Chris’s Comments (group member since Feb 26, 2015)

Chris’s comments from the CPL's Book a Week Challenge group.

I think I'm right around 30 or so, after discounting several graphic novels and comic volumes. I just started a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi novel called 'Hard Luck Hank.' I kind of picture Hank as a cross between Nathan Fillion and Patrick Warburton, being the "Price Line Negotiator" for the seedy mob controlled underworld.

actually I just finally finished it tonight. what a slog. around chapter 18 I gave up reading it and switched to the audio book to push through to the end. it felt like the book that just wouldn't end. I think I am give the name of the wind a try. that was my second choice for the group read.

I'm almost half way through it, and I'm still trying to discover what the point of all the tales is. It seems to be full of frivolous detail, that adds little to the story for me. I'm hoping as I keep reading there will be some kind of payoff that brings the little details together for a deeper point. So far the book hasn't gripped me yet. It's a book I can easily put down, and it isn't driving me to look forward to the next page or chapter. But I'm invested now. I'll see it through to the end.

On cold fall and winter days, I like to have some hot apple cider with a bit of bourbon. It's even better in front of the fireplace with a book. So far I'm almost half way through American God's, and still waiting for it to grab my attention. I also started listening to Golden Son (Red Rising #2) and I am enjoying it quite a bit so far.

I recently started American Gods. I'm hoping I'll have enough time to finish it by November. So far I am very much enjoying it. I have also been indulging in some comic books since I've already completed my 52 book goal for the year. I'm in the middle of a few other books both audio and ebook.

I was quite surprised at how many I had read, and how many of them were required reading for me in public school as I was growing up. I have read 34% of the top 100 listed on good reads.

Given there's another tie, I'll throw in with American Gods

Also, on a side note, there are 2 new bundles from storybundle.com this month. The first is a collection of Women in SciFi. The second is a collection of digital comics from Dynamite Pulp featuring Green Hornet, The Shadow, Zorro, and Lady Zorro.

I recently started the Undying Mercenaries series by B.V. Larson. I have been completely hooked after reading and then . At first I was skeptical about a book with space dinosaurs, but was captivated by the war tactics of a group of mercenaries that are able to be revived immediately upon their death. It was fascinating to see how battlefield tactics could change when you have limitless troops who can learn from their mistakes. Then, with the second book, the series continues to delve into the overarching plot as Earth faces annihilation from the Galactics, for crimes commited before joining the Galactic Empire.

I would also like to suggest "Jurassic Park" as a book. It's been a very long time since I read it, and since Jurassic World came out, interest is growing again for that series. Not to mention, the audiobook version of the first Jurassic Park was just released in May.

I finished , and have moved on to as my audio book. I have also started actually reading which is an interesting non-fiction book about the history of mankind's fascination with flight and our humble beginnings to how we finally arrived at modern flight.

New www.audiobooksync.com audiobooks today. It uses the overdrive app on your phone or computer. This week's free audio books are March and Little Women

I am a little over halfway through . It's hard not to compare it to Ready Player One, but so far it is still an interesting book. There's a lot of cursing in the book that I don't feel adds to character development, but I get that he's trying to convey how many teenagers talk. The story is still good fun, albeit a bit predictable. But, I think that's probably what Cline was going for since the book is once again chock-full of geeky pop-culture references with Music, Movies, and Video Games spanning from the mid 70's to the 2010s. And of course, I can't go wrong with an audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton.

Liz wrote: "Sometimes the narrator can be difficult to take in long doses so I didn't get through ..."

I completely know what you mean. I really like the story, but George Guidall is a bit much sometimes. I have so many audiobooks that were narrated by him, he seems inescapable. I've actually avoided listening to The Golem and the Jinni because he voiced that. Also, he voices the Gabriel Allon books by Daniel Silva, so I'm sticking with the dead-tree editions of those books. George isn't a bad narrator, but he doesn't seem to have a wide variety of voices and the characters can blur together through his narrations.

Around The World In 80 Days and The Explorers Club are the two free Audio Book Sync books available this week until 7/16.

Liz wrote: "I am listening to a fantastic audiobook, On a Pale Horse. Thanks for the recommendation, Chris! I am also reading The Way of Shadows, the first book in a fa..."

Glad you are enjoying it! This week, I am continuing to read through the Complete Sherlock Holmes The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Tales of Terror and Mystery (audiobook), and also listening to Steel World, which I have been cruising through staying up late and listening for hours at a time. For my actual reading, I am reading The Glass Magician which is the second book in the Magician series. Following a young 'Folder' who is a magician who enchants paper. In this world, only a select few people have magical abilities and each person can only be bound to one type of magic. So far, I have encountered, paper, glass, steal, rubber, and plastic magicians. Then, there are the excisioners, who are rogue magicians who have chosen to bond to the forbidden substance of blood. The young paper magician and her professor are engaged in secret investigations to track and capture the elusive excisioners.

Liz wrote: "Chris wrote: "So far in the books I have encountered Thanatos (death), Chronos, Mars, Gaea, and Satan (the villain, of course). Each book in the series seems to focus on a new aspect of each inca..."

Well, in the books he's not exactly a villain in the obviously evil sense. But he is a the incarnation of evil trying to gather souls, competing against god who is trying to gather souls for his purposes. But it is interesting because the incarnations are not able to directly affect the other incarnations, so they all have to work within their own skills. In the lore of the books, neither satan nor god has power over time, death, or fate, so they must try and manipulate the other incarnations in order to gather their souls. In the books, satan is more like the iconic used-car salesman pitching his wares, rather than a purely evil entity.

So far in the books I have encountered Thanatos (death), Chronos, Mars, Gaea, and Satan (the villain, of course). Each book in the series seems to focus on a new aspect of each incarnation. It's a very unique world, with clever interactions, and devious schemes forcing some incarnations to cause harm to other characters with the best of intentions.

I just finished my first time read through of "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" and am now reading "Bearing an Hour Glass" by Piers Anthony. It's book two in the Incarnations of Immortality series, and I really enjoy the play between the characters of myth that were thought to control our lives through time, fate, threads of life, death, and heaven and hell. A fun combination of science, magic, and myth.

With my freeze ray, I would stop... The world...