Live By The Blurb, Die By The Blurb

[coalescent]

In theory, I'm going back to work next monday. Unfortunately, I haven't done enough reading during my time off. I reckon, though, that I can get through two books between now and then. The following six are the top of my to-read pile, and I'd like you to pick two. I reproduce the book blurbs below as a guide to any titles you may not recognise...

Millennium People by JG Ballard

As he searches for the truth behind the Heathrow bomb that killed his ex-wife, psychologist David Markham infiltrates a shadowy protest group based in the comfortable Chelsea Marina. Led by a charismatic doctor, it aims to rouse the docile middle classes and to free tem from the burdens of civic responsibility. Soon Markham is swept up in a campaign that spirals out of control - as the conrnerstones of middle England become targets and growing panic grips the capital...

The Etched City by KJ Bishop

Fleeing the ghosts of their past, a healer and a killer escape from the ruined Copper Country to the city of Ashamoil. But, as they salvage new lives from the debris of the old, they will discover that the ghosts of the past are also the ghosts fo the future. In the Etched City art will infect life, dream and waking fuse, and splendid and frightening miracles will bloom.

Transmission by Hari Kunzru

Leela Zahir, Bollywood actress and temperamental star, is being catapulted from the fringes of fame into a million inboxes. Arjun Mehta, computer geek, looks up from his screen to find that he does, after all, have a role to play in the world. Guy Swift, marketing executive with his own agency, a beautiful girlfriend and a handle on modern life, is losing his grip. The message that has landed in a million inboxes has the power to destroy dreams and to make them, to hijack lives and to set them free. In this age of instant worldwide communication, anything can happen and anything will...

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link

This first collection by award-winning author Kelly Link takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators, extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and readers into strange new territory. The girl detective goes to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bankrobbers. A honeymooning couple become participants in an apocalyptic beauty pageant. Sexy blond aliens invade New York City. A young girl learns how to make herself disappear...

Tokyo Doesn't Love Us Anymore by Ray Loriga

A salesman for 'the Company' searches hazily for his wife, grasping at memories just out of reach. When they ask about her, he tells them she's dead. People say she may be in Tokyo.

While evoking the bewildering visual universe of Blade Runner, Loriga, one of Spain's most successful authors, has produced a dizzying picaresque novel of drug-fuelled nights and wild sexual encounters that deals with themes as diverse as loss, chemical dependency and globalisation.

Secret Life by Jeff Vandermeer

In 2002, when Jeff Vandermeer's collection City of Saints and Madmen made nearly every 'year's best' sf/fantasy list, including those of Publisher's Weekly and Amazon.com, this merely confirmed what fans and critics alike had already known - that the future master of fantastical fiction had arrived. Now, with Secret Life, Vandermeer's newest short fiction collection, readers can return to the world of Ambergris, where the author has set five of the these stories. But Jeff Vandermeer is a man of many worlds, as reflected in his travels and in his fiction: 'Balzac's War', set in the same milieu as Veniss Underground, is a harrowing, powerful far-future novella [...] In thirteenth-century Cambodia, a lone artist is torn between his love of his craft and his unspoken love for a woman, in 'The Bone Carver's Tale'. [...] Secret Life represents the author's continuing effort to stretch the narrative boundaries of fiction while still entertaining the reader. Yet all of these stories are related thematically: transformation, and what it means to be human.

[Poll #330952]

Comments

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

Obviously it's completely subjective of me to vote only for the one I've read and duck the choice on the other, but I recommend that everyone reads The Etched City even if they aren't about to lose their reading time.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that's why the blurbs are there! If I'd asked for only informed opinions, I don't think many people would have been voting... ;-)

I'm surprised by the popularity of Kelly Link. I mean, I know she's acclaimed, but I didn't realise she was that widely known. Or is it just that her book sounds the coolest?

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I read one collection of hers and enjoyed it very much. I don't always care much for short stories, either.

Kelly Link

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

I love her book and she was my favorite Clarion instructor.

Re: Kelly Link

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to get around to Stranger Things... for ages and ages; I've had that copy for about three months now, and was meaning to buy it for a long time before that. It just never seems to quite make it to the top of the pile! Looks like that's about to change, though. :)

[white_hart]

If Transmission is anywhere near as good as The Impressionist it's a must read...and my hubby has read Millenium People and tells me it's very good.

I don't tend to go by blurbs, only personal recommendations...

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I very rarely go by blurbs; I didn't go by blurbs when I was buying these six books. But then, since most of the books I read are new, and since I'm usually therefor the first person (or one of the first people) I know to read something, I don't really go by personal recommendations either. It's generally a mix of reviews and author knowledge.

[white_hart]

I have to say, I pretty much lump reviews and prior knowledge of an author under'personal recommendations' - if I try any new (to me) authors it's frequently because I've seen them mentioned in the Saturday Guardian (which is pretty reliable, and managed to get me interested in Jasper Fforde and Gwyneth Jones recently).

If you end up reading Transmission I'll be very interested to hear what you think of it - The Impressionist was probably the best book I read last year.

I have only read the Ballard and wouldn't recommend it

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

The setting is nominally the 21st Century but the characters and their attitudes are 70s Hampstead novel. If you haven't read it and want to read a 'state of the world' novel I would recommend Pattern Recognition instead.

Re: I have only read the Ballard and wouldn't recommend it

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I've read (and really really liked) Pattern Recognition. I've also heard good things about Milliennium People from other sources, though at this point it's looking like there are two clear winners, so it may be slightly moot. :)

Re: I have only read the Ballard and wouldn't recommend it

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Based on those blurbs I am certainly tempted to try them too!

Re: I have only read the Ballard and wouldn't recommend it

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

One of the review quotes for the Link is even better: "...an alchemical mix of Borges, Raymond Chandler and Buffy the Vampire Slayer..."!

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

The description of Millenium People makes it sound exactly the same as SuperCanne, which wasn't very good and was completely and utterly predictable. Make of that what you will.

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

Unsurprisingly, I own all but one of those books, but none of them are particular high on my to-read pile (a subset of my Lalpile). I just finished _Time_ and I thought it was excellent, so thank you for the recommendation. I'm now reading _Gideon's Wall_ to review for TAO. Eventually. :)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Lalpile

You know, I was about to ask what on earth a lalpile is. Then I remembered google. Not quite a googlewhack, but close. :)

Glad you liked Time.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

I almost picked The Link, but I decided the Jeff Vandermeer sounded a bit more interesting and less trying to be inventive, and also that you' spent ages telling me how good City of Saints and Madmen was, so I went with that.