Books read May

This is much more like it. Eleven Twelve books read this month, a much more respectable number than I’d managed so far. Some excellent books read as well, as you can see below..

Life — Richard Fortey
Fortey is perhaps the best living natural history writer. Here he tackles the entire story of life on Earth, from its beginnings four billion years ago to us, intermixed with his personal research and recollections. Fortey is the kind of writer who could make the telephone book interesting, let alone a subject like this he is genuinely passionate about.

Kraken — China Miéville
Miéville’s latest novel is a fantasy romp set in contemporary London, where things are not quite what they seem.

Big Planet — Jack Vance
An early Vance novel of planetary romance, which I’ve last read myself a few decades ago. Slightly disappointing as my memory was better than the book turned out to be.

Next of Kin — Eric Frank Russell
An entertaining but slight space adventure story by somebody I’ve read very little of so far.

The Steam-Driven Boy — John Sladek
A collection of not very good New Age Wave stories that haven’t aged well. It’s all a bit too clever-clever and lazy.

Dry Store Room No. 1 — Richard Fortey
The second Fortey book I read this month, which is a look at how the Natural History Museum functions — part collection of entertaining anecdotes, part history, part autobiography. As everything Fortey does, its worth reading.

Why Buildings Fall Down — Matthys Levy & Mario Salvador
Two architects look at various examples of buildings falling down and why they do so. Very good, very clear at explaining complicated realities in a form even an ignoramus like me can understand without doing violence to them.

The 9th Directive — Adam Hall
Adam Hall is a British thriller writer I learned about through Charlie Stross. Found this novel at a jumble sale and read it in a day. Interesting Cold War thriller story written in a very flat affect style.

The British Tanks 1915-19 — David Fletcher
A sufficiently anorak look at the earliest British tanks and how they came to be. Lots of great archive pictures.

The Fox-Magic Murders — Robert van Gulik
The last ever Judge Dee story Robert van Gulik wrote, as he died shortly after. A classic detective story set in Ancient but historical China.

Foundation — Isaac Asimov
The stories that launched a thousand Galactic Empires. The first in the classic Foundation trilogy. Hari Seldon, the greatest psychohistorian ever predicts the fall of the Empire and hatches a plan to shorten the inevitable barbarism that will follow…

Foundation and Empire — Isaac Asimov
Second in the classic trilogy — now with actual female characters. The Foundation confronts the old empire and is then confronted by the Mule, the one factor psychohistory could not predict.

Second Foundation — Isaac Asimov
Third in the classic trilogy, to which no sequels were ever written. The Mule is vanquished, but now Foundation stands against Foundation…