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Blog: Arthur C Clarke Completed
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The next book to read on my Virtual Pile was The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler, which was probably the MOST Arthur C Clarke-y of the LOT as it had several different IDEAS in it which it dutifully worked through. It wasn't quite as much FUN as Arthur C Clarke, verging on ponderous at times, but it was all right - the problem was that I've previously read Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children Of Time" series which also features (SPOILERS) Very Clever Octopuses but this time a) IN SPACE and b) much more excitingly, so it came off feeling not quite as good.
I then read Corey Fah Does Social Mobility by Isabel Waidner which I REALLY wanted to like but just could NOT get on with. It was at least TRYING to be amusing (which most of the other books on this list definitely weren't!) but there wasn't anything hugely engaging about it and behind all of that the characters were a bit boring. "Is this my fault?" I thought, "Can I not connect with The Young People?" (which is ridiculous because I have read and enjoyed several of the Mr Gum books and so am very much down with THE KIDZ) Happily, when the story finally got started about 25% of the way in I realised that it was a literary novel about a literary author who had won a literary award, written BY a literary author who had won a literary award. It was basically TWENTY FIRST CENTURY MARTIN AMIS, and so I felt no guilt in packing it in!
The final book on the list was Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which is advertised as "The Hunger Games meets The Handmaid's Tale" and GOLLY GOSH but that is certainly what it felt like... to start with, anyway. It took flipping AGES to get going as I had to read through page after page of RULES being explained and TERMINOLOGY, like it was a D&D manual or something, and for a long while it felt like a pretty basic attempt to DO ANOTHER HUNGER GAMES. However! HOWEVER! As it rolled on it gradually became clear that there was something ELSE going on, as footnotes got Increasingly Political and also the CHARACTERS became actual characters, rather than cyphers for EITHER The Rules OR The Message. By the time I got to the end I was sad that it had finished, and hoped for another volume. Yes, that's right, call me crazy but I think a SEQUEL to an existing science fiction book set in the same storyworld JUST MIGHT WORK!
So, with all that in mind I am sure you are thinking "But Doctor Hibbett," (thanks) "Which one did YOU think was the best and, if possible, which do you think will WIN?" These are two excellent and clearly very separate questions, so let's answer firstly with which ones I enjoyed the most, in order of preference THUS:
- Some Desperate Glory
- Chain-Gang All-Stars
- The Ten-Percent Thief
- The Mountain In The Sea
- Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
- In Ascension
- Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
- In Ascension
- Chain-Gang All-Stars
- The Ten-Percent Thief
- The Mountain In The Sea
- Some Desperate Glory
posted 23/7/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Comments:
Proof-reading [1] there's an "Arthur C Clare": is that correct. [2] KIDS should surely be KIDZ???
posted 23/7/2024 by Tim
you fix typos now? If PhD training is good for something, it's good for that.
posted 25/7/2024 by tortuous grammar, on the other hand...
Amended, ta!
posted 25/7/2024 by MJ Hibbett
UPDATE: 'Ascension' won!
posted 25/7/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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