What I've been reading
"Ancillary Sword" by Ann Leckie, the second in her Imperial Radch trilogy. I'd heard from others that this was a little weak and felt like a bridge from the first to the third, but I still enjoyed it. In the second book, our main character, Breq, an AI who was once a ship with many "ancillary" bodies and now with only one, goes to the star system where the surviving relative of a human she cared about lives, in order to offer her help to the relative. The relative rejects her offer, but in the meantime, Breq gets caught up in politics and intrigue on the space station and planet and positions herself for the chaos she knows will develop as word about the problem with the Lord of the Radch spreads. I agree that this wasn't as good as the first novel, but still found it very satisfying and look forward to finishing the trilogy.
and
"Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Russian science fiction from the 1980s. This book was the basis for both a movie and a videogame called STALKER. In the near future, aliens have come and gone, leaving behind their artifacts in "zones", much as picnickers leaving behind trash. People called "stalkers" sneak into the zones to try to profit from alien technology, and a government agency tries to stop the stalkers and take the artifacts for their own purposes. The novel primarily follows Red Schuhart, a stalker who sometimes acts as an illegal stalker and sometimes uses his talents for the government agency. It's a strange but charming little book, less than 200 pages long. The introduction to my edition is by Ursula K. LeGuin, with an afterward by Boris, reflecting on how times have changed since the Soviets tried to censor the Strugatsky brothers. Highly entertaining.
My full comments on both books here.
and
"Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Russian science fiction from the 1980s. This book was the basis for both a movie and a videogame called STALKER. In the near future, aliens have come and gone, leaving behind their artifacts in "zones", much as picnickers leaving behind trash. People called "stalkers" sneak into the zones to try to profit from alien technology, and a government agency tries to stop the stalkers and take the artifacts for their own purposes. The novel primarily follows Red Schuhart, a stalker who sometimes acts as an illegal stalker and sometimes uses his talents for the government agency. It's a strange but charming little book, less than 200 pages long. The introduction to my edition is by Ursula K. LeGuin, with an afterward by Boris, reflecting on how times have changed since the Soviets tried to censor the Strugatsky brothers. Highly entertaining.
My full comments on both books here.