What Else Are You Reading - April 2016

[Michele]

OMG, those (view spoiler)[ katana wielding, autonomous self-repairing motorcycles (hide spoiler)] were awesome! lol Like Dresden on the zombie Triceratops, just so over-the-top crazy - sometimes you've got to just love the crazy.

Suarez does have another book that's unconnected, Influx, which I thought was decent, but not as good as Daemon and Freedom^tm.

[Rob, Roberator]

Influx was a lot better than FreedomTM, but nowhere near as good as Daemon in my opinion.

[Trike]

I liked Freedom the best. I stopped partway into Influx. Kill Decision reads almost like a prequel to Daemon.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Trike wrote: "Ran across an interesting book at the library yesterday, The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog, which is science fiction of a specific type: speculation about the past based on scanty evidence.

I've already read about 80 pages and I quite like it. It's half White Fang and half The Clan of the Cave Bear. "

Would you class that as Sci-Fi? I would put it in the same genre as "Clan of the Clan Bear".
It is a story based on life as we speculate it might have been.
Pre-Historical Fiction? Pre-Historical Fantasy?

It is based on science fact. The evolution of wolf to domestic dog.

It sounds like my type of book either way.

[Rob, Roberator]

Trike wrote: "I liked Freedom the best. I stopped partway into Influx. Kill Decision reads almost like a prequel to Daemon."

Influx was not great, but I still liked it a lot more. Everyone's different though. Maybe the reason is that Sky and I are software engineers and can't get past how things were mostly plausible in book one to bat shit crazy in the second.

[Alan]

Tassie Dave wrote: "... Would you class that as Sci-Fi? I would put it in the same genre as "Clan of the Clan Bear". ... "

That's why I like the old label of "speculative fiction," which to me lumped together all the books about living in a world other than the one we see in newspapers and history books.

[Sumant]

Here is my review of To ride hell's chasm.

[[deleted user]]

Just started Elidor. I think it is the 1st book by Alan Gardner I've read. I think I've heard good things about his writing, (winner of a Mythopoeic Award?) and decided now was the time. Hope I picked one of his better books for an introduction. It was the only one available at the library.

Also just started Meet the Austins. I've always enjoyed Madeline L'Engle's speculative fiction and thought I'd give her other books a try.

[Trike]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Trike wrote: "Ran across an interesting book at the library yesterday, The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog, which is science fiction of a specific type: speculation about the p...

Would you class that as Sci-Fi? I would put it in the same genre as "Clan of the Clan Bear".
It is a story based on life as we speculate it might have been.
Pre-Historical Fiction? Pre-Historical Fantasy?

It is based on science fact. The evolution of wolf to domestic dog.

It sounds like my type of book either way."

I do consider stories like this and Raptor Red by paleontologist Robert T. Bakker to cross the threshold from Historical Fiction into Science Fiction because of the sheer amount of science-based and fact-based speculation.

Typically these kinds of books are categorized as Prehistoric Fiction, and there's a whole slew of them if you want to explore the subgenre, from authors like Jean Auel, W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear, and William Sarabande (aka Joan Cline).

[Phil]

Just finished Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge. Boy, what a disappointment. I previously enjoyed his A Fire Upon the Deep but I almost lemmed this one. The main character is unlikeable and the plot is hard to follow with a lot of jargon that often remains undefined for many chapters. The antagonists are out of the picture for more than half the book and then again at the end with no real closure. The POV often shifts from character to character several times within a paragraph. I had a hard time reading more than few pages at a sitting but the story did finally kick in about 2/3 through the book. I'll give it 2 stars for that and some interesting technical speculation but I think I'm being generous. I have a hard time believing this won a Hugo.
Reading A Darker Shade of Magic now.

[terpkristin]

I finished The Right Kind of Crazy: A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership, and High-Stakes Innovation and...it wasn't the book for me. I came away with the impression that either JPL has very few women in technical lead roles (something I know to be untrue) or that the author (an older male engineer) doesn't think much of women, based on what he had to say (and not say) about his team members. Also, I know what it is to work in the commercial space industry, which makes science look like a luxury (you could delay 2 years a $10 million for one problem?!?!?!), so I wasn't as impressed with him as he was with himself. But if you want a peek into how my business works, it might be interesting for you. Though I do wonder what it says about the (male) coworker who recommended the book.

I'm almost done with The Daylight War, which I'm not enjoying as much as the previous books in the series. I also started The Crown Tower while driving home last night, having finished The Right Kind of Crazy. The Crown Tower is significantly more satisfying than TRKoC.

Still on the fence about returning to The Fifth Season.

[[deleted user]]

terpkristin wrote: "I finished The Right Kind of Crazy: A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership, and High-Stakes Innovation and...it wasn't the book for me.

Not sure if it is a good book, but on my to read list is A Passion for Space: Adventures of a Pioneering Female NASA Flight Controller. Marianne uses the LPI Library so I know her to be an interesting and pleasant person. I hope that comes across in the book. it covers the early days of the shuttle program.

[Rick]

Phil - Rainbow's End is my least favorite of Vinge's books. Nothing else he's done is really like A Fire... not even the sequel (though it shares a world of course). However, The Peace War and others in that series are pretty fun and interesting (you can create local bubbles that stop time for any length of time... but inside them you're frozen and it's a one way thing). Also, of course, Vinge write what's arguably the first cyberpunk novel before the term existed, True Names.

Someone mentioned Imajica in another thread so I'm reading that. Very weird. Very long. So far so good though.

[terpkristin]

David wrote: "Not sure if it is a good book, but on my to read list is A Passion for Space: Adventures of a Pioneering Female NASA Flight Controller. Marianne uses the LPI Library so I know her to be an interesting and pleasant person. I hope that comes across in the book. it covers the early days of the shuttle program. "

Huh, I'll have to check it out...thanks for the tip!

[Joseph]

Finished A Gathering of Shadows and liked it a lot; possibly more than it deserved.

And next up: Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Full disclosure: I went to high school with her so will not even pretend to be objective, but seriously: Read this book.

[Misti]

I finished A Darker Shade of Magic over the weekend (loved it!). Then I tried to jump into The Fifth Season but I ended up lemming it. It just wasn't for me. Now that the first season of The Magicians is over, I'm going to attempt to read the book.

[Kristina]

I am working on Secret History and I'm kind of bored with it... Which is so weird for me.. because I've loved all my other Sanderson books. I just finished The Emperor's Soul and could hardly put it down! I'm making myself finish it, even though I usually don't when I'm not into something -1 because it's rather short anyway and 2- I can't believe something cool isn't going to happen-it's Sanderson right?!

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

Just started reading The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven. So far it has been an interesting read.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I've started the monthly book pick in audio but (as happens sometimes) I've found myself to be more in a podcast listening mode so haven't gone back to it. In the meantime I started a review copy of Central Station by Lavie Tidhar, which comes out next month. I know he writes in different genres of science fiction and fantasy but this one is very much spacey science fiction, where Jerusalem has become Earth's central station in a universe where humanity has spread out. Not really spoiler: (view spoiler)[Remember how we read that one book where there were pseudo vampires in space? They're back! Hahahaha. (hide spoiler)]

Something about the writing, maybe the infodump details and the direct personalities of the main characters, reminds me of William Gibson of the 90s, in a really good way. I'm flying through and now I'm sure I want to read more of Tidhar. (Anyone have any favorites?)

[Joanna Chaplin]

After heading about the Tiptree Awards this year, I went and found The New Mother for free online.

https://medium.com/@glorioushubris/th...

That was in general, quite good. It felt very, very real and plausible to me.

I don't know Lavie Tidhar, but I've been meaning to check him out since I listened to the episode in which he was interviewed on Midnight in Karachi.

http://www.tor.com/2015/03/26/midnigh...

[Joseph]

Finished Lab Girl in a two-day sprint and am now reading something completely, utterly different: Something About Eve; A Comedy Of Fig Leaves by James Branch Cabell.

[John (Taloni)]

Olivia wrote: "Just started reading The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven. So far it has been an interesting read."

I read it soon after it came out. I know it's a classic and all, but I found Ringworld to be better, and Protector far better.

I'm also not a fan of Pournelle, and it was a little odd seeing his influence on the story.

Anyhoo, tell us what you think when you're done! There's a sequel, The Gripping Hand, fair but not great. I never tried the Pournelle only second sequel - Outies, I think.

[Joanna Chaplin]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Olivia wrote: "Just started reading The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven. So far it has been an interesting read."

I read it soon after it came out. I know it's a clas..."

The first time around, I bounced off the archaic gender portrayal. Then I tried it again after Writing Excuses highlighted it as an example of minimalist prose done well and enjoyed the aliens.

[Gaines]

I'm reading Dhalgren and Orion. The former might take over. I've also recently read The Tell-Tale Heart again, for our Short Fiction group discussion. It had been a while since I read any Poe :-) Great story.

[Sumant]

Here is my review of The dreaming void which is the 1st book in Void trilogy.

Spoiler alert regarding the review.

[Dharmakirti]

I finished reading The Madness Season and thought it was pretty darn good. 3.5 stars.

I've started reading Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, a modern retelling of the Faust story. It is about a fictitious German composer who bargains away his soul in exchange for creativity.

I've also started on this month's main pick, A Darker Shade of Magic. I was hooked from the moment Kell started talking about his shifting coat.

[Silvana]

In the early chapters of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Poor megodonts, lots of factory thingies, and weird, yet not shocking, Japanese "girls". Interesting natural and social effects of ocean rising. Also, I have sudden craving for rambutan.

[Ian]

A crown for cold silver by Alex Marshall. It's really good so far.

[terpkristin]

Finished reading The Daylight War last night and immediately bought the 4th book in the series, The Skull Throne. I also picked up Sorcerer to the Crown in audio because V.E. Schwab said that it was good. I'm going on a sort of vacation starting Monday so hope to have quality listening and reading time. I also have Satellite Communications that I want to read...to further my understanding of RF design in spacecraft. I'm a nerd, yes. I'm ok with it.

[Fried]

Just finished The Dispossessed. Really liked it. Haven't read anything from Le Guin before but definitely will repeat in the near future.

[Joanna Chaplin]

Uxía wrote: "Just finished The[book:Lavinia Dispossessed|13651]. Really liked it. Haven't read anything from Le Guin before but definitely will repeat in the near future."

I just finished her Lavinia and really, really enjoyed it. It's got "reread" all over it. The Left Hand of Darkness was also incredibly thought-provoking. She's a real treasure. Some of her older stuff isn't available in e- or audio-book, though.

[John (Taloni)]

Okay, now I'm totally lost. I wanted to riff on Uxia's post and say "She's got ftun more novels to choose from!" Then I decided to ask my friend Google if he could confirm that the bit where "ftun" stands for "any number" is actually from The Dispossessed, as my fuzzy memory from 30+ years ago informs me. Google kept thinking I meant "fun" so I can't confirm. This has to be well known to a lot of people. What book is it from?

[Lariela]

Now reading Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher.

[Rob, Roberator]

Lariela wrote: "Now reading Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher."

That's my favorite of the series.

[Brendan]

Uxía wrote: "Just finished The Dispossessed. Really liked it. Haven't read anything from Le Guin before but definitely will repeat in the near future."

I'm reading Tales from Earthsea right now, that series is excellent and gets better as it matures in later books.

I've also been doing some short story reading, I really liked Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers and I loved The Bone Swans of Amandale, would get my highest recommendation to any Lackey or Valente fans.

[Phil]

Just finished A Darker Shade of Magic and found it to be nice, quick, entertaining read. I'd put it in the same class as A Dance of Cloaks that we read a couple years ago but better written.
Starting Storm by Tim Minchin.

Edit: Ok just finished Storm. It was a short graphic novel version of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuX....
Go watch it right now, I'll wait.
Tim Minchin is an Australian comedian/pianist/skeptic. If you have any interest in any of those things you should go watch everything with his name on it on Youtube. You won't regret it.

Starting The Fifth Season.

[Jessica]

Currently halfway through The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

[Sumant]

Here is my review of Fall of Hyperion in the Hyperion Cantos series.

[Richard]

Reading The new Jason Cheek book Destiny, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... , not sure how to do the fancy hyperlink in the text but yeah, had a beta read of this and it has just been released and is the second book in the series

[Ju]

I just finished the books currently available for Seanan McGuire's October Daye series and I adored them. Am reminded of exactly why urban fantasy is one of my favourite genres - when done well it's sublime and McGuire delivers +++

[Chris]

Getting ready to start The Aeronaut's Windlass and am excited to see what it's like.

[Kristina]

I'm just about to finish a book called Ghost Gifts..it's a little different than my usual kind of read but I've really ended up enjoying it and would recommend it. After that I have Ghost Story and Cold Days from the library.. so close to finally being caught up on the series!

[Gaines]

Just finished reading Reverting to a Wild State in the Short Fiction group. A very well-crafted short story, full of imagery. We're 63 members and growing, and so far we've discussed that one and The Tell-Tale Heart. Discussions are getting quite in-depth and thought-provoking. Going to propose that we discuss a sci-fi or fantasy story next :-)

[Joseph]

Finished Something About Eve; A Comedy Of Fig Leaves and am now starting my first-ever Kate Elliott book, Court of Fives.

[Ju]

I just finished Gifted Thief and Shadow and Bone, both were decent but not up there with my favourites for the year.

[Rick]

The Everything Box was just released and... yay, new Kadrey!!

[Ju]

Joseph wrote: "Finished Something About Eve; A Comedy Of Fig Leaves and am now starting my first-ever Kate Elliott book, Court of Fives."

Reading Kate Elliott is on my list of things for the year (how I missed her so far, I've NO IDEA).

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

I just started reading Nexus by Ramez Naam. It's about an illegal drug called Nexus that links people's minds. So far I've been enjoying it.

[Joseph]

Ju wrote: "Reading Kate Elliott is on my list of things for the year (how I missed her so far, I've NO IDEA)."

She's one of those I've always seen on the shelves, but just never quite got around to. But now, 60% into Court of Fives (it's YA, so relatively smaller than most of her previous), I can guarantee that this won't be the last Kate Elliott I read.

[Ju]

Joseph wrote: "She's one of those I've always seen on the shelves, but just never quite got around to. But now, 60% into Court of Fives (it's YA, so relatively smaller than most of her previous), I can guarantee that this won't be the last Kate Elliott I read. ."

She's been recommended to me all over the place lately but given the fantasy I've enjoyed for years, I'm still surprised I've not managed to read her work before 2016! Still, a glut of good stories is always a joy to look forward to.