What else are you reading - August 2015

[terpkristin]

I finished listening to Spell or High Water, which was cute. I've started reading The Fifth Season and am not sure on it. I have to focus a lot, which isn't working well for late-night reading. Maybe I should switch to the audio edition. I think once I get a better feeling for what's going on/what the world is, it'll go smoother. Maybe I just need a good long car drive to get into it. ;)

[Lindsay]

Read The Machine Awakes. Better than the first - Aliens as opposed to Alien - transferring the series to SF action rather than SF horror. (My Review)

Read The Venusian Gambit which wraps up the series nicely. (My Review)

Read Magic Shifts. Good entry in an excellent series. (My Review)

[Geoff]

Been reading the Heinlein Hugo winners recently. So far, I've read:

Farmer in the Sky - review
Double Star - review
Starship Troopers - review

I've given them all 3-stars so far but Double Star > Starship Troopers > Farmer in the Sky. Next up is Stranger in a Strange Land but I'm waiting until I get a copy of the original novel because in 1990 an uncut version has been in publication. I'd rather read the shorter version that won the Hugo in 1962.

[John (Taloni)]

^ I would swear that the movie Dave was taken from Double Star.

[Phil]

Finished Uprooted. Loved it. Will probably gift it a couple times at Christmas.
Starting Kids Say the Darndest Things.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson - a new collection of her uncollected works.

[Gordon]

You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day is really, really good. It should be a must-read for anyone in any sort of creative career, especially if it's centered around the Internet.

[Misti]

Sped through The End of All Things. It was a good quick read. Now I'm reading The Woman Who Died a Lot.

[Phil On The Hill]

Just finished Life After Life, which was not my thing at all. "What if" writing for non-geeks.
Almost finished The City's Son, which is a lot of fun. It is also set in London, my city, so I am biased.
Reading The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke between books. An excellent collection. A bit dated, but great early hard SF. At 966 pages I suspect this will take me a few months to doodle through.
What to read next?

[Lindsay]

I loved the The City's Son. The next book is excellent too. The bit about the Railwraith at the start of the first one has a cool equivalent in the second. And Reach and the Wire Mistress were such amazingly realized bad guys.

[Phil On The Hill]

Lindsay wrote: "I loved the The City's Son. The next book is excellent too. ..."

I have bought the other two. Tom is a regular at a group called the SRFC, so I shall get them signed. If ever you are in London do come along to SRF (find us on facebook). It is hosted by Jen Williams and Den Patrick, all are very welcome.

[Alan]

I finished The Daylight War and what I was worried about when I started the book didn't happen; instead Brett recontextualized to the point almost of retconning but *shrug* he's the author ;)

Anyway, I liked it and, if you liked the first two, it's a good sequel. my review

[Ronald]

I'm in the middle of Fool's Quest. Not sure why I bought it. I wasn't thrilled with the first one. I guess the premise and cover seemed interesting. So far, the story's about a "okay" as the first book. If there are any more of these, I'll pass.

[Phil]

Finished Kids Say the Darndest Things by Bill Cosby. Some of things the kids said were cute or amusing but Cosby's stream of self-deprecation coupled with the constant reminders that he has his PhD were really annoying. And before anybody gets their knickers in a knot (as my mom used to say) about my giving Cosby money, I gave this book to my parents almost 20 years ago and then inherited it back when they died and I'm finally getting around to it 10 years later.
Starting 1Q84. I've just started and can already tell it's going to be a bit of a slog. Luckily I've already read September's book so I have some time.

[Sandi]

Wait a minute, Phil. You've already read September's book? I don't even know what it is.

[terpkristin]

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Sandi. It just won the poll last night.

[Dharmakirti]

Phil wrote: " ...Starting 1Q84. I've just started and can already tell it's going to be a bit of a slog. Luckily I've already read September's book so I have some time. "

1Q84 is one of my favorite novels of recent years. A very interesting novel that sometimes borders on surreal (if this were a film, I would say that it was somewhat Lynchian). Yes, a bit of a slog at times and can take some effort, but it's worth it, in my opinion.

[Rick]

About halfway into The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard. Loving it so far.

[Lindsay]

I'm looking forward to that one. I've heard it called best urban fantasy of the year.

[Joseph]

I also need to pick that one up. Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood trilogy was pretty amazing.

[Ronald]

Joseph wrote: "I also need to pick that one up. Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood trilogy was pretty amazing."

That was so well written. Poetic, wasn't it?

[Stephen]

reading The Dark Forest, the follow up to the The Three-Body Problem.

[Joel]

Just finished the Prefect by Alastair Reynolds. It is probably my favorite of his books I have read so far.

Currently reading Half a War by Joe Abercrombie.

[Tamahome]

Agree about Prefect.

[Rob, Roberator]

I listened to The End of All Things and enjoyed it. (My Review)

[John (Taloni)]

Finished up The Long Utopia. It reads like a series of sections of a novel rather than a novel itself.

When Terry Pratchett died I said "I hope they finish it, even if it's bad." Well, I got my wish. There's nothing particularly new or interesting or revelatory about this one. Just a new threat, poorly revealed, and characters shoehorned into the ending. Plus some callbacks to Olaf Stapledon's Odd John with the Next. And some media references.

My library had it so it was an easy pickup. I'll probably read the last one just to finish. If you aren't involved in this series yet, give it a miss.

[Lindsay]

Read Harrison Squared which was an excellent lovecraftian YA. My Review

Read Vengeance of the Demon, book 7 in the Kara Gillian series and a bit disappointing. My Review

Read Corsair. This author deserves more attention; both this book and the previous were excellent. My Review

[Kristina]

I just finished A Court of Thorns and Roses in 2 days. It's a beauty and the beast retelling set in a faerie realm... and omg I just loved the characters and the world she created for them. I think anyone who liked Uprooted (loved it) would like this one.

[Ronald]

Kristina wrote: "I just finished A Court of Thorns and Roses in 2 days. It's a beauty and the beast retelling set in a faerie realm... and omg I just loved the characters and the world she created f..."

Thanks for the suggestion. Just read the first couple chapters. Really evocative writing.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished reading Uprooted and enjoyed it a lot, with some minor issues. (My Review)

[Sky]

I finally got around to reading Nemesis Games. I've moved on to Midnight Tides. I hope to read Uprooted before the next S&L meetup, but even if I don't I'll still come to hang out with Rob :) And at some point this month I hope to read The Fifth Season

[John (Taloni)]

Uprooted is definitely worth the time.

I am on to Canticle for Leibowitz. Somehow managed to miss this book in 40+ years of reading SF, glad to finally get to it.

[Dara]

Speed-read the last of Two Serpents Rise. What a slog. I did not like it. My review. Not sure what to read next. Maybe get back into the Elderlings series.

[Dharmakirti]

I just finished Lexicon and I enjoyed it; a good suspense novel with some sci-fi elemetnts.

I'm just about 50% through CS Friedman's Dreamwalker and I'm liking it. Not my favorite CS Friedman book but still good.

This morning on the bus ride to work, I started The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. I am about 50% through the story "The Phoenix on the Sword."

[Joseph]

I finished Riders of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Three -- magnificent! -- and started A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans -- it's one of those series that's been sitting unread on my shelf for years, so I figured it was probably time.

[terpkristin]

I've started a bunch of things.
I started Armada in audio. I'm finding myself rolling my eyes a lot, which makes me sad.
I've also started The Fifth Season. It's finally starting to make sense but it's not grabbing me. I fear her writing may not be for me?'x though I intend to keep trying.
And today's picked up A Canticle for Leibowitz and started into that. I'm intrigued...but not that far in.

[Olivia "So many books--so little time.""]

Currently I'm reading Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF which is edited by Jetse de Vries. So far I've been finding the stories enjoyable.

[Fredrik]

I'm reading The Mirror Empire. It's epic fantasy set in the most alien world I've encountered in a long time, featuring living plant swords, ritual cannibalism, walking trees, bear cavalry, inverted/expanded gender roles and parallell worlds. And of cours all kinds of unfamiliar names places and terms. It was initially very hard to get a grip on who was who, were was were and what was what, but ... it's growing on me!

Olivia wrote: "Currently I'm reading Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF
Optimistic SF, eh? Sounds nice :)

[Art]

Fredrik wrote: "I'm reading The Mirror Empire. It's epic fantasy set in the most alien world I've encountered in a long time, featuring living plant swords, ritual cannibalism, walking trees, bear ..."

Yeah,it just throws you in there but it is really good. Can't wait for the second one coming out in October.

I'm finally reading The Martian can't believe I waited so long, I'm loving it!

[Ronald]

Decided to give Star Runners a shot, despite the thing starting with the trope of the ship that evades pursuit by going into an asteroid field. So far, meh. I'll probably finish it, but it's not thrilling me.

[[deleted user]]

The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales. A collection of short stories each dealing with a fictional? legend in different religions. (Maybe they are retelling of very obscure legends I've never encountered before but I doubt it.) A Catholic story, Buddhist story, story of the Greek gods, and so on. Most stories are interesting and the ones that are less so are at least short.

[David Sven]

Finished Woken Furies by Richard K Morgan on Audio Review

Starting Joe Abercrombie's Half the World also on Audio

[Lindsay]

Read Ysabel. If I had realised the link to the The Fionavar Tapestry I would have read this ages ago. My Review.

Read We Are All Completely Fine because of the link with Harrison Squared. Fantastic novella. My Review.

Read Off to Be the Wizard. My 15-year old self would have loved it. My Review.

[Sumant]

Here is my review of crown of swords, book in WOT series.

[Ronald]

Had to put Star Runners down. Wasn't interested. Picked up Polarized. Really well written. Enjoying it.

[John (Taloni)]

Finished Canticle for Leibowitz. Back on the Discworld trail with Reaper Man.

[Stephen]

I started the audio of Fool's Quest. It good to be back with Fritz.

[Joel]

Stephen wrote: "I started the audio of Fool's Quest. It good to be back with Fritz."

Who does the audio? It would be awesome if it is Paul Boehmer. I think he did a wonderful job with the first trilogy.

[Rob, Roberator]

Joel wrote: "Stephen wrote: "I started the audio of Fool's Quest. It good to be back with Fritz."

Who does the audio? It would be awesome if it is Paul Boehmer. I think he did a wonderful job w..."

Depends on where you live. In the US it's Elliot Hill, who I think does a good job. I've heard the UK narrator isn't good though.

[Stephen]

I agree Elliot Hill does a great job, I will be looking for his name on other audio books. Hope he gets more work.