The Killing Game by Iris Johansen

I needed a quick read and have enjoyed her books before so I decided to pick up the first book involving Eve my library had. I managed to find the second book.

Published: 1999

Genre: thriller

Length: 355 pages

Setting: Georgia, present day

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Tenth of December by George Suanders

A friend gave me a copy of this book to read. I don’t usually read short story collections, but he seemed so passionate about the author and the stories that I was willing to try it. Since it is a short story collection, I’ll summarize each story and then give my overall impressions.

Published: 2013

Genre: fiction short stories, with occasional science fictional elements

Length: 251 pages

Font: Sabon

Setting: various present day settings in the U.S.

Genghis: Birth of a Nation by Conn Iggulden

I was looking through the library’s shelves for an author whose last name started with I for my Reading the Alphabet Challenge and this title caught my eye. I was in the mood for some historical fiction in a non-Western setting and decided to try it.

Published: 2007

Genre: historical fiction

Length: 383 pages

Setting: what is now Mongolia, 1200s

Making a Good Impression by James Hart

This is the next short story in the Event Horizon 2017 collection of short stories highlighting authors who are eligible for the 2017 Campbell award for best new writer.

Published: 2016 in Mothership Zeta: Issue 5

Genre: science fiction

Setting: a generic city, near future

Summary: Arturo has created a fully aware AI named Magda. He’s planning on holding a press conference to introduce Magda to the world and is using her to run simulations of the press conference. As he runs through multiple simulations, the reader realizes he’s using the press conference as a chance to get a date with Aaron, a cute reporter he knew from college.

Final thoughts: A fine enough story. There’s a couple of levels to it – we have the artificial intelligence tweaking the simulations, the tweaking of the sims to increase the interaction with Aaron, and then the author sneaks in a bit of emotional history behind why he created Magda in the first place. It ends on a hopeful note.

Title comes from: It’s what Arturo was trying to do with Aaron at the press conference, and he was practicing to make the best first impression possible.

If you’re interested in purchasing the book, you can click on the cover image or title to follow an Amazon affiliate link to the book and thanks for supporting my blog!

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

This was one of the Modern Library’s top 100 novels of the century.

Published: 1971

Genre: literary fiction

Length: 569 pages

Setting: 1960s and probably early 1800s U.S.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

This book got a lot of buzz when it was translated into English, including winning the Hugo. I was interested because it was Chinese science fiction, and felt like some science fiction next.

Published: 2006 in Chinese, 2014 in English

Genre: science fiction

Length: 399 pages

Setting: China in the late 1960s and present day

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

This was my library book club’s choice for September.

Published: 2012

Genre: historical fiction

Length: 362 pages

Setting: Australia, 1920s