I really enjoyed Kraken. It’s utterly bizarre and meandering, but Mieville’s prose is unrivaled.
He was back in the water, not braving but frowning, synchronised swimming, not swimming but sinking, toward the godsquid he knew was there, tentacular fleshscape and the moon-sized eye that he never saw but knew, as if the core of the fucking planet was not searing metal but mollusc, as if what we fall toward when we fall, what the apple was heading for when Newton’s head got in the way, was kraken.
Embassytown is what I was thinking of. Haven’t read Kraken yet.
It’s a dark comedy about an impending squid apocalypse. As you might expect.
Yeah, Embassytown!
The Rivers of London series is a bit like that, but without all the (bad?) puns and such.
Great series. IMHO better than O’Brian.
Those started out great but then dropped off, she fell in love with Napoleon
The first one i have and it is fabulous…
Started out great, but fell off. Not unusual in long series.
By coincidence, my son gave me the Great Book of Amber for Christmas, which contains all 10 novels. I had read the first five a long time ago and really loved them, but hadn’t read the second five before. I’m about halfway through book 7 and am still enjoying it, although I can see why some people feel the quality drops in the later books. I would still strongly recommend at least the first five books, and maybe all of them.
I fully concur, and would add “Last Year”.
Here are some that I just finished. Some of them are really fantastic. (I’m not a literary critic, I just enjoy a good book)
The Witch Elm by Tana French. A psychological mystery set in Ireland with some highly unexpected twists. I plan to read more of her work.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Exactly what it says on the tin. I plan to read more of her work. Interesting conceit, and a very interesting & likeable protagonist IMO.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation: A Novel by Ottessa Moshfegh. This one can’t be properly explained, you just have to read it. I plan to read more of her books.
The Candy House: A Novel by Jennifer Egan. Very worthwhile, this is the sequel to A Visit From The Goon Squad both of which were good. There is some understated humor that’s easy to miss.
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. Probably won’t end up on the enduring classics list, but it’s a fun read.
Oh, I’ll have to check this out. It sounds interesting.
puzzlegal, what would you recommend from Barbara Hambly? I have a 3-4 of her other fantasy books, but not any complete series.
HMS_Irruncible, yes, most of my books are fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, but I am open for anything.
I’m up to book 4 of the Murderbot series. I really like it and am going to finish the series. Some creative writing here.
The mad scientist’s guide to world domination was very very funny.
Wee Free Men seemed a bit slow paced for Pratchett but I enjoyed it. I’ll probably get the rest of this series at some point.
I recently read the Salmon of Doubt, which has a bit where Douglas Adams talked about authors who influenced him, and mentioned P.G. Wodehouse. So I picked up Introducing Jeeves: six classic stories. This is some seriously funny writing, and my reaction is “wait, I love British comedy and writing, how come I have never heard of this before?”. It’s about a Brit and his butler Jeeves in New York City, writing style seems to be very similar to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby:
Jeeves disapproves of the check suit, and Wooster says “But lots of fellows have asked me who my tailor is.” Jeeves responds “Doubtless to avoid him, sir.”
Dracula was awesome! It was much slower paced than I expected, and focuses on the group hunting Dracula rather than the count itself, but I loved it!
Arthur is handed a 3 foot stake and a sledgehammer by Van Helsing, and told to drive it through Un-dead wife Lucy’s heart.
“So that, my friend, it will be a blessed hand for her that shall strike the blow that sets her free.
To this I am willing, but is there none amongst you who has a better right?
Will it be no joy to think of hereafter in the silence of the night when sleep is not,
‘it was my hand that sent her to the stars,
it was the hand of all she would herself have chosen,
had it been to her to choose?’”