PotsandPlots

A slow start to the month, the first book I added to my virtual pile of interesting books had to wait until 19th January. (The physical pile grew massively in this time; I may have a problem.)

It was from the Strong Words newsletter, a weekly roundup of an eclectic selection of books that arrives in my inbox sometime on a Sunday.

The book that caught my eye was called Seven by Joanna Kavenna. Subtitled “or how to play a game without rules,” Seven promises to be a philosophical quest for the long-lost titular board game. I must confess this one looks like it could be a little ethereal for my reading tastes, but I was also intrigued by Kavenna’s previous novel, Zed.

Zed is a near-future examination of tech gone wrong. It looks similar to a recent favourite read of mine, The Appliance by J. O. Morgan, so I might pick that up first.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami cropped up on Womble’s Sunday Morning book callout. It’s about surveillance technology gone mad, with a woman returning to the US from a trip abroad to discover that AI has decided her dreams make her a credible threat. It feels like The Trial mixed with Minority Report and I’m definitely interested.

More hotels in The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell. A time-travelling hotel, no less. One offering to blend mystery, art and romance. The reviews of this, the first one I found at Locus magazine, suggest there’s enough about this book to make me want to give it a try.

Time travel shenanigans again in Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel. This time we follow Maya and her quantum physicist husband into a mysterious billionaire-sponsored programme that will aim to unravel the secret of time and consciousness. It has a shadowy organisation in it called “The Janus Lab” which is almost reason enough alone to give it a try.

My final book is a sequel to a book I reviewed a couple of years ago, The Dragons of Deepwood Fen by Bradley P Beaulieu. I really enjoyed this book, and despite being sure I wrote a full review of it, I can’t find it. Perhaps that’s why I wasn’t offered a chance to review to follow up. Nevertheless, I’ll be picking up A God of Countless Guises when it comes out in paperback.

And that’s all the books I added to my list during January. I wonder what February will bring?