so-soI love Adler-Olsen. His Department Q series and other stand alone novel, The Washington Decree are fantastic. I couldn‘t get into this one. It is a very interesting concept: WWII and 2 British soldiers having to fake insanity to survive a mental ward behind enemy lines. Those aren‘t spoilers. The meandering pace and narrative is hard to follow. Maybe I‘ll return to it. But right now it is meh.
pickThe is is the 5th book in the series, and I‘ m not sure what to write so I don‘t spoil anything for others. But if you‘ve made it this far, you‘re going to love this as well.
This is supposed to be 7 books and I can‘t wait to see where Balle ends up.
I‘m posting one book a day from my massive collection. No description, no reason for why I want to read it.
#ABookADay2025
pickFollowing Volume I, where Tara found herself stuck reliving November 18 over and over, she now enters her second year of reliving the day. Most of this is riveting, though she does go off on a tangent at one point I found less interesting. The ending makes me crazy to read the next volume, which isn‘t out in English yet! Arg!
pickYES. More of this PLEASE. By which I do not mean that this book needed to be anything more than it was, I just want more works like it. I knew that I loved sci-fi stories that drift about in that space of humans/humanoid/android/clone/cyborg examining identity, the nature of life and existence, of being, and one's right to do so; that I love stories where the horror has the idea of employment, being a worker, a cog, as a central theme, 1/?
Would just like to point out the cover indicated in the digital listing in my library catalogue vs the version that showed up on the hold shelf. They did us both dirty Olga, glad you got another cover. [I think there's a third one with black gunk in a water cooler, might be more on theme, but it's a little basic for my taste.]
pickThis was such a cool, little book. Employees (both human and humanoid) working on a spaceship are interviewed. The interviewer asks questions about productivity, the items the ship carries, and relations between humans and humanoids. At times we don‘t know whether an human or humanoid is speaking. Sort of an “us verses them” story, told in sound bites. This allowed the story to unfold slowly and in random pieces. Slow, but catastrophic.
pickIn this trippy little book, Tara has traveled to a Paris on a book-buying trip for her rare books business with her husband. But when she wakes up one morning, she discovers she‘s reliving November 18, which was the day before. No one else remembers they‘ve already done this. Watching her navigate the time loop is fascinating. I really hope the whole series gets translated.
NBA longlist, translated literature
pickThis is the 4th book in the series and Tara has been stuck in 18th November for years. She isn‘t the only one. Several people who is experiencing the same is living in a house in Bremen. They begin to discuss what has happened, what to call it, what is the real time - the ones doing the same thing every day or this group. And if they can find answers to these questions and understand what has happened will it be possible to start time again?
