Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Summer Reading List 2017: The G

It's summer again, and that means its time for beaches, barbecue and books, books, books! Well, it does for me at least. Always has, always will.

Since summer is my favorite season, it stands to reason that posting a summer reading list would become my favorite annual nerds of a feather tradition. Unfortunately, I haven't been terribly good at sticking to them. I only managed 3 of last year's list, the remainder falling prey to fickle tastes and me moving across the Pacific. This year I'm going to try to do all of them, perhaps even in the order I've listed them below. Somehow I doubt it will work out that way, but you never know...

The G's Summer Reading for 2017

1. Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten [Bantam, 1997]

My daughter is obsessed with dinosaurs and everything prehistoric at present, so I decided it might be fun to read another book about prehistoric creatures eating people. Since I'd already done the two Jurassic Park novels, this one--about monster sharks in the Mariana Trench who develop a taste for human blood--seemed like it would scratch that itch. It's as trashy and ridiculous as you'd expect from that description. But it's pretty fun too. Chomp chomp.





2. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson [Tor, 1999]

This is a re-read for me. A few years ago I dipped my feet into Malazan, making it 3 books in. I really enjoyed it, and have meant to revisit the series. Playing Obsidian's excellent CRPG Tyranny, which is noticeably influenced by Erikson's books, gave me the urge to do just that. At the same time, I feel like I've forgotten a lot of important stuff, so the plan is to restart the whole series. Very much looking forward to this.





3. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty [Orbit, 2017]

Crime is my other genre of choice and this is a crime novel set on a spaceship. Where clones solve the mystery of their own murder. What's not to like about that?








4. Six Four by Hideo Yokohama [Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017]

Speaking of crime, and books with the number six in the title, I recently picked this one up at the bookshop. In Japan, it's become one of those "sensation" novels, like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Gone Girl. It's meant to be quite good, if not exactly breaking with the style's conventions.







5. After Dark by Haruki Murakami [Knopf, 2007]

...and speaking of novels translated from Japanese, I've also decided to give Murakami another try--something I haven't dared attempt since enduring 1Q84. My opinions to date have been decidedly mixed. I love his prose, the way he explores pop culture and the general weirdness of his books; at the same time, it never really feels like he knows where he's going, which means the novels tend to fall apart to varying degrees. This one is short, so here's hoping that also means "well-edited."




6. The Trench by Steve Alten [Kensington, 1999]

Oh god, I'm going to read this one too, aren't I?