Entries tagged with goodreads

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The Year in Books...

Some reading was done. Far less than I thought and almost all of it for Bibliogoth. But a lot of it was good and allowed me to visit some strange new worlds (no, not those 🙂 )

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2024?ref=yyib_dec_24_sa

Crossposts: https://flavius-m.livejournal.com/931134.html

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books,
goodreads

[ Books ] 'The Pursuit of William Abbey' by Claire North

The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed this book. Similar device to the one the author uses in 'Sudden Appearance of Hope' but I felt better carried out in this one. The climax and resolution felt rather contrived -but of course the initial premise of the book is also quite contrived. Some of the characters felt a bit unreal (not talking about Langa here!) but the main characters felt 'real' enough to carry the plot forward. A good read, overall.

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[ Books ] 'Ancillary Justice' by Ann Leckie (goodreads)

This was the book set for this month's meeting of

bibliogoth.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked the book quite a bit. Was initially confused about several aspects of the narration -which I think was intentional: the vague situation regarding the nature of the first person narrator (which does eventually become clear) and the gender of the various characters, which is never quite defined -you do get used to this. I had more difficulty with the characterisation -I seldom felt these were believably real, living people, only in most cases just devices to move the story forward.

The world in which the story is set feels a lot like Iain Banks' The Culture gone very, very wrong.

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books,
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[ Books ] The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this but of course I'm a layman -from outside, the idea of the various types of parallel universe posited here seems almost absurd, a sort of mathematical game. Greene goes some way to explain how some of these ideas could make sense and perhaps be proved (to the extent that positing the existence of realms of reality -sorry- that are completely inaccesible to us could be done at all). One little point: he tries to put together arguments for and against each of these postulates (and of course, again, many look very reasonable but I haven't got the tools to judge) but he seems to put a bit more weight (and expound much more at length) in the arguments for than against. A good read nonetheless and one that offers breathtaking vistas and thoughts on what may be reality and the universe(s).

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