Weyward (Audiobook) – Emilia Hart, Nell Barlow – Narrated by: Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley – 03.06.24

Hmm, this book has thousands of glowing reviews on Amazon, but for me it was just a bit bleah. At best a three out of five (and I’m a very generous marker!). I’ve read many similar books, most of them better.

It’s a timeslip novel following women in one family from the 16 hundreds to the modern day. The thread between them was supposed to be a witchy nature – ie connection to animals and plants and skill with herb lore etc as well as powers to control nature to a degree. I like a bit of magical realism, and would have liked more of that (I’m thinking of the, in my mind, much better book The Change by Kirsten Miller, in which women come into their witchy powers after going through the menopause and use their powers to help other women (and deserving men).

All the men in this book were awful – I know, sadly, that men abusing women has been a theme all through history but all the men in this book were either bullies or ineffectual.

The writing was okay but not fabulous – I’m not sure why the book has been so well received. Ah well. I was glad when I got to the end of it and could move on with my life.

Recursion – Blake Crouch – 01.06.23

I read this immediately after Cixin Lui’s Three Body Problem Trilogy, and in my review of it I compared it to fine dining – to stretch the analogy, this book is like an ice-cream sundae – fun, enjoyable but not quite as satisfying. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it – I liked it a lot, but The Three Body Problem was a hard sci-fi act to follow.

In Recursion, a scientist studying how the brain stores memories with a view to helping Alzheimer’s patients, stumbles across a world changing scientific discovery.

SPOILERS

A patient suffered a fatal heart attack while recalling a vivid memory in the sensory depravation chamber set up she used in her studies. Apparently, immediately after death, and before the brain completely shuts down, there’s a surge in the chemical that makes you see vivid images in your mind, like memories or dreams. Then the book gets a bit woolly about multi dimensions and time being a plane rather then a straight line and this super strong memory in the machine caused a warp in space time etc which basically sent the person’s awareness back in time to re-inhabit themselves from the past but with the memories of their whole as yet unlived life.

So lots of applications like saving loved ones from fatal accidents, or stopping wars or getting rich on the stock market etc, but things got weird with people getting ‘false’ memories, or double memories and then when all the world’s superpowers learned how to make their own time machines, the book’s hero had to find a way to prevent the whole world blowing itself up!

It was a fun sci-fi thriller with some nice love story elements and moral dilemmas and so forth. I enjoyed it.

Death’s End (The Three-Body Problem Book 3) – Cixin Liu and Ken Liu – 25.05.24

Reading the Three-Body Problem trilogy was kind of like climbing a mountain for me – hard work, and I wondered if I’d make it to the top, but so rewarding when I did (plus I get bragging rights!). I even paused it because I went on a cruise with my husband’s three siblings and their partners and thought it would be fun to read something light and set on a cruise (I went for A Cruise to Murder by Dawn Brookes, and it was like pausing in the middle of a Michelin starred taster menu to have a bite of a big mac – don’t get me wrong, big macs can be yummy, but A Cruise to Murder was totally outclassed by Death’s End, and I dropped the burger and returned to the gastronomy).

The whole series is quite bleak and sweeps across eons (hibernation and the difference in relative time when travelling vast differences meant one of the main characters at least made it right to the end).

I did find some comfort in how the series ended – there was a small glimmer of light in the darkness and for that I’m grateful. Since finishing I’ve read a couple of books (I’m always late getting around to writing up my reviews!) including Blake Crouch’s Recursion, and while it was a much faster paced and easier read, several times I felt that the science wouldn’t stand up to much scrutiny, whereas I never felt that reading Cixin’s books – given my albeit limited understanding of physics and science generally, the plot of The Three Body Problem books always seemed terrifyingly plausible if pessimistic.

Poor Things (Audiobook) – Alastair Gray – 17.05.24

My husband and I like to watch all the Oscar nominated films each year, and the adaptation of this book was by far my favourite and since I usually enjoy the book more than the film, of course I wanted to read this.

(I guess this review is kind of SPOILER-Y, so don’t read on if you don’t want SPOILERS!!)

For me, this was one of those rare occasions where I liked the book less than the film. While the story was basically the same, the film had a really lovely magical quality – from the staging and the sets to the slight tweaks in the plot. The film was like a beautiful coming of age fairy tale with really good good guys and really bad bad guys and everyone getting their comeuppance, and while I know that life is not really like that, and in many cases I got annoyed by Hollywood making stories too nice, I loved the film, and then I read the book and it was a bit like bursting my bubble.

I guess if I hadn’t seen the film then I wouldn’t have come to the book with any expectations, but I did, and so I can’t give a objective response. The book was just a bit grubbier, for instance, the Scientist, Godwin Baxter, in the book was creating Bella to be his wife, although to be fair, when she didn’t see him that way he didn’t push it. The good guys were not so altruistic and the ending especially upset me. It was a bit like the ending of Life of Pi, where the magical story, that the whole book led you to believe is explained away in a very prosaic and depressing way and you’re left to make the choice of which one you believe. Waah! Didn’t like that.

Raven Black: Shetland, Book 1 (Audiobook) – Ann Cleeves – 12.05.24 White Nights: Shetland Book 2 (Audiobook) – Ann Cleeves – 14.05.24

I loved binge watching Shetland recently from the beginning, having somehow never watched it before, and some of my book group friends recommended the books on which the series is based so I gave them a go. The setting of Shetland is great – with it’s very northern aspect meaning it has periods of little daylight as well as periods of little darkness and the effects this can have on people who live in the communities. The bleak and unforgiving landscape as well as small communities where everyone knows everyone also add lots of atmosphere and I loved the Viking re-enactment ceremony that took part as well. I will look out for other books in the series coming up in any audible sales.

The Dark Forest (The Three-Body Problem Book 2) – Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen – 15.05.24

This is the second book in the Three Body Problem trilogy and has quite a different feel. The first book deals with first contact with aliens in the ‘real world’ as we know it. In this book, set after the first, humanity knows that very advanced aliens bent on their destruction are heading towards Earth and will arrive in about 400 years. The aliens have sent super fast sort of nano particle robot things to both sabotage science experiments to halt human technological development, and to eavesdrop on all conversations so they know what humans are planning. This is quite a bleak situation and different responses are discussed about how humanity could possibly either hide from, escape from or successfully fight off (or even negotiate with) the aliens.

Again this is a very intelligent book and all the scenarios are thought out with sound scientific and philosophical arguments. It’s quite depressing though.

The Dark Forest theory of the title is basically that the universe is like a dark forest full of dangerous creatures and the only way to survive them is by hiding and as soon as the creatures (ie any intelligent life in the universe) knows where you are, you are doomed. Not as jolly as Star Trek’s view of the universe!

Lisey’s Story (Audiobook) – Stephen King – 09.05.24

I’m a big fan of Stephen King’s writing (especially his more recent works) (much to the bemused horror of my book group friends who all think that Stephen King books are all too scary and graphic for nice ladies like us to enjoy!). I think he is a true master storyteller – characters are real and stories build in complexity and emotional heft to well realised endings. I was very excited to read this book, and a bit gutted that I didn’t instantly warm to it.

Yes, I found the beginning a little slow, but I persevered, and boy and I glad I did! Gradually the book began to get under my skin until I was totally gripped. To begin with, it’s a semi-autobiographical story about a middle to older age very successful horror writer, Scott, and his wife, Lisey. How they met as young people and how their relationship developed over the years – often with the wife having to stand in the background at functions and events where her husband is the star (this reminded me of Anna Kendrick’s role in one of my favourite films: The Last Five Years).

There is darkness – we learn in little pieces about Scott’s abusive childhood and the issues in his family with mental health (or is it supernatural influence?). I liked how the supernatural/horror elements in the novel were all metaphors for real life experiences like grief and trauma – reminded me of another of my favourite movies, the horror film The Babadook where the monster is very much a personification of grief and the resolve is not to destroy grief but to learn to live with it in a controlled way.

In Lisey’s story, after Scott’s death, Lisey has to find her own strength to deal with dangers and family crises drawing on her once hidden memories of what Scott told her about the otherworldly place his visited throughout his whole life which had the potential to both heal and destroy him.

I thought is was a very good book.

Looking Glass Sound – (Audiobook) – Catriona Ward – 29.04.24

This is a bit of a mindbender of a book.

It starts off feeling like a run of the mill, American teenager coming of age, summer of sexual awakening etc with three friends kicking about the coastal town during the summer holidays – there are love triangles, experiments with alcohol, disillusionment with parents and so on.

Then it gets darker with a serial murder mystery to solve.

Then the characters grow up and it gets a bit freaky and I’m like, wait, what? Is this whole book a fiction written by one of the characters, or is it a fiction about a fiction written by one of the other characters, and why do people keep changing names and genders and what is going on????!!!

This goes on for a while, but then the ending does kind of explain things in a way that made me say, oh, okay, I guess that makes sense after all then.

Overall it was a fun read (I think?).

Hagstone (Audiobook) – Sinéad Gleeson – 23.04.24

This is a dark and atmospheric literary novel set on a wild secluded Irish island.

Nell is an artist, trying to make a living while staying true to her art and she is approached by a woman from a mysterious all female community that live in an old remote nunnery on the island. She is asked to make a book about the community as well as some pieces of art. To do this she has to spend time with them and learns some of the women’s stories.

It’s a bit about how it’s hard to draw the line between a community and a cult, and how leadership can go from wanting the best for the collective to something darker. Also, the book explores relationships both in the all female group and in the wider community. It manages to be both beautiful and also gripping.

The Three-body Problem – Cixin Liu – 22.04.24

I remember trying this book in the past, after hearing it lauded as one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever, and giving up quite early on because it was too heavy for me. Then I started watching and loving the Netflix adaptation and so I went back to the book and this time found myself engaging with it more.

Unlike the tv adaptation, this book is set entirely in China and the majority of the characters are Chinese. There are a lot of cultural and historical references which are pretty much lost on me, although there are footnotes giving some context and explanation.

Several cutting edge scientists start dying in mysterious circumstances, some academics are invited into a vast virtual reality role playing game based in a world with three suns whose orbits are regularly thrown into chaos causing devastating effects on the worlds climate and the life of it’s inhabitants, and one physicist starts seeing numbers counting down in his field of vision.

How are these things connected and what do they mean for the future of planet Earth?

I like the policeman character, and in my mind see him as the actor who played the equivalent role in the tv show. I also like the real, intelligent, sciency way they explore the theories about what’s happening and the options for responding.

As I’m writing this, I’m still slogging through book two in the series so trying not to give spoilers about what’s coming!