Congratulations to my niece Olivia, who graduates high school today!
Some books…
I brought both The Dazzle of Day and Deacon King Kong along on this trip, and finished them both. Both had long ago become chores to get through (especially Dazzle), and both turned out OK by the time they ended (especially Deacon — Dazzle of Day was just unrelentingly depressing almost to the very end).
Being on vacation meant that we had to visit a few bookstores, and that meant more new books:
Thin Air, by Richard K. Morgan: I burned through this one in a few days, and finished it on the flight home. This was another in my long series of “bubblegum for the mind” sci-fi books, and it was classic Richard K. Morgan: a genetically modified super-warrior, washed up and gone vaguely rogue on Mars, gets himself involved in some serious interplanetary spy-soldier drama. Lots of hyper-violence, high tech, and cheesy sex… I already can’t remember the hero’s name, but it was a fun read while it lasted.
Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke: I’d been planning to read this for a while, but put it off to read her first book (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which took me forever to finish) then other things intervened… But I picked it up in Colorado Springs, and am now about a quarter of the way through. I’m not sure what it’s really about yet, but so far it’s the journal of an earnest, somewhat naive (amnesiac?) young man named Piranesi, who lives in the ruins of a giant house, which seems to be the only thing in his universe. It feels like something sinister is coming down the pike, but so far the vibe is a lot like The Slow Regard of Silent Things, and the world-building — the part I like best anyway — is really good.
