What non-Go book are you reading right now?

JethOrensin · March 31, 2026, 1:05pm

While I cannot speak for the specific book, there are cases where some book/work gains traction, fame and praise from the critics and masses, when, in fact, it is “lame and mediocre” for people who are already fans of such things.

I think the most famous case is “The Game of Thrones”, which is widely regarded as (I quote from the google search) “a masterful, character-driven epic fantasy that kicks off the A Song of Ice and Fire series. It is highly praised for its complex politics, morally grey characters, and shocking twists, offering a gritty, low-magic world where betrayal and power struggles dominate”.

As far as I could tell after reading it though, it could easily be argued that it is “a childish fantasy driven by the stupidity of the vapid characters who, given the intelligence they exhibit in the book, are creating a marvel to the reader on how they managed to stay alive by then. The shocking twists are mostly generating shock at how illogical and unlikely they are, while the depth of the politics involved are akin to a puddle of water in the summer sun.”

fiddlehead · April 3, 2026, 3:02pm

I’ve commented on Yasunari Kawabata’s writing elsewhere in this thread. One novel I hadn’t read until now is Snow Country, generally considered his best. I don’t necessarily share that view ( the book is still settling in my brain) but I can say that this is vintage Kawabata, thoughtfully conceived and executed, consistent with the themes that preoccupied him in his career.

A wealthy Tokyo dilettante makes a series of visits to a remote tourist community in pursuit of a nineteen year old geisha he met on his first visit. He seeks a relationship with her, and she seems to respond generously, but they misunderstand or choose to ignore each other’s intent. They are simply on different wavelengths, and this is presented in what might be called a series of vignettes. No particular event can necessarily be seen as a crisis point. They will part company mainly because time has run out.

For reasons not fully explored, Mr. Shimamura has trained himself to view the world through an aesthetic lens. It’s not that he’s delusional; he has simply acquired a knack for gently pushing aside anything that doesn’t mesh with his predilection for all things ephemeral. He sees Komako in this light. He’s enchanted with her outward presentation, the attention to dress, the thick white makeup, the faint blush in her cheeks, her exquisite playing of the samisen. But small town geishas are a different breed from their city counterparts. Komako does meet the standard in some respects, but she also smokes a lot, doesn’t seem to hold liquor well, and is subject to emotional outbursts, something a more polished geisha would never allow. Shimamura ignores these shortcomings, but his infatuation can become extravagant, which Komako then interprets as a form of mockery. And so it goes. She is aiming for a more domestic life, but he’s incapable of viewing her as a fully developed human being with all the messiness that it involves.

There’s much to admire in this novel, but you should be prepared for detailed descriptions of the following: mountain peaks, autumn foliage, the subtle interplay of snow and mist, mass movements of butterflies and dragonflies, harvesting, the Milky Way galaxy, the curvature of Komako’s body postures, the intricacies of textile weaving and dyeing by local artisans, the ghostly illusions produced by windows and subdued lighting, etcetera. It’s been said that Kawabata’s writing is in the spirit of haiku poetry. Sound is countered with silence, stillness with motion, fragility with immensity. The book would lend itself greatly to illustration, as do his other works.

I’ve had some difficulty finding Kawabata’s books in English translations, though they are certainly out there. This one was in Spanish. I often felt that I was consulting a dictionary as much as reading the novel, but it’s a rewarding process all the same, and hopefully the Spanish I learned hasn’t evaporated altogether.

Atorrante · April 11, 2026, 4:55pm

Well I have put it aside. Don’t have the rest in me to read such a long book now. But its substitution is great: Simon Morrison’s A Kingdom and a Village: A One-Thousand-Year History of Moscow.

TBH: I am reading the Dutch translation.

JethOrensin · April 12, 2026, 1:20pm

Ι finished the “Stainless Steel Rat” and “The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge”, but I had to draw a line at the “Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World”…

The books are “ok” for what they are I guess, but whatever happens in them is just so unlikely that I just cannot keep reading. I’ll just mention a mostly “spoiler free” example:

The first book begins with setting the premise of the main character who is a con-artist who is supposedly smart and charismatic who uses his mind and doesn’t kill people and has never run an “action type” theft or violently robbed a bank or whatever.

Fine, that’s cool, seems like the kind of fellow that might have inspired the creation of Pratchett’s “Moist von Lipwig” character. Alas, the author proceeds to abandon that premise immediately. Fast forward a few pages and the main character is robbing a bank. Which would have been fine, if the plan made any sense and if he didn’t proceed to rob a bank in the beggining of each other three books.

Page 3 the character explains that a good con-man needs to be emotionally detatched from his con and if (or to be more exact, “when”) it fails, the conman should leave the con immediately and not get into the temptation of “salvaging” or “overstaying”.

There is even a limerick:
“Turn your back and walk away -
and live to graft another day”

AMAZING! That sounds like the kind of crafty fellow I’d like to read.
Alas the main character proceeds to become totally and inexplicably obsessed with his next graft/con/mission and goes to insane lengths and risking his life for, phenomenically not good reason other than “bruised ego”.

Unfortunately these books seems to be another case of what I mentioned earlier about D&D characters and not being able to roleplay an “17/18 Intelligence, 17/18 charisma” character because the player/author has no clue how those people could be like…

If you enjoy break-neck action then the books are ok.
If you have even the faintest idea of how any of that works then you might suffer from “suspension of disbelief” every page…

For example the way the main character goes in the “main town” in the second book without a plan, manages to wing it, messes it up totally and goes in and out of that military camp, was excruciating to read for me since I have been posted as a guard in military camps and had been an army officer for a while. None of it checks out.

Next, I am going for Ian M. Banks’ “Culture Series” and its first book “Consider Phlebas”… I do not remember who suggested those books or where I heard of them, but considering that “phleva” means vein in Greek, the title was always a bit funny to me, but people say that this is a solid series, so I’ll give it a shot (no pun intended ).

Conrad_Melville · April 14, 2026, 2:54pm

Harry Harrison was never a first-tier writer, IMHO. He rose above hackdom with a few notable stories: “Rock Diver” (an early short story), Make Room! Make Room! (which you read IIRC), Captive Universe (an enjoyable pocket-universe story), and maybe the Deathworld trilogy (I have mixed feeling about it).

I read the first two Stainless Steel Rat stories when I read through my father’s collection of 1950s Astoundings around age 11. Didn’t like them then, for moral reasons, and I expect I would dislike the series even more today. Sadly, the SSR potboilers became Harrison’s bread and butter, just like the Retief stories did for Keith Laumer (who was a better writer, I think). This is the usual story: writers have to eat, and their hackwork detracts from the better stories they might have written, but never did. Most of the best SF, at least in the old days, was written by authors who had other jobs.

We read Consider Phlebas in my book group quite a few years ago. I liked it mildly, but it had some unnecessary gross-out scenes that seemed pitched to 10-year-olds IIRC, and it did not inspire me to read more of the “Culture Series.” I also read his famous, non-SF book, The Wasp Factory, which has many virtues but is quite unpleasant, which may be why I don’t remember much of it anymore.

mart900 · April 14, 2026, 3:35pm

My most recent read was Progress & Poverty by Henry George. I have mixed feelings because it has introduced me to the most important idea that I had never heard of, yet by doing so it has revealed to me just how unable humanity is to make the correct decisions. An important economic problem, likely the primary cause of wealth inequality, has been known for 150 years, and yet the solution has never been applied.

If anyone else is familiar and wants to discuss, is unfamiliar and curious, or in particular if anyone has a counter argument, let me know, I’ll start a thread.

garlicsoup · April 14, 2026, 4:30pm

Me in a nutshell.

… greed … ?

JethOrensin · April 14, 2026, 4:35pm

Yeah, the opening scene is kind of nasty for just for the shock value, I guess, but I do not have much of a vivid imagination for such scenes, so it didn’t really affect me at all… but it really set the pace, I guess, for what the author can put in scenes…

I think I recall a discussion about this here… is it about the land tax proposal?
In any case, feel free to open a discussion about anything philosophical, there is, after all a relevant thread for them:

It is a topic that contains a lot of interesting ideas and discussions.

If it is about the land tax, there are plenty.

That’s the main reason why we have economic systems in the first place.
It is a need that most people have and it needs to be adressed in a civil way (after all, if you get your hands on a fortune, you need to institutionalise a way to keep your hands on it for as long as possible ), so that there can be a “civil society”…

trohde · April 17, 2026, 3:56pm

I just want to note that this book was the basis for the famous movie “Soylent Green” (German title: “Jahr 2022 … die überleben wollen” – “Year 2022, Those Who Want To Survive”), however the exact term “Soylent Green” does never appear in the book (soy + lentils), and the movie deviates quite much from the book (cannibalism!).

noob42 · April 17, 2026, 4:02pm

On the topic of population. I see that you like Sci-Fi. I would highly recommend two short-stories:

Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut
2 B R 0 2 B, by Kurt Vonnegut

I am sure you’ll love it.

Conrad_Melville · April 17, 2026, 4:03pm

Yes, I saw the movie when it came out, and it inspired me to read the book. BTW, the movie features the last role of the great Edward G. Robinson, who, ironically, dies in one of the government’s suicide centers in the film.

trohde · April 17, 2026, 4:53pm

Currently reading the 4th book in the Old Man's War Series by John Scalzi :

Nothing “too deep” (though certainly not shallow) but I really enjoy the humour. Have ordered the last three books already (whenever I can, I buy used books).

However, even though I enjoy them, these are mostly “fillers” for the pauses between what I really want to read.

Next up is the 4rd book in the awesome Children of Time Series by Adrian Tchaikovsky (but I didn’t enjoy the 3rd book as much as the first two):

and then probably the 2nd book in The Captive's War Series by James S.A. Corey :

And then, I guess, it might be time again for some non-SF, non fiction.

Atorrante · April 17, 2026, 9:24pm

mart900 · April 18, 2026, 7:42am

Malthus makes a valid argument but it’s incomplete. It fails to take into account that technology has far increased the food production per capita. It’s actually (mostly) increasing land rents which causes relative stagnation of standards of living and the persistence of poverty in developed nations, and population growth is but one factor in increasing land rents.

JethOrensin · April 18, 2026, 10:58am

I had never realised that it had to do with lentils.
I had thought that the word soylent to be like virulent or something like that.

JethOrensin · May 1, 2026, 8:56am

Well, you were spot on.
Unfortunately I got the “three books, box set”… oops. It was on a sale and it costed almost as much as one book, so I thought it was a bargain.

Though, to be honest the graphic scenes were not really my issue, but the gross incompetence of the characters. My God, it makes you wonder how these people managed to stay alive through their lives to reach the timeline of the book.

At one point near the end Yalson even asks Horza the question I’ve been wondering most of the book “what did they teach you in that War Academy of yours?” or something similar. So, it is not just me, the author knows it too.

Anyway I’ll read book 2 later, I cannot stomach that now, so I switched to something that’s definitely good: Re-reading “The Blade itself” by Ambercrombie.

I had it in my re-read list and it has been years since I’ve read it, so I have forgotten what exactly happens, but it is a book worth re-reading. It contains two of the greatest fictional characters ever written (as far as I am concerned). Sand dan Glokta and Logen Nine-fingers.

That last one has two main “lines”… one is “I am still alive!” and the other is “you have to be realistic about those things”, so since the whole red/blue button choice reminded me of Logen and Glokta a lot, I thought it was time to revist the whole Ambercrombie universe.

The first law trilogy is good, but it is the characters that really make it shine. The subsequent books on that same fictional setting are even better.
Ambercrombie really knows the human nature from inside out. Highly recommended.