Noticing that, and enjoying it for the way it's done. So far, I'm lovin' it (sorry, McDonalds).

I'm in the middle of reading The Boy on the Bridge. Good stuff so far. Really loved, The Girl with All the Gifts.

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It's very clever. When I was in my twenties, I loved self-consciously clever books like Catch-22 and Candide. They don't appeal to me anymore. I'd like to know how you feel about it.

I re-read The Deep Blue Goodbye, the first Travis McGee book by John D. MacDonald. The villain is disturbing.




I'm working my way through the free GoogleBooks Short Fiction by H.G. Wells. It's over 900 pages long. Some of it is dated. A lot of it is still brilliant today.

Just finished:

Nice ... I still need to read this and Someone Like You. Really enjoyed Girl with all the Gifts, Fellside, and the Koli trilogy (which was the most recent thing he wrote).

Finished:

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. Unlike Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility (which I haven't read yet, but I will) this doesn't have any sci-fi elements, although it ends up having some fantasy elements by the end. If I didn't read and enjoy Station Eleven this wouldn't have been on my radar at all (about a woman caught up in the drama of a massive Ponzi scheme). But I like Mandel's writing (the story had a dream-like character to it), and the frequent shifts through time and multiple characters kept my interest (and it was a relatively short novel).

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Finished up an audiobook on a long (11 hours) drive:

Goblin by Josh Malerman. I like the idea (interlocking stories set within the creepiest town in America) and the atmosphere Malerman builds. Although some of the stories didn't seem like they had enough meat for novella length, and they seemed to end just when things started to get going.

Finished reading:

Constance by Matthew Fitzsimmons. This was a fun quick read. And as the author mentions in the afterward, the basic premise (a detective thriller in which a clone investigates her own murder) is an interesting one. I saw there's a followup book scheduled for 2023 release, but thankfully this told a complete story (though I can see how another novel following up what happens to the main character in this one is possible).

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Thoughts?

I enjoyed it - and I cranked through it over a lazy weekend. Like his other recent releases this has a lot science/tech (this time focused on genes) and plays out like it needs to be a movie.

Of his recent three I'd put 'Recursion' as my favorite without hesitation, followed by 'Dark Matter' then 'Upgrade'
With that said - it's well worth a read if you liked his other stuff.

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Eternal Frontier - James H. Schmitz, Eric Flint editor.

The complete Schmitz was published in seven books in the early 2000s. This book was the odds and sods. It has several good stories, some mediocre ones, and a poor novel. It's easily the weakest book in the series.

It's too bad that the Schmitz stories never made the leap to movies or TV. They're fast-paced action-adventure science fiction stories, usually starring a super-smart teenage girl or young woman. At first I thought that they would be a natural for the current entertainment culture. But psychic battles are hard to show in a visual medium, and his stories are full of them.

Finished:

The Fisherman by John Langan. Really well-written horror in the folk/cosmic vein. I see Langan's mostly written short stories and he's had a number of collections. Can anymore recommend one of them?

Also finished:

Upgrade by Blake Crouch.

I agree ... while I enjoyed this book, I'd rank Dark Matter and Recursion (and the first book of the Wayward Pines trilogy) ahead. I've never read any of his non-SF stuff, but since he moved to the genre he reminds me of peak Michael Crichton. With Crouch being better at characterization and Crichton better at the action. I agree that his books seem tailor made to be movies, all of them having good "hook" concepts with potentially great cinematic scenes. Though if Upgrade is made into a movie I hope they [massive spoiler follows]:

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Tenniel's Alice. Harvard has a collection of the original artwork that was used for illustrating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. They published a book of their collection in 1978.

I found the book at a yard sale on my block. I'll add it to my Alice collection.

Finished Short Fiction by HG Wells on Google Play. It ended with a lot of strong stories.