David Bremner wants to read The Searcher by Tana French
Based on a review from sunny.garden/@booktrail
computer scientist, mathematician, photographer, human. Debian Developer, Notmuch Maintainer, scuba diver
Much of my "reading" these days is actually audiobooks while walking.
FediMain: bremner@mathstodon.xyz
bremner@bookwyrm.social is also me. Trying a smaller instance to see if the delays are less maddening.
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Based on a review from sunny.garden/@booktrail
The setting is reminiscent of the industrialized magic setting of Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside. There are quite a few narrative threads but I did not find it overwhelming (as an audiobook, fwiw).
The villains are bureaucratic, venal, and hypocritical. They are also a "foreign occupation", but Tchaikovsky spends as much time poking fun at patriotism and nostalgia as he does explaining the (many) failings of the occupiers.
The would-be heroes are various of combinations pompous, naive, violent, passive, venal (again), opportunistic, and cowardly. It is something of a magic trick of character development that one's sympathies are clear. It isn't even that one identifies with some of the character's cynicism (although there is a bit of that).
As an academic, I endorse books where the main villains are academic organizations. Imagine if not only were University administrators not going to save us, but if they were the ones the whole …
The setting is reminiscent of the industrialized magic setting of Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside. There are quite a few narrative threads but I did not find it overwhelming (as an audiobook, fwiw).
The villains are bureaucratic, venal, and hypocritical. They are also a "foreign occupation", but Tchaikovsky spends as much time poking fun at patriotism and nostalgia as he does explaining the (many) failings of the occupiers.
The would-be heroes are various of combinations pompous, naive, violent, passive, venal (again), opportunistic, and cowardly. It is something of a magic trick of character development that one's sympathies are clear. It isn't even that one identifies with some of the character's cynicism (although there is a bit of that).
As an academic, I endorse books where the main villains are academic organizations. Imagine if not only were University administrators not going to save us, but if they were the ones the whole of society needed saving from.
I laughed out loud several times while listening to this. At some points it has an almost Pratchett-like wit (if Pratchett had been doomscrolling for another decade, instead of shuffling off this mortal coil).
I don't know if it's just my current mood suits it better, or the book is genuinely exploring deeper themes than the first one (while still being silly).
I want to read this after hearing several episodes of 500songs.com using it for source material.
This may be the first book I've bought because the author's cat was sick. Somehow that fits with the Douglas Adams adjacent humour of the book. I don't know how much the voice acting of this ebook contributes, but it is quite convincingly Brit for something written by a resident of the USA.
Based on a review by wandering.shop/@jdnicoll