Currently working my way through Neal Stepenson's Baroque Cycle, again, and enjoying it but wishing for some kind of guide to it...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle

I may have to have a look at G.D.H.Cole. I'm a mystery buff and have found that the English tend to write the best mystery stories (as opposed to detective stories, where Americans tend to excel).

In a different key - the story of autism

recently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Aa...vers_of_London
many will criticize, it's not flawless, the books (half a dozen in the series by now iirc) tend to draw on and on, but they scratch a constant itch for escapism + a good plot + these nice little ironic references + intellectualism...

right now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_War_%28novel%29

Almost finished reading the last volume of "The Three Body Problem":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem

Keeping the Chinese characters names straight reminded me of reading "The Gulag Archipelago" many years ago.

Very enjoyable read.

I must admit that I enjoyed them, was a bit disappointed with Foxglove Summer but The Hanging Tree seems a return to form.

i found that i can take books to be a little boring, but if the plot is dull or not credible , that i cannot forgive.
i think aaronovitch's plots are never that.
and i admire crazy ideas, like the giant magic lightning rod inside the brutalist ghetto skyscraper... yay!

I can deal quite nicely with incredible plots, if the characters and the stories work.

The Hitchhikers Guide would be an example of this (except for the last installment, which was quite dark.

Now, if a book with an incredible plot is pretending to be credible, that's quite another story.

by credible i didn't mean realistic.

some writers (or more often in movies) seem to think that they can gloss over things or even dupe the reader, effectively underestimating their intelligence. that's what i mean by "not credible".

no, it can be crazy fantastic and incredible, but it has to be credible. respect your readers.

one more thing about aaronovitch:
he likes to get off on certain phrases and really likes to hear himself talk.
some folks might be annoyed by that, but i still like the overall flow of the story.

I know what you mean -- I think it's about suspension of disbelief and that's about internal consistency. So, not breaking one's own rules and no sudden changes of rules to the benefit of the protagonist[s].
I found Foxglove Summer was a bit off track and inconsistent but, other than that, I have found him pretty good at keeping his universe in order.
I agree about having certain phrases and ideas he likes to use a lot but I find most of the authors I like (William Gibson, J. G. Ballard, Neal Stephenson and others) are like that.

that's exactly what i meant. i hate it.
it even has its own wikipedia page and, as i accidentally found out, its own movie.
bless the internet of the third millenium, there's a term for everything, at everyone's fingertips!

the computer screen

I'm reading The Hobbyist's Guide to the RTL-SDR: Really Cheap Software Defined Radio. I purchase the kindle edition for $9.95. It's a great read if you're a HAM/Shortwave/VHF/UHF or all around radio enthusiasts.

Old school sci-fi, been re reading the lensman series for the umpteenth time, just about to fi ish children of the lens, probably gonna read the flashman novels after that.

I was just on ebay looking for a copy of The World of Null-A, and silly me, I now have 18 A.E. Van Vogt sci-fi paperbacks on the way :)