Must agree with you re Clarkson. He really is a natural and most entertaining writer. One of his best to me is I Know You Got Soul in which he looks at machines which have that little something extra.
Read a whole bunch of time travel stuff recently, nothing that good though. Just about to finish Greg Bear’s The Way trilogy. Bit curate’s egg with some intriguing characters and situations. Gets lost in places, though, and leaves some themes/strands unfinished. Still entertaining,
Am proud to say I finally, after about 20 years trying, finished Slaughterhouse Five. I have loved a lot of other Vonnegut, particularly Sirens of Titan. But this so called major, worthy work still defeats me. His stunning style, dark humour and ability to reach out and touch the reader is still there. However, aside from a penetrating look at the sad psyche of US people, I don’t really get it. Have heard it accused of being The Great American Novel. Hmmm. Maybe it is; maybe there just isn’t that much worthy to say about US character.
Happiest reading moment is next week when the latest Rivers of London novel is released and will go straight into my new Amazon Fire reader thingey – old one developed a mind of its own (psychotic) and shuffled off its mortal chips!