Book 4: Children of Dune, by Frank Herbert
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Hmm. Maybe I didn't engage with this book on the right level, but I found it dumb and boring. I actually quite liked Messiah previously, but the story here is very thin. A
lot of hemming and hawing over the prospect of incest, and a plot by the villains to
(checks notes) train wild tigers to attack anyone wearing a specific outfit, and then gifting that outfit to the Atreides twins. That's a Wil E. Coyote-ass plan.
Book 5: The Slynx, by Tatyana Tolstoya
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The jacket describes this as Nabokov's Pale Fire by way of A Clockwork Orange, so of course I'm there. A semi-satirical post-apocalyptic novel, The Slynx concerns society after an event called The Blast. Mutations are common (called Consequences, they can be anything from a prehensile tail to claws to heat vision), and a number of people alive before The Blast mysteriously remain immortal (at least safe from old age and disease; murder and misadventure can still take you out). The protagonist, Benedikt, works for an odd, despotic ruler, who makes a room full of people copy books and put his name on them. Free thought and creative thinking are discouraged; rumor has it the mystical Slynx will find you, look at you, and you'll never be the same. After some time, Benedikt gets married and joins his father in-law in raiding homes for hidden books, which they steal and read for themselves. Weird, absurd stuff, great prose. Feels like a comment on Russian culture and history, of which I have minimal context.
Book 6: A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2), by Becky Chambers
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You may recall last year I read Chambers' Monk and Robot series and loved it a ton. I'd previously read Wayfarers #1, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and found it pleasant but a bit lacking; some of the characters were squee/holds-up-spork so-random, and the main ensemble had a bit of Burger King Kids Club syndrome.
A friend recently told me they read the whole series and that it's worth it. They were right; Chambers hones in on the characters really well and does a good job of presenting a cozy story which eschews superficial action or conflict, while also providing a propulsive story and strong emotional stakes. At one point, two characters resolve to escape a situation and despite that being the obvious story path, the way it unfolded made my heart swell; it's a skilled writer who can take a foregone conclusion feel like an organic triumph.
