What Else Are You Reading - February 2014

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

I'm reading Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventure from Chess to Role-Playing Games which, despite its generic title, is a history of the creation of Dungeons & Dragons (I'm guessing the author couldn't get the rights to put D&D in the title). It is told in such great detail that it's alternately fascinating and mind-numbing. But if you have any interest in the topic, you'll likely enjoy geeking out on some of the content. For instance, the portion covering the co-evolution of science-fiction and fantasy fiction is an excellent look at developments that influence, well, basically everything we read in this group.

Also still making my way through another look at genre history, the anthology The Road to Science Fiction Volume 1.

What are you reading?

[Jenny]

Early this morning I started Shift Omnibus Edition (Silo, #2). I'm so excited to be reading more of this series! I'm also listening to Prince Caspian on audio.

[Sandi]

Today, I am re-starting the audiobook of Winter's Tale. I've had it in my audiobook library for ages and I'm not sure why I didn't get through it the first time I tried to listen. The preview for the movie that's coming out in a couple of weeks got me wanting to finally listen to the book.

I've started reading A Wizard of Earthsea. The beginning reminds me a lot of The Wee Free Men. I'm sure that's about to change though.

Carrying over from January, I'm reading The Lost and Far North. I'm putting a pause on Range of Ghosts though. Maybe I'll finish it this month, I'm not sure.

[Walter]

Also getting ready to start A Wizard of Earthsea.

[Viola]

Still reading Jag såg henne idag i receptionen. It's not bad, just weird and when you put it down, you don't really want to pick it up.

[Phil]

Just finished Anathem. I loved it and wish I had been part of the group when you read it a couple years ago so I could have seen the discussions.
Now reading Alice in Puzzle-Land.
Next will be Unshapely Things, another past club pick since I've already read A Wizard of Earthsea.

[terpkristin]

On the last night of January, I finished Seer: A Prequel to the Mongoliad (review coming soon-ish). I started listening to A Wizard of Earthsea while driving around today and am about a quarter of the way through. I'm enjoying it, but finding some of the descriptions a little distracting at times, in the audiobook version. That said, I'm looking forward to getting more into it (I'm about a quarter through).

After that...we'll see. I'm still reading down my queue...and adding to my queue thanks to The Fussy Librarian. Terrible influence.

[Walter]

I only recently learned about the Fussy Librarian. They told me my book will be appearing in tomorrow's newsletter.

[Geoff]

terpkristin wrote: "On the last night of January, I finished Seer: A Prequel to the Mongoliad (review coming soon-ish)."

Assuming you've read some of the other Mongoliad books, how are they? I like Stephenson, and have been curious about these books

[Ctgt]

Started Something More Than Night

[terpkristin]

Geoff wrote: "tAssuming you've read some of the other Mongoliad books, how are they? I like Stephenson, and have been curious about these books "

I've read most of them. The main world books (The Mongoliad: Book One, The Mongoliad: Book Two, and The Mongoliad: Book Three are the ones I've read so far) are OK, but really have to be read back-to-back, as they really are one story broken (awkwardly) into three parts. My overall view is that the story feels like it was written by multiple authors. I think it would have worked out better if they had made the main story line have two key story lines, and left the rest to the "prequels" and "side quests." I still have Katabasis and Siege Perilous in my queue, as well as the "Side Quests" (The Beast of Calatrava: A Foreworld Sidequest, The Shield-Maiden: A Foreworld SideQuest, and The Lion in Chains, available individually or as one book in SideQuest Adventures No. 1). It definitely seems that the shorter world tales, the prequels and side quests, are a better format for the stories.

In a nutshell, I liked the concept, the world, and most of the characters, but I found the writing meandering and confusing. The way the parallel stories was told made it hard to remember what was going on in any individual story line and made it feel disjointed. Oddly, though, I still mostly enjoyed reading them, and I've enjoyed the 3 prequels. I think it works well in the short format. My reviews have more information for the first 3 books and the first 2 prequels. My review of Seer: A Prequel to the Mongoliad will go up tomorrow or so...

[David Sven]

Finished Ghost Story The Dresden Files 13
My review

Starting book:Genghis Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden

[David Sven]

Finished A Game of Thrones The Graphic Novel Vol. 1
My review

[Dara]

About half way through Judas Unchained. Hope to read A Wizard of Earthsea this month and jump bad into Malazan with The Bonehunters.

[David(LA,CA)]

So, since last I checked in, I finished off World of Warcraft: Dawn of the Aspects and the rest of the Bob Moore series: Bob Moore: Desperate Times and Bob Moore: Hostile Territory.

Started listening to A Wizard of Earthsea yesterday, and plan to start reading Dirty Magic tonight.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished listening to Abaddon's Gate (My Review). I enjoyed it but not as much as Caliban's War

I also listened to George Carlin Reads to You (My Review) if anyone wants to see my thoughts on that.

Tomorrow morning I'll start listening to Burning Chrome

[Darren]

I'm reading Heroes Die, by Matthew Stover. Also Shattered Pillars, by Elizabeth Bear. They're both pretty great, and I should enjoy them one at a time, but I'm being helplessly greedy, and reading them two-fisted.

[Rob, Roberator]

Darren wrote: "I'm reading Heroes Die, by Matthew Stover. Also Shattered Pillars, by Elizabeth Moon. They're both pretty great, and I should enjoy them one at a time, but I'm being helplessly greedy, and reading ..."

Heh. A bunch of us are going to read that later this month.

[Darren]

Both of those authors, I think, why are they not more popular?

[Rob, Roberator]

I haven't read either author yet, but I'm looking forward to Heroes Die.

[Tamahome]

echo Shattered Pillars, by Elizabeth Moon | sed s/Moon/Bear/

[Darren]

Ah yeah, that was my bad.Fixed.

[Kristina]

Working on The Dragonbone Chair. Then I am I dying to finish out Shadow Ops withBreach Zone.

[Tamahome]

I checked out Christopher Golden's Snowblind. Stephen King blurbed it.

[Rob, Roberator]

Finished A Wizard of Earthsea. Enjoyed it. (My Review)

[Quinton]

Reading The Broken Kingdomsby N.K Jemisin. So good.

[Joe Informatico]

Finished A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan late last month, and hoping to have The Farthest Shore and Tehanu done by the end of this week.

Finished my read/re-read of The Book of Jhereg, an omnibus of the first three Vlad Taltos books, last night. I'd read #1 (Jhereg) and #3 (Teckla) before, but this was my first time reading #2 (Yendi). Almost forgot how great these books are.

[Andrew]

I realised I have a whole year's worth of issues of Interzone unread on my shelf, so I'll probably be having a short story binge this month. It gives reading quite a different feel, not losing yourself in a single world for such a long time, but getting the satisfaction of lots of new writers and ideas.

[Michele]

I just finished The Magic of Recluse, which I mostly listened to (Audible) and I thought th story was okay, nothing special, but I found his constant use of sound descriptions (Thunk! Clang! Whee neey!) very annoying - every time a door opens, his horse whinnys, footsteps, hits, rain falls, we get a descriptive word, and the poor narrator was hissing and clicking and neighing and thwacking all over the place. I wonder if all his books are like this?

Reading it eyes only I probably wouldn't have noticed so much, but listening to it was a bit ridiculous.

[Scott]

Have been rockin the urban fantasy recently after finishing A Clash of Kings. Have read Summer Knight and Trapped. Both series entertain me to no end. Also just started Midnight Riot which is looking to be another u.f. series I will be enjoying.

[Whitney]

finished A Clash of Kings back to working on The Name of the Wind,Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Tempting Danger.

[Ivi_kiwi]

I am enjoying the audio book of Control Point.
Furthermore i am still reading The Last Colony, but i am not making much progress, which is weird as i liked all the other scalzi books i read so far.
.. And i have started on a really fun book, Gil's All Fright Diner.

[Ian]

Just polishing off Starship Troopers, always been meaning to read more Heinlein. My last few months have been dedicated to the Malazan series and I'll soon be jumping into the last half with The Bonehunters

[Rob, Roberator]

Ian wrote: "My last few months have been dedicated to the Malazan series and I'll soon be jumping into the last half with The Bonehunters "

That's been my favorite book in the series thus far.

[Dara]

Taking a break from Judas Unchained. Read The Ocean at the End of the Lane quickly. Didn't care for it (My review). Moving on to Horns by Joe Hill.

[Lisa]

I'm working my way through the Maze Runner series right now. I read the trilogy already (which I really enjoyed) and am working on the prequel, though I'm having a bit of trouble getting through it for some reason.

[Rob]

Finished Wizard of Earthsea, so finally got Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) on hold from library and am enjoying that (125 pages in).

Audio: Leviathan Wakes (already read and really enjoyed). Wanted to re-listen before I finally jumped into the next two.

I have Ethan of Athos and Bigger Than the Game: Restitching a Major League Life both on hold at library and will read them when as they come in. If they don't then I will delve back into Malazan with Midnight Tides

[Rob, Roberator]

Robert wrote: "Audio: Leviathan Wakes (already read and really enjoyed). Wanted to re-listen before I finally jumped into the next two"

I just did all 3 in January. I enjoyed them all but especially Caliban's War

[Viola]

I seem unable to settle on one book at the moment. I'm starting one book only to put it down and read something else. At the moment I'm reading Lucifers evangelium and I really need to finish it since I started it back in 2011. I have something like 70 pages left. Why did I think it was a good idea to get a book in Norwegian? Oh, yeah, I couldn't get it in English and reading the Danish edition was out of the question.

[Andrea]

I'm alternating between Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara, Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and the Hobbit

[Geoff]

Timothy wrote: "Just finished Beyond the Rift by Watts. Awesome book. Lots of scifi short fiction. Continuing to read Deaths of Tao. Also pretty good."

I'm also reading Deaths of Tao. Quite enjoyable.

[Jenna]

I'm listening to The Rook by Daniel O'Malley and reading Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Both are great fun to read!

[Dharmakirti]

I'm working on Earthsea, should finish today or tomorrow.

I'm (very) slowly but surely making my way through The Witching Hour and The Straits of Galahesh.

To briefly plug another Goodreads group: I've just started reading Dante's The Divine Comedy with the Divine Comedy + Decameron group.
If you've ever wanted to cross this classic off your To Read list, come join us. It's a great group with some extremely knowledgeable members and moderators.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished listening to Burning Chrome. It was alright (My Review).

Now I'm listening to The Alloy of Law

[Keith]

Playing Sword and Laser catch-up, just started The Forever War

[Matthew]

Just finished Red Mars and really loved that. I am excited to get to the other two later this year and then probably check out 2312 - it seems like a solid continuation of the concept.

Just picked up Neuromancer and its going well. Also reading Vqr Virginia Quarterly Review since I just got the new one in the main. The main article is pretty interesting so far.

Listening to A Feast for Crows not a huge fan of the narration.

I REALLY wanna check out The Soft Machine and its 2 sequels and Annihilation and the 2 sequels that are coming out later this year. But I have lots of other books I already own to read...

[David Sven]

Finished Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds on Audible
My review

Starting also on Audible Cold Days (The Dresden Files #14)

[Andrew]

Matthew wrote: "Just picked up Neuromancer and its going well....."

Given how much has changed since Gibson he wrote it, I think Neuromancer has aged incredibly well. It would have been easy for a novel dealing with virtual space to become dated, especially one written pre-internet, but to me it still feels fresh, relevant, and like it actually brings new questions to the table.

Plus one of the best opening lines ever.

[Dara]

Finished Horns. I did not like it. My review Going back in for more Judas Unchained.

[Ben]

Dara wrote: "Finished Horns. I did not like it. My review Going back in for more Judas Unchained."

I liked Horns but for the ending. Agree with you on the female characters, though.

I just finished the audiobook of Something More Than Night. On paper I should be the perfect audience for it, I love hardboiled noir and modern takes on it, don't mind a bit of urban fantasy and am a big scifi reader as well. I didn't really care for the Milkweed books but was willing to give Tregillis another go based on this being completely different.

I really liked the opening few chapters but it turned me off more and more as I went on. I couldn't stand either protagonist by midway through the second act, and the Big Plot Twist was cheap, predictable and irritating. Came very close to lemming it.