2020 books: 1-5

[the_siobhan]

It's August, how have I only read five books so far this year?




Fort at River's Bend and Metamorphosis by Jack Whyte

Apparently these were originally written as a single book but were published as two. They are a continuation of the series I was reading at the end of last year, covering Arthur's childhood to late teens as manly young man who is growing into the manliest young manly man that every manlied. (You may get the impression that I think Whyte's characterizations are flat. You would be correct.)

I always suspected that the part of the story that most interested me was Merlyn the Sorcerer and these books confirmed it for me. There are a couple of passages at the end of Metamorphosis that go into how Merlyn created the myth around his abilities and convinced everybody he was a sorcerer in order to remove a threat to Camelot. It was the most interesting part of the series - and it took up two pages out of what, seven books?

Now that the whole series is done I bundled them into the library and they opened up almost an entire shelf.

    

Humans Wanted anthology edited by Vivian Caethe This book started out as a Tumblr post that said (I'm paraphrasing) "SF shows always have species that are bigger and tougher than humans, but what if humans were really the space orcs compared to other species?". The post went on to list the things that make us unusual on our own planet, like being pursuit predators, eating poisonous substances like capsaican or caffeine and our ability to heal from injuries that would take out most animals. The original Tumblr threads were hilarious and goofy and really really popular, so Caethe put the call out for original stories. This book is more serious SF than what was originally posted on Tumblr, so they're less fun but the quality of writing is excellent.

    

Breaking Gravity by Mitty Walters This was another freebie. A high school student stumbles across a technological innovation akin to a perpetual motion machine and realizes that people are trying to kill him. High-jinks ensue. The usual plucky hero and rough-around-the-edges-but-secretly-good-people friends fighting against evil oligarchs Scooby Doo story. Not terrible, but nothing special. I was a little irritated at how the main character just super conveniently happened to be friends with a super hacker, 'cause every kid from the wrong side of the tracks has one of those in his back pocket.

    

Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich One of my neighbours works in editing and when his library overflows some of the proofs end up in mine. I thought this one looked interesting so I scooped it out. The plot is interconnected stories of three young woman at different times who are trapped in the same house. It's a well-done story, but maybe just not to my tastes. It's a horror in which the evil comes from the Devil and those tend not to appeal to me. I also think that the writer uses too many visual tricks, like using archaic-looking handwriting in found notes. I am An Old and so I have trouble reading those. Having said that Kurtagich is excellent at building atmosphere

Comments

[kest]

I...might have read more books than you so far this year, which is saying something as my reading habits the last few years have been abysmal.

[cornerofmadness]

I'm in a reading slump this year too.

Teeth in the mist looks interesting. I swear I considered writing for Humans Wanted b ut I found the open call too late and I was dealing with the moving classes online and had no time