[nesfa-reading-group] Books to select in November NESFA Book Club

[David G. Grubbs]

City of Truth is a 104-page Novella that I liked a lot 26 years ago when I
read it.

The Cryptids looks like wild-animal horror in Silicon Valley. Not my cup of
tea.

Braking Day was published in April 2022 and appears to be a first novel.
His second (*A Quiet Teacher*) is scheduled for "2022".

I'd vote for Braking Day, though I'd be willing to reread City of Truth.



On Fri, Oct 14, 2022 at 9:36 PM Shelly Thomas <yellerdoggy at gmail.com> wrote:

> I vote for city of truth
>
> On Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 9:27 PM Wesley Brodsky <wesbrodsky at alum.mit.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> My three belated suggestions:
>> Oyebanji, Adam; “Braking Day”
>> Morrow, James; “City of Truth”
>> Gomel, Elana; “The Cryptids”
>>
>> Oyebanji, Adam; “Braking Day”; I have not read this, but a review in
>> Analog interested me because it seemed good “hard science fiction”.
>> On a generation ship bound for a distant star, one engineer-in-training
>> must discover the secrets at the heart of the voyage. It's been over a
>> century since three generation ships escaped an Earth dominated by
>> artificial intelligence in pursuit of a life on a distant planet orbiting
>> Tau Ceti. Now, it's nearly Braking Day, when the ships will begin their
>> long-awaited descent to their new home.
>>
>> Morrow, James; “City of Truth”; I read this several years ago, and liked
>> it, but I was not sure it really counted as science fiction because any
>> “science” was really psychology, if anything. However, it won a 1992 Nebula
>> Award.
>> Truth reigns supreme in the city-state of Veritas. Not even politicians
>> lie, and weirdly frank notices abound—such as warning: this elevator
>> maintained by people who hate their jobs: ride at your own risk. In this
>> dystopia of mandatory candor, every preadolescent citizen is ruthlessly
>> conditioned, through a Skinnerian ordeal called a “brainburn,” to speak
>> truthfully under all circumstances. That is, until the main character find
>> an important reason to resist his “brainburn.”
>>
>> Gomel, Elana; “The Cryptids”; This was another I have not read, but read
>> a review for in Analog. It captured my interest because the reviewer wrote,
>> “It has some of the most viscerally terrifying body horror and disturbing
>> imagery I’ve seen in a book in one time…”; and that one description,
>> “twisted my guts into knots.”
>> An invasion like no other is threatening the Silicon Valley. A
>> cutting-edge quantum communication technology has unleashed a flood of
>> cryptid sightings. From headless Mothmen to dog-faced cats, strange beasts
>> are prowling the streets and emerging from the woods, spreading a deadly
>> epidemic of mind-blindness.
>> Cryptozoologist Sharon Manley, a stranger in a strange land, thinks she
>> knows what is going on. But who is going to believe her if her information
>> comes to her in dreams?
>>
>> Wes Brodsky
>> "It is of the utmost importance that Concepts not trouble you with
>> silliness or complications, unless you are searching for really difficult
>> work."; Giordano Bruno (1582)
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: reading-group <reading-group-bounces at lists.nesfa.org> on behalf of
>> Richard Schwartz via reading-group <reading-group at lists.nesfa.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:21 PM
>> To: NESFA Group
>> Cc: Richard Schwartz
>> Subject: [nesfa-reading-group] Books to select in November NESFA Book Club
>>
>> —-
>>
>> John Crowley - Engine Summer (1979)
>> China Mieville - Perdido Street Station (2000)
>> John Gwynne - The Shadow of the Gods (2021)
>>
>> 1979 -
>> Engine Summer
>> by John Crowley
>>
>> Born into the community of Truthful Speakers one thousand years after the
>> Storm, he was raised on stories of the old days -- a world filled with
>> saints, a world in which all things were possible, a world which finally
>> destroyed itself. In love with a beautiful woman, Rush journeys far and
>> learns much. Taken into the society of Dr. Boots's List, attached to the
>> old mysteries, Rush grows closer to a sainthood he could never have
>> imagined.
>>
>> 2000 -
>> Perdido Street Station
>> by China Mieville
>>
>> Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies the city
>> of New Crobuzon, where the unsavory deal is stranger to no one--not even to
>> Isaac, a gifted and eccentric scientist who has spent a lifetime quietly
>> carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature
>> known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges
>> he has never before encountered. Though the Garuda's request is
>> scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an
>> uncanny reverence for this curious stranger. Soon an eerie metamorphosis
>> will occur that will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon--and not even the
>> Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it evokes
>>
>> 2021 -
>> The Shadow of the Gods
>> by John Gwynne
>>
>> Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and
>> bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga
>> from bestselling author John Gwynne.
>>
>> After the gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm
>> of their fall shattered the land of Vigrið.
>>
>> Now a new world is rising, where power-hungry jarls feud and monsters
>> stalk the woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods
>> still hold great power for those brave - or desperate - enough to seek them
>> out.
>>
>> Now, as whispers of war echo across the mountains and fjords, fate
>> follows in the footsteps of three people: a huntress on a dangerous quest,
>> a noblewoman who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a
>> thrall who seeks vengeance among the famed mercenaries known as the
>> Bloodsworn.
>>
>> All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under
>> the shadow of the gods . . .
>>
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
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