I tore through The Faith of Beasts by JSAC, really loving the new universe they’ve developed. Very much looking forward to rereading TMoG, Livesuit and TFoB very soon and the show being developed.
I’m reading book 4, Children of Strife by Tchaikovsky and enjoying it thoroughly. AT has been my favorite contemporary author for the last few years based on how wide-ranging and prolific he is. I discovered AT by reading The Final Architecture series, which is still my favorite series by him. Honorable mention is his Dogs of War series, also amazing.
Last year I discovered China Mieville by reading Embassytown, the mindfuck storytelling and intelligent prose blew me away. That book still haunts me and twists my brain almost a year after reading it. I’ve never had a book that still makes me think and feel strange months after finishing it. Perdido Street Station was also amazing, super fun and original steampunk world. Very much looking forward reading the next two in that series and digesting more of his catalogue, I think he’s my new favorite.
Also recently read The Prefect by Alaistar Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe and it’s also fantastic, really good stuff. Stoked to finish the series.
As far DNF I was surprised I couldn’t push through The Algerbraist by Iain Banks, I got bogged down in Jupiter just couldn’t keep at it.
The City & The City is really good, read that after Embassytown, planning to read Krakenn as next CM although may go straight to The Scar, book 2 of Perdido Street Station. PSS is quintessential steampunk on overdrive, so well written. I liked Embassytown for many reasons, the original concepts for certain but prose was poetic and specifically intelligent, I needed to refer to my dictionary app on almost every page. And it was clear he wasn’t just trying to use big original words, the verbiage was very specific and many of the words encompassed multiple concepts that could only be expressed through his chosen vocabulary.
Blindsight is great, really fun and weird. I definitely suggest Shroud by AT, it’s got commonalities to Blindsight and is one of favorite novels by him.