Here’s what I read this summer (okay, full disclosure – I started in March):

• The Stand. I suppose I decided to read The Stand because of Covid-19. Like most Stephen King books I have read (a short list consisting of The Running Man, which he wrote under a pseudonym early in his career and I didn’t actually realize was Stephen King until later, and The Shining, which I decided to read on a whim one Halloween), it wasn’t exactly what I expected, wasn’t as horrifying as I expected, and I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end. I read the extended version, clocking in at over 1200 pages, which includes information he intended to be in there from the beginning that was cut by the original publisher.
• Futuristic Violence in Fancy Suits. Just dumb, fun escape reading, superhero stuff.
• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Now, I’ve given Margaret Atwood a hard time on this blog before, not that she knows or cares. That was before I read The Handmaid’s Tale, and I take it all back. This is a sequel (actually, it sort of takes place loosely in parallel) to The Handmaid’s Tale. The Handmaid’s Tale is a special book. It’s particularly effective as an audio book, because it is supposed to be the audio testimony of a young woman of unknown fate. It is affecting, because it is something like a slave narrative or The Diary of Anne Frank, and you really identify with the character. Of course, the latter two are real while this is a work of fiction. If you haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale, you need to read it and then reflect on it for awhile before reading The Testaments, but I found The Testaments to be a powerful and affecting book as a supplement.
• I decided that my theme this summer would be “books by Neal Stephenson”. I started with The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. I was looking for escape fiction and this one is about witches, Vikings and time travel. It is very long, and I got the idea he was just getting wound up at the end. I enjoyed the book.
• Next in my “Summer of Stephenson” was The Diamond Age. This is a book about nanotechnology. Like many books about post-singularity technology (I’m thinking of Accelerando by Charles Stross, as good an escape fiction writer as any), I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I was expecting. It was hard to follow the plot and hard to relate to the characters. I applaud Mr. Stephenson for writing a different, creative sort of book, but it just wasn’t that fun for me. Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Stross should both talk to Vernor Vinge about how to make far future technology more relatable.
• Last in my “Summer of Stephenson”, I’m listening to Cryptonomicon, his massive epic about World War II code breaking. It’s an interesting listen, although I tend to listen for a half hour here and there and then be ready for something else. I’m finding it’s good for passing the time on those insomniac nights.
• Finally, I’m reading The Angle Quickest for Flight by Stephen Kotler. It sounded like a fun Dan Brown type thing, but it is turning out to be not fun for me. It’s a tough slog, but I almost never give up on a book.

In summary – Stephen King, fun, although I am not a “horror fan” per se. Vernor Vinge, fun. Anything by Charles Stross except for Accelerando, fun. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, very fun. Other books by Neal Stephenson, moderately to somewhat fun, although after binging on him for a summer I will probably take an extended break. “Fun” might not be exactly the right word for Margaret Atwood, but Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments are well written and powerful stuff you don’t want to come true. Her MaddAdam trilogy is moderately fun stuff you don’t want to come true, and come to think of it, it kind of closes the loop to where I started with The Stand.

I also watched some of the Netflix series Altered Carbon this summer. It reminded me how incredibly fun that book was, even Snow Crash fun. In fact, I would suggest Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson), Altered Carbon (Richard K. Morgan), and Rainbow’s End (Vernor Vinge) as a very fun cyberpunk trio.