Random’s Comments (group member since Apr 30, 2009)

Random’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

So I did a little poking around last night.

Part 1 - Agatha Christie
The murder mystery. This one seems pretty straight forward.

Part 2 - Franz Kafka
Diagnostics - overly complex and illogical bureaucracy

Part 3 - George Orwell
The Farm - I would say this would be a quite Orwellian dystopian society

Part 4 - Jorge Luis Borges
The Library - I think this might be a reference to his short story The Library of Babel. Its about a universe that is an infinite library containing every possible book made from a limited set of characters., meaning it holds all knowledge and all nonsense.

Part 5 - Dante
God - my guess is this is a reference to Dante's Inferno, but I'm really kind of just guessing at this point.

While I was putting this together, one thing stood out to me in regards to Part 1. The Inspector was like one in a mystery book. It expected everything to work out how it would work out in a mystery story and so could not handle it when things weren't like that, such as Charles admitting to it right away.

Now I didn't initially notice this because I primarily listened to the audiobook and did not pay attention to the section names

Each section name is a reference

Part 1: KR15-T - Christie
Part 2: K4FK-R - Kafka
Part 3: 4W-L - Orwell
Part 4: 80RH-5 - Borges
Part 5: D4NT-A - Dante

Sadly I only have direct experience with Christie and Orwell so much of the reference is lost on me. But I thought I would bring it up to see what others might have to say on the subject.

I will warn everyone who has loved this author's hard SF (Children of Time, etc) that this is not one of those.

As I mentioned in the nominations, I think of it more like if Douglas Adams wrote WALL-E. A bit sweet, a bit social commentary, a bit silly, a bit ridiculous.

Kathi wrote: "That may have been my review—I gave it a 2.."

OMG you are right. I didn't even notice when I looked at the review. :D

I could have sworn I had responded to this yesterday but apparently I did not actually hit the Post button.

SO I appear to have bitten off way more than I could chew for this month in regards to reading commitments. And then life happened and I've been a bit distracted and haven't had the opportunity to read much.

Which means I haven't started my reread. But its only been three months so I should still be good for the discussion.

This is difficult because almost all of the books I have read have an average rating somewhere between 3 and 4 stars and sometimes even higher. And honestly I wouldn't see an avg rating of between a 3 and a 4 as people not liking it.

But, I think I have two which come the closest to the spirit of the question.

First is the short story All Manner of Thing Shall Be
Avg - 2.68
Me - 4
I liked the quirkiness of the characters.
(view spoiler)[I also enjoyed how they realize they are in a time loop but in the end don't seem to actually mind. (hide spoiler)]
The one written review basically said they didn't like it for the same reason I liked it.

The second was At the End of Every Day
Avg - 2.77
Me - 4

Again, people tended to dislike it for many the same reasons I enjoyed it. Its a bit surreal, a very slow burn, and takes some concentration to keep things straight, made more difficult with how surreal it can be.
(view spoiler)[Plus it has an unreliable narrator and I am such a sucker for those. (hide spoiler)]

I haven't updated for a bit and the month is almost over.

Since Merlin's Tour of the Universe, I have read

The Shattering Peace
was ok. This series is just not my favorite of Scalzi's.

For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics
Been meaning to read this forever. I found it more interesting than I expected as it also contained biographical information as well as just how much the fields of physics and astronomy have exploded since he was first coming into the fields.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
It was lacking in that black humor we see so often in his books, but I still enjoyed it.

Made me think of stories my mom would tell. She graduated highschool in 1961 from a very small and very rural school. So small that 3 little towns shared it and it covered all grades.

If I am remembering correctly, 3 girls in her class got pregnant.
She didn't know what had happened to one
a second was lucky. She and the guy really loved one another. She kept the baby, they got married, and they had a lot of support from their families. Last she had heard when she was telling this to me, they were still together.
The third girl was sent away to one of those places. She committed suicide.

You know, with all the witchcraft stuff, it was the realistic portions that were actually scarry.

And now I am on a reread of Blindsight for another group. I really did not intend to reread it, but I couldn't help myself. I just love it so much. :)

After that I am considering a reread of Service Model. It hasn't been that long since I read it, but since I nominated the book, I felt I should refresh my memory. :)

Enjoying your time reading and enjoying what you are reading is the entire point IMO. :)

I've made progress on my goal. 2 out of the 16 have been read already. And then I bit off way more than I could chew for group discussion for late Jan/Feb which is including a few rereads. And at least one of those is my own fault (Service Model). :D

I've never been much of a fan of alt history. Though that might be my reaction to most of the alt history I have seen, which was completely obsessed with either the American Civil War or WW1/WW2.

The south lost the American Civil War. The Nazis lost WW2. Can we please finally put these this crap behind us? I swear so many of our problems today are because we cannot learn our lessons from these wars and move on.

While Alt History does fall very squarely within spec fic's speculative nature, I just personally prefer to look forward from now instead of looking backwards. (I'm not a fan of historical fiction either for similar reasons.)

A couple exceptions where I find the concept interesting was

West of Eden by Harry Harrison
Dinosaurs did not become extinct and evolved into intelligent beings and are the dominant species when humans arrive on the scene

However, I was way too young to read this when I did (I was still in grade school) and it was never really my choice to read it anyway (that's a long story). So my understanding wasn't great, I'm not sure if I even finished it, and I've never had the desire to pick it up again nor read the later books in the series. It was one of the few situations where adults interfered with my reading choices for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with me at all.

Another would be Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series. Alt History Steampunk, it does take place in the general Civil War era, though the first two books do not deal directly with that war. Its a series I've considered continuing, but just haven't had the motivation. The first book was especially fun for me as it takes place in Seattle. I live in the burbs and actually worked in Seattle at the time. I'd take lunch time walks, stare at the skyline, and try to work out where things would have been. :)

I have been a member multiple times.

First time was when I was a teenager (mid/late 80s).
I received something in the mail talking about the club and all of the books and I begged my mom for a solid week before she would agree to let me do it.

I didn't have a checking account yet so I had no way to pay for any of it without me giving her my cash and she writing the check.

The only quirk was that you had to return the form every month to decline the two featured books, otherwise they would send those books to you and you would be responsible. i thought it was worth it though cause I could get lots and lots of books for low prices and it was so worth it.

SFBC introduced me to
- Reger Zelazny's Amber series
- Douglas Adams HHGTTG series
- Elric of Meliabone series
- Stranger in a Strange Land
- Young Wizards series
- The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams

I also picked up a lot of classics through it, though its muddy in my head on how many I found at the library and how many I got through the book club. It has been around 40 years. :)

I also loved the fact that many of the books were omnibus editions, which made getting series rather cheap

I ended up having to unsubscribe. Between basic training and college, I needed to depend on my parents to mark the books as not wanted every month and return the forms (via snail mail).
And they almost never did, which means I ended up owing a lot of money (at least a lot to me at the time.) That seriously broke my heart.

Then later, my husband and I rejoined a few years after we got married. I know I discovered Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series on this round, but I can't remember much more.

I can't quite remember why we unsubscribed that time. I think it was likely due to dot com burst in the earlyish 2000s and the financial uncertainties that came with it.

I do still have fond memories of that book club.

It doesn't really matter to me I think. It doesn't bother me to stop a reading session in the middle of a chapter. If it needs to be short, it can be short. if it needs to be long, it can be long. For the most part I think I just don't notice.

An example: Anyone ever noticed that many books of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series don't have chapters at all? I never noticed it until my husband pointed it out to me.

I finished last night.

I'm not sure exactly how I feel. Its been a long time since I read the Last Colony and Zoe's Tale, but my husband said they weren't required so I went a head and gave it a go without any rereads.

I did spend a good portion of the book wishing I had better memory of some of the things that had happened and the different species. It didn't keep me from understanding the story, but I did feel like I was missing out a little. Maybe that would have been better if there hadn't been such a large gap (12 years).

The conflict resolution seemed a little too easy for the stakes. I wondered for a while if this might be the start of a new section of the series, but with where it left off, maybe not.

Overall I didn't dislike it, but at the same time I didn't really like it either. Rating will be difficult. I don't feel like I can give it 4 stars, but 3 seems a little low.
Lets say 3.5.

Frustrating for a fan of the author, but we can't like everything I guess. :)

So I realized I needed to add one additional book to my challenge. I would have added it initially, likely in the place of another, but I forgot to check my on-hold shelf.

Faller
I considered removing one of the others, but for now I'll just make it 16 books.

I've had it on my shelves since 2017

Kathi wrote: "(You knew this was coming, right?) 😁 :-D"

In fact i have been waiting for it. :D

So as I'm sure I have stated enough times to make people sick of hearing it, I very specifically do not set reading goals for myself. I've always felt reaching for an arbitrary number as putting stress and pressure on a subject I do for relaxation and enjoyment.

However, this year I'm doing something a little different.

Between one of the Question of the Week that got me thinking about abandoned series and a different conversation with someone about authors I'd been dragging my feet on reading (ex: Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson, Kage Baker, Glen Cook, Jodi Taylor), I felt like there was the making of a challenge I might be able to get behind.

So I went through my to-read and wishlist shelves and my library in general. I added and subtracted, massaged some data and in the end came up with a list that I thought was doable but contained absolutely none of the authors I listed above. :D

My issue came about because all of those authors are LARGE series and I really did not want to commit to large series and potentially add to my abandoned series list. Maybe I will look at those next year.

Challenge: Read books that have been on my to-read/wishlist that have been long neglected for no good reason.

Rules:
- The chosen books have spent a minimum of 5 years either on to-read/wishlist shelves or a book I have already owned for the same minimum time period
- Books have been either highly recommended to me or just seem right up my alley
- Books must be stand alone as I do not want to either get bogged down by large series or add to my abandoned series list
- Needs to be new to me authors (my traditional unofficial yearly goal)
- Must either already own the book or the book is easily available
- A small enough list so that this does not dominate my reading for 2026. This challenge should never start to feel like a chore

I came up with a list of 15 books, 10 fiction, 5 non fiction. I will list each book below followed by the number of years I have been sitting on it. Some of these are quite embarrassing.

Fiction
- Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente (13 years)
- The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas (12 years)
- Résumé With Monsters by William Browning Spencer (11 years)
- Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman (10 years)
- Among Others by Jo Walton (9 years)
- Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear (8 years)
- Broken Time by Emily Devenport/Maggy Thomas (7 years at least)
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (6 years)
- The Croning by Laird Barron (6 years)
- The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas (4.5 years)

Non Fiction
- The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life by Nick Lane (9 years)
- Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier (8 years)
- Merlin's Tour of the Universe: A Traveler's Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far by Neil deGrasse Tyson (7 years) ( know, I know! I can't believe I haven't read him before)
- Honeysuckle Creek : The Story of Tom Reid, a Little Dish and Neil Armstrong's First Step by Andrew Tink (6 years)
- For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics by Walter Lewin (6 years)

If you look at those book lists, you might notice a couple places where I broke my own rules.

Dark Orbit is a part of a group of stand alone books set in a shared universe so I felt it qualified with the spirit of the no series goal.

Merlin's Tour of the Universe is also in a series. However, this is a thematic and not narrative series, so again I felt it fell in with my no series goal

The Psychology of Time Travel hasn't been on my radar for the minimum of 5 years, but its really close (like 4 months). The Audiobook has also spent over a year on my phone waiting for me to start it. So I gave it a little extra credit. :)

Technically I don't believe Greg Bear is new to me author. I have a very strong memory of reading Eon back in the 80s. Well ok I have a strong memory of me having the book back in the 80s. Actually I know I had it because I still have it. However I have absolutely no memory of the contents of this book. I read synopsis, even went through reading reviews and absolutely nothing about any of it rang a bell. So I felt he will qualify as a new to me author.

I hesitate to put a number on how many of these I want to finish, so I'm not. But I do want to use this as a way to encourage myself to work on this list. I already have one down. Lets see how much progress I can make on it this year.

My first book of the year was Merlin's Tour of the Universe: A Traveler's Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far, originally published in 1989 and was Neil deGrasse Tyson's first published book.

But I read the revised edition, which was published in 2024, so not technically his first.

But, I am going to allow it because I say so. :D

Kateblue wrote: "That sounds really good."

Its basically a question/answer book. Really good for reading in brief chunks of time.

Lindsety wrote: "Plus Swordheart because it arrived last week and fell open and now I'm on page 195..."
Gotta love books that seem to conspire to make you read them. :)

I'm both very similar and the opposite here.
I did not like the early books, including Zoe's Tale, but did enjoy the later two ones (The Human Division and The End of All Things

I have honestly been dragging my feet on this book. While I am a Scalzi fan, Old Man's War series is not among his stuff that I have liked.

However, because my husband bought it on release and its currently sitting on my phone, I'll give it a go as soon as I finish my current book, so probably by tomorrow.

I started Merlin’s Tour of the Universe, Revised and Updated for the Twenty-First Century: A Traveler’s Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far last night while I was failing to fall asleep because the fireworks just kept going for almost an entire hour.

I felt so very old on so many levels. :D

I'm on vacation this week and I know exactly what you mean by the nap thing. The older we get, the more value we give to sleep.

Ah, to be young again when we could convince ourselves that sleep was optional. :D

On that note, I am on vacation this week and have, so far, read exactly 0 books or stories. I've been getting caught up on so many other things.

As I have said hundreds of times I am sure. I don't really do reading goals or challenges. That makes it work and puts pressure and I don't want that for something I do for fun.

With that said, I do have a bit of an unofficial goal, which has been to read new (to me) authors. I decided to look in to the books I read this year and it seems I have read 20 new to me authors this year and there's a possibility one or two more might get added before the year is over. I would consider that a success.

Among those new (to me) authors, one stood out.
Craig Alanson. I got into a couple of his series this year. While not 5 star blow my mind type reads, they were good and I really enjoyed myself.

I have plans in this area for 2026. I'm guessing we'll have a new thread for that next week? :D

Best reads:
I have two 5 star reads this year.
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
and
Foe by Iain Reid

I don't always have a 5 star read every year, so I am pleased I was able to stumble across two in 2025.

I don't appear to have any real reading disappointments as I rated nothing lower than 3 stars (and I can still enjoy 3 star books).

If there was one disappointment, I would say it was Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It just seemed to drop some threads and I expect better from him.