Another year (and a bit) with yet more books

2021 and the first part of 2022 have been considerably busier with regular life mostly returning and, as expected, have left me somewhat less time to read. Though looking through this list, my pace wasn’t so different for these 16 months from the 12 months of 2020. I didn’t tackle anything with the scope of the Malazan books this past year+ though, and the fiction collection was heavily weighted to authors I’d heard of long ago but never got around to reading before. The biggest thing for our family was our first grandchild, born in February. Spending time with grandchildren is definitely something I’d recommend! We traveled to visit (or they came to us) just about every month last year, which got a little harder when they moved to Los Angeles…

I did get a nice surprise relating to this blog earlier this year with an email from somebody who’d actually tried some of the books I suggested and was enjoying them. So - time for a new edition. The following is I believe a complete list of what I’ve read in the way of books and e-books since my last post.

Non-fiction

• Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli - I listened to this in audiobook format on a very long drive, and there were definitely parts where I missed something and had to go back and re-listen. The book is wonderfully poetic but also quite precise both in describing the history of Werner Heisenberg as a pioneer of quantum mechanics and of Rovelli’s own understanding of some of what still seems mysterious about it. I don’t think this book is for everyone, but those who read it and understand even a little will come away with a greater appreciation for some useful ways of thinking about the quantum world.
• Mission Economy, by Mariana Mazzucato - As a follow-on for some of the economics/government books I read in 2020 (and earlier). Mazzucato here gives many examples where governments have fostered innovation within capitalist economies and helped to accomplish both a desired “mission” (she focuses particularly on Apollo and the moon landing) while also promoting economic growth and prosperity for their people. The suggestion is that many modern democracies have lost that sense of “mission” in recent decades, but it could be restored and their economies revitalized, for example in a focused fight against climate change. But just about any challenging “mission” that the country really wants to achieve could work.
• Open Management by Rob England and Cherry Vu - I’ve followed Rob England on Twitter for a while, so when I saw he had a new book I thought I’d give it a try. The book is on their approach to managing complexity in organizations and how to foster continuous improvement. In brief, rigid hierarchies don’t work any more in a world that is “VUCA” - volatile, uncertain, complicated, and ambiguous. Organizations need to become open, transparent, trusting of their employees - let the work to be done guide staff in what to do, not management dictates. The first part of the book is the theory of all this while the lengthier remainder is a series of interesting case studies, I think all from Vietnam. Hard to summarize adequately; this is a pretty short book and one I expect to reread.
• This is Vegan Propaganda by Ed Winters - this book arrived in the mail addressed to one of our sons who’s not living here any more, so it was a bit of a surprise. But I decided to read myself it before getting it to him. Some of the arguments seem a little forced or over-dramatic, but the author makes some excellent points concerning abuses and substandard behavior by the meat and dairy industries. It didn’t quite convince me yet to become vegan, but I can see much better the reasons for that choice now.
• When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone - another recommendation from our offspring. This is an old book on the topic of religion, and I think has been largely superseded by more nuanced telling of the history, but it was definitely an interesting read. The author seemed to think ancient societies where women were in charge were somehow better, despite them being apparently just as full of oppression and murder and the like as male-dominated ones. Different societies have definitely been organized in different ways over the millennia of human civilization. The hypothesis of a widespread and relatively uniform “original” religion seems generally unlikely though.
• Inferior by Angela Saini - also on the subject of women and their oppression (in more modern times), though I came about this book through a diversity book club at work, and we actually had a chance to hear from and talk with the author. The book covers a wide range of different areas in which society, with “scientific” claims to back them up, has determined women to be inferior to men over the years. And then goes into how that “science” has in most cases been found to be itself biased by those doing the studies, so that what seem like real effects often disappear with better research. While men and women do differ in some real ways, most of what we think we know about these differences is probably wrong. Interesting to learn about.

Fiction

• Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, Heaven’s Reach by David Brin - following on from the first part of this “Uplift” saga that I read in 2020. This second trilogy in the same universe is in a new setting - a planet of refuge for six interestingly developed alien races, where the human-dolphin crew of the previous trilogy arrives seeking their own place of refuge, but unfortunately pursued by other galactic species who are after the treasures they found. All a very enjoyable read though some of it is rather far-fetched by the end.
• Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler - since Butler was in the news and I hadn’t read any of her stories before, this seemed like a good place to start. These books are full of violence in a world descended into drug- and selfishness-fueled horror. A young girl escapes the destruction of her home and loss of (most of?) her family, and in her travels recruits strangers to her cause: a community and new religion, “Acorn” that speaks of hope and a destiny beyond this planet.
• Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster, also by Octavia Butler - I read Patternmaster first as I had heard some recommendation of it, and I believe it was also the book written first. The others were I guess prequels to set up the world of Patternmaster. All intriguing stories in themselves, they share a common theme of a never-ending fight between compassion and selfish abuse of power in a world where inherited psychic traits grant both unusual capabilities but also bring all kinds of trouble.
• Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling - a rather crazy mix of characters pursues the fabled “EF-6” tornado, with some very different goals in mind between them. I’ve known Bruce Sterling via online interactions for a very long time, but I hadn’t got around to reading many of his books; this was definitely a fun one to read.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. A rather famous novel, I guess it came to mind last year because I’d heard it was set in 2021. I’d never gotten around to reading it before, and I’ve never watched the movie based on it (Blade Runner) all the way through, though I’ve seen parts of it in snatches on TV over the years. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world where natural animals are rare and treasured but much more common are electronic replacements that can be quite convincing. Electronic replacements for humans (the androids) also exist, but are forbidden on Earth; nevertheless some have infiltrated the world. The protagonist is tasked with finding the androids and destroying them, but telling android from human is a tricky thing. A fascinating world with a challenge to all of us on what it really means to be human.
• Consider Phlebas (#1), The Player of Games, (#2), Use of Weapons (#3), Matter (#8), Surface Detail (#9), The Hydrogen Sonata (#10) by Iain M. Banks - books from his “Culture” series. Once again, an author I had heard about for years but never got around to reading. These books are all extremely different from one another, with very different characters, but set in the same universe of somewhat peaceful galactic harmony and abundance - except for the wars in peripheral or lower-level civilizations that most of these books focus on. My selection of which books to read was based on what our library had available, not any particular other recommendations - if anybody has a strong feeling for another of these I should read please let me know! I was a bit shocked by the first novel’s (spoiler alert!) killing off almost all major characters, and Banks doesn’t hesitate from the same sort of fate for his characters in the other books either. I think my favorite of these is “Use of Weapons”, where successive chapters step forwards and backwards in time following two different narratives, culminating in an astonishing revelation at the book’s end. The human characters are in many ways intriguing and often deeply flawed; the AI’s have their own quirks, including their choice of names (for spaceships). And the settings are spectacular - Banks imagines space environments of vast scale and variety. Some of the stories get into deep philosophical questions - for example in “Surface Detail” the meaning of identity and punishment when an artificial “afterlife” can be all too real. Imaginative and thought-provoking, I’m glad I finally got around to reading these.
• Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise, Accelerando, Halting State, and Glasshouse by Charles Stross. Again books I’d heard of previously but never got around to reading until last year. The first three I’ve listed are grouped in a series but only the first two seem connected really in the same universe, with some shared characters. Stross has written on other topics, but these books all share the concept of high technology and its consequences for societies and for ordinary people caught up in the changes. “Halting State” was the most near-term of the books (along with the first part of Accelerando) and quite a fun romp through a world where the real and the virtual intermingle a bit too much. All of these are thought-provoking in their own way, on where our technology may be headed and what we ought to do about it, if there’s anything we can do.
• Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson and also the three related novellas co-written with Janci Patterson. These are Young-Adult material (Cytonic is third in a series of I think 4 books), so not very sophisticated but as usual with Sanderson books there are fun interactions between the characters and some secrets of this universe revealed along the way.
• The God is Not Willing by Steven Erikson - a follow-on to the Malazan Book of the Fallen featuring a new crop of Malazan marines and some minor characters from the earlier series, in a new adventure featuring a massive climate-change-related disaster. Despite nominally being about Karsa Orlong he doesn’t actually feature as a character - I’m guessing the sequels (this is first of a trilogy) will involve him more directly.
• Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey - long-awaited 9th book in the Expanse series. This is a rare case where I watched the TV (actually Amazon Prime) series first, then started reading the books - back during season 4 of the TV series a few years ago. Now the last book is out, and the TV series ended with season 6 - both of which came to immensely satisfying conclusions (the TV conclusion was roughly where the 6th book ended, so I guess that makes sense). The premise of the whole series is human expansion through the solar system and discovery of ancient alien technology that allows travel to other star systems (and more!), but otherwise constrained roughly by the laws of physics we know. The roughly realistic depiction of travel between asteroids, moons, and planets and settlements among all those were well done generally, and the way in which the human communities in those different parts of the solar system (and later beyond) interacted was I think very well conceived. A great series to read, with a well-written ending.
• Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. I’ve read most of his books and enjoyed them for the most part, so was quite intrigued at how he would handle the subject of climate change. There are some fascinating characters here, along with beautifully detailed depictions of several chunks of the world from Texas to the Netherlands to the mountainous disputed boundary between India and China. But the whole premise that a rich guy can solve the problem while the nations bicker turned me off a bit, and the “solution” - not stopping burning fossil fuels at all, but modifying the atmosphere to reduce incoming sunlight is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Yes, I know people talk about geo-engineering and Stephenson here has put together a plausible near-future scenario for it to really come about, but that doesn’t make it a good thing for anybody. It also seemed quite ironic that the main opposition to the rich fellow’s project, from India, is the place that triggered everything in Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Ministry for the Future” - not that that was a better book (at least Stephenson has a rousing mostly coherent narrative), but I’m wondering if Stephenson wrote this book as a rebuttal in some sense. Anyway, whether you like his plan or not you’ll learn some interesting things as always from a Stephenson novel, so I won’t tell you to stay away. But it’s not a book I will return to I think.
• The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and The Republic of Thieves (Gentlemen Bastards series) by Scott Lynch - another recommendation from a son. Stories of lovable scoundrels and scam artists set in a sort of Renaissance Italy except there’s powerful magic (not wielded by our protagonists) and some strange remnants of (alien?) technology dotting the landscape, and the waters seem particularly dangerous. Each novel is in a very different setting, but with our hero (Locke Lamora) risking his life to win at whatever escapade he has set himself on. There are mysteries not yet revealed in these books, and the third strongly hints at more to come - a fourth book “The Thorn of Emberlain” is rumored and a German translation is listed at Amazon (to be released February 2023) so I’m hoping we’ll see that out soon!

Well, that’s the list as far as I can remember or have records. I have a new iPad for reading e-books, and not all my old book records migrated from the old one so I may well have forgotten something.

And since I have had at least one reader of one of my articles here, maybe I’ll make more of a habit of posting things to this site now. Until next time!