What Else Are You Reading? January 2016

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I am reading Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor. Aliens in the ocean, shapeshifting and causing flooding. Watch out!

[Fresno Bob]

Rick wrote: "Grabbed, for the hell of it, a book by an author I didn't know, Beyond Redemption and hit paydirt. Excellent fantasy with a different spin. The basic premise is that belief shapes r..."

this is next on my TBR pile!

[Gaines]

The Dosadi Experiment and just started Nocturnes :-)

[Phil]

Finished Radiance. I'm not a huge fan of hyper-stylized books like this. I appreciate that it took a lot of skill to write this way and there were quite a few nicely turned phrases but I didn't particularly get a lot of enjoyment out of reading it.
Starting Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe.

[Dara]

Finished Caliban's War. My updated review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now reading The Goblin Emperor.

[Isla]

I'm in the middle of The Mislaid Magician: or Ten Years After and Words of Radiance

I'm finding the Brandon Sanderson book annoying due to it's multiple storylines hop-scotching all over the place. Usually it doesn't bother me and the further I get into the book, the less it bothers me.

The Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede book is fun though...

[Rob, Roberator]

I did an audio reread of Jurassic Park (My Review). Better than I remember. Now I want to rewatch the movie.

[Rick]

London Falling by Paul Cornell, The Goblin Emperor and next up the choice for this month.

[John (Taloni)]

The Fifth Elephant. I think enjoy the City Watch books best in the Discworld series.

[Misti]

I finished this month's pick this afternoon. Next up is The Sword of Shannara.

[Maclurker]

Finished Radiance. I ended up reading it twice in order to figure out what was going on. Now half-way into The Children of Húrin, but, man, this is depressing. After those two, I may have to switch to something lighter for a bit. My brain is tired.

[Alan]

I started but lemmed The Dragon Engine. It's either a parody or one of the most cliched books I've ever read. But, if it's a parody, it's a little too subtle for me.

I'm now reading The Aeronaut's Windlass which I expected to enjoy because I'm in the tank for Jim Butcher but it's even better than I expected. Rowl may be my new favorite character of his.

[Walter]

Just finished the very intense Birthdays for the Dead. Scottish noir with an infected bite.

Now reading The Bazaar of Bad Dreams for another book club.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished Radiance. Needless to say it wasn't for me (My Review).

[Kate]

I recently finished Planetfall, which was fresh in a lot of ways but kinda rushed at the end, and Cetaganda, which I really liked. It's my favorite of the series so far.

I'm currently reading Vaginal Fantasy's Radiance, which I like, but don't quite love, and listening to His Majesty's Dragon, which I am absolutely loving and dragons normally hold no particular appeal to me! I think a big part of it is Simon Vance's narration. Everyone has said he's top tier narrator but I've never listened to his work. Well. Everyone was right. He is amazing.

[Joel]

I love Simon Vance's narration of the Temeraire books!

[Tokio]

The entire War of the Spider Queen series. Pretty good so far

[Joseph]

Finally finished Aztec -- what a long, strange trip it was -- and will now finish The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson and probably follow up with The Builders by Daniel Polansky.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I started Year's Best Weird Fiction, Volume Two

[Nathan]

Read Aces High which was pleasant. It read like someone novelizing a series of sessions for a superhero RPG. I would not call it a masterpiece but it has likable qualities.

Right now I am listening to A Darker Shade of Magic, and it is just not doing it to me. The characters seem kinda thin.

[Kristina]

decided to knock out The Man in the High Castle because I thought it'd be quick and then I'd check out the show.. not sure I like it though..

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Kristina wrote: "decided to knock out The Man in the High Castle because I thought it'd be quick and then I'd check out the show.. not sure I like it though.."

I did the same thing but the show is so different it isn't required reading.

[Stephen]

Thanks to the controversy over the Star Wars extended universe and Disney's strip down of the canon, I was able to boil down the list to those titles the consensus felt was a must read. First up Star Wars: Tarkin.

[John (Taloni)]

Finished up The Truth. I really enjoy how Pratchett does social commentary on one element of society per book. In this case it's newspapers. Well done as usual.

Moving on now to Restoree. I never could find a copy of this book in my secondhand book buying days, and haven't thought of it in the internet era. While looking through some Pern books I spotted this one in my library's Overdrive selection. It'll be good to finally read this classic.

As for what's after that...while booksearching in Overdrive I spotted Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. It looked mildly interesting. On download it seems it is a thousand (!) pages. It's also book one of two. Anyone know this series? Is it worth investing 2K pages worth of time to get to the end of the story? I like space opera but this seems excessive.

[Rob, Roberator]

John (Taloni) wrote: "As for what's after that...while booksearching in Overdrive I spotted Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. It looked mildly interesting. On download it seems it is a thousand (!) pages. It's also book one of two. Anyone know this series? Is it worth investing 2K pages worth of time to get to the end of the story? I like space opera but this seems excessive.
."

I really enjoyed it, though I did it in audio over long road trips. He does ramble in a few places, but you can probably skim a bit. I wrote reviews of them if you're interested:

Review of Pandora's Star
Review of Judas Unchained

[John (Taloni)]

Thanks Rob. Looking over the reviews, this is a well loved book. I'll give it a shot. Probably I can get through that in a week or so, depending on my schedule. I should have about ten days left when I'm done with Restoree. Might need to turn the wireless off on the Kindle to keep it a few days longer...

[Sky]

I am finishing up The Fifth Season tonight. I absolutely love it. I am still working my way through Reaper's Gale

I am heading to Playa del Carmen in Mexico tomorrow for a week for our babymoon - last vacation as free adults. I'll keep reading Reaper's Gale and still thinking what to start next - probably Seveneves in audio and Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets in honest to goodness print.

[Kristina]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Kristina wrote: "decided to knock out The Man in the High Castle because I thought it'd be quick and then I'd check out the show.. not sure I like it though.."

I did the same thing b..."

oh.. good to know i guess... im like half way done though-so i'll finish it.

[Joseph]

And it's Tor novella time -- finished The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, read Daniel Polansky's The Builders in essentially a single sitting, and am now starting Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell. So far, they're all of uniformly high quality.

[Christopher]

I just finished Beyond Redemption and I must say that I hope that book wins an award or two because it's one of the most original and refreshing grimdark fantasy books I've yet read. The magic within the book is fascinating and the characters are really well written. I really can't recommend this enough if you haven't read it.

I'm currently reading Falling Free as I've been interested in starting the Vorkosigan Saga and I figure I may as well read it in chronological order. I'm also probably going to go ahead and start The Great Hunt since I got it in form the library and am very interested in continuing the Wheel of Time series since I liked where the story left off in the first book.

[Jessica]

Reading The Tropic of Serpents and Level Up Your Life: How to Unlock Adventure and Happiness by Becoming the Hero of Your Own Story. When I'm done with those, really quick reads, it's time for the next part in my Malazan series adventure, Reaper's Gale, soon done with the re-reads and onto newer books.

[Phil]

Finished (kind of) Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe. It's a non-fiction humorous book about being addicted to reading which is a subject most of us could probably identify with. Unfortunately the author isn't nearly as funny as he thinks he is and I found the whole thing tedious and boring. It's only 166 pages long and I was working on it for over a week because I couldn't take more than a few pages at a time. I ended up skimming the last 30 or so pages.
Starting Empire State.

[Rick]

Christopher wrote: "I just finished Beyond Redemption and I must say that I hope that book wins an award or two because it's one of the most original and refreshing grimdark fantasy books I've yet read..."

Same. Excellent, excellent book.

[Fresno Bob]

Rick wrote: "Christopher wrote: "I just finished Beyond Redemption and I must say that I hope that book wins an award or two because it's one of the most original and refreshing grimdark fantasy..."

2/3rds done and loving it so far, a mixture of PKD's Clans of the Alfane Moon with Ambercrombie's "First Law" universe

[terpkristin]

I finished up Radiance but haven't written my review because I'm still trying to sort out my feelings. I liked it but I don't think I "get" it.

In the meantime, I've almost finished listening to Rise of Empire (80% or more done).

Just tonight I've started reading Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, in part because the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster is two weeks away and partly out of professional curiosity. Less than 10% in, it feels like a true engineer's book and I do wonder if people outside of the industry have read it and felt like they understood it. It's hard for me to separate my professional brain and my recreation one...

[Kristina]

terpkristin wrote: "I finished up Radiance but haven't written my review because I'm still trying to sort out my feelings. I liked it but I don't think I "get" it.

My thoughts exactly...

[Kristina]

Ok made it to 70% of Man in the High Castle.. and I have to call it quits. Just not for me I guess, though I really tried. Going to start Sand because I loved the Silo series.

[Dara]

I finished The Goblin Emperor and now I am sad because I didn't want it to end. I loved it. My review. Now I don't know what to read because I have book hangover and nothing else will be as good.

[Louie]

Stephen wrote: "I was able to boil down the list to those titles the consensus felt was a must read. First up Star Wars: Tarkin."

I wouldn't mind a look at what you boiled that list down to, I've been wanting to take a gander into the EU for some time now.

[Stephen]

This is what I gathered from my search: Timothy Zahn , Heir to the Empire Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command,

Christie Golden Dark Disciple,

Aaron Allston Wraith Squadron

John Jackson Miller A New Dawn
and
James Luceno Star Wars: Tarkin and Darth Plagueis

I used a consensus of what various people cited.

[Thane]

Stephen wrote: "This is what I gathered from my search: Timothy Zahn , Heir to the Empire Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command,

[author:Christie Golden..."

Wraith Squadron was great, but it's book 5 in the X-Wing series. You can read it without the first 4 with no problem, but the 1st 4 by Michael Stackpole were also very good.

[Joseph]

Finished Witches of Lychford and started Sunset Mantle by Alter S. Reiss -- more excellent Tor novellas!

[Rick]

Just finished the brilliant second book in Daniel José Older's Bone Street Rumba series, Midnight Taxi Tango. If you havent read Older, you should. Start with either the first book in this series (Half-Resurrection Blues) or his collection of stories set in the same universe, Salsa Nocturna: Stories

[Miranda]

I started reading The sword of Shannara 1st of januari. Im a slow reader compared to most here and I expect to take the whole of februari on that book aswell.

[Viola]

A friend of mine recommended The Rifter series by Ginn Hale. Pretty good. It’s a male/male romance.

[Joseph]

Finished Sunset Mantle, which was excellent, and am starting Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues, which I backed on Kickstarter a couple of years ago, and which has a pretty stellar line-up of contributors.

[Joanna Chaplin]

I just finished Brothers in Valor, the third book in what the author calls "The Man of War Trilogy".

It ended on what I consider a major cliffhanger. I'm not sure "trilogy" means the same thing to me as it does to H. Paul Honsinger and I'm kind of in an irrational tizzy over it at this moment, not many hours later.

I don't think I've been so irritated since I discovered that Pandora's Star, which I received in a pile of books handed down from my mother in law, wasn't a stand-alone.

[Esther]

Joanna wrote: "I just finished Brothers in Valor, the third book in what the author calls "The Man of War Trilogy".

It ended on what I consider a major cliffhanger. I'm not sure "trilogy" means ..."

I understand you. I felt the same about Leviathan
and Pawn of Prophecy. I get that they are series but they stopped mid-story, attempt at standing-alone whatsoever.

[Kristina]

Sand was good! Blew through it over the weekend. Started The Palace Job. I heard about it from some list online recently and the author works for bioware and wrote for theMass Effect and the Dragon Age games--which I love dearly.

[Geoff]

I've recently finished:

Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh - review
The Bone Labyrinth by James Rollins - review
Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell - review
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold - review

And I'm in the middle of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King and just started The Last Light Of The Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay. I'm quickly becoming a big fan of Kay's books.