Random’s Comments (group member since Apr 30, 2009)

Random’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

Kathi wrote: "I guess I thought that if the narration takes place at multiple points in time, with some of those points being earlier in the characters’ lives, that is using flashbacks."

From what I understand, a flashback is a scene or scenes, taking place in the past, that are interjected into the story of present day. I personally would not consider that the same as the narration taking place in multiple points in time that are presented out of order.

Still a great book, and series of books, and the author made good use of the multiple perspectives form the same character. Her Inheritance series has some similar bits as well.

Been a busy week and I'm a little late.

I've had a lot of problems answering this one. There are so many books that make use of flashbacks in one way or another. And a few that came immediately to mind have already been mentioned.

Did The Fifth Season use flashbacks or was its narration just taking place at multiple points in time? Its been a while since I read it and I can't remember the details well enough. Great book though and I really enjoyed how she handled following the character through three points of her life.

The Lies of Locke Lamora
Makes real heavy use of flashbacks. In fact, if my memory serves me right, so do the other books in the series. I really enjoyed their use here.

Blindsight also made heavy use of flashbacks, bouncing between pre and post Firefall.

Project Hail Mary
The use of flashbacks here was cleaver. We got to discover portions of the character's past as he discovered/remembered them. It paints a different picture of him all the while underlining how much he has actually changed/become a different person.

Honestly, I think flashbacks are useful tools. There are times it makes absolutely no sense to tell a story in 100% chronological order. These characters had lives before the book starts. Things happened to them. Things happened in the world. There is technically no "true" beginning. A flashback allows the author to provide information to the reader when that information is needed instead of info dumping at the start.

They also allow the author to show and not tell, and showing is almost always better than telling. There is a larger emotion reaction if we watch a character go through something as compared to being told that a character went through something. We're less removed from the event.

I've been on and off on How to Sell a Haunted House since late last year and hadn't gotten very far. So last weekend I restarted from the beginning and finished it today.

I had a lot of fun so continuing my Grady Hendrix marathon with We Sold Our Souls tonight.

I've been on a bit of a horror kick. I'll blame it on Chris who reminded me of T. Kingfisher. :)

Finished The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires: A Novel

I like this author's style. Some of his books, this one included, take place in location you just would not think of for a horror setting. In this case, a southern affluent neighborhood where the main protagonists are southern lady house wives. Technically this takes place in the early 90s, though attitudes make me want to place it about 5-10 years earlier. There's a later scene that truly gives new weight to the phrase Steel Magnolias.

Going to knuckle down and finish How to Sell a Haunted House

After that, we'll see where my mood takes me.

Shel wrote: "Now I'm on The Last Days of Jack Sparks, which I think someone here was talking about? It's one of those that I requested from the library but I can't remember who recommended it to me. I'm just a few chapters in but already quite enjoying the character. I love a good unreliable narrator.."

That was likely me. I struggled a little at the very beginning because the MC is such an ass. But it didn't take long to get completely pulled in.

And yeah, he is a great unreliable narrator.

I officially give up. I am not enjoying this series. And I either don't read anything out of guilt because I should be reading these, or read anything else except for them. Just not where I want to be.

Picked up The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. I've kind of been on a Grady Hendrix kick recently and I have this one in audio, which will give me something to listen to on my commutes.

I just can't keep my interest in the Shadows of the Apt series. I start a book and then I seem to find excuses to read anything other than those.

You should know by now that I can never give just one example. :)
Some of mine would be

Recursion
Blindsight
Piranesi
The Last Conversation
Glasshouse
American Elsewhere
Walking to Aldebaran (though a second read is also required)

There can be something special when reading a book for the first time. That sense of discovery I guess, of not knowing what is going on or what will happen to the characters. That unpredictability that ignites curiosity. That "Oh!" moment when everything clicks together. We loose that on subsequent readings, no matter how good the books are. Though the good books can also have a complexity that makes rereads enjoyable as well. Knowing where things are leading makes it easier to spot the bread crumbs the author left behind.

As for participation, I'd really love to see more stand alone books and fewer that are part of series. Especially if its a series where we read the first book some years ago.

But my main problem is just life. I spend approximately 3 hours a day commuting. Add that to my work day, that's 11-12 hours a day either at work or getting to/from work. And that assumes I don't have long work days (which can often happen). Try to get 8 hours of sleep a night, that means I have maybe 4-5 hours a day to do every single thing I want or need to do that is not work or sleep related. That's getting ready for work in the morning, all my chores, exercise, spending time with my husband, spending time with friends, and pursuing various interests (I have a lot of hobbies I rotate through, reading is just one of them). Obviously my free time is not something the mods here can fix. :)

But, the lack of my time means I am much much less likely to read a BotM that doesn't jump out of me. I don't have time to read things I'm likely not going to enjoy, are by authors I don't enjoy, parts of series where I disliked the first book, or involve subgenres I strongly dislike (space opera, alt history, romance, YA, paranormal, fairy tale retellings, and similar).

I've also been a member of this group since 2009. I'm much less likely to want to reread books we've read in the past. I mean the entire point of me joining Goodreads was to stop my reread cycles. :)

Note: this is not me asking the group to change, just explaining why I can often skip months at a time.

Meant to post last night but then life happened.

And then I somehow lost the notes I had been taking. I had my highlights in the book, but I didn't really keep much of notes in there. So this is all coming from memory and likely shorter due to me being tired and not wanting to think anymore today. :)

One of the thing I really love with Ted Chiang work is that while each of these is a story, there's usually a concept acting as its base and those are what I find the most fascinating.

Two stories stood out the most to me.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling
I really loved this one and it made me think about a number of things.

First off, I remember reading somewhere that every time we remember something, we overwrite that memory. Memory can change over time as we can't help but overwrite with our future selves perception of those memories.

But it also made me think of ever changing technology and how we use this in our lives. I do wonder, once everyone records every waking moment of their lives, how will this affect our memories and our minds? Putting data into long term memory would not be a necessity. I wounder how that might affect the mechanics of how we think.

I once worked with someone who had an a degree in education. I remember her talking about children loosing or even not being taught skills that were considered essential when I was a kid.

Not many are taught how to read or write in cursive. Learning cursive was like a right of passage when I was a kid. Adults wrote in cursive. Only children printed.

I once wrote in only cursive, but over the years my hands have lost the skill. If I can't take my time and concentrate, my had writing devolves into a mixture of cursive and print. All of my capital letters are always printed, even when i sign my name.



Kathi wrote: "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom:
10/10 An excellent story, very absorbing, continually surprising me, making me think. My final question: Had Nat taken the money from Ornella so she could help Dana out of her guilt trap with Vinessa?"

I believe it is a reason, though I don't know if it was the only reason she did so.

I admit most of my love of this story has more to do about Nat and Dana over the concepts behind the story.

A few other notes

Omphalos
A quote that really stands out to me
"Even if humanity is not the reason for which the universe was made, I still wish to understand the way it operates. We human beings may not be the answer to the question of why, but I will keep looking for the answer to how. This search is my purpose, not because you chose it for me, Lord, but because I choose it for myself."

What's Expected of us
I wonder how long it would take for me to take a hammer to one of those devices. :)

Exhalation
An interesting look at entropy.

Oh I forgot to mention, I also finished Nettle & Bone
It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.

Finished Exhalation and will be posting in the thread later today.

Started Blood of the Mantis
We'll see how it goes.

I'm about half way through and been taking notes in regards to all of those stories.

I ended up doing very little reading over my vacation.

Rocky from Project Hail Mary and Murderbot are excellent suggestions. :)

Just about every animal in a book written my T. Kingfisher. Finished Nettle & Bone over the weekend and loved Bone Dog and Finder.

The dolphin union from Starter Villain

I also wanted to toss in the Nutri-Matic (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)


So that's it, it it? said the Nutri-Matic when he had finished.

"Yes," said Arthur, "that is what I want."

"You want the taste of dried leaves boiled in water?"

"Er, yes. With milk."


My husband teases me with this every time I make a cup of tea.

Not a book, but Scratch and the owlbear cub from BG3. Don't care if I am doing a durge playthrough, they will both be welcomed in my camp unharmed BECASUE THEY ARE GOOD BOYS and even Dr Evil had his cat.

I seem to have a thing for androids and animals.

I went off the rails. Part way through Exhalation I got distracted by Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

No heat, please don't want to think about heat.

Remember last winter when I said I didn't want to think about ice planets? We'll I really want one right now.

The issue with characters that I mentioned is that many of them don't have their own unique voices. This is especially bad when it comes to the Fly and Ant kindins. They all continue to just keep blurring into one another and I end up having to depend on context to help me figure out who is who and why I should even care.

As I said, l really enjoy Tchaikovsky's work (especially the Children of Time series). This one is just very obviously an earlier work. His skills have obviously grown a lot since this was written.

As far as skill that grows with reading, I've been reading large series with lots of characters 40+ years. I have the skills and the experience.

Kathi wrote: "Random wrote: "I do find the large cast of characters and spread out geography to be a bit overwhelming."

My problem is I'm not going through these very fast. All the battle scenes just make me pause and let my mind wander off to different subjects than the book. Literally anything other than more tedious battle scenes.

Slowly getting caught up.

I'll be honest. I am having a lot of problems excusing or forgiving Totho and I don't know if I ever will be able to. Even seeing the results of what his weapon can do directly, he's still frantically trying to separate himself from the results of his actions. I mean does he really think giving the plans to Che makes up for anything he's done? He is on a very dark path and at this point I do not believe he is going to survive it. Honestly, I don't know if I want him to survive it. I am disgusted with him.

Adding to this, the battle scenes are exhausting and not in a good way. I am not a fan of action and they drag on way too long for my tastes. I just get so mind numbingly bored and getting through them is a slog. Add in the large cast of characters, I am finding myself not caring about any but maybe a few.

On a plus side, I really appreciated the view of normal people being tossed into violence and war. They do not and should not become instant seasoned warriors. Master Graden's suicide was a heart breaking example. Unlike Totho, he very directly saw the results of his actions and was utterly horrified by it.

I am still very much enjoying Thalric's portion of the story. While I was pretty sure he was going to separate from the Empire, its being done in a way that I did not anticipate.

Honestly, I'm getting a little burned out. I don't know if I am in the mental state for a huge epic fantasy series. I love this author's work, but its very obvious that this is his early stuff and he has since greatly improved.

Taking a break for Exhalation and to finish How to Sell a Haunted House. Maybe after I'll be able to get back in.

I was browsing through the table of contents.

The first collection Stories of Your Life and Others had multiple editions and at least one of the later editions had some extras stories in it. This is the on I had.

They also happen to be the first 4 stories in Exhalation
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
Exhalation
What's Expected of Us
The Lifecycle of Software Objects

I'm going to take a break from the Shadows of the Apt series on the 4th to try to read through this as I have the day off and no plans other than go for a walk once it gets dark to see fireworks. :)

Chris wrote: "I am two thirds done with A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher, and I can't wait to finish it. Horror isn't normally my thing, but the narrator has a WONDERFUL ..."

I highly recommend two of her other books if you enjoy the tone of House with Good Bones.
The Hollow Places
and
The Twisted Ones

Nicely spooky with added snark and humor tossed in. :)