Reading SF in August 2026

[Fryan]

And look at that! The first Polish translation of *qntm* has just come out. People have mixed reactions to it, since it’s aimed at more well-read readers, but the very fact that people are talking about it is already pretty cool.

I find his stuff quite accessible, but I wonder if some of that is lost in translation! If you read it I hope you enjoy!

 

[Westy]

I finished The Infinite State by Richard Swan - it's told from three different POV's living in a totalitarian empire, and when Katherine's husband passes she inherits a fortune, and she then seeks to buy a planet to develop a democratic society.

The way the oppressive, restrictive living under a totalitarian government is set out is very effective - at times though I thought it was almost too extreme to be believable. It also made me think of 1984 at times, down to "The Ministry of" naming conventions.

Then the book shifts to the new planet and the struggles Katherine has in setting it up and keeping the peace. I think I liked this section better - the previous too bleak at times, which is probably the point.

I thought it was good overall but not great - there was something formulaic and predictable about it that didn't elevate it enough for me. Though I will check out book 2.

 

[Fryan]

I finished up There is No Antimimetics Division yesterday. I really enjoyed it. Probably my favorite read of the year for me so far.

It’s an ambitious, fun, idea packed book that really sucked me in and delivered. It isn’t without its flaws. The writing feels a bit episodic, which can feel a bit disjointed, but depending on how you view that it can fit the underlying theme of the book. Also the villain/monster can feel a bit abstract and hard to fully understand.

Overall it’s a lot of fun and it feels very unique and fresh. This solidified qntm as one of our best sf writers of the modern age.

Now I’m on to Engine Summer by John Crowley and loving that too.

 

[Westy]

I really enjoyed it. Probably my favorite read of the year for me so far.

Same here!

 

[Ropie]

Now I’m on to Engine Summer by John Crowley and loving that too.

Glad you enjoyed the Antimemetics Division - me too. And look forward to seeing what you think of Engine Summer - I'll be moving on to that when I've finished Axis (c. 50 pages left)...

 

[Fryan]

Glad you enjoyed the Antimemetics Division - me too. And look forward to seeing what you think of Engine Summer - I'll be moving on to that when I've finished Axis (c. 50 pages left)...

It’s been really good so far. Stands out as a quite unique piece of speculative fiction. Can’t say I’ve ever read anything quite like it, closest resemblance is maybe a bit of Riddley Walker and maybe some of Wolfe’s stuff but also wholly its own thing.

 

[Raf]

Finished another standalone by Dennis E. Taylor. "Flybot". This one has been in my Kindle for months. The last standalone by the author (The Singularity Trap) that I read was just an okay read and I wasn't ready to start another.

Set in a not so far future where AI development is controlled by a shadowy government department (ATLAS) with massive overreach following an era of rogue AI's. All that is a background story for this one though.

A hacker has illegally acquired a large quantity of state-of-the-art & experimental biochips to create an AI for a violent eco-terrorist group. But he saved a goodly portion of the chips for himself to mess around with. And now his creation has escaped and is trying to come to grips with it's existence.

The MC's are 2 scientists working on a new type of mining application for use in the asteroid belt. An EMP experiment in the lab downs a "fly" that turns out to be a miniature spy device. Examination of that object leads the Dr.'s Philip Moray and Celia Hunt down a rabbit hole of hackers, rogue AI's and ATLAS agents. You can catch kind of "Bobiverse" vibe in parts of the book. Good story.

 

[chitman13]

Finished a few recently:

SpecOps by Craig Alanson (Expeditionary Force #2) - really enjoyed this and the continuation fro Columbus Day. I think there is lots to explore in this setting so quite eager to continue with the series to see where it goes. And Skippy is interesting, funny, and annoying in equal measure.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch - One my ife had as part of her book club, and one I've meant to read for years. I liked this, the premise is superb and while it generally went the way I expected, there were plenty of surprises here.

City of Stin by Bobby Adair (Slow Burn #7) - plodding through the series and it's much as I expect: a quick read that moves things along but isn't particularly amazing.

Red Star Rebels by Amie Kaufman - one from the local library, which I haven't done for a while. Enjoyable enough and the characters, Cleo and Hunter, have interesting backstories that work well as events unfold. I liked it quite a bit, though definitely aimed at the YA audience.

 

[Ropie]

I finished Axis by Robert Charles (not Anton) Wilson.

Overall, I enjoyed it - it's a great story of a 'chosen'/genetically engineered boy set in an interesting place where some interesting things happen: the main events are a series of huge dust storms that seem to bring alien artefacts with them. Knowledge of the prior book, Spin, was probably useful and as it had been exactly 20 years since I read it, I couldn't remember much so Wikipedia helped!

The main problem with the book was the characters - they were not particularly well-defined, even though the author does have a talent for characterful insight. It was difficult to work out who the main character was supposed to be as the focus between them switched often, but not with enough authority to really define their importance in the story, if that makes any sense. (I suppose this is why Stephen King has a quote on the cover as it is very much his style too.) This lead to long passages, especially in the middle of the book, where the story seemed to wander around in an uncomfortable way for pages on end.

However, the writing and overall story arc are strong enough that I'll definitely be up to reading the concluding part of the trilogy at some point.

3/5

 

[Diosces]

Just finished Dinnniman's latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book, A Parade of Horribles. Great book, love the character development but lots of plot twists got me somewhat confused. But if you're a reader of the DCC series you come to expect (and embrace) the messy spaghetti plotlines.

Just started Truelove's Of Monsters and Mainframes. Looks like a fun read!

 

[Ropie]

I picked up a fairly nice copy of the first SF Masterworks edition of Gene Wolfe's Fifth Head of Cerberus. Although I have no immediate plans to re-read it (I've read it at least twice) it's one of my absolute favourites from the entire series and I only had the IMO less-interesting later cover until now.

Actually, I wonder why they re-did the cover for this one, maybe a copyright issue? AFAIK it was the only one in the original late 1990s / early 2000s UK series run where the cover changed..

BTW - here is the later cover.

 

[Fryan]

I picked up a fairly nice copy of the first SF Masterworks edition of Gene Wolfe's Fifth Head of Cerberus. Although I have no immediate plans to re-read it (I've read it at least twice) it's one of my absolute favourites from the entire series and I only had the IMO less-interesting later cover until now.

Actually, I wonder why they re-did the cover for this one, maybe a copyright issue? AFAIK it was the only one in the original late 1990s / early 2000s series run where the cover changed..

Very Nice! I haven’t seen that cover for the book before. This is the livery I have:

Still need to read the book though!

 

[Ropie]

Very Nice! I haven’t seen that cover for the book before. This is the livery I have:

Still need to read the book though!

I think you might enjoy it, Fryan. It's quite dreamlike, although the 3 separate parts of the book are quite fragmented. It would probably still go in my top 10 even after all these years.

I like your red cover too, but the thing I really like about the first SF Masterworks cover is that it seems to represent characters and the setting directly from the story; the later cover is more generic.

 

[Fryan]

I think you might enjoy it, Fryan. It's quite dreamlike, although the 3 separate parts of the book are quite fragmented. It would probably still go in my top 10 even after all these years.

I like your red cover too, but the thing I really like about the first SF Masterworks cover is that it seems to represent characters and the setting directly from the story; the later cover is more generic.

It definitely sounds like my kind of thing. Lots of stuff vying for my attention at the moment. I need to finish up the Arundhati Roy memoir and get back to genre reading!

 

[Hobbit]

Here's the original UK cover:



(Fryan, your link doesn't seem to work for me.)

And here's the present UK cover;



The covers in the SF Masterworks series now all have the yellow tinge to reflect the original Gollancz 'yellow covers'.

 

[Westy]

I finished a reread of Rendezvous with Rama and still loved it, probably even more now than when I last did many years ago.

It's just has such a great sense of mystery, plus futuristic tech (much of which still holds up over 50 years later), and economic writing that's full of vivid imagery. I also read the Folio version which was even more enjoyable, and it's one of their best covers I think. It's also inspired me to add a few more classic unread SF books up the list!

 

[Fryan]

I finished a reread of Rendezvous with Rama and still loved it, probably even more now than when I last did many years ago.

It's just has such a great sense of mystery, plus futuristic tech (much of which still holds up over 50 years later), and economic writing that's full of vivid imagery. I also read the Folio version which was even more enjoyable, and it's one of their best covers I think. It's also inspired me to add a few more classic unread SF books up the list!

I loved this one when I read it earlier in the year! Loved the exploration aspect of it and that it doesn’t get wrapped up with a neat little bow at the end.

 

[blailock]

I finished a reread of Rendezvous with Rama and still loved it, probably even more now than when I last did many years ago.

It's just has such a great sense of mystery, plus futuristic tech (much of which still holds up over 50 years later), and economic writing that's full of vivid imagery. I also read the Folio version which was even more enjoyable, and it's one of their best covers I think. It's also inspired me to add a few more classic unread SF books up the list!

This and the Foundation Trilogy are my next classic SF reads.

 

[Fryan]

I read I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. It’s about an unnamed woman who, along with 39 other women are held captive for unknown reasons in a large cell, kept in check by silent whip cracking guards. One day, due to sheer luck, they are able to escape and they start to carve out a life for themselves on a monotonous landscape that maybe isn’t earth.

I really enjoyed the book, as it posed lots of questions that you just have to keep reading in hopes of getting answers. So I plowed through the book. There aren’t actually all that many SF elements to the book, it starts out seeming like a dystopia, but eventually you could argue it turns into a utopia. I actually can’t fully put my finger on what the book is “about” but that’s sometimes the best when you just have to ponder a book after you turn the last page.

Anyone looking for closure and a neat and tidy plot will be left wanting more from this but I enjoyed that it doesn’t give you a clean ending. I think my biggest complaint about the book was the final line, which kind of cheapened what seemed to me to be a big overarching theme.

Anyway, bonus points for being a book club book I actually liked!

 

[Hobbit]

I read I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. It’s about an unnamed woman who, along with 39 other women are held captive for unknown reasons in a large cell, kept in check by silent whip cracking guards. One day, due to sheer luck, they are able to escape and they start to carve out a life for themselves on a monotonous landscape that maybe isn’t earth.

I really enjoyed the book, as it posed lots of questions that you just have to keep reading in hopes of getting answers. So I plowed through the book. There aren’t actually all that many SF elements to the book, it starts out seeming like a dystopia, but eventually you could argue it turns into a utopia. I actually can’t fully put my finger on what the book is “about” but that’s sometimes the best when you just have to ponder a book after you turn the last page.

Anyone looking for closure and a neat and tidy plot will be left wanting more from this but I enjoyed that it doesn’t give you a clean ending. I think my biggest complaint about the book was the final line, which kind of cheapened what seemed to me to be a big overarching theme.

Anyway, bonus points for being a book club book I actually liked!

Also read by some in one of my Book Clubs. Dystopian seems to be on an upward trend at the moment, doesn't it?

As too the ragged endings.... had a few of those lately!