Immediately after reading Real Tigers I used the power of Kindle to go straight onto the next book in the Slough House series from Mick Herron. A good page turner and I liked the characters.
Spook Street (Slough House)
Author: Nick Ryan
Real Tigers (Slough House)
I enjoyed Mick Herron’s book Slow Horses so have started to read more of the series on Kindle. Very enjoyable, good characters and it’s fun following the locations on Google street view.
Seveneves
I recently re-read this novel from Neal Stephenson on Kindle. I’d originally read this in the summer of 2016 as a holiday read alongside another Stephenson title called Anathem.
Through Fiery Trials
This is the 10th book in David Weber’s “Safehold” series. I’ve been reading these for many years. Although notionally a science fiction series, a lot of the focus is on the historic scientific progression that was required to advance humanity’s weapons technology used on land, sea, and in the air. In that regard, the series starts from a technical base of approximately the late dark ages or early Middle Ages and brings us to a technology level close to the end of the 19th century. Weber shows an incredible amount of historical and scientific knowledge – many of the scenarios and examples in the series could have been lifted from the American Civil War, WW1 and others. There is also a huge religious aspect to the series with schisms and intrigues similar to what happened in Europe in the middle-ages. I’m still enjoying the series and hopefully David Weber will wrap it up soon.
2024 A Novel of the Next World War
A page turner from Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis about a hypothetical near-peer conflict set in the year 2034 between the United States and China. When I spoke about the book with a work colleague, we both felt “2034” was in the same vein as the cold war / hot war thriller “Red Storm Rising” by Tom Clancy from the 1980’s and that is not a bad thing. Enjoyable and a bit scary.
The Celts
Simon Jenkins has created an enjoyable history book describing the story of the people of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It runs from pre-Roman times up to the present day. I would have read some of this history when in school but was hazy on parts. The book is a good primer / revision of this history of this part of the world.
The Voyage Out
Victoria Woolf’s first novel is a Victorian-era romantic drama. I chose it for a read to try to broaden my horizons and get into some turn-of-the-century English literature.
Mickey 7
Edward Ashton’s Mickey7 is an enjoyable Sci Fi story revolving around the topic of cloning.
The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is an interesting historical murder novel set in medieval Italy.
The Martian Chronicles
It’s fun to read a sci-fi book referencing was-future dates that are now in the past. Ray Bradbury’s book “The Martian Chronicles” was written at the start of the atomic age in 1951 at the height of the Hollywood Blacklist era and Cold War paranoia.