The original final novel in the His Dark Materials series. Leaves off on a high point, and also leaves me wanting more, which every good entertainer knows is a sign of success, and every fantasy author knows is an opening for another sequel. Did not diminish in the decade plus since I last read this series. I liked the evil giant swan creatures in the world of the Mulefa. I wonder if they were meant to be some sort of counterparts to the Armored Polar Bears. Makes me now want to read the new(er) sequel novellas & series, & to find my copy of Lyra’s Oxford, which I haven’t read 

 Picks up right where the Golden Compass left off, but doesn’t act like you’ve just finished Golden Compass; that is to say, it sometimes spells out or reminds you of something from the previous book that you may have forgotten. I read Golden Compass probably a year ago, so I like that. I really liked the Cittagazze setting & getting to know the witches. I also really liked the big reveal of what the ultimate quest is. That it’s not a huge deal for the bellyaching right indicates how under the radar these books are flying. 

 Graphic novel following three young Yurok men sent to fight in World War I. There is a lot of action in here. About half the book covers the Argonne Forest battle the Yurok soldiers fought in. The general topic of the book reminded me of George Morton-Jack’s history of the British Indian Army in WWI, Army of Empire, so I wish this book had more about the Yurok soldiers’ experiences training, travelling through, & living in other parts of the U.S. & in France. Overall a good read. 

 Story of a black queer middle schooler on a christian-feminist(?) hiking trip with a bunch of white (or white-passing) kids & counselors. Narratively has the feel of a short story or novella. Probably would have been good for me to read at whatever age level it is. Reinforces my feeling that for me as a kid, a group trip (such as scouts, church, school, etc) with a bunch of other kids my age would have been terrifying for me (and I don’t even have any sort of “otherness” placed on me!). 

 Sequel to John dies at the end which again combines cosmic horror with body horror & generally deconstructs various zombie horror tropes, & thus has a greater proportion of body horror than John Dies at the End. This book is also structurally & genre-wise is less weird than the previous one. John Dies at the End was more episodic, which makes sense considering it started as a series of stories posted online. I liked how the Zombie Response Squad talked mostly in movie dialogue (especially from Aliens). I also liked how throughout the story each of the three main characters thought they themselves were the hero coming to rescue the other two. These days, I can’t read any narrative that has hazmat suit clad government agents swarming the site of an outbreak, or alien contact, or what have you without imagining that any such response would really be handled by a bunch of clueless sub-subcontractors under the direction of various former lobbyists & electoral campaign donors appointed to high offices in government looking for ways to employ “private sector efficiency” to handle the situation. I could definitely see this series going there eventually, so I’ll keep reading. 

 The Wayfarer series is a very comforting read in a sci-fi setting. So far it has not gone off the rails, probably because the author is not particularly interested in a grand narrative that really needs to get where it’s going before the trilogy is over. In this way, the Wayfarer Series so far has kind of a Wind in the Willows in Space feel (not a dig at either this book or Wind in the Willows). Featuring a smaller cast of characters, Closed & Common Orbit is less of a “super special” than The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. The Jane parts of are more dystopian, but I think I liked them the best. I kind of wish there was more development of Pepper & Blue’s relationship. I didn’t feel the story of their meeting & the depiction of their later relationship exactly matching up. The Transhumanist themes didn’t entirely go in the directions I was expecting. Androids drinking alcohol & fearing powerful magnets has to be referencing Futurama (similar to the previous book, which featured cattle ranching on Mars).  

 Collection of essays generally about high-level corruption, & the lie of private sector efficiency. Cockburn clearly comes from a military perspective of some sort (historian? Reporter?). The main thrust of most of the book is that U.S. foreign policy (especially alliances) & military policy (including deployments & procurement) are mostly determined by the defense industry & the Pentagon searching for dollars. 

Some other ideas include “The Military Industrial Virus” chapter suggesting that a bloated defense sector will devour the rest of the economy, not only through hogging resources that could be better used elsewhere, but also through generating a failing-upwards management culture. Cockburn argues that the latter dynamic playing out in the Soviet Union is what really damaged the Soviet/Russian economy, more than pure defense spending. 

Part 2 (“the New Cold War”) feels very suddenly dated as of a week & a half ago, but is still relevant as background to the current conflict in Ukraine, especially regarding key players in Ukraine, & the long build-up of tensions between NATO & Russia. I felt that Eastern European worries about their Russian neighbor as a driver for NATO expansion & how that was or was not used by hawkish elements in the U.S. & Western Europe could have been discussed further. 

The chapter about the war in Yemen “Acceptable Losses” reminded me of an inverted version of “The Mayors” in Asimov’s Foundation, where the Foundation’s client kingdoms’ military hardware is maintained by the Foundation’s technician-priests, thereby assuring the Foundation’s control. The relationship between the U.S. & Saudi Arabia’s military is reminiscent of this, with U.S. contractors & technicians being the sole means for keeping the Saudi Air Force’s planes running, except in reality the Saudis are dictating the U.S.’s policy because of their status as customer (who is always right) to the U.S. defense industry. It would be as if the Foundation had allowed the Anacreonians to bombard Terminus, but then billed them afterwards. It’s easy to see how that dynamic led to the Afghan client government’s rapid collapse when the U.S. removed its support. 

Finally, the chapter about sanctions “A Very Perfect Instrument” also very relevant right now, when sanctions on Russia are so much in the news. 

 This novel is a very quick read. Annihilation’s influences appear to be 95% J.G. Ballard & 5% Lovecraft with a mysterious abandoned setting, an isolated & disaffected protagonist, psychologists, scientists, mysterious improbable structures, delusions, and a little eldritch horror thrown in. The only thing it’s missing is techno-fetishism. Looking forward to reading the sequels, though like most Ballard novels, it’s hard to imagine where exactly a sequel would pick up, not least because I’m still figuring out where exactly the story left us. 

 Collection of interviews with Ursula K Le Guin from the 1970s to a final series of interviews between 2015 & 2018. Full of interesting little tidbits of info about Le Guin & her work. This book is probably as good as a biography, covering various parts of her life. The brief part in one of the final interviews in which she discusses the Berkeley she grew up in in the 30s & 40s made me think of my Grandmother who was growing up in San Francisco (then “an expedition, not a commute” away from Berkeley), around the same time. I often try to imagine what the Bay Area of that era looked & felt like. I was a little surprised & gladdened to find that Le Guin, like Bradbury, was another non-driver. Her perspectives on Philip K Dick were interesting, especially in the later interviews when she said she re read his work & found it dated. I also liked the tidbit that she and Dick corresponded, but that she was worried he would just show up at her house one day. Based on reading Dick’s collected short stories, I thought her opinion that his late life “mystical breakthrough” was “a breakdown” was spot on. The parts about her & Charles’s relationship in the later interviews were very cute. 

 Horror-humor page-turner. This definitely feels like a book from 2008. Some of the edgy humor would have been cringey even back then. At other times, the bleak hopelessness seems prescient. Stranger Things feels like it was inspired a bit by this book, or maybe they were both taking from the same source material. John Dies at the End reminds me of HP Lovecraft, in that it attempts to describe a towering disgusting cosmic horror & is very of it’s time. Also reminds me of Stephen King, probably because it's very obviously influenced by Lovecraft. Not sure what the Amy character saw in the protagonist. John seemed easier to deal with in many ways, if you could get past how annoying he is.