RED RISING is Star Wars meets 1984, on Mars. Set in the far-distant future, humanity has ventured from Earth to populate and alter the planets of the solar system.
Pierce Brown - Red Rising Trilogy
I’ve been doing “required reading” for well over a month, and now that that’s done I am a little at a loss. I don’t know where to start! So many good books have come out in the last few months, plus let us not forget the mountain of backlist waiting for “some day.” A crippling amount of possibility. Fortunately someone just told me that I MUST READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY (it doesn’t come out until February 2014 in the meantime, which just goes to prove that I am perpetually either 6 months behind or 6 months ahead) so I started it last night. I haven’t gotten to the Star Wars part yet; if I had to I’d say probably that the first 50 pages remind me more of the Mudder Colony in Firefly, but this is in no way a bad thing. —Jenn
What We’re Reading This Week!
Jenn says: I am not actually reading anything new since last week, because this is one of those weeks where there is no Time. And not just no Time to be found but Time is maybe on vacation because it’s also not answering my calls? Put up an Out of Office or something, dude!
I figured instead, I’d let you in on my Big Book summer reading plans. Last year I finally read Infinite Jest, which is a book that I had never faked reading but I had a lot of theoretical feelings about. Of course, once I read it I had even more actual feelings, in the best possible way. This summer, I’ve decided to finally read Godel Escher Bach, which (to my shame) I have indeed faked familiarity with. It feels like, as a speculative fiction junkie in particular, it’s something I should be familiar with already! It’s constantly referenced — I can think of at least one fictional character off the top of my head who claims it as her favorite book — and people are always so proud and excited when they buy their copy at the store. So, this summer, I solemnly swear I will stop the fakery and actually read it. I will. Just as soon as May is over and Time returns from vacation.
What We’re Reading This Week!
Rebecca says: It’s all big summer blockbusters all the time for me, right now. I took a big bite out of Benjamin Percy’s modern day werewolf story Red Moon over the weekend—nothing like sweating it out in the sun with a bone-chilling read—and I am straight up loving it. Lycans are A Known Thing in American society, but they’re treated as second-class citizens and forced to take medication to prevent transitioning. A bunch of them have even started a Lupine Republic in Europe so they can do their thing in freedom. There’s a lot of social and political commentary implied in Percy’s presentation of how the lycans are treated (and mis-treated), and there are plenty of interesting lines to draw to real-life current events, terrorism, and global issues if that’s the sort of thing you’re into. But if you just want big, bad monsters and a well-paced story with multiple narrative perspectives, you’ll find that too. This one’s good!
I’m also burning through Dan Brown’s new novel Inferno. I know I’m supposed to roll my eyes at D. Brizzle (that’s what I call him now), but I just can’t resist. Yes, the stories are ridiculous. But they’re not pretending to be anything but that! They’re fun and entertaining, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need. Symbologist Robert Langdon is solving a mystery related to Italian art and Dante’s Inferno, and there are soooo many mentions of the female lead’s ponytail. It’s bonkers, and I’m loving it.
Like a lot of great war stories, the actual combat is a very very very small part of it — which is also really bold for a comic, I think. There’s not a lot of action, there’s a lot of dialogue, and a lot of political maneuvering. … Ennis is a great writer about war and about soldiers and you can really see that. It’s much more contemplative than most comics have any right to be.
Josh on Garth Ennis’s Fury Max: My War Gone By (Episode 54)
I think that it is the most fun that I’ve had reading this year, and I feel like it’s going to hold that place for me for 2013 the way that Angelmaker held that spot last year — this was just really fun and it’s going to be hard to top.
Rebecca on Simon Rich’s The Last Girlfriend on Earth (Episode 54)
What We’re Reading This Week!
Josh says: I can’t say I’ve read much lately that’s mind-blowing, earth-shattering, un-fucking-believable life-changing capital-L LITERATURE. However, I have been reading a ton of stuff that I’ve really, really enjoyed. And that’s just as good.
I’m about halfway through The Audacity of Hops, Tom Acitelli’s new beer history. Other than a brief preamble, the book’s chief concern is the craft beer movement that kicked off in the 60s and 70s in the US. It’s an essential look at the history of the craft, regional, and “micro-” breweries that dot the country and brew some of the world’s best beer. It picks up right where Maureen Ogle’s Ambitious Brew (the other essential stateside beer history) left off.
I picked up John O’Bryan’s A History of Weapons at the bookstore on a whim, and came away mighty impressed. I have a deep-seated masculine urge to ogle weapons, and O’Bryan’s breezy book covers everything from rocks and clubs to relatively modern fare. It could be dryly technical like DK’s Military History, but O’Bryan (a comedy writer by trade) injects some wicked humor. Examples? Weapons get an ease of use rank, from easy enough for your cat to only Batman and Bruce Lee need apply. A post-Revolutionary War chapter is titled “‘Merica! Eating Possum and Sh*tting Freedom.” Curses abound, with glee.
Buying Fear Agent Library Edition Vol 1 is the best $50 you’ll spend on a comic this month. The massive (seriously, we couldn’t fit it on the shelf at the store) book collects the first three trades of Rick Remender and Tony Moore’s Fear Agent in a handsome oversize hardcover. I read most of the spectacular series in trades borrowed from the library over the years, but I’m excited to have the first half of the run in a single book to dig through. The second library edition is due out from Dark Horse later this year.
Despite self-admitted science fiction superfandom, Philip K. Dick is one of my major reading blind spots. I’ve seen a few films based on his work, but I can’t say I’ve ever read a word of his short stories or novels. I asked on Twitter where to start, and a number of people pointed to The Man in the High Castle, an alternate history that concerns Axis rule of the United States. I’m psyched to get deeper into this one.
What We’re Reading This Week!
Jenn says: Preeti and I are working on a reread of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams for Book Riot! Picking Adams back up is both like being united with old friends and like turning back into my teenage self. Which is sometimes uncomfortable and awkward but mostly pretty awesome. Goddamn the man is funny.
Today I’m starting Both Flesh and Not by David Foster Wallace so that I’ll be prepared for our discussion next week at WORD — it’s up next as part of our DFW Appreciation Society series of events. I haven’t read any Wallace since finishing Infinite Jest last summer, and I think I’m finally ready again.
And, of course, I’m reading She by H. Rider Haggard for our upcoming book group podcast. It’s been a while since I read any 1800s lit and turns out, I really missed it! I love the formality, the posturing, the high sense of adventure in what was basically a “pop” novel. I don’t love the racial and sexual politics, but nothing is perfect.
If you read 50 Shades of Grey but you wanted it to be dirtier and not as cheesy, but for the sex to be along the same lines, The Siren will do that. … Not every scene in the book will be for you, but some of them will be and the ones that are will be gooooood. Also I advise you not to read it while lying on the couch in your parents’ living room, ‘cause that shit is awkward.
Rebecca on Tiffany Reisz’s The Siren (Episode 54)
What We’re Reading This Week!
Rebecca says: No entry here has ever captured my eclecticism as a reader quite so fully. Variety being the spice of life and all, I’m going to go with it.
Last week, I had the great good fortune to be in Porstmouth, NH visiting a bookseller friend when Terry Tempest Williams (whose latest book When Women Were Birds is nothing short of incredible) had an event at RiverRun Bookstore. The evening was a highlight of my reading life, and I had to pick up Refuge. It is quiet and lovely and so heartbreaking, and it has been the perfect after-work companion this week.
Then there’s my smut du jour, Tiffany Reisz’s The Angel, the second in her Original Sinners series. I’m reading this one at bedtime (I mean, you sort of have to), and while I’m not down with all of its dirtybadfun scenes, I sure am enjoying most of them.
It’s kind of like, if the Harry Potter books and the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander had a baby, it would be The Dark is Rising.
Jenn on Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising: The Complete Sequence (Episode 54)
