Zhaoyun’s Totally Reasonable Summer Reading List, 2016
Edition
Summer is here, and that means fond memories of long-ago
encounters with great (okay, probably not that
great, but they seemed so at the time) books pilfered (or, you know, just
loaned, mostly) from the library in the twilight before racing (more of a
tortoise than a hare, to be honest) back home on my bike: the perfect end to
perfect summer days! And aside from the library part, which is now out of
biking range (i.e., I’m too lazy to go to libraries or bookstores or, in fact,
anywhere, nowadays) I still feel there are few pleasures greater than a
well-crafted, intriguing fantasy or science fiction novel to be sipped or
gulped down in “those summer nights”, as John Travolta would warble. Will I get
through all of these? No idea (some idea, actually: probably not), but I relish
the challenge! (And that’s another thing I love: relish! Mustard/ketchup...ugh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!)
1. Pines, by Blake Crouch
Yeah, the
Matt Dillon one, but with words and pages and stuff, not Netflixery. Actually,
I’ve already finished this book, and found it interesting if a bit uneven (or
to put it in a more flattering light, it had a surprising structure); overall,
I liked it enough to be annoyed by the subtle yet enormous changes from book to
screen. I also liked it enough to add…
The just
bearable hopelessness of the first book was intriguing enough to pique my
curiosity: how will things develop in the horrid little town? How will the
Burkes adjust to their idyllic prison? Is there any real future for the entire
enterprise? I want to see how Crouch tunnels his way out of the dark-as-can-be
pit of despair he left Wayward Pines in at the end of book one. Come to think
of it, maybe he should change his name to “Bleak”…
Because how
could I not read it? I loved the first book in this new series (and, indeed,
everything by Jemisin), and have high hopes for the second. I won’t be
reviewing it at NOAF, because I’m not alone in my admiration for Jemisin, but
that won’t stop me from reading it—in fact, nothing could possibly stop me!
4. Summerlong, by Peter Beagle
I’m trying
to become shallower, more impulsive, and capable of baseless snap-judgments, so
I base most book decisions these days on—you guessed it—the covers! Summerlong’s
is delightful, and has raised my expectations quite high. But aren’t I just
setting myself up for disappointment, you say? Maybe…but it’s the world’s fault
for making such a pretty cover J
Intriguing
title, and plus it’s based upon Japanese folk tales and legends, of which I am
something of a connoisseur (or at least I aspire to be). On the potential
minus-side is the fact that this is a collection of short stories (and unlike
idiots like Edgar Allen Poe, I utterly reject the idea that a story should be
short enough to enjoy in a single sitting—quite the opposite, in fact), but
some of them are apparently about kaiju, and everybody loves kaiju! This is the
perfect segue into…
6. The Kaiju series, by Jeremy Robinson
They say
you shouldn’t read books by people you know (actually, I have no idea if ‘they’
say that, but I just felt instinctually like it was a bad idea), so for a long
time I resisted the urge to read anything by this guy, who I knew as an older
acquaintance/family friend long ago, in the halcyon days of my childhood. Then
I tried reading something by him, and didn’t really like it, but it was the
first book he’d written, and it didn’t seem really fair to judge him by his
earliest effort (though that didn’t/doesn’t stop me from roundly condemning
Patricia Cornwell and the cringe-worthy Postmortem—maybe the Kay Skarpetta
series got better after that, but I certainly hope it didn’t manage to get any
worse!). So I thought I’d give Jeremy another try, and somewhat randomly
selected this Kaiju series. I’m a bit of the way into the series now, and am
not at all disappointed—he’s really upped his game, as even if the story is
somewhat familiar/well-trodden ground, the quality of the writing is top-notch,
especially the “as ___ as ______” descriptive one-liners! Best of all (though not for the
unfortunate characters caught by the monster thereabouts), much of the action
takes place near, and a few scenes almost within sight of, my childhood home!
This list brought to you by Zhaoyun, ruthless devourer of fantasy and sci-fi novels and films since primordial times, and reviewer for Nerds of a Feather since 2013.
