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#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Expected publication: 27 March 2025

I'm shamelessly quoting from the Afterword and Acknowledgements of the review copy I was generously granted: this is "a book about the moon turning to cheese, [...] each chapter represent[s] a day in the lunar cycle, each chapter with mostly different characters in mostly different places in the United States, reacting to it in ways specific [to] them alone"

⬇️

"... I have a briefing with the president in exactly half an hour, and because we all know he doesn't bother to read the daily intelligence briefing, it will fall to me to explain what the hell is going on. So explain it to me. Use small words on me so I can use smaller words on him...."

Mr Scalzi, you scare me. This book is supposed to be published next spring. Means you wrote it last year(?).

Opened my #NetGalley account to check the pub day of a different #ARC and finding this new addition to #MountARC ???

"One day, suddenly and without explanation, the moon turns into a ball of cheese.
For some, it‘s an opportunity. For others, it‘s time to question their life choices. How can the world stay the same in the face of such absurdity and uncertainty?"

Pub Day for UK is 27 March 2025

Two books I bought today judged solely by their covers.

The Alien Way has a cover by my favourite sci fi artist, Bruce Pennington, so the contents are secondary, but for what it's worth, it's an alien invasion story which sounds like it could be pretty good.
A Book of the Sea beguiled me with that sailing ship, but the contents are not short stories, which I'd assumed, but extracts from longer works, which I tend not to like, but 🤷‍♂️

Archaeologists find an anomalous artifact while excavating a Mycenean tomb.

There is a decent hard SF story struggling to get out of this 1985 novel but in the first and last thirds it is buried beneath the author's near-racist attitudes to his Greek characters (males are sleazy, both sexes are sadistically violent) and the pages and pages of physical description of the main female character.

#coffeeandabook

As we know, 2001 as a novel/movie was a collaboration between Clarke and Kubrick. Without being similarly handcuffed for the sequel, we get a much more exciting story. Clarke loves to write about the pioneering spirit and endeavour of the human race but he simultaneously captures the sense of wonder and how small and insignificant we are within the vastness of space and time. Clarke is the speculative Galactus of sci-fi writing. Superb book.

When a scientist claims to have invented a machine that will create wormholes at the touch of a button, three different political systems send operatives to retrieve the device and the scientist. Mayhem, betrayals, unexpected alliances and murder happens as they vie to control this incredible device.

Interesting and fun, with lots of humor amidst the mayhem.

#Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

I technically rated How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen higher than Gravity Lost, but since this has ended up being an entirely fiction board, I think I'll stick with that theme (and maybe create a second non-fiction bracket for myself)

#readingbracket2024 #bookbracket2024 @CSeydel

93/150 Sequels are rarely better than the first book, but as much as I loved The Blighted Stars, I think this one was even better. The war against the canus goes on, with people switching sides and switching bodies. I think the author made a mistake by "killing" the main antagonist in this chapter. He was clever and dangerous, a perfect foil for Naira and Tarquin. There is an unusually upbeat and optimistic conclusion ⬇️