A short list of books I’ve tried to read and abandoned. Most of these are from my Kindle Paperwhite, but future editions will hopefully also include physical copies as I move to clear out my logjam.
Stable Strategies and Others, Eileen Gunn, Tachyon bundle. I was sucked in by the William Gibson foreword, then let down by a writing style that I found simultaneously strident and self-satisfied. The tone didn’t carry the stories. Abandoned at 44% read.
Ancient Rockets: Treasures and Train Wrecks of the Silent Screen, Kage Baker, Tachyon bundle. Movie reviews of early SF. Not my thing, but it was in the bundle. Abandoned at 5%.
Pirate Utopia, Bruce Sterling, Tachyon bundle. I really, really want to like this, I remind myself every 2-3 pages. Almost dieselpunk, but a bizarrely limpid plot and I’m tortured by the idea there’s some deep meaning I’m just not quite getting. Or not. Abandoned at 43% read.
Unholy Land, Lavie Tidhar, Tachyon bundle. I liked Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station, about a mildly dystopian future Tel Aviv. Her alternate-Israel Zionist homeland on Lake Victoria is too heavy-handed and has too many leaden allegories for me to enjoy. Abandoned at 12%.
Taboo Special Interest Ebook, Morpheus Tales, Kindle. I hope I got this on very deep sale—as in, for free. Shock value should complement and build on solid writing, not replace it. Abandoned at 31%.
Starborn & Godsons, Niven & Pournelle and Barnes. Baen bundle. This is the third book in a series I haven’t read. I may return to this at some point, when (or if) I have the other two done. This is a technical drop, not the book’s fault. Abandoned at 1%.
Multireal, David Louis Edelman, Baen monthly. This is volume 2 in the Jump 225 trilogy. Although the series has good blurbs, after a few chapters I don’t see going back to part 1 or forward to part 3. Part of this is the byzantine plot structure and part of it is the writing style. The book is full of descriptive passages that are both long and vague at the same time. Bad combination. Abandoned at 8%.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, Patricia McKillip, Storybundle (?). This is a romantic fantasy, involving a collector of mythical beasts, a bad guy, a step-son, and a love interest. This is not a sub-genre I would normally read, but it came with a larger package. Turgid plot and I had trouble bonding with the severely-underdeveloped main character. There’s a lot of emotive moping. Or moping and emoting. And beasts. An epic struggle I kept coming back to without anything to really show for it. Abandoned at 44%.
In triage:
Today I Am Carey, Martin L. Shoemaker, Baen monthly. One chapter (5%) into this story of an empathic android caring for an elderly dementia patient. Not badly written, but I’m still looking for the hook. Maybe one-two more chapters.
What’s For Dinner? , N. Gray. Bookfunnel or some other freebie. According to Goodreads, it’s an anthology about meals and death. Or death as a meal. I’m not sure, and thinking that at 14% through, the main course and I may not make it each other.