What Else are You Reading? June '15

[Stephen]

I have started on The Broken Sword. Written in 1954, one of the pillars of Fantasy.

[Phil]

Just finished The Middle of Nowhere by David Gerrold. It took a while to get into but I really enjoyed in the end. It is part of a series but I've never read the others and it stood alone pretty well.
Starting City of Stairs.

[Lucien21]

Just finished Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Thought it was brilliant right up until the 300 page epilogue that jumped 5000 years into the future.

[Rob, Roberator]

I've been sort of taking it easy on reading text lately. I've slowly worked my way through Different Seasons.

I'm usually not a big fan of short stories or novellas for some reason, but this is great collection. Three of the stories were turned into movies after all. (My Review)

I also listened to the first two books of the Long Price Quartet. Pretty good so far, though they won't be for everyone. I seem to be a fan of everything Abraham does.

A Shadow in Summer: Review
A Betrayal in Winter: Review

I would have jumped right into book 3, but I got my hands on an early review copy of the audiobook for Queen of Fire! :-D

Pretty good, I'll likely have a spoiler-free review of that next weekend.

[Kristina]

Just finished The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic. I really liked it.. it's a slower paced book, but not boring slow. I just loved the characters. Supposedly she's working on the next book and I'll be looking forward to it. Next up: White Night, Origin, and Blameless.

[AndrewP]

Sandi wrote: " In July, we're doing another oldie, Star Soldiers by Andre Norton. I think I may be the youngest member of the group (I'm 54.), so it might be up to me to get them reading newer SF."

Coincidentally I just finished reading Star Soldier so I might show up for the next OC meeting. I have a couple of friends in the club but have never been to any of their meetings.

EDIT: I see on their website that Star Soldiers is going to be their July book pick. So the meeting on July 29th will be the one I try and get to.

[John (Taloni)]

Star Soldiers is pretty cool. There's also the "history of SF" context to discuss as well, since "Alice Mary Norton" felt the need to use the gender-neutral "Andre."

[Brendan]

Slowed down on my reading lately because of moving and wanting to cut back a bit on book costs, but I've finished with Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (my review). I enjoyed it but its certainly not for everyone and I thought Angela Carter does a better job of covering the same subjects. If anything its convinced me I need to read more by Carter.

Started reading The Rise of Ransom City, which i'm really looking forward to. I loved The Half-Made World and this is the same setting.

[Dharmakirti]

I'm still reading City of Stairs. I like a lot of the themes and I'm interested in the story but I'm struggling with it a little bit; when I'm done with a reading session, I'm not exactly eager to pick it back up. I think it is because I find the exposition to be rather clunky and it gets in the way of what should be a fast(er) paced spy story.

[Brendan]

Dharmakirti wrote: "I'm still reading City of Stairs. I like a lot of the themes and I'm interested in the story but I'm struggling with it a little bit; when I'm done with a reading session, I'm not ..."

Ha, I definitely did not have that issue. i read it in two (long) sessions. I found it pretty fast-paced myself but maybe its a difference of expectations. I don't normally read spy/mystery/detective novels and it felt fast paced for a fantasy.

[Dharmakirti]

Brendan wrote: "Ha, I definitely did not have that issue. i read it in two (long) sessions. I found it pretty fast-paced myself but maybe its a difference of expectations. I don't normally read spy/mystery/detective novels and it felt fast paced for a fantasy."

Maybe the pacing of the book I previously read was so spot on that it is impacting my reading of this novel? I don't know. There is a lot to like in CoS so even if, for me, the execution is a little off, I will soldier on. I'm just hoping I can finish by July 1 so I can focus on reading Palimpsest with another group.

[David Sven]

Finished Bernard Cornwell's The Empty Throne on Audible. Review

Starting Robert McCammon's The Providence Rider also on Audible

[Eric]

I really enjoyed Machine of Death (which I finished earlier in the month); I'm now reading the sequel This is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death.

I'm also 1/5 done with Tiger Eye. I enjoyed Liu's work on Marvel and got this book for free from B&N. Figured it was as good a book as any for my first ever romance. It's not too bad and has an interesting premise so far.

Fables, Vol. 3: Storybook Love hoping to start re-reading this in the next couple days. When I read the individual issues I'm not sure if I got through all the issues in this volume.

[John (Taloni)]

Finished up Changeless, the second book in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books. Decent, but had a little too much in reveals at the end by talking that should have been done by story. Then there was a huge cliffhanger that weirded me out. I went straight on to Blameless as it is easily available from my library, but if I were buying at retail the cliffhanger would have given me pause on proceeding to the next.

[Robert]

I just finished Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better writing. I love Grammar Girl. The book didn't disappoint.

[Madelyn]

Remember when we read Goddess of Spring? Well, I'm reading the whole series! I'm on book 6, Warrior Rising (the only one without "Goddess" in the title).

[Alan]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Finished up Changeless, the second book in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books. Decent, but had a little too much in reveals at the end by talking that should have been done by story. Then t..."

Man, I hated that "cliffhanger" at the end - not because it left certain relationships up in the air but because I felt it did an irretrievable amount of damage to my opinion of one of the characters. (That character had to be a colossal idiot and insufferable to have leaped to that conclusion and reacted in that way.) I never read the third so I'm interested to hear whether you liked it.

[John (Taloni)]

On that note...(spoilers for first part of Blameless)

(view spoiler)[So far, not impressed. I agree with the damage to Conall. Alexis isn't doing so well either at the start. There's really no sympathetic characters.

I don't see how anyone's reputation can reasonably be salvaged at this point. Alexis could never realistically function in society again after that savaging, even if vindicated. (hide spoiler)]

[terpkristin]

I finished The Three-Body Problem and really liked it. Last night I finished Uprooted and found that it wasn't really my thing, though I can't place my finger on why.

I decided to return to Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World before starting Station Eleven on my Kindle. Next up in audio is tbd, but I'm leaning toward either a return to Riyria or Off to Be the Wizard.

[Rob, Roberator]

terpkristin wrote: "Next up in audio is tbd, but I'm leaning toward either a return to Riyria or Off to Be the Wizard. "

Both good choices IMHO..

[Elizabeth]

Well June's nearly over. I said I was going to keep going with Royal Assassin and instead I've read Outlander (not SFF) as my audiobook, The Making And Breaking Of The Australian Family (not SFF) for uni, and am about halfway through The Shadow Rising.

Next up on audiobook is The Golem and the Djinni.

[John (Taloni)]

I did finish Blameless. Not bad enough to turn me off the Parasol Protectorate series, but hoo boy, this book is filled with unsympathetic characters. It was hard to take. if these are Romance tropes, those tropes could use updating.

(view spoiler)[First off, Conall Maccon is a complete jerk to push away his pregnant wife. The actions he takes should be unforgivable, but by the end of the book there's Alexia forgiving him, and rather easily too.

Alexia has little sympathy for her own child, referring to it as the "infant inconvenience" for much of the book. As a dad who takes parenting very seriously, I just couldn't relate to this. I tried to take it as the kind of ambivalence women may go through, and for all that I know it could be common. But it didn't make Alexia sympathetic.

Then there's the French inventor, who refers to his wife's death casually, and says she was a "turnip." That is, bland and good as a side dish only. Am I supposed to take this as some kind of French thing? He's a jerk.

If anything, secondary characters came off well. Professor Lyall is surprisingly compassionate. There's a surprise involving Lord Akeldama's favorite drone Biffy. Ivy and her husband are involved in two interesting subplots.

Alexia's fall is too hard and her return to grace too easy for me to credit it. It's even odder considering the fairly interesting lessons in self-worth contained in the first novel.

The book otherwise has the fun commentary and situations of the first book. It's just harder to enjoy because none of the characters seem worth rooting for. (hide spoiler)]

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I'm reading The Wilds by Julia Elliott, stories that are strange and uncomfortable in the best ways. Veers into fantasy/horror at times.

I also recently finished North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud which I would recommend to anyone who likes gritlit with a horror twist. The collection as well as one of the stories has won a Shirley Jackson prize. My review is here.

[AndrewP]

I'm half way through The Mad Ship, book 3 of Robin Hobb's Liveship Traiders trilogy.

[Joel]

The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan. I've really enjoyed this series.

Also, listening to The Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik read by Simon Vance who has been a great narrator so far.

[D]

Started reading and listening to Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. First time having Jefferson Mays as narrator and am enjoying his delivery thus far.

Also reading the two or thee shorts in Jim Butcher's Side Jobs before I get into the 11th book in the Dresden series, Turn Coat.

[Rob, Roberator]

I was lucky to get an early review copy of the audio version of Queen of Fire thanks to SFFAudio. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the last two. (My Review)

[Joseph]

Finished Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music and am back to the genre with The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis.

[Alan]

John (Taloni) wrote: "I did finish Blameless. Not bad enough to turn me off the Parasol Protectorate series, but hoo boy, this book is filled with unsympathetic characters."

Thanks, I've been kind of curious since I read book 2; I think I'm going to pass. There are too many other good books out there to slog through Blameless to get to the rest of the series

[Phil]

Just finished City of Stairs. I really enjoyed it. I complained in another thread that the present tense annoyed me as it always does but it still gets 5 stars from me.
Starting The Ultimate Helm.

[Aaron]

Blade of Tyshalle - This is a tricky one to review, the first one was plain and simple fantastic. The second book it has problems, it got too fantastic, too metaphysical after how it was playing itself as more gritty realism. It was still very enjoyable 4/5. But overall I'm a bit disappointed.

[Sky]

I finally finished The Liar's Key and loved it. For the commute + gym now I am going back to The Deaths of Tao in audio, and am starting Midnight Tides in print tonight. I've got about 6 hours of audio left in Tao, so I should be able to finish that in time to start Queen of Fire on in audio on July 7. I assume it will be up on Audible since Rob got his preview copy early :)

Comic book-wise I read a few more volumes of GTO and Attack of the Titans

[Joseph]

Finished The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis and started American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett.

[Dara]

I finished Three Parts Dead yesterday. It was fantastic. Loved it. My review. Next, I'll probably read Two Serpents Rise.

[Jim]

Has anyone been reading the Long Earth series by Sir Terry and Stephen Baxter? I got the first shortly after it came out and waited for the second breathlessly. I somehow missed the third until I saw the announcement for the fourth one last month.

What do you think of them?

The Long Earth

[Joe Informatico]

Finished all the omnibus volumes of the Vlad Taltos series (i.e., up to the 11th book), so I'm stepping away to catch up on other things before getting to books 12-14.

Finished The Last Wish, the first collection of translated stories in The Witcher series. (I really liked it.)

In the middle of Deryni Rising, a fundamental work of fantasy.

Waiting for the imminent releases of Last First Snow and The Price of Valor!

[John (Taloni)]

^^ I read The Long Earth books and find them fair to middling. They're worth reading, just not great. There were going to be five, and it's pretty much Baxter working from old Pratchett notes anyway, so I'm hopeful they will finish.

[Lindsay]

Jim wrote: "Has anyone been reading the Long Earth series by Sir Terry and Stephen Baxter? I got the first shortly after it came out and waited for the second breathlessly. I somehow missed the third until I saw the announcement for the fourth one last month.

What do you think of them? "

There's little to no flavor of Pratchett in these at all; they read like all of Baxter's other stuff. As to that, Stephen Baxter is an author I should like. His books certainly interest me and I've read 10 or so of them, but I just don't enjoy the writing very much. Must be a style thing.

[Marion]

I finished reading A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg. It was thought-provoking and interesting to read. Here's my review:
http://marion-hill.com/book-review-67...

I have decided to read more of Robert Silverberg during his prolific period from 1967-1976. I just started Tower of Glass and I have bought Downward to the Earth and Shadrach in the Furnace. Looking forward to finishing these novels throughout the summer.

[Dharmakirti]

I just started The Hum and the Shiver.

[Kristina]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Finished up Changeless, the second book in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books. Decent, but had a little too much in reveals at the end by talking that should have been done by story. Then t..."

Just starting Blameless myself!

[John (Taloni)]

^Cool! I'm up to Timeless now, just finishing it up. Fast reads. I did have some issues with the 2nd/3rd books but it's still a great world and a lot of fun. Gail Carriger's humor is fabulous.