What else are you reading? December 2015

[Joel]

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Keith wrote: "Finished Caliban's War, and as much as I immediately want to move on tot he next one, I'm pacing myself and reading The Man in the High Castle."

Ditto! Well, not about Caliban but I am also reading the Dick.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Keith wrote: "Finished Caliban's War, and as much as I immediately want to move on tot he next one, I'm pacing myself and reading The Man in the High Castle."

Ditto! Well, not about Caliban but I am also reading the Dick.

[Rob, Roberator]

I listened to Control Point. I mostly enjoyed it. (My Review)

[Joseph]

Finished Aftermath, which was really quite good, and started Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Lost Stars, which I will not have finished by the time I'm sitting in the theater tomorrow evening watching Force Awakens. Stupid work.

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

I just started reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. So far I've been enjoying it--it's much better than the movie.

[Rick]

Read The Alloy of Law after a Neal Asher binge. Next up is, I think, Archivist Wasp

[John (Taloni)]

Olivia wrote: "I just started reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. So far I've been enjoying it--it's much better than the movie."

I read the other four and found them decent enough. The quality declines as the books go on, but they're still worth reading.

As it turns out, though, I liked the movie a fair amount more than the book, although both are definitely of high quality. The book contained a lot of explanations missing in the movie. But in the end, Kubrick had the sense to leave unexplained things that should not be explained, for the watcher to think about.

[Dara]

Finished Unsinkable: The Full Story Of The RMS Titanic. It was really informative and I enjoyed it quite a bit. My review. Now I'm reading parts of books I've lemmed this year, seeing if I can finish any. Working on Blue Remembered Earth

[Sumant]

Here is my review of Judas unchained.

[Dharmakirti]

I finally finished reading Drood and thought it was pretty darn good. 4 stars.

[Sumant]

Here is my review of 2nd book in the Gap series, really liked this book.

[John (Taloni)]

I am about 5% of the way into Seveneves. It is unbearably depressing, skillful construction or no.

Meanwhile I was pleasantly surprised by this month's pick. The first book in the Arrows of the Queen trilogy was uneven and had several obvious examples of hack writing. But the story was decent and hey, telepathic horses! So I went on and the books definitely got better from there, all the way to a bangup ending. I'll be in for more of Valdemar soon.

[Walter]

Just finished The Witch and the Priest, a reprint put out by Valancourt Books, a small press located in Richmond, VA which specializes in the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction including (but not limited to) the horror and supernatural genres. Worth checking out: http://www.valancourtbooks.com

[Rob, Roberator]

Probably my last round of reviews for the year, despite having at least 1 or 2 more audio books on the slate before then. I likely won't get around to writing any more reviews until after the new year.

Willful Child. It was alright, but not as funny as I hoped. (My Review)

The Last Kingdom. This was enjoyable, I plan to continue on with book 2 next month most likely. (My Review)

The Death of Dulgath. Great as always, especially in audio. (My Review)

[Kristina]

Finally getting started on Elantris!! Been on my list forever!

[Joseph]

And now I'm starting Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster (the first author ever to write a Star Wars novel), and then maybe it'll be time for something that doesn't take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

[Trike]

Joseph wrote: "And now I'm starting Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster (the first author ever to write a Star Wars novel), and then maybe it'll be time for something t..."

For those unaware, Foster actually wrote the novelization to the original Star Wars in addition to Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

[Aaron]

Needed something to go though on audio for all the long trips. Said huh Drizzt has a few dozen books and good ratings.

Finished the first 3.

1-2 were both really solid fantasy novels surprisingly so, 3 was pretty decent. Started 4 right now.

[Dharmakirti]

After sitting on my bookshelf for the past five years, this morning I finally started reading Titus Groan.

[Joseph]

Dharmakirti wrote: "After sitting on my bookshelf for the past five years, this morning I finally started reading Titus Groan."

I'll be very curious to hear what you think -- I liked them (well, the first two moreso than the third) quite a bit, but they're kind of thick going.

I actually just bought them for my Kindle last night for an eventual reread -- I have an omnibus hardcover, but it's kind of unwieldy.

[Don]

Just finished Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football, good book if you like the University of Michigan and/or College Football. Picked up The Art of War on Audible for $3.95

[Ariel]

Kind of a shame to get The Art of War on audible. I did the same and regret it. It's the kind of book you highlight, dog-ear, and refer back to sections and meditate on them; rather than read through once and be done with. I really wish I had gotten a paper copy for further study.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished The Eyre Affair. it was clever and fun. I'll most likely read other books in the series in the future. It was not so great I feel the need to read another right away.

Right now I'm reading Library Linked Data in the Cloud: OCLC's Experiments with New Models of Resource Description. Interesting.

[Lariela]

Just got Hogfather by Terry Pratchett from the library. I'm also reading The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher.

[John (Taloni)]

Hogfather is awesome, but then, it's hard to find a Discworld book that isn't at least really good. And topical too.

My library is similarly awesome and has the entirety of Discworld available for download. Twelve books of the Dresden files as well, plus the rest in physical version.

[Phil]

Looks like January's S&L pick is Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente.

[Keith]

Finished up Polaris and started in on People of the Dark by Robert E. Howard. Red rages are being felt, black mist of vengeances are descending upon people, and everyone is lithe like a panther.

[Joseph]

Wrapped up Star Wars: The Force Awakens and decided to go to a different long, long ago: Aztec by Gary Jennings. (Which, yes, isn't technically fantasy, but can pretty much be treated as a very long, very sordid secondary-world fantasy for most of its length. Kind of like Mel Gibson's film Apocalypto.)

[Rick]

@joseph... if you want fantasy set in the Aztec world definitely check out Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood trilogy.

[Joseph]

Rick wrote: "@joseph... if you want fantasy set in the Aztec world definitely check out Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood trilogy."

Yeah, those are excellent! Currently the Angry Robot editions are out of print, I believe, but she's going to rerelease them herself.

[Lariela]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Hogfather is awesome, but then, it's hard to find a Discworld book that isn't at least really good. And topical too.

My library is similarly awesome and has the entirety of Discworld available fo..."

It's my first Discworld book. Is it important to read them in a certain order?

[John (Taloni)]

^Not really, but it's more fun that way. But there are 40 or so books. I read a handful, found I really liked Discworld, and then started reading them in publication order. It's like a lengthy arc so people and situations show up over spans of books and develop over the course of the overall storyline. Individual books are self contained, though.

[Phil]

Finished Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David. He's best known for a run on the Hulk comic and some well received Star Trek novels. It started out quite funny but turned rather dark and dragged a bit through the middle. Overall though I quite enjoyed it.
Starting Radiance.

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

I just finished reading Artifact by Gregory Benford. It's about an archeologist who finds an unusual artifact in Greece and takes it back to Boston to check it out. It was not bad--I gave it three stars.

[John (Taloni)]

Finished up Seveneves, bit of a slog but after some time off I would consider the author again. The the Discworld book "The Last Continent." This is probably the first Rincewind book I actually liked, although the uniform high quality of Discworld books makes even the plots I don't particularly like readable due to the fun of the setting and Pratchett's sly humor.

Finishing off with a classic: Asimov's "The Gods Themselves." Might finish that this year, but won't finish another.

[Sheila Jean]

Sheila Jean wrote: "Trying to finally finish up Seveneves. I've been reading it since July or August. (Got about halfway through and then renewed it from the library 6 times without opening it....) I'm... For audio, I started The Aeronaut's Windlass"

I seemed to have gone on a reading spree since the beginning of the month. In addition to Seveneves and The Aeronaut's Windlass I finished:

Arrows of the Queen + next two in trilogy
Soulless + the remaining 4 in Parasol Protectorate
The Way of Shadows (audio)
Uprooted (audio)

Changing pace with my audio selection with Hausfrau, and just started Hood byStephen R. Lawhead.

[Grim]

I've just read the first four books in the tomb of bill series by Rick Gualtieri in four days and just started the fifth "Godamned Freaky Monsters" (fun with vampires, immature, sexual ineundo, geek homage..... it's politically incorrect and proud of it. I'm loving the series but doubt there is anyone I could recommend the books too)

On my phone I'm rereading the Gotten & Felix series again, currently on Dragonslayer by William King. William King is a fantastic author, I know people usually rubbish the warhammer books, and to be fair there are a lot of older ones that sucked, but their are some great authors and great books too. William King, Dan Absent, William Dietz to name but a few.

At work I'm reading The Masked City by Genevieve Conman. Only just started it. But the first book in the series The Invisible Library, was pretty awesome.

John(Taloni) - "The last continent" I really enjoyed that book, weirdly the main thing I recall is the creation of marmite! and The Castlemaine Xxxx references. Lager and marmite. What's that say about me huh?

[Joseph]

GrimNir wrote: "On my phone I'm rereading the Gotten & Felix series again, currently on Dragonslayer by William King...."

In case you weren't aware, William King has also self-published a bunch of non-Warhammer sword & sorcery novels -- if you liked Felix & Gorek, they're well worth your attention.

[Dara]

Finished my re-read of Leviathan Wakes. I enjoyed it more this time. My updated review Continuing to Caliban's War because I need Avasarala.

[Kristina]

Just finished Elantris. Snuck it in at the last minute! It might be my least favorite of his though. Radiance up next!