Justine’s Comments (group member since Jan 27, 2015)

Justine’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

Random wrote: "Finished Deathtrap

Started Homefront

I've been really enjoying myself with this series :)"

You’re making me want to read these!

Just started the second Hyperion book on audio; also Tilt by Emma Pattee. I read about the latter in New York Times Books last week and it looked interesting. Good so far.

Now reading Dissolution, the new book by Nicholas Binge. His previous book is Ascension. Both are excellent.

Ryan wrote: "I just joined the group, and I was so excited to see Children of Time as the book for this month! I just bought it a couple weeks ago.

Currently, I’m reading Infected by Scott Sigler, a body horr..."

Children of Time is awesome; I’ve read the series twice!

Currently reading Fever House, which has kind of a Tarantino does X Files feel. It's good!

Listening to The Return of the King narrated by Andy Serkis. It's very good, but I did kind of fast forward through the end of the battle and back slap at Minas Tirith to get back to Sam and Frodo.

Wow, glad you ended up enjoying it so much :)

Have you ever read Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds? It’s a novella length time travel book. Totally different story from this but very good.

Rachel’s story was my favourite, followed by the last one about the rebels on Maui Covenant.

Oh good to hear :)

That was Billy Merasty narrating of I recall correctly? I agree he did an excellent job on that and especially so if you are familiar with accents from that area (which probably a lot of readers aren’t if you don’t live in Canada!)

Sea of Tranquillity and Hench are favourites of mine! I don’t think I knew Evan Winter is Canadian? That one wasn’t my favourite but still very good…

Well…not on the sea, but under one in A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias; a very unique and creative first contact story. I was recently reminded of it when I was reading Shroud, but I liked A Darkling Sea much more than that one (which I ultimately ended up DNFing).

Adding my good thoughts for you CJ; it’s hard do do anything but go day to day 🥰

Two favourites off the top of my head are Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson and Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. There are lots of others I like too though…

Shel I agree with you, I loved this. The writing was very spare yet evocative and I think it succeeded in capturing emotion and the triggers of memory.

I agree there were brutal parts that were hard to read, but also the way things were portrayed evoked emotions I could connect to reality. The way the teens time and energy was so expansive yet also repressed was so well done, as well as the contrast of fading Odile felt as her future path sort of fell away from her desires so acutely.

I didn’t care about the wish fulfillment part, I mean that is exactly the point isn’t it? You believe either in manifest destiny or that the future isn’t set. Anyway, I liked it a lot.

Also…I actually wasn’t convinced in advance how it would end. I had thought maybe it would turn out that the accident happened because Odile went back ie her attempt to change the past is what cements the event.

I started it earlier this month because I’m listening to the audiobook and it’s pretty long. The narration is good and I do like the internal story structure with the individual main characters each telling the story of their connection to the Shrike and why (presumably) they were chosen for the pilgrimage to Hyperion. I really have no idea where the story as a whole is ultimately going, so just waiting and seeing…

I’m currently on the Detective’s Story by M. Lamia…

I really like it. It’s deceptively simple but complex and relatable with respect to emotions and the weight of circumstances. I’m with you on CanLit; there’s a lot of good SFF by Canadians (I have a Canadian Content shelf for that 😂🇨🇦).

I’m sorry this book didn’t make the Canada Reads shortlist because that would have been interesting…

Ugh, yes, that kind of thing is super jarring if you are familiar with the place or the source material…made even more so by extras with Canadian accents extras lol 😂

As far as what he’s saying about names I’m also remembering George R.R. Martin saying something similar about wanting different yet familiar names in ASOIAF. He said for example Eddard came from just changing one letter in Edward, and that was one of his techniques. He also said he relies on baby name books 😂

I can totally appreciate the challenge of coming up with names though…

Ok fair enough; I get that. I would be more generally convinced of the uniformity of influence if he had used metric instead of imperial measurements as well. I know that sound like such a small thing but as a Canadian reader it’s something that always stands out for me. You sometimes see the same lack of uniformity of influence by American writers setting a story in England, or I recently experienced the reverse problem with an English writer who set her story in the US (The Gathering by C.J. Tudor).It’s probably not something that everyone would notice.

Actually the choice to use the French names to give an otherwise Anglo setting an unfamiliar feel was also used by another Canadian writer in a book called The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett. This one actually reminds of that in the feel it is trying to create, although the stories are different.