One foot in the grave.

[voice]

Oh I dunno, I read as much as I ever did, and still love SF, find non-fiction far less engaging these days

[Marshall]

Yeah lots of good fiction that I still enjoy reading.

Give us some of your favorite SF books, voice.

[flatandy]

I find I'm reading a bit more fiction and a bit less non-fiction at the moment. But that might be because the non-fiction I've read recently has been a bit turgid and not had great narrative flow. That's really my thing - I want some narrative drive. To be fair, the fiction book I just finished also had not much narrative I gave a sh*t about, but generally novels have a bit more of an imperative in the story-telling direction while non-fiction can fall down a hole of just throwing lots of facts at you without particularly connecting them in a way that feels good.

[Marshall]

Yeah I started on a couple non-fiction books recently that although interesting I still got slogged down in. A bit too text-booky I imagine.

[voice]

Mar 14, 2022 18:52:06 GMT Marshall said:

Yeah lots of good fiction that I still enjoy reading.

Give us some of your favorite SF books, voice.

I've been working my way though Neal Asher books recently, quite good, also Neal Stephenson. Though others I dip into are most stuff by Allister Reynolds and John Scalzi is I want a more tong in cheek funny SF.

If you like series I can highly recommend the 9 Expanse novels, very well written and compelling. James S. A. Corey, but its a pen name for two different writers writing in collaboration, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.

[Marshall]

I'll check them out. I got about halfway through Snow Crash and couldn't go on. Just didn't engage me.

Peter Hamilton can be extremely verbose but his Commonwealth series (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) were excellent.

[flatandy]

I'm sure I've mentioned it on here before, but if you're into SF-ish but not really SF stuff, I can't really recommend China Mieville's The City and The City enough. It's a wonderful book.

NK Jemisin seems to be incredibly highly rated - I read one of her books, but it was no better than OK.

Also Jeff VanDerMeer seems to be absolutely loved but his writing style is definitely not for me - definitely a "why use a plot where you can instead use 4 adjectives" sort of a writer.

[Marshall]

The City and The City looks interesting.

I've mentioned Dan Simmons before, he's a very good writer and story teller.
Hyperion (first two books esp.) if you like SF, otherwise Drood and The Terror were the best of those I've read by him so far.
Drood was especially good, just superb narrative.

[voice]

Mar 14, 2022 19:15:40 GMT Marshall said:

I'll check them out. I got about halfway through Snow Crash and couldn't go on. Just didn't engage me.

Peter Hamilton can be extremely verbose but his Commonwealth series (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) were excellent.

Think that was his first, very cyberpunkish if I remember, stuff written later are better, Rise and Fall of Dodo, Redeme, Seven Eves, are all good, though his best imo was Anathem and Diamond Age.

[voice]

Peter Hamilton is very wordy what few of his I tried, but I'll check out your recomendations

[mids]

Becky Chambers is very good as is Charles Stross, and if you haven't read Inverted World, that's excellent.

[perrykneeham]

Ah, here's a trip down memory lane. There was a time when every district had a kid who was such a bloody loon that his behaviour became the stuff of legend. He would almost certainly have killed a cat, set fire to a building or shown his cock to the teacher and was to be avoided at all costs. Here he is:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60738465

[voice]

Thats pretty fcuked up, very odd situation with the mother and boyfriend and this teen. Though why is the report focusing on the boy and not the other two?

[perrykneeham]

I think they just tried to cover up for the monster. It's a terribly sad thing but it's quite apparent that the system failed here. I'm not sure what you do with kids like that. They used to be institutionalised eventually, but I doubt that happens now and there seems to be no backstop.

[voice]

few institutions these days, most were closed in the late 80's early 90's in favour of 'care in the community' (though really it was to cut costs, little to do with better care)

Though as some kids/people really are just unredeemable, you need a place to keep them for their own and that of societies safety. Oh and jail is not that place imo

[Repat Van]

I almost always read fiction. Books to me are escapism and non-fiction rarely offers that. Although I do have a target of reading 3 non-fiction books a year (stretch goals and all that.)

Although since joining my book club a few years back I do read a much bigger variety of genres.

[perrykneeham]

Mar 14, 2022 23:22:35 GMT perrykneeham said:

I think they just tried to cover up for the monster. It's a terribly sad thing but it's quite apparent that the system failed here. I'm not sure what you do with kids like that. They used to be institutionalised eventually, but I doubt that happens now and there seems to be no backstop.

Agreed. I often find myself reflecting on the illogical, immoral and idiotically obvious folly of so many off-the-balance-sheet economies that politicians have allowed to happen. Carr in the Community, PFI, Academies, mixed ability classes, Carrilion.

Sir Rod Stewart should not be filling in potholes in the road. That is a light-hearted example but did you see the state of the road?

[happyhammerhead]

Mar 15, 2022 7:51:22 GMT perrykneeham said:

Carr in the Community

Is that Jimmy or Alan?

[perrykneeham]

Haha much the same thing. My screen is f**k*d.

Here's a top tip - don't let some deigo replace your screen. It crumbles if you look at it. Probably made of quartz.

[moggyonspeed]

For all you Non-fiction readers out there, I can recommend Sathnam Sanghera's "Empireland".

Some on here may well wish to see it recategorised as Fiction, as it's replete with truths that many (not all) Brits will find uncomfortable.

If Fiction is more your line, then I can recommend thoroughly Jacob Rees-Mogg's "The Victorians" in which, by turns, he sets out to be hilarious, irreverent, tongue-in-cheek and devoid of opinion. Well, three out of four ain't bad.