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FINISHED:
**A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge**
In its most basic form (*i.e*. a planet that sees rapid advancement of a spider-like species society, and humans stranded on spaceships in the vicinity of said planet), this must’ve been an inspiration for Adrian Tchaikovsky’s *Children of Time*. I’d like to think that Tchaikovsky took Vinge’s idea of spiders not being native to a planet and ran with it, so perhaps these two stories are set in the same universe? Either way, as with Tchaikovsky, I much preferred the plotline that focused on the spiders, but, unlike *Children of Time*, I was not left indifferent to the plight of the human crew. Whilst that particular storyline in ADITS was quite slow and demanded a lot more… umm… focus, it did eventually grow on me and I did find myself rivetted by some of the character arcs, so much so, the ending of the book left me pretty damn emotional and unwilling to say good bye to them. My favourite of these arcs was Anne Reynolt and Trixia’s but my favourite character overall was a spider – Sherkaner Underhill. Hell, he even chipped away at my arachnophobia. All in all, I found this a much more compelling and interesting read than *A Fire Upon The Deep*, which now feels a little bit like YA fiction compared to this book. On a separate note, I’ve also found some ideas, namely the churn and the Focused, that may have had an influence on *The Expanse* authors; I think this is why I’ve grown to love science fiction so much – you can actually feel these tendrils of ideas spanning the length and breadth of the genre and building more and more complex concepts. I would love to come back to this book again at some point.
**The Girl with the Louding Voice, by Abi Daré**
Read it for a bookclub at work. There are fiction books that are clearly written with an idea of social change in mind and this is one such book. It doesn’t make it any less valuable but it does make the plot somewhat generic and predictable. It has a powerful message, a moving story, and a strong likeable female protagonist but it is not a new story and, as such, might not be quite as effective in its goal. I did enjoy it being told in a broken English dialect, a change in which emphasised the growth of Adunni, but it lacked consistency at the start of the novel and could’ve benefited from some editorial guidance.
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CONTINUING:
**Shake Hands with the Devil, by Roméo Dallaire**
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STARTED:
**The Pyrates, by George MacDonald Fraser**
Fancied a light-hearted audiobook to balance out the darkness that is Dallaire. I now find my day-to-day internal monologue being interrupted with random Mummerset growls from the *Jeffrey Farnol School of Historical Dialect* – an amusing side effect.
**The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri** (John Ciardi translation)
A friend of mine just started this book, which has given me the motivation to pick it up as well.
**The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, by Anne Frank, Otto H. Frank (Editor), Mirjam Pressler (Editor)**
Currently continuing with the short stories and episodes that weren’t a part of all diary revisions; those document various aspects of everyday life in hiding.
**Feministkou snadno a rychle, by Lucie Jarkovská, Kateřina Lišková**
Finished. Satirical coffee-table book on contemporary themes in anti-/feminism. Authors are academics, the presented arguments seem solid, but I’m not sure if the tone doesn’t get a little preachy at times.
**American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin**
Started. Very engaging and apparently exceptionally well researched. My only complaint is that I have a strong dislike for the “pop” writing style in a lot of American books like this one.
Finished: **Death of a Bookseller, by Alice Slater**
Started: **Bad Eminence, by James Greer**
!invite Alice Slater