What are you reading for February?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In Ascension, by Martin Mcinness - it is AMAZING! Best novel I've encountered in years.

I read this in January! Absolutely loved it. Right now it’s my favorite novel of the year lol

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m reading Sea of Tranquility. I’m not sure about it.

I loved Station Eleven. I’d say I liked Glass Hotel quite a bit. I’m roughly 1/3 into Sea of Tranquility and not disliking it…but I’m not taking to it in quite the same way. I can’t put a finger on why. I do like speculative fiction/sci fi/time travel stuff. Maybe it’ll improve, I’m not sure.

I posted on a recent thread about Sea of Tranquility. For me, it did not improve. I mean I liked it ok, but I absolutely loved Station Eleven and this was much weaker IMO. Needed to be fleshed out much more. There’s also a specific plot point that I disliked but I won’t mention here as to not spoil it for you.

Yes, I'm the PP above and just finished it. I ended up actively disliking it. I actually laughed aloud a few times towards the end at the absurdity. I think that the strength of my dislike for it is a testament to how good her other books are-- she can do better, so why publish this? Did no one edit it? I thought "Station Eleven" was a truly elegant twist on the dystopian novel, and so I was pretty excited to see what she did with sci-fi/speculative fiction. Not much, it appears.

Anyway, I'm on to reading "Prophet Song" now.

Not the PP you were talking to about Station Eleven / Sea of Tranquility, but someone who agrees and worked in publishing. Two things often happen after a book is big hit, like Station Eleven was in 2020/ 2021. The first is that publishers ask writers for any older manuscripts they've not previously got off the ground, they dust them off and publish them as "new" work in order to cash in further. The other thing, is if they do present new work which isn't quite up to par, the editors are often afraid of getting their red pens out and alienating their new star author. The most obvious example of this is JK Rowling, whose books got longer and longer because the editors just let her do whatever she wanted after a certain level of fame / hits / income.

So interesting. I really did not enjoy Station Eleven, but I finished it because so many people recommended it and I thought it might grab me at some point. I loved the writing, but the story did nothing for me. But I LOVED Sea of Tranquility. Again, I really appreciated the writing, plus the overall concept and plot, too. Different strokes for different folks, I guess?

Same same same - though I LOVED the TV version of Station 11. I just found the book itself really hard to get through - but I just tore right through Sea of Tranquility.

Curious if you all liked The Glass Hotel? Part of my problem with Sea of Tranquility was that I didn’t like Glass Hotel all that much, and I felt that too much of the latest novel was a rehash of it. But I can see that if you loved the characters or storyline, you might’ve liked revisiting it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Just finished an ARC of “Bear,” Julia Phillips’ new novel. Felt kinda meh about it— would’ve been better as a short story.

Hm, I loved her first novel, Disappearing Earth. I'm looking forward to Bear, but maybe I"ll temper my expectations a bit.

I also liked “disappearing earth.” From the ARC reviews, it seems like “Bear” is possibly a more divisive novel, though. I had no qualms with the writing. The story itself is just pretty strange and it either works for you or it doesn’t. I wouldn’t hesitate to read her next novel tho— I just didn’t click with this one.