Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

What to read next, I wonder? I think another Rabbi Small re-read.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Except that I haven't yet bought the next one in ebook!

I was lucky enough to find the entire series in my library's ebook lending catalog. Check with your library to see if they offer Freading (www.freading.com).

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Nice one indeed. These books tempted me to buy another two books of the series, by Tarquin Hall, although written earlier by him, The Case of the Missing Servant and Case of the Love Commandos, which I am going to read next.

Finished both the books. The author has developed a distinct style of writing his novels which is positively different and admirable.

Next up, I am taking a non fiction by Franz Kafka, Letters to Friends, Family and Editors, a print book waiting in my TBR since many years. I hope it will be a good change of taste for now.

[HarryT]

Just finished "Flood", by Stephen Baxter. Baxter is one of my favourite "hard SF" authors, and this book didn't disappoint. It tells the story of the end of the world, as seen through the eyes of a disparate group of people over a time period of 40 years or so, when global sea levels start (and continue) rising as water trapped in the Earth crust start welling up though sub-oceanic faults. Highly recommended, and I look forward to reading the sequel, "Ark".

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

favourite "hard SF" authors [...] global sea levels start (and continue) rising as water trapped in the Earth crust start welling up though sub-oceanic faults.

It seems stretching "hard SF" to include a world-wide flood caused by water from inside the Earth. We'd need to be completely wrong about the near interior of the Earth.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It seems stretching "hard SF" to include a world-wide flood caused by water from inside the Earth. We'd need to be completely wrong about the near interior of the Earth.

Baxter adds a postscript to the book stating that analysis of seismic waves from earthquakes does indeed support the idea of oceanic volumes of water trapped within crustal rocks, and gives a number of references to journal articles.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Baxter adds a postscript to the book stating that analysis of seismic waves from earthquakes does indeed support the idea of oceanic volumes of water trapped within crustal rocks, and gives a number of references to journal articles.

I'll take a look. Thanks.

[EDIT: OK, at 400-600km down it seem there's a mineral that contains about 1.5% water. And there's enough of it that the total amount of water in it is perhaps three times the amount in the oceans.

But any event that affected those rocks enough to get them to release a significant amount of that water would be much more catastrophic than a flood.]

[HarryT]

Baxter says:

Meanwhile there is evidence that the mantle, the deep rock layers of Earth’s structure, may indeed contain lodes of water that would dwarf the existing oceans (see A.B. Thompson, ‘Water in the Earth’s Upper Mantle’, Nature (vol. 358, pp 295-302, 1992). Recently two American scientists have claimed from the evidence of seismic waves to have discovered an ocean locked in the porous rocks deep beneath Beijing (New Scientist, 10 March 2007), while scientists from Tokyo have observed the dragging-down of water at subduction zones (Science, 8 June 2007).

I really don't think, though, that there's a necessity for such things to be conclusively proven in order for them to form the basis for an SF novel. SF has always asked "What if...?"

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really don't think, though, that there's a necessity for such things to be conclusively proven in order for them to form the basis for an SF novel. SF has always asked "What if...?"

Well, yes. It's only 'SF' novels that assert that all current science is wrong that really rub me the wrong way. (James P. Hogan, I'm looking at you!)

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Guns of Avalon.

Also very good. I shall have to wait for the others to be published in ebook now.

I'll decide what to read for my 150th book of the year this evening.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Also very good. I shall have to wait for the others to be published in ebook now.

I'll decide what to read for my 150th book of the year this evening.

I can't think of an appropriate story for the 150th book, but if you get to 200, it will have to be some Asimov.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I can't think of an appropriate story for the 150th book, but if you get to 200, it will have to be some Asimov.

Opus 200 by Isaac Asimov
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/i...v/opus-200.htm

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Well, yes. It's only 'SF' novels that assert that all current science is wrong that really rub me the wrong way. (James P. Hogan, I'm looking at you!)

Ok, I know you don't like Hogan's Velikovski (sp?) inspired books, and I do understand why. He did write a lot of other excellent (IMHO, naturally!) books, though.

Baxter is nothing like Hogan, though. His SF books are all based on good science. He also writes a lot of "alternative history" books, which I also enjoy.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Also very good. I shall have to wait for the others to be published in ebook now.

I'll decide what to read for my 150th book of the year this evening.

Well, not really wanting to re-read The Bicentennial Man (who was first a sesquicentennial robot!), I thin I'll ignore the number and just go for a recent purchase, Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. I really liked his Anathem.

(Although I don't like his predilection for easily mis-pronounced/mistaken titles!)

[Hampshire Nanny]

Yesterday I finished reading The Human Division by John Scalzi. It's set in his Old Man's Universe and directly follows on to the events of The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale. (Those two are the same events from two different points of view.) While I enjoyed the way in which the story progresses, I didn't particularly like the fact that the book is essentially a sequence of novellas (or even novelettes) starring mostly the same characters. The book was originally published online in thirteen parts from January to April 2013 as a three-month digital serial. Each of the parts is available in eBook or audio format, or you can get the entire novel at one whack much more cheaply.

I'm about 1/2 way through The Falcon at the Portal, #11 in the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Mertz). Although I am thoroughly enjoying the book -- heck, the entire series -- I think I am going to take a break from Peabody, Emerson, and Ramses.

Next up are The Iron Jackal, third of the Ketty Jay steampunk novels by Chris Wooding and Boar Island, #19 in the Anna Pigeon Mysteries by Nevada Barr. Once I've read those and returned them to the library, I'll think about what to read next.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

My next-ups are Jacob's Descent by Sandra Brannan (this latest book will take me to current status in the Liv Bergen series), The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch, and Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman.

The Hangman's Daughter was simply alright, not awesome (I wanted it to be, darn it!). It's an eventful story, and the pacing is good (at 130,000+ words, it's longer than most of the fiction I've been reading lately but I felt it moved at a steady clip). However, it was also too repetitive sometimes, and I felt the writing was obvious, almost clinical; I felt no emotional connection to any of the characters. By obvious, I don't mean that it's easy to figure out who did what, but that there's a lack of subtlety or nuance (or something!); I'm wondering if that had anything to do with it being a translated work?

I wasn't bored but I wasn't invested either. If I'd bought this book on its own, I wouldn't have bought the other books in the series on the strength of reading it. As it is I won't be continuing on with the series just yet.

Spoiler:

I did find myself wondering, more than once, why the book is titled The Hangman's Daughter??? Yes, there is a hangman's daughter but ...

Jacob's Descent was a good entry in the series; the main character is an FBI agent and, once again, I feel the portrayal is all wrong (OK, not all wrong but ...) but I do like Liv Bergen (main character) a lot, so I forgive a lot

Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry was my favorite of the lot - Rabbi Small is a delightful character, and I really enjoy his wisdom and insights on life and faith (some of which I don't agree with but even that is fun arguing out in my DayOne journal )

And next up are ... Doubt by C E Tobisman (first in a series [Caroline Auden]; not sure but I think I picked this up from the Kindle First selections for July), Closed Circles by Viveca Sten (book two in the Sandhamn Murders; the first book [Still Waters] was another Kindle First selection a while back; it was a great mystery) and, yes (!), Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home