Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Poor Richard’s Books in Colorado Springs recommends NAMES OF BOOKS HERE.
Transcendence
By Ian Patterson
Ian Patterson
$18
May 2025
Purchase
From the publisher: Nicholas, Charon, and Dorothy are separated, and stranded in a cosmos they don’t understand. Behind is a City that would kill them, and the cooling gulf of rage that split them. Their only landmarks now are the distant stars, galaxies, and antique wooden doors that litter the plane. Through each door, the promise of a new world brims with possibility, but all they find are dead ends. A translucent tunnel extends before them and shows their direction. Or does it determine it? Are they in control of their decisions, or is something else guiding them? And who, or what, is the Narrator?
From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: Colorado author Ian Patterson returns with book two of the Narrator cycle, “Transcendence,” picking up from his wonderfully written debut novel “Transference.” The first volume introduced amazing technology, a uniquely original storyline and thought-provoking moral questions. In the second volume we are treated to more mind-bending concepts and ethical challenges.
In “Transcendence,” we follow the characters as they seek answers (and maybe just a bit of revenge) from someone who has been messing with their lives and future. Readers delve into the fourth and fifth dimensions. Now, I am not a physics person, at all, but through adroit writing I think I understand the concepts. I think.
I highly recommend reading the first volume before taking this novel on. It will save a lot of head scratching. I look forward to reading more of this author’s work in the future!
Is A River Alive?
By Robert Macfarlane
W. W. H. Norton & Company
$31.99
May 2025
Purchase
From the publisher: Hailed in the New York Times as “a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler,” Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. The book is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law.
Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada — imperiled respectively by mining, pollution and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane’s house, a stream who flows through his own years and days.
From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: When I first saw the title of the book, I immediately thought to myself, “Of course it is.” Then stepping back a bit, I realized that I could possibly be in the minority, yet again, in my perception of the natural world, and how I experience it.
My fascination with running water and how it molds/affects us comes from a small creek not far from my childhood farm. It was there that I witnessed the relationship that land, water and people/animals have. My father, a man of very few words, would take me to the creek, we’d sit down, and he’d lean over and say quietly, “Just watch.”
I’ve been watching ever since.
Macfarlane examines how rivers have shaped communities, reflecting on three unique rivers and their distinct characters. With a tender heart and a nod to possibilities, we are encouraged to rethink rivers, or any body of water for that matter, as living beings. There is spirit, a mind of its own, feelings (rage after a deluge of rain and calmness on a summer day) and an ever-changing body. “Is A River Alive?” shows us that nature, in all its forms, is more than deserving of our compassion and deference.
Battle Mountain
By C. J. Box
Putnam
$32
February 2025
Purchase
From the publisher: The campaign of destruction that Axel Soledad and Dallas Cates wreaked on Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett left both men in tatters, especially Nate, who lost almost everything. Wondering if the civilized life left him vulnerable to attack, Nate dropped off the grid with his falcons in tow to prepare for vengeance.
When Joe gets a call from the governor asking for help finding his son-in-law, who has gone missing in the Sierra Madre mountain range, he enlists the help of a local, a rookie game warden named Susan Kany. As Nate and fellow falconer Geronimo Jones circle closer to their prey, Joe and Susan follow the nearly cold trail to Warm Springs. Little do Nate and Joe know that their separate journeys are about to converge . . . at Battle Mountain.
From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: I just got back, begrudgingly, from a long weekend in the mountains. Blue River was just steps away, a well-known distillery tasting room a few paces beyond (the new reposado tequila is wonderful btw…). I was there to relax and not think about work for a few days. I brought along two books to help pass time and get lost in. One of the two books was “Battle Mountain” by C. J. Box. Well, so much for “relaxing.”
From the third paragraph in the first chapter, we are sucked into a heart-racing tale that author Box expertly creates in the 25th (!!!) installment of the Joe Pickett series. The pacing of the story will keep the reader turning pages, despite the late hours. The plots and skillful storytelling have become seasoned and more complex. Characters we have known for years surprise us; we are thrilled and saddened at the same time.
Pick up this book for a great summer read and be prepared to put in a few late night hours to get through it. Totally worth the lost sleep.
As part of The Colorado Sun’s literature section — SunLit — we’re featuring staff picks from book stores across the state. Read more.
Type of Story: Review
An assessment or critique of a service, product, or creative endeavor such as art, literature or a performance.