Unthinkable Wings

I finally read "Piranesi", and I did indeed love it. I was not expecting quite so much intertextuality with The Magician's Nephew (in fact, can you argue that it's set in the same universe*?), nor that the theme Clarke picks up most strongly from that book would be "magicians with bad research ethics".

( Spoilers below. )

We have resumed our watching of The Americans, as I've been on a bit of a spy kick lately - I've been reading Ben MacIntyre and rewatching Tinker, Tailor and Smiley's People.

If I had any icon slots left, I'd make one of Elizabeth Jennings captioned "Moscow Centre Hood".

Wait, how did Becky Chambers beat out Yoon Ha Lee and Aliette de Bodard for best series? How?

Come to that, while I don't think Charlie Stross' Laundry Files are as creative as Lee or de Bodard's work, I'd have put his solidly ahead of Chambers'.

(I don't even dislike the Wayfayrers series, it's just... really slight. And I bet is going to feel really dated really quickly).

The james_davis_nicholls 100 SFF books to read meme

Italic = read it. Underlined = not this, but something by the same author. Strikethrough = did not finish.

( Books below the cut )

Books in 2017
1. George MacDonald, "The Princess and the Goblin."
2. Charles Williams, "Witchcraft."
3. Paul Cornell, "The Lost Child of Lychford."
4. Paul Cornell, "London Falling."
5. Andrew Martin, "The Lost Luggage Porter."
6. Andrew Martin, "Murder at Deviation Junction."
7. Sarah Perry, "The Essex Serpent."
8. Barbara Hambly, “A Free Man of Color.”
9. Jay Rayner, “A Greedy Man in a Hungry World”.
10. Mira Grant, “Feed.”
11. JRR Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
12. Terry Pratchett, “The Truth.”
13. James A Corey, “Cibola Burn”.
14. Frank Herbert, “Dune.”
15. Terry Pratchett, “Hogfather.”
16. Martin Walker, “Martin Walker’s Russia.”
17. Anthony Price, “Other Paths to Glory.”
18. Becky Chambers, “The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet”
19. David Lodge, “Out of the Shelter.”
20. Lois McMaster Bujold, “Mira’s Last Dance.”
21. Ben Aaronovich, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, “Night Witch.”
22. James Rebanks, “The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd.”
23. Francis Pryor, “Home”
24. Orlando Figes, “Natasha’s Dance.”
25. Tom Blass, “The Naked Shore of the North Sea.”
26. Terry Pratchett, “Carpe Jugulum.”
27. Neil Gaiman, “Norse Mythology.”
28. Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods”.
29. Barbara Hambly, “Fever Season.”
30. Jonathan Raban, “Bad Land.”
31. John Scalzi, “Old Man’s War.”
32. JK Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
33. Lady Brassey, “The Voyage of the Sunbeam.”
34. Marie Brennan, “The Natural History of Dragons.”
35. Barbara Hambly, “Graveyard Dust.”
36. Barbara Hambly, “Sold Down The River.”
37. Tom Holland, “In the Shadow of the Sword.”
38. Aviolot, “The Course of Honour.”
39. Michael Haag, “The Durrells of Corfu.”
40. John Scalzi, “The Ghost Brigades.”
41. Charlotte M Yonge,”The Pillars of the House.”
42. Margaret Mitchell, "Gone With The Wind."
43. Mike Brearley, “The Art of Captaincy.”
44. Rachel Held Evans, "Searching for Sunday."
45. Becky Chambers, "A closed and common orbit."
46. Marie Brennan, "Tropic of Serpents."
47. Marie Brennan, "The Voyage of the Basilisk."
48. Marie Brennan, "Labyrinth of Drakes."
49. Richards Adams, "Watership Down."
50. Marie Brennan, "in the Sanctuary of Wings."
51. Gary M Pomerantz, "Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn."
52. Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
53. James M. MacPherson, "Battle Cry of Freedom: The American Civil War."
54. Andrew Caldecott, "Rotherweird.
55. Ben MacIntyre, "The Great Betrayal."
56. Barbara Hambly, “Wet Grave.”
57. Barbara Hambly, “Day of the Dead.”
58. Tony Hillerman, “The fallen Man.”
59. LM Montgomery, “Anne of Green Gables.”
60. LM Montgomery, “Anne of Avonlea.”
61. Tony Hillerman, “The Blessing Way.”
62. Tony Hillerman, “Dancehall of the Dead.”
63. Tony Hillerman, “Listening Woman.”
64. John Preston, “A Very English Scandal.”
65. Barbara Hambly, “Dead and Buried”
66. O Douglas, “Priorsford.”
67. O. Douglas, “Penny Plain.”
68. O. Douglas, “Pink Sugar.”
69. Nadia Bolz Weber, “Accidental Saints.”
70. Rebecca Sloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”
71. Barbara Hambly, “The Shirt on His Back.”
72. Robert MacFarlane, “The Old Ways.”
73. Dorothy L Sayers, “Clouds of Witness.”
74. HV Morton, “The Spell of London.”
75. HV Morton, “In Search of Wales.”
76. Ruthanna Emrys, “The Litany of Earth.”
77. Ruthanna Emrys, “Wintertide.”
78. Barbara Hambly, “Good Man Friday.”
79. Laura Everett, “Holy Spokes.”
80. Bujold, “Penric’s Demon.”
81. Bujold. “Penric and the Shaman.”
82. Bujold, “Penric’s Mission.”
83. Bujold, “Penric’s Fox.”
84. Bujold, “Mira’s Last Dance.”
85. Jem Bloomfield, “The Psalms Mystery.”
86. HV Morton, “A Traveller in Southern Italy”.
87. David McCullough, “John Adams.”
88. Ken Clarke, “A Kind of Blue”
89. Rebecca West, “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.”
90. Simon Winder, “Danubia.”
91. Ann Leckie, “Provenance.”
92. Catherine Fox, “Acts and Omissions.”
93. Ben Aaronovich, “The Furthest Station.”
94. Simon Winder, “Germania.”
95. Catherine Fox, “Unseen Things Above.”
96. Julia Child, “My Life in France.”
97. Jane Robinson, “Bluestockings.”
98. Bujold, “The Prisoner of Limnos”
99. Bujold, “Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.”
100. JIM Stewart, “A Staircase in Surrey.”
101. Traci Smith, “Faithful Families.”
102. Ann Leckie, “Ancilliary Justice.”
103. Max Gladstone, “Three Parts Dead.”
104. Terry Pratchett, “Going Postal.”
105. Giovannii Guareschi, “Don Camillo and his Flock.”
106. Dervla Murphy, “Don Camillo and Peppone”.
107. Dervla Murphy, “Full Tilt”
108. Mary Stewart, “Airs Above the Ground”
109. Dervla Murphy, “Wheels Within Wheels.”
110. Mary Stewart, “The Gabriel Hounds.”
111. Ngaio Marsh, “Artists in Crime.”
112. Ngaio Marsh, “Died in the Wool”
113. Sarah Gailey, “River of Teeth.”
114. Sarah Gailey, “Taste of Marrow.”
115. Terry Pratchett, “Guards! Guards!”
116. Ngaio Marsh, “Singing in the Shorouds.”
117. Max Gladstone, “Two Serpents Rising.”
118. Terry Pratchett, “Monstrous Regiment.”
119. L.A. Hall, “The Comfortable Courtesan: Vol. 1”
120. Eric Newby, “The Big Red Train Ride.”
121. Eric Newby, “On the Shores of the Mediterranean.”
122. Alastair Reynolds, “Revenger.”
123. Tove Jansson, “The Summer Book.”
124. Hampton Sides, “In The Kingdom of Ice.”
125. JIM Stewart, "Young Pattullo."
126. Diccon Bewes, "Slow Train to Switzerland."
127. Simon Shama, "The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words."

I was thinking - mid washing-up - about Voyage to Venus, specifically about the way in which the plot requires Ransom to kill Weston, or at least to kill his body if we assume that Weston's soul really is gone and not capable of being restored.

Why isn't some kind of exorcism a possible solution, and why doesn't it even occur to Ransom that it might be?

I mean, yes, the series is full of plot holes, even if you prefer to pretend that That Hideous Strength didn't happen, or alternatively that the Director isn't actually Ransom at all given that he isn't actually all that much like him, Symbolic Wounds aside*, and could have benefited from a rigorous beta reader. But that one seems particularly odd.


* In the immortal words of Dorothy L Sayers, "I liked Ransom better before he took to lying on sofas like the Heir of Redclyffe", though I think she was actually being a little unfair to Yonge there.

Anyone else get massive "Always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm" vibes off this (i.e., I am not reminded of Cold Comfort Farm, but of what it's satirising?)

I enjoyed the new Ben Aaronovitch, but I am not at all pleased about ( massive spoiler )

Books read recently
Finished the Civil War book, also The Line of Beauty, which I enjoyed, but found curiously unsatisfying. Maybe it was just that I didn't like most of the characters.

Currently reading

Peter Ackroyd, Venice.

The Cambridge Companion to St Paul.

Anything on the Camino, or Northern Spain, I can scare up.