I tore through The Faith of Beasts by JSAC, really loving the new universe they’ve developed. Very much looking forward to rereading TMoG, Livesuit and TFoB very soon and the show being developed.
I’m reading book 4, Children of Strife by Tchaikovsky and enjoying it thoroughly. AT has been my favorite contemporary author for the last few years based on how wide-ranging and prolific he is. I discovered AT by reading The Final Architecture series, which is still my favorite series by him. Honorable mention is his Dogs of War series, also amazing.
Last year I discovered China Mieville by reading Embassytown, the mindfuck storytelling and intelligent prose blew me away. That book still haunts me and twists my brain almost a year after reading it. I’ve never had a book that still makes me think and feel strange months after finishing it. Perdido Street Station was also amazing, super fun and original steampunk world. Very much looking forward reading the next two in that series and digesting more of his catalogue, I think he’s my new favorite.
Also recently read The Prefect by Alaistar Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe and it’s also fantastic, really good stuff. Stoked to finish the series.
As far DNF I was surprised I couldn’t push through The Algerbraist by Iain Banks, I got bogged down in Jupiter just couldn’t keep at it.
Right now I’m just finishing up the second book by Arkady Martine; A Desolation Called Peace. The first one, A Memory Called Empire, fucked up my sleeping schedule as much as the second one is. Both of them focus on cultural identity, isolationism, fear and individuality in rigid authority systems. And also
spoiler
hot, lesbian sex.
I’ve also recently read A Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. This one is a gem, the overarching theme is how intelligence can be defined, what being a person means and how it might be expressed. This description isn’t doing it justice though, it’s great. If you like Murderbot Diaries you’d probably like this one too.
Although I did technically finish it by skipping most of the book, A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark was kind of meh. It reads as a well done fan fic from someones blog, albeit with the authors own world which is admittedly well written, but the story is extremely linear and unsurprising. I think I would have liked it if I was ten, so maybe I’m being to harsh on what might have been a pre-teen science fiction book. And the story was interesting enough to make me want to know how it ended even if I sort of already knew so…
I’m surprised to hear how you couldn’t finish The Algebraist. I still think of the Dwellers sometimes and their hidden, enormous power and especially their merit (“kudos”) based economic system. It is, IIRC (it’s been a long time), a slow, plodding plot but there are some scenes I can still remember clearly all these years later that still fill me with awe and giddiness so the pay off is worth it imo.
Both those Arkady Martine books were great, I rather hope the author returns to that universe at some point!