’s a full throated paean to the fundamental importance of nature in all of its fury, glory, and impermanence. Fans of the novel delighted in Raynor’s account of falling in love with Moth. Her writing once again beautifully evokes the natural world, whether she’s describing a doe in an orchard or her innermost conflicted feelings. This is the perfect ‘what happened next’ memoir which gives closure to readers of Winn’s first book.

“Landlines” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2022. Some people live to walk, but Moth and Raynor walk to live. Raynor knows that Moth’s health is getting worse by the day. She knows of just one cure. It worked before, but will he? Can he? Set off on another healing walk?

The Cape Wrath Trail is more than two hundred miles of gruelling terrain through Scotland’s remotest lochs and mountains. However the lure of the wilderness and beguiling beauty of the awaiting glens pull them northwards. Being one with nature saved them while they were in their darkest hour and their hope is that it can work its magic once more.

While setting out on their incredible thousand mile journey back to the more familiar shores of the Southwest Coast Path, Moth and Raynor map the landscape of an island nation that faces an uncertain path ahead. In “Landlines”, Raynor records with luminous prose the friends and strangers, the wildlife and wilderness that they encounter while on the way. It is a journey that starts in fear yet can only end with hope.

Readers love the way Raynor is able to find hope in even the most daunting of challenges, which is sure to fill readers with a lot of inspiration as well as her atmospheric use of language. There’s an optimism and kindness which overcomes the despair of illness and inept human stewardship of the earth. This book has the most perfect and wonderful ending as well. There is a flowing and rich narrative with a lived reality of resilience alongside her hopes for the future. "

update:
(Sadly, I'm just realizing as I'm finishing up reading "Landlines" that the Winns have fallen for the global warming hoax and the COVID Vaxx hoax, so although the environmental harm that Raynor chronicles along their journey is real, it's not due to global warming.
And they've taken the Vaxx and the booster, so I don't imagine they will be undertaking anymore epic outdoor adventures, or if they do, whether they survive will be doubtful unless they learn the truth and begin taking adequate detoxification measures. :sad:)

[william r sanford72]

Rereading..

Cormac McCarthys - Blood Meridian

NQEwS0d4OSI

and just started..

Stonefish: By Scott R Jones

A missing tech mogul... a jaded reporter... a damaged AI returned from a horrifying reality... and something lurking in the woods.

When journalist Den Secord is tasked with locating enigmatic tech guru Gregor Makarios, he soon finds his understanding of reality under threat. At the edge of the world, surrounded by primeval forests, in the paradisical environs of Gregor's hi-tech hermitage, Den learns of the true nature of our Universe.

This is the way the world ends.

Heart of Darkness meets The Magus meets bleeding-edge psychedelic gnosticism in Stonefish, the debut novel from Scott R. Jones.

:coffee:

[Matthew]

...
- Idoru (William Gibson)
- Pattern recognition (a more recent novel also published by William Gibson)
...

Oh I loved both of those. Idoru the much anticipated finale of the sprawl series I was blown away by it, and wonder if we'll see something similar in our lifetimes? Although I wanted more sprawl stories I ended up loving Pattern recognition which was a new (or earlier?) continuity. Some of the tropes in the book stuck with me even to the point of adopting the alias parkerboy now and then. Wondered how you got on with them especially Idoru?

[palehorse]

...
- Idoru (William Gibson)
- Pattern recognition (a more recent novel also published by William Gibson)
...

Oh I loved both of those. Idoru the much anticipated finale of the sprawl series I was blown away by it, and wonder if we'll see something similar in our lifetimes? Although I wanted more sprawl stories I ended up loving Pattern recognition which was a new (or earlier?) continuity. Some of the tropes in the book stuck with me even to the point of adopting the alias parkerboy now and then. Wondered how you got on with them especially Idoru?


Hi Matthew, I will start soon both books, I like anything Gibson, he is such a kind.
Cool you like Idoru, I will read it first, Gibson has mapped super well the topography of the virtual world, he is so deep into culture of all kinds, that in my opinion he is just getting warm for what he will be releasing soon, now at age of 75 and still very sharp and not only that, he navigated from the old generation SF to what we are getting into, which is amazing for a one guy works, it is quite a lot to sink and understand and transcend, old habits, and all the old junky that doesn't fit in our so called reality... by the way what is reality huh? haha
I am sure I will enjoy both, thanks for your reply.

[gord]

The Marching Morons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons) by Cyril M. Kornbluth. It's on Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51233). It's a short, easy read, and not bad.

[madrotter]

Ah! Just started reading Deliverance from James Dickey, 4 city guys going on a canoe trip in the Georgia wilderness and then get hunted by a bunch of red necks, it was turned into a movie way back which was very good, think this one will be a page turner....

Before that I worked my way through the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough and I can really, really recommend it, 7 huge tomes, each around 1200 pages, roughly from the time of Sulla and Marius till the end of Mark Anthony's life. Incredibly detailed, incredibly violent, incredibly well researched. Every now and then I would read something else between these books, but after the third one I just had to keep reading, an amazing series, haven't been that captivated since I read the Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry.... Doesn't just deal with Rome but also the many, many military campaigns in Africa, Asia and Europe and after reading it.... specially looking at America and it's (foreign) politics.... not much has changed.... Also goes pretty deep into Rome's pretty weird religious life (making contracts with Gods??), the female only cult of Bona Dea, how they, in that period dealt with sexuality, the insane corruption, VERY deep into the political system....

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/480570

Seeing quite a bit of science fiction books in this thread. I'm a life long science fiction reader, Simak, Philip K. Dick, Keith Laumer, and so many more, some of my favorite science fiction books:

The Hyperion books by Dan Simmons
A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
The Coyote Trilogy by Allen M. Steele
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

Wanna start reading the other books in the To Your Scattered Bodies Go series by Philip Jose Farmer, the first book is insane, from goodreads:

To Your Scattered Bodies Go is the Hugo Award-winning beginning to the story of Riverworld, Philip José Farmer's unequaled tale about life after death. When famous adventurer Sir Richard Francis Burton dies, the last thing he expects to do is awaken naked on a foreign planet along the shores of a seemingly endless river. But that's where Burton and billions of other humans (plus a few nonhumans) find themselves as the epic Riverworld saga begins. It seems that all of Earthly humanity has been resurrected on the planet, each with an indestructible container that provides three meals a day, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, a lighter, and the odd tube of lipstick. But why? And by whom?
That's what Burton and a handful of fellow adventurers are determined to discover as they construct a boat and set out in search of the river's source, thought to be millions of miles away. Although there are many hardships during the journey--including an encounter with the infamous Hermann Goring--Burton's resolve to complete his quest is strengthened by a visit from the Mysterious Stranger, a being who claims to be a renegade within the very group that created the Riverworld. The stranger tells Burton that he must make it to the river's headwaters, along with a dozen others the Stranger has selected, to help stop an evil experiment at the end of which humanity will simply be allowed to die.

Honestly, it's insane, Hermann Goring who keeps committing suicide, keeps coming back, each time more deformed and crazy, Sam the cigar chomping Neanderthal, unforgettable characters... They turned it into a tv series years ago and it was awful, terrible, sanitized and didn't last beyond one season I think...

[onawah]

"The Humans" by Matt Haig.
I'm about 3/4 of the way into it.
It's not a very dense novel, easy to read but interesting and with an original theme which should appeal to more than just scifi fans, as the human interest angle is central.
It's outlook is positive in the final analysis in that it helps to explain why any soul might volunteer to be incarnated into 3D Earth reality. yet it's not all that unrealistic.
I give it a :thumbsup:
"May 15, 2013 *Starred Review* The alien comes to Earth from Vonnadoria, an almost incomprehensibly advanced world; he comes with a sinister purpose, both to destroy and to collect information, hoping to rob human beings of their future. Assuming the person of Professor Andrew Martin, a celebrated mathematician who has made a dangerous discovery, he sets coldly and calculatedly to work. But there is a problem: though disgusted at first by humans, whom he regards as motivated only by violence and greed, he gradually comes to understand that humans are more complex than that, and, most dangerous to his mission, he discovers music, poetry, and . . . love. Becoming increasingly sympathetic to humans, he will ultimately do the unthinkable. The ever-imaginative Haig The Dead Fathers Club (2007), The Radleys (2010) has created an extraordinary alien sensibility and, though writing with a serious purpose (the future is at stake), has great good fun with the being's various eyebrow-raising blunders as he struggles to emulate human behavior. Haig strikes exactly the right tone of bemusement, discovery, and wonder in creating what is ultimately a sweet-spirited celebration of humanity and the trials and triumphs of being human. The result is a thought-provoking, compulsively readable delight.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist"

[onawah]

More about "The Humans" by Matt Haig (see post above).
I didn't realize what a wonderful novel this is until I finished reading it.
It just got better and better.
It may seem like a scifi novel at first because it's about a non-physical being from a very advanced plane of existence who enters into a human body and impersonates the person whose body he has taken over.
But it's about so much more than that.
It makes me think about Gigi Young's latest offering here: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?113646-Gigi-Young-Talks&p=1573109&viewfull=1#post1573109
...When she refers to the sacrifice that angelic beings make to help further the human race.
Because in an odd sort of way, that is what the being in the story is doing, though such was not his original intention.
Best of all, perhaps (though this is a bit of a spoiler), there's a happy ending--not a predictably boring happy ending, but a very meaningful one.
The kind that makes you glad that you are a novel-reader.
And such a happy "coincidence" that I finished the novel on the same night that Gigi posted that talk. :Angel: :sun: :star: :flower:

[Lunesoleil]

an astrology book « History of the children of the year 2000 », the author Irene Andrieu
Periodically in history, we see the emergence of great epochs in which the genius of the human being is revealed. Everything happens as if men were obeying some signal that unites them in a dazzling anthology to change the face of things. These rare eras upset the history of civilizations. These great phases of light and knowledge which concern the whole world do not arise at random. They follow cyclic laws. Large planetary concentrations signal the birth of children with exceptional potentials. Between 1983 and 1997, such a concentration appears, the children born during this period have little to do with the generations of their elders. It is possible to link them to similar great historical epochs as if the Earth had its own astrological evolution, which we can call a collective karma. In this unprecedented astrological study, sweeping the history of 4500 BC to the 20th century, Irène Andrieu highlights an "astro-logic", which leads her to draw both the portrait of these children of the year 2000 whose destiny will change the history of the world, and the great prospects of the next thirty years.

Editions of the 1996 book
An exciting book

[Pam]

I am usually not a fiction reader but I find these selections from my fellow Avalonians full of possibility. I love to read and feel like a break from non fiction might be good for my mental health. Thanks for some wonderful possibilities. I think I might give "The Humans" a read.

[Mari]

While I'm waiting for George RR Martin to get a move on and finish his latest (two?) in the Game Of Thrones series, I've started on the truly epic (many volumes) The Malazan Book Of The Fallen series, by Steven Erikson.
Each book a truly epic read (the latest, Deadhouse Gates a whopping 932 pages) vast in scope, excellently written with well rounded characters, he joins the ranks of Tolkein, Donaldson et al, in a wonderfully realised, deliciously dark medieval fantasy battle between the gods, mortals and numerous magical beings. It's a tough, mesmerizing world, but one in which you are glad you're not living in.

[seekingtruth]

I recently read Tesla and the Pyramids, by debutant author Jenner Brown (https://www.amazon.com/Tesla-Pyramid-Jenner-Brown/dp/B0DNCT3PKS). Then I realised it would be right up this forum's street.

A white-knuckle thriller in the style of a Dan Brown novel, based on a very interesting mix of fact and speculative fiction on what the pyramids were actually for, Tesla tech etc.

This was one that kept me thinking for quite a while after, can't say that about most thrillers. Really loved the ideas explored. Don't want to spoil it but well worth a read if you fancy something fun, but very interesting at the same time.

[Mike]

I'm in a book club with a few other Substackers and we're currently reading 'Lolita', by Nabokov.

It must be me, because this is one of those classic books that's been lauded by nearly everyone for so long, but I find it to be just boring as hell.. just like the other classics we've read so far like 'War and Peace' and 'Under the Volcano'.

Lolita is about a demented French pedophile in America desperately trying to hide his sexual relationship with his 12 yr old stepdaughter. It's written in the form of a memoir, as something to be presented to the court when he's eventually tried. Points for creativity there.

It's marketed in some spaces as a "tragicomedy". And I suppose it is in some ways, but perhaps the most disturbing thing about it isn't the way it's marketed or even it's content, but instead the blurb from Vanity Fair which says the following: "the only convincing love story of the century."

What?

The same critic called it a "deeply touching story of unfulfilled longing."

There are similarly worded reviews by other lunatics too. I'm tempted to say they didn't age well, but I can't imagine they were well received in the time they were written either. Or were they? I dunno. It's all very bizarre to me.

The book itself isn't explicit really; it mostly just implies the racier parts. But it's pretty f'ing demented. I don't think Nobokav is that creative; in other words, I think he's faithfully transcribing his own thoughts and presenting them as fiction. But my main takeaway from the book is that it's just very very boring.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Persist, if you can, Mike.

For me, Lolita is an utter paradox, defying definition. It is one of best-written books I've ever read, a most superlative example of sweeping, agonizingly beautiful prose, yet depicting the most disturbing, disgusting protagonist imaginable; you cannot help but loath the cruel, degenerate sonofabitch, and want him dead by the end.

As a literary piece -- and it is literary fiction (so not everyone's taste) -- it's pure tour de force; as content, matter and theme, it's only fit to be flushed down the toilet. It's the only way I can describe this book, which I've read three times. Go figure!

[Ernie Nemeth]

The Mirror of Her Dreams, Donaldson.

[grapevine]

Indecent Proposal, John Englehard. It's a compelling read and far deeper and more complex than depicted in the erotic but lightweight film.

[Mike]

Persist, if you can, Mike.

For me, Lolita is an utter paradox, defying definition. It is one of best-written books I've ever read, a most superlative example of sweeping, agonizingly beautiful prose, yet depicting the most disturbing, disgusting protagonist imaginable; you cannot help but loath the cruel, degenerate sonofabitch, and want him dead by the end.

As a literary piece -- and it is literary fiction (so not everyone's taste) -- it's pure tour de force; as content, matter and theme, it's only fit to be flushed down the toilet. It's the only way I can describe this book, which I've read three times. Go figure!


Persisting!:) I'll make it to the end. I'm a stubborn bastard. I read Infinite Jest!:)

Some of the passages are beautifully written. I deeply admire the whole cross country escape bits, the way he creates tension and anxiety while never once using the words 'tension' or 'anxiety' :). It's marvelous and skillful in ways only a unique talent like Nabokov could pull off. High art. But for me it just drags on and on and it can't end soon enough.

I don't mind morally repugnant characters in fiction. I even felt sorry for Humbert in spots, believe it or not. Such is the skill of Nabokov. When moral relativism is presented that cleverly you cant help but be swayed in spots. I think he's daring us to ask ourselves if things are naturally wrong or only wrong because society arbitrarily says so. I'm not a moral relativist or a pedo sympathizer, but I was forced to consider some of Humbert's polemics, much like I was forced to consider what's his name's in The Brothers Karamazov. Very few writers can make you do that. It's what makes them transcendent instead of merely good.

It's a paradox in many ways, the book. And the way readers interpret it varies greatly. I suppose that's a mark of high accomplishment. But I can barely stay awake when I read it. It just doesn't reach me.. what can i say?

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Well answered. And you're right, he skilfully meanders between so many difficult themes, and many times does indeed tantalise your sympathy (for Humbert), as one might for one mentally ill, because he is, in profound ways. Likewise, and conversely, he arouses irritation for the girl -- for stringing him along the way she often does when she has ample opportunity to leave him, or blow the whistle. There's an element of Stockholm Syndrome at play throughout, and it's difficult to get your head around.

I will add, what is perhaps most remarkable about that book is Nabokov, a Russian, didn't write it in Russian (later to be translated) but in English, I think a third language for him (after French -- the book has many French passages). For a foreign speaker, his mastery of English is amazing. Writing a book in your own tongue is hard enough, in a foreign one? That boggles my mind.

[Mike]

Mark you've forced me to confront my irritation towards the girl...damn you lol. One more thing to feel guilty about...

Well, sociopaths make great intellectual arguments! And this book - as Humbert's memoiry sort of thing - is meant to justify Humbert's actions to a court. No coincidence that he has cast the girl in this way. Of course we, the readers, are the court. And Nabokov, as Humbert, is challenging our sense of morality with his clever narrative. At least that's the way I interpret the book (so far anyway. still not quite done with it).

Any rational, clear-thinking, and morally centered person will find themselves feeling frustrated when a sociopath like Humbert makes what appears to be a clever and logical argument against the morality they hold so near and dear (and take for granted). I've caught myself feeling this way from time to time, and I had something of a revelation finally, and it goes something like this: true morality doesn't require endless intellectualization and doesn't need to be intellectually defended. We just know when something is right or wrong. You might say God informs us, or our conscience (maybe God is our conscience) or (fill in the blank). But we just know, and getting bogged down in morally relativistic debates is exactly what the sociopath wants.

I wrote in my previous post that the book didn't reach me; I said this once in a creative writing class in college about a Hemingway book, and the teacher said (paraphrase): "Maybe you need to do the reaching." I thought it was a good point. Lolita reached me in the sense that it made me think quite a bit about a number of deeply philosophical things. So maybe Nabokov's purpose was accomplished in a way. Oh, and I deeply resent that he writes so much better than me in his 3rd language .. that sh!t's just obnoxious:)

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

But we just know, and getting bogged down in morally relativistic debates is exactly what the sociopath wants.


Absolutely! Especially when you consider most strongly that Humbert shows every sign of being a classic unreliable narrator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator). We only have his side of the story. If we imagine for a moment this was a true story, then the girl's side would be very different, and probably a hundred times more moving, upsetting and tragic. Humbert's entire narrative is built on the premise of 'hey, it's not my fault, well not completely...' He paints himself as the victim -- the barbarian poet, so bitterly misunderstood. He weaves such pretty webs, too, trying to elicit your love and pity. To the undiscerning reader, he doubtless succeeds in places.

One thing to look out for (it may take multiple readings), and that's subtext. The book, I believe, is encoded with hidden meanings. Some are clearly metaphors for graphic sexual scenarios, but others are more obscure. Many times, I remember being confused by a sentence or passage. Either he was being too clever for me, or these were coded messages, maybe subversive in nature. For the modest times it was written in (1950s), not an unheard of thing. If you spot any and figure them out, do let me know :)

[Ernie Nemeth]

Sunstorm, Arthur C Clark - Stephen Baxter.

[Ernie Nemeth]

Weapons Grade - Tom Clancy and Don Bentley

[Mari]

The Wheel Of Time series by Robert Jordan. Medieval-ish fantasy. I've just finished the first one in the series and there are 13 more to go.....grrrreat :clapping:

[onawah]

"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley
Published by Simon & Shuster, 2024.

Primarily a romance, but also a scifi novel, extremely well written particularly in the nuanced and detailed way in which the characters are portrayed, which you rarely see in scifi.
Though the elements of scifi are secondary in the first part of the novel, the main time travel premise is interesting and original and becomes more the focus in the last third or so.
I didn't realize what a critical success the novel was when I picked it up, and was very pleasantly surprised at what a very talented writer the author is.
She is still quite young and I had never heard of her before though she has certainly won a good amount of critical attention already, and I would like to read anything else she has written or writes.

"'A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL * WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION * A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, VOX, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT, PARADE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE...

"This summer's hottest debut." --Cosmopolitan
"Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler's Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There's a smart, witty novel in your future." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in Somesuch Stories, The Willowherb Review, Electric Literature, Catapult, and Extra Teeth, among others. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize.

Dust jacket description:
'In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible--for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a "bridge": living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as "1847" or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he's a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as "washing machines," "Spotify," and "the collapse of the British Empire." But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry's project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how--and whether she believes--what she does next can change the future. An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley's answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.""

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_of_Time_(novel)

[Ernie Nemeth]

The Novel, James A. Michener.