[nesfa-reading-group] Fwd: My suggestions for a December vote I won't be at

Fri Dec 6 19:08:55 EST 2024

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "David G. Grubbs" <dggrubbs at gmail.com>
> Date: November 5, 2024 at 12:03:32 AM EST
> To: NESFA Reading Group <reading-group at lists.nesfa.org>
> Subject: [nesfa-reading-group] My suggestions for a December vote I won't be at
> Reply-To: NESFA Reading Group <reading-group at lists.nesfa.org>
> 
> 
> On December 6th, our next reading group meeting, I have a chorale rehearsal (for pieces I know well) that I thought I might skip. But just yesterday *another* group I plan to sing with for a concert declared a rehearsal for the same time that I can't miss.
> 
> Below are two things for the reading group's December 6th meeting: my review of the December 6 book (System Collapse by Martha Wells) and the three choices you will vote on for the April reading group.
> 
> I'd appreciate it if someone recorded and sent to me:
> the people who show up at the December meeting
> their scores for System Collapse
> the vote tallies for the three books I suggest below.
> The main reason for the list of people is that I'd like to pick someone from that list to make suggestions at our January meeting for our May book to read.
> 
> I have a list of the suggesters for the past 48 books we have read. The person to suggest three books for the May meeting, to be voted on at the January meeting, should be the least recent suggester who attends the December meeting. Someone who isn't on that four-year list of suggesters (or who has *never* suggested a book) should get precedence.
> 
> ============================================
> ==== My review
> ============================================
> System Collapse by Martha Wells 9 out of 13
> 
> This is the seventh story in the Murderbot series. According to my records, I
> have read the previous six. But I don't remember anything about any of them.
> Maybe that contributed to my initial confusion when reading this book.
> 
> At the beginning, the reader is dropped into a complicated situation with a
> dozen actors of various kinds, all without explanation or introduction. I had to
> reread the first chapter to see if I could make guesses about what kind of
> actor each name represented: our viewpoint SecUnit; ART; two ScoutDrones; the
> ag-robot called Hostile One; Mensah, Seth, Martin, and Karime (who weren't
> really present); Whatever "Three" was (I think another kind of robot -- maybe a
> spaceship, but it wasn't clear); three humans (Ratthi, Iris, and Tarik); And
> that was in the first four pages.
> 
> Then, the Barish-Estranza group showed up with their own band of humans,
> SecUnits and their "explorer", which had a confrontation with ART, presumably
> in orbit.
> 
> I find all this complexity a neutral contribution, neither raising nor lowering
> my opinion of the book. But when the context of a book takes serious
> concentration, I get the feeling the author is writing to her tolerant fans.
> For me, it was a thick cloud to get through at the beginning, which lowered my
> evaluation by a point or two compared with the second half of the book.
> 
> On the other hand, it *seemed* interesting enough that I *wanted* to figure out
> what was going on, which makes this book different from some others I've read
> recently, where I simply stopped reading because the book made too little
> initial sense.
> 
> As I read along, I kept thinking that there was simply too much information,
> too thinly explained. And some variant of "redacted" sprinkled around, with the
> apparent purpose of obscuring some things that might have better explained what
> was going on. Some of it was explained later, but "redacted" is always irritating.
> 
> Then they started searching for the split-off group at the pole and ran
> into a Pre-Corporation Rim site. It seemed to me that a cloud lifted from the
> language in the book, making it easier to understand.
> 
> And then we had to contend with cyborgs (well... SecUnits) with psychological
> problems and disabled governor modules, which injected a form of randomness
> to the whole story.
> 
> And then we veer off into Ken Burns territory, producing a documentary trying to
> counter Barish-Estranza's story with evidence that they really are slavers.
> 
> After all that, the rest of the book consisted of light-speed, multi-layered,
> violent action using all the details laid out earlier in the book. Every aspect
> of ART, ART-drones, shuttles, SecUnits, and other technologies (such as body
> armor, communication protocols, network security modules, and even breathing
> apparatuses) were used to drive the action, which developed and concluded in a
> satisfactory way, as long as you read it all fast enough.
> 
> There were also all sorts of thoughtful, even philosophical, paragraphs slipped
> into place, with the explanation that the SecUnit, ART, and the drones all
> thought so fast that they could slip a considerable amount of contemplation
> into a tiny gap between tenth-second physical actions.
> 
> Not higher than 9 out of 13, mostly due to the difficulty I had in getting into
> the story at the beginning.
> 
> 
> ==============================================
> ==== And here are three books to vote on.
> ==============================================
> Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
> 
> This year's (2024) Hugo Winner. 2023, 438 pages.
> 
> Taken from a review on the Chicago Review of Books: The backstory, as we’re initially given it, is that humans fought, and lost, an interstellar war against an alien civilization. Earth is destroyed, and the remnants of humanity make their peace and resettle elsewhere—with the exception of Gaea Station, a last hold-out of idealistic warriors who have vowed resistance undying.
> 
> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58388343-some-desperate-glory
> 
> ==============================================
> 
> 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
> 
> A book I've suggested before but still haven't read. 2012, 561 pages.
> 
> The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future.
> 
> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11830394-2312
> 
> ==============================================
> This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Melinda Snodgrass (writing as Phillipa Bornikova)
> 
> A book I've been meaning to read for a while. 2013, 336 pages. First in the Linnet Ellery series.
> 
> In Phillipa Bornikova's This Case is Gonna Kill Me, law, finance, the military, and politics are under the sway of long-lived vampires, werewolves, and the elven Alfar. Humans make the best of rule by "the Spooks," and contend among themselves to affiliate with the powers-that-be, in order to avoid becoming their prey. Very loyal humans are rewarded with power over other women and men. Very lucky humans are selected to join the vampires, werewolves, and elves-or, on occasion, to live at the Seelie Court.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/This-Case-Gonna-Linnet-Ellery/dp/0765365553
> 
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