Klara and the Sun

Probably my favorite Ishiguro book, if not his best. Remains is probably better technically, but Klara hits so, so much closer to home.

 

I don't want to create a new thread just for this book, but I finished The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (Writer of First Law Universe)

And the book was alright; it's set in an alternative Universe of Europe (magical) and follows the 7 Samurai trope, where a band of misfit heroes have to undertake a quest—filled with Abercrombie dialogue and action scenes.

Honestly, the book is written to be adapted into a comedy movie, a la Dungeons and Dragons. The plot is very, very obvious from the start, and all the characters are mostly copied and pasted from his First Law world.

However, I did enjoy it, as I do with all of Abercrombie's books. I honestly really, really disliked the last book of his Age of Madness trilogy, but this one is a fun ride, and I've made my peace with his books, realizing that this is what they are.

Goodreads link

 

I finished the last book in the first law trilogy and never read another one by him tbh.

I really enjoyed the first few books, but wasn't a fan of the ending. I gather things haven't changed?

 

He likes his endings, that's for sure. He likes to subvert expectations but I guess once you are known for that than its n longer subverting i guess.

The Heroes (one of his standalones in the First Law World) is still one of my favorite books of all time. The rest, meh.

 

Read The Devils. Honestly very underwhelmed - the characters were largely stock characters, the plot twists couldn't be more obvious if it wore clown makeup, the protagonist was under-developed and the villains were pretty uninteresting and predictable.

The shock twist with a certain character's fate at the end didn't have a lot of emotional impact because I didn't care about the character much.

Only redeeming parts were the elf and maybe the vampire baron once his motivations were shown at the end. Oh, and definitely the necromancer.

3/5 read for me.

 

Where do you folks go to discover good books these days?

I found so many of my favorites through DLP when it was more active, but there aren’t many recs posted anymore…

 

I generally find mine through /r/fantasy. But... honestly, there haven't been many new books that have wow'd me at all. Not in a good while. Not sure if it's the books, or me.

There are a few exceptions to the rule. Try The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buelman, and The Will of the Many by James Islington.

And, come on discord and talk about books with me heh. Not enough of us on there actually read books.

 

Friends and book club...and just going into a bookshop and looking at anything that sounds intriguing, although in fairness that mostly just expands my pile of shame.

 

Nuclear War: A Scenario and Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins, both by Annie Jacobson, are both excellent.

The former is a minute by minute breakdown of the first hour if North Korea were to launch an ICBM at the USA. It is well researched and highly detailed. It's really bleak. I have it on audiobook and my only criticism is that the voice actor (also the author) reads at a snail's pace. I bumped it to 1.3x speed and it was fine.

The latter is a living history of the title. Starting from the OSS and working it's way to Trump's use of the CIA. Lots of interviews with former CIA, FBI, and paramilitary members that were involved in the biggest clandestine operations in American history.

For fiction schlock, the Arisen series by Michael Stephen Fuchs is set in a zombie apocalypse near future wherein a group of Delta Force, CIA paramilitary, and SAS operators try to find a vaccine for the zombie plague that wiped out most of humanity (except for Britain) two years previous.

The series spans a US Supercarrier, the UK, the USA, Russia, and East Africa. Enemies include regular zombies, Dawn of the Dead (2004) fast zombies, mega-fast 48 inch vertical leap super-zombies, crazy survivalists, Spetsnaz assholes, and personal fears/doubts.

The series includes 14 main series books, 2 prequel books in Africa (CIA analyst in Africa seeing the outbreak start), 5 prequel books on the Supercarrier (Marine Special Forces right after the fall of humanity), and 3 prequel books in the Middle East (Israeli special forces during the fall).

The first three are short and sort of stilted, but after that the writing and characterization are much, much better. They are all on Amazon for less than $5 a book. For anyone who likes military fiction, zombie fiction, or reading about military special forces, this series is honestly as close to a perfect combination as you can get.

 

Goodreads. The recs are often dogshit, frankly (I sometimes get recs of books in Polish for whatever reason) but sometimes something slips through that's actually worth reading.

 

Yeah I mostly get my book recommendations off of Reddit these days. /r/fantasy and /r/progressionfantasy are my go tos.

I'll also just look at the top rated lists on say Royal Road occasionally.