ihatemusic

Forgot to update here for quite some time. Back at it: FOUNDATION TRILOGY - Isaac Asimov (1951-'53) I read the splendid Everyman’s Library edition – a hardback with an excellent 15-page introduction by Michael Dirda that’s isn’t expensive nonetheless. That introduction guided my reading a bit, and I...

A MOUNTAIN TO THE NORTH, A LAKE TO THE SOUTH, PATHS TO THE WEST, A RIVER TO THE EAST - László Krasznahorkai (2003, translated in 2022) One could approach this as a sensitive mythopoetic tale, about a grandson of a prince, living outside of space and time, wandering the grounds of a monastry in Kyoto...

Three new reviews: Shirley Jackson, GGK and PKD. WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE - Shirley Jackson (1962) (...) Harold Bloom is dead, and in 20 years time his work likely will only be read by a few academics. I think there’s a fair chance Shirley Jackson will still be read widely 50 years from no...

Three new reviews: a near-future climate thriller set on Hawaii, a near-future spy thriller and a 10k word analysis of Herbert's Chapterhouse: Dune. PACIFIC STORM - Linda Nagata (2020) Linda Nagata published her first book, The Bohr Maker, in 1995, and she is best known for her “nanopunk” novels – a...

I've also reviewed part two of Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota... SEVEN SURRENDERS - Ada Palmer (2017) It might seem strange for a book I thoroughly enjoyed, but this review will generally be critical – as I said, check the first review for the laudatory part, all of it still stands, even with the caveats...

2 new reviews, one of Pacific Edge by KSR, and one on Silverberg's Hawksbill Station. PACIFIC EDGE - Kim Stanley Robinson (1990) (...) All Three Californias books are stand-alone novels, each presenting a different future for an area south of Los Angeles – one about survivors of a nuclear war, anoth...

I want to spread the love for Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning, the first of 4 book series. Really one of the best books I've read the last couple of years. Not an easy read, but wholly original, and a bit of a love it or hate it affair. TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING - Ada Palmer (2016) (...) Similarly,...

THE WALL - Marlen Haushofer (1963) I don’t know why, but it seems I am drawn to books about singular women that have a heightened contact with nature. I’ve just read The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip, about a female wizard that grew up in isolation, surrounded by fantastic beasts. I a...

I've posted a list of my favorite non-fiction books on my blog. Philosophy is not included, I plan a separate list for that. https://schicksalgemeinschaft.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/favorite-non-fiction-books/ Just noticed your incredible posts, very informative and deeply researched I'll definitely ...

Seems like it has been a few months since I updated here. I'll just post the links, without excerpts, because it are too many reviews. A few short words below on most titles though. Stansilaw Lem: Fiasco (1986) Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions (1973) Glen Cook: The Black Company (1984) Richard Power...

I've written a few paragraphs on Denis Villeneuve's Dune. Review is here.

2 new posts, one a massive one, the 5th in my series on my reread of the Dune series. A SCANNER DARKLY - Philip K Dick (1977) (...) And while the focus is on the addicts, there is some amount of societal critique too, and just enough of the bigger context in which the broken characters function. On ...

INCANDESCENCE- Greg Egan (2008) “All I learnt in the void was that our best guess so far is certainly wrong.” While not totally unfamiliar with Greg Egan – I’ve read the brilliant Schild’s Ladder, and his early Quarantine – I did start Incandescence with the wrong expectations. The blurb of the Brit...

ROADSIDE PICNIC - Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (1972) (...) Anyhow, I agree with Lem that the final chapter – while I sympathize with its ultimate message, “HAPPINESS, FREE, FOR EVERYONE, AND LET NO ONE BE FORGOTTEN!” – isn’t the most successful of the book. It turns something that was fairly consisten...

Brilliant book on evolution, attempting to see if it is possible to derive universal laws from evolution on Earth, zooming in on the nature of 'minds'. Highly, highly recommended! CONTINGENCY AND CONVERGENCE - TOWARDS OF COSMIC BIOLOGY OF BODY AND MIND - Russell Powell (1980-1983) (...) For starters...

Aside the ones listed in the post above, I've also written 5500 words on The Book of the New Sun, focusing on the narrative trap Wolfe has set, and my theory that his literary sleight of hand serves a religious/mystical goal, much more than it is the supposed puzzle for the reader to unravel. There’...

Seems like I forgot to update here. Quite a few new reviews since my last post... NOVA SWING - M. John Harrison (2006) (...) This was another successful Harrison for me – and like his latest The Sunken Land Begins To Rise Again, one that I will probably reread in the coming decade, just as I will re...

I've written a bit on 2 books on James Turrell, the 2013 LACMA publication, and a 2018 one by Hatje Cantz for the Frieder Burda Museum.

It's here: https://schicksalgemeinschaft.wordpress ... 2013-2018/

THE HAIR-CARPET WEAVERS - Andreas Eschbach (1995, translated 2005) (...) While not fully perfect, the book is a gem that combines Le Guinish calm, mythical storytelling as in Earthsea, with a space opera plot that nods at Herbert and has the outrageous imagination of Iain M. Banks. I’d say this woul...

GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE - Frank Herbert (1981) This is the 4th post in a series on my reread of the Dune books, and it became yet another lengthy text of about 8,720 words. I’ve also written long analyses of Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. My text on Dune itself focuses on the issue of Paul as ...