Termination Shock, Neal Stephenson

 

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson is the latest novel from Stephenson.

Started: 6/24/2022
Completed: 6/30/2022
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: Saw a notice from Stephenson about this book on his Twitter account

Words for which I sought help:

abaft -- in or behind the stern of a ship

Review:

SPOILERS, so be 'ware.

I really wanted to enjoy this book.  Stephenson took a scientific truth (great start), implemented it (still happy), and started to look at the potential impacts (hey, this is great stuff).  The Stephenson threw in royalty (seems unnecessary) getting busy with a pig hunter (really, come on now) in an effort to up the drama and make the book more of a thriller then a science fiction novel (bad, bad move).  I like Stephenson's Science Fiction and Fantasy.  I tolerate that he is not great at understanding people's motivations.  It feels, however, that he stretched much too far in this novel and worked too hard to do the traditional girl meets boy, girl gets boy, girl loses boy, then boy saves girl (WHAT?!?).

In my opinion Stephenson took some well developed characters and then made them all take left turns so that things would wrap up with a bow.  It was unpleasant.  He spent a fair amount of time developing minor characters who did not matter.  It seemed like every time he needed a coincidence, he made things maddeningly complex in an effort to bring the coincidence about.  Either, this should have been a much bigger book or a much shorter book, but I'm no editor and I cannot figure out which it should have been.  I cannot recommend it as it is.

Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, Peter Pomerantsev

 

Nothing is True and Everything is Possible:  The surreal heart of the new Russia by Peter Pomerantsev is a book I picked up trying to understand the Russia where Putin felt comfortable going on wars of acquisition.

Started: 6/20/2022
Completed: 6/22/2022
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

mendicant -- beggar

Review:

Stunningly, this book is already out of date.  It is helpful to understand how modern Russia transitioned, but the things about which this book might speculate happened a while ago.  The Russian approach of absconding with the very concept of truth has inculcated American culture and the presidency.  Ugh.

How the Light Gets In, Louise Penny

 

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny is the next Inspector Gamache novel.

Started: 6/17/2022
Completed: 6/20/2022
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My parents

Review:

Hopefully this book marks the end of the broader issues with Gamache being attacked by his superiors.  Without providing specifics, it is difficult to explain exactly why my hope lies here.  I liked the return to Three Pines and the return of characters to roles one might expect.  This book has a certain amount of drawn out suspense and misdirection.  As usual.  I like the return.  Still not as good as some of her first books, but I feel like the Penny ship-of-state is turning in the correct direction.

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin

 

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin is a book I read years ago and wanted to read again.

Started: 6/15/2022
Completed: 6/17/2022
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a great book and the introduction from Le Guin was a great addition from the version I read over 30 years ago.  I had forgotten almost all the details from the book (with the broad exception of a trek across the ice).  I vaguely remembered the concept of changing sex in response to a regular rhythm that depended on the partners involved.  I think that I missed many of the details of how this type of sexuality impacted so many different things.  Truly a wonderful book with many good features to recommend it and well worth not reading once, but twice!

The Beautiful Mystery, Louise Penny

 

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny is the next book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series.

Started: 6/11/2022
Completed: 6/15/2022
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: My parents

Review:

I am consistently annoyed by how Penny goes after her characters.  The endless attack on Gamache seems stale and the latest feint is nothing less than annoying.  The step off into the monastery gives time for Peter to spend his penance  away from Three Pines, but it feels a bit like I have spent a similar (likely needless) penance as well.  Since Penny has decided that it would be "unrealistic" for a group of people to just like each other and work together, she has found ways to undermine and attack the group through the last couple of books.  I hope this is the end of it.  This book did not leave me upbeat.  The information about Gregorian chants was far more interesting then I would have expected.

This Will Not Pass, Martin and Burns

 

This Will Not Pass:  Trump, Biden, and the battle for America's future by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns

Started: 6/6/2022
Completed: 6/11/2022
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My wife

Review:

This does feel like another "history as it happens" kind of journalistic book, but the authors did a good job of also putting together a coherent narrative.  Trump sucks for some serious reasons, but the centrist (if you are a liberal) or the liberal (if you are a centrist) arm of the Democratic party is holding the party back.  I found the book worth the time for the incredible detail of the analysis of the process to try to pass the Build Back Better Bill.  The ominous sound of Trump continuing in the background is a worrisome, but the impact of his presence on party leaders (like McCarthy) is telling.  Can the country step back from the brink?

Kleptopia, Tom Burgis

 

Kleptopia: How dirty money is conquering the world by Tom Burgis seems apropos of Trump

Started: 6/4/2022
Completed: 6/6/2022
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

There is a staggering cycle of steal, wash, and repeat in a worldwide series of kleptocrats.  Now, they are going after entire nations as a way to create their own reality.  I cannot pretend to remember or keep track of everything Burgis is describing, but I can keep an eye on the scale.  This is the second book I've read in this style of understanding how a small group of people are able to present alternate facts and break the nations in which they operate.  Now it is in the United States.

The Ladies of the Secret Circus, Constance Sayers

 

The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers

Started: 5/31/2022
Completed: 6/4/2022
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: This book showed up in a list of recommendations from Kobo

Review:

Trapeze artists do not "swing."  They "fly."  This is a fundamental thing in a circus.  It immediately drew me out of the work and it took me a while to get back into the story.  I happen to work in DC, so the comments about the First District police office in DC being something special threw me for a loop.  I was pretty sure I'd been by the small brick office and, sure enough, it is a tiny, two story building in Eastern Market.  Another time Sayers just failed to do some research--it was, once again, jarring.

I really, really wanted to like this book, but it was largely predictable.  There was a great reveal at the end that I did not see coming, but the plot points were extremely predictable for the most part as the initial set-up completed.  I did not enjoy this book which is a disappointment to me.  The characters were largely flat and the appearance of Hemingway and Picasso had an amateurish feel ("wouldn't it be cool if...").  I did not enjoy it.