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I a three-book weekend, finishing:
So You Want to Be a Wizard? - Diane Duane. This was okay. I had a long break in the middle of reading it - I started it in 2012 - and it was never my "main" book, so I probably didn't get the best experience, but it seemed competent. It was probably written for a younger target audience than anything I've read for a while, too.
The Drowned World - JG Ballard. Somewhat apt, given that quite a bit of the UK is underwater at the moment. If only the bit about the tropical heat was also appropriate. Maybe I should try The Drought next? Or maybe not. I don't think he wrote a book called The Temperate World. Anyway, this was kind of oddball, but I think fairly tame for Ballard. It's actually the first book of his that I've read. It's about a world where the temperature has risen and the sea levels have followed, and humanity is reduced to enclaves near the poles. (Nothing to do with modern global-warming theories, it all seems to stem from something going wrong with the sun.) It's the story Ballard chooses to tell in this setting that's kind of offbeat and psychological, with a small scientific party in the ruins of (we later discover) London. Still, it was evocative and interesting.
What a Good Do! - James Whitham and Mac MacDiarmid. Probably not of much interest to anyone else here, this is the (assisted) autobiography of the British motorcycle racer and commentator James Whitham. I found it in a charity shop on Saturday morning, and had finished it by Sunday evening. I really enjoyed it, but I like my bike racing. I've had my eye on the ebook for a while, but as far as I can tell it's only available direct from Haynes, and at a higher price than I really want to pay, so getting it for a sixth of that price was a great bargain.
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