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HAF book club: October poll and discussion

Started by Sandra Craft, September 22, 2018, 04:13:51 AM

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Sandra Craft

All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini
In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

Dark Intelligence, by Neal Asher
Thorvald Spear has been brought back from the dead. Killed a century earlier by Penny Royal, an unstable AI who turned rogue in the middle of a human versus alien war, the resurrected Spear has one thing on his mind: revenge.  Crime lord Isobel Satomi got more than she bargained for when she struck a deal with Penny Royal. Turning part-AI herself gave her frightening power, but the upgrade came with horrifying repercussions—and it's turning Isobel into something far from human.  Spear hires Isobel to track down Penny Royal, but as she continues her metamorphosis, it's clear that Isobel's monstrous transformations will eventually become uncontrollable. Will Spear finish his hunt before becoming the hunted?

The Tortilla Curtain, by T. C. Boyle
A novel about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. It was awarded the French Prix Médicis Étranger prize for best foreign novel in 1997.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon
For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.

Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Sandra Craft

Another tie.  I know Davin and I have voted, does the third voter want to volunteer to be tie-breaker if the numbers don't change by the 29th?
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Sandra Craft

Dark Intelligence it is.  I think if we like this one I'll add the rest of the series to the list.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Davin

I'm in the middle of a big book, so I won't be starting this one until the 10th and then finishing it on the 20th. But I'm looking forward to this one.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Sandra Craft

I have to admit that, tho I enjoyed Dark Intelligence at the beginning, after about chapter 3 it began to seem like much of a sameness to me.  It may be just that it's military SF, probably my least favorite form of space opera.  I'm about half way thru now and will continue reading just for the sake of finishing, maybe it will pick up for me later.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Davin

I finished it on Friday, and I have about the same feeling. It wasn't that great, but it wasn't bad either.

The story is alright, there might be some spoilers, but I feel like it was heavily alluded to since the start of the book so it wasn't much of a surprise for me.

The main character seemed way too prepared to live in a universe that progressed a century since his death. I liked the two characters that were switching places, the human becoming the crab thing (Satori I think) and the crab thing becoming a human (Sverl I think). I'm not that great at remembering names. But the main characters Spear name seemed a bit too on the nose, though I think it was handled well by the character himself making mentions of the "coincidence."

The Dark AI, Penny Dreadful was tough for me to get a grasp of the motivation on. I get that it's an AI and they have been described in a way that would make getting a handle on motivation difficult, but the other AIs (and half AIs), seemed to be fine stable things that made it pretty easy to understand their motivations. Otherwise, I liked the character, it was overpowered, but as a literary device, I'm good with that when it's going against the main character.

The overall mood of the book though, it seemed like to get out of most scraps, the characters just so happened to have come across a person or thing to get them out, instead of figuring and planning and doing something themselves to get out. I don't mind that when it happens a few times, but it seemed too much for me in this book.

So, I liked it a little, but not much. I think it got better near the end when everything was coming together. Well mostly everything.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.