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

[cjhi newcastle2.com]

If permissible, I'd like to follow the practice of the other book club and register a negative vote for The Cryptids; I don't do deep horror. Either of the others sounds interesting.

/CHip
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From: reading-group <reading-group-bounces at lists.nesfa.org> on behalf of aslom at onet.pl <aslom at onet.pl>
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2022 11:32 AM
To: NESFA Reading Group <reading-group at lists.nesfa.org>
Subject: Re: [nesfa-reading-group] Books to select in November NESFA Book Club

+1 City of Truth

best.

Alek

W dniu 2022-10-15 17:14:55 użytkownik Richard Schwartz via reading-group <reading-group at lists.nesfa.org> napisał:
Wes

I vote for Morrow, James; “City of Truth”

Richard

On Oct 14, 2022, at 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)

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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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