What are you reading in May?

[Nick]

Please let us know what you are reading or are planning to read in May.

[Paul]

1. Ancillary Mercy - Ann Leckie
2. Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erickson

[Nick]

Great choices, Paul I hope you and everyone has time to fit in a commentary on our first in a row of two sci-fi BOTM's by Philip K Dick, as well as a couple of great Fantasy selections.

By the by, I am posting this folder at 9PM EST on April 30, so I will leave the What are you reading in April? thread up for a day or so to let anyone who wants to finish up there.

[Scott]

Finishing

Red Rising
Academ's Fury

Then onto:

The Rook
Second Cataclysm
Blood Song

And we'll see after that.

[Jim]

Reading The Green Pearl by Jack Vance and On The Steel Breeze (Poseidon's Children # 2 by Alastair Reynolds. Forging ahead on the Reynolds somewhat. It's turning out to be pretty absorbing, even more than the first of the series, Blue Remembered Earth.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Paul wrote: "1. Ancillary Mercy - Ann Leckie
2. Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erickson"

Please remember that the discussion folders remain open for the Malazan Book of the Fallen discussion. You can post comments about Gardens of the Moon and read what others had to say.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I am reading The Final Encyclopedia as I continue my journey through the Childe Cycle. I have several other books on deck but not sure what will be next.

[Chad]

The Sacred BandDavid Anthony Durham

Sharp EndsJoe Abercrombie

[Tani]

I finished Eona: The Last Dragoneye a little bit ago. I pretty much loved it. Lots of action, lots of ethical questions without really great answers. Grabbed me from the start and never let go, for sure.

I'm going to be reading Nights of Villjamur next.

[William]

Finishing :
A Feast For Crows
The Black Guard

Will start:
Saint's Blood
A Dance With Dragons
The Dark Blood

[Shel, Moderator]

Tani wrote: "I finished Eona: The Last Dragoneye a little bit ago. I pretty much loved it. Lots of action, lots of ethical questions without really great answers. Grabbed me from the start and ne..."

I need to get a copy of that - I really liked Eon: Dragoneye Reborn!

[Justine]

I just finished Nemesis Games, so I'm all caught up on The Expanse books now and ready for Babylon's Ashes.

I'm now reading Going Dark by Linda Nagata, the final book in The Red trilogy.

[Sumant]

Here is my my review for The Dragon Reborn.

[DivaDiane]

Will be finishing up To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts, tonight! Loved it! This was our read aloud selection (took forever that way!) and I'm not sure what we'll read next...

Reading High Deryni by Katherine Kurtz for myself and the Deltora Quest series to my son - so awesome!

[Sumant]

Diane wrote: "Will be finishing up To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts, tonight! Loved it! This was our read aloud selection (took forever that way!) and I'm not sure what we'll read next...

Read..."

To ride hell's chasm is an awesome book!

[Tani]

Shel wrote: "I need to get a copy of that - I really liked Eon: Dragoneye Reborn!"

You definitely should. Eona was a 5 star read for me. I thought it was even better than the first book. :)

[Deedee]

Currently reading: Arkwright.
After, I have a nice pile next to my chair:
All the Birds in the Sky
Now Wait for Last Year
The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter
not sure which one I'll go with next

[DivaDiane]

My husband and I decided what our next read-aloud bedtime story will be: Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney!

[Juston]

"I am Spock" by Leonard Nimoy...
Fascinating. Nimoy was pretty cool.

[Ken]

Diane wrote: "My husband and I decided what our next read-aloud bedtime story will be: Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney!"

How nice.

[Ken]

Still reading Dust of Dreams. Much better this time around. (I gave up on it last Aug, just wasnt into it) It's slow going but its very good.

[Viv]

I've neeeeearly finished Ancillary Justice. Not sure why it is taking me so long!

Also reading The Straight Razor Cure (called Low Town in the States) and enjoying that - it's a really fun noir fantasy/mystery and I think the author has totally nailed the loveable antihero thing.

Still listening to Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard which is proving to be unexpectedly delightful.

[Ken]

Viv wrote: "I've neeeeearly finished Ancillary Justice. Not sure why it is taking me so long!.."

Took me a while to get into the groove of the play on the male female pronouns and just what was going on.
It's good.

[Juston]

I am reading "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry.
I'm about 30% through and it is excellent.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Finally finished The Final Encyclopedia, part of Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle. 7/10 for me. I really enjoyed the parts of the story that were actually about the main and secondary characters (probably 2/3 of the book), but the sections of philosophy and "deep thinking" were too long (sometimes several lengthy chapters in a row) and somewhat repetitive, even thought they did flesh out the overall themes and conflicts of the book. Some fascinating concepts, so it was thought-provoking. Later books in the series appear to be more from the current antagonist's point of view, so that could prove interesting.

Next up is out of genre, The Testament.

[Shel, Moderator]

Currently feeding my space nerd fix with An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield's memoir.

[Christine]

I finished reading Half the World which I enjoyed as much as the first; I recomend this book. I'm now reading out of genre: The Guilty

[Ken]

Shel wrote: "Currently feeding my space nerd fix with An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield's memoir."

Good book, read it a while back

[Ken]

Taking a break from Dust of Dreams. It's good but it slow going. Need a little break. Started Ancillary Mercy

[Justine]

Here's what I've been reading in the last week or so:

I finished Going Dark by Linda Nagata - this was the last book in The Red trilogy. It was OK, but suffered a bit in comparison to the previous two books because it lacked a bit of the emotional content the other two had. Not a bad finish though, and I would recommend the trilogy for people who like near future military SF.

On the Edge of Gone - by Corinne Duyvis - this is a very good standalone book about an autistic girl who tries to secure a place on a generation ship for herself and her family after the Earth is devastated by the impact of a comet. A nice undertaking of the theme of what constitutes usefulness in society, and done quite differently.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge - what can I say? It won Costa Book of the Year 2015 for a reason. Hardinge is in top form and I completely recommend this one to everyone.

Shatter Me, Unravel Me and Ignite Me - the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi - this is a YA series about a girl whose touch means death to those around her. It has an outline of a war/revolution story, but really it is at its heart a relationships and romance book and it does that part very well. So, I would recommend these if you like YA romance dystopia.

And speaking of romance, I am currently reading the desert fantasy The Rose & the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh.

I'm kind of laughing as I look at this list of books as it's probably easy to see that that I read pretty indescriminately widely in the SFF genre:)

[Viv]

I've just finished The Icarus Girl which was unexpectedly scary. It's been shelved variously as fantasy or magic realism, but I've put it firmly in "horror" myself. Considering that the author was still at high school when she wrote it, it was pretty amazing.

Like Justine, I've also been reading The Lie Tree. I'm not quite finished, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it so far.

And I've made a start on Kingdom of Cages after seeing a couple of people on here mention it. It's intriguing so far, though I get the impression it's not going to be the cheeriest tale!

[Christine]

Justine, I'v put three of those books on reserve; I mostly enjoy the same books that you do. Now I'm raading David Baldacci (he can write a good story!!) and have Morning Star waiting on my shelf

[Justine]

Great Christine! I look forward to hearing how you enjoyed them:)

Morning Star is awesome! I read it as soon as it came out this year after painfully waiting for it since the cliffhanger ending in Golden Son.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I finished Fall of Angels last night and really enjoyed it. This installment in the Recluce series really is a prequel to the other books. I gave it 9/10 and found it very satisfying, with somewhat less whining that Modesitt's main characters usually have and lots of action while laying the groundwork for later events.

With a series that jumps around in time, there is always a debate whether to read the books in internal chronological order or to read them in publication order. This book would probably come first, from what I can tell, in the internal chronology, but I found that reading it now helped other things fall into place. Things that are significant because of what happens later would not have stood out in the same way.

It appears the next book follows immediately in internal time after this one. I will be adding that to my "to read" list but will continue to break up the series with other books.

Next up is out of genre, On Mystic Lake.

[Tani]

I finished up Nights of Villjamur yesterday. It was good, despite the clunky, first-book writing. I liked the world-building a lot, and I definitely plan to read more in the series.

I'm now reading Slow Fall To Dawn, a scifi about assassins. It's quite short, so I'm tempted to just finish it today. We'll see how that goes.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Finished On Mystic Lake and Death of a Stranger, both out of genre, both very good. Staying out for one more book, 24 Hours.

[Viv]

I finished Kingdom of Cages - I thought it was a really interesting, intelligent and thought provoking read, without ever being at all preachy. I would definitely read more by this author.

Next up is Europe in Autumn which has had rather mixed reviews amongst friends on GR, but I like it so far (about 50 pages in).

[Janny]

Viv wrote: "I finished Kingdom of Cages - I thought it was a really interesting, intelligent and thought provoking read, without ever being at all preachy. I would definitely read more by this au..."

Sarah Zettel's SF books are brilliant; if you liked this one, you have the best of them, upcoming. She's far, far too underrated for the quality of her work.

[Shel, Moderator]

I am in the middle of end-of-school-year madness and can't get caught up in a story right now so I'm reading The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet in bits and pieces between frantically grading. Though when my loan comes in for The Library at Mount Char I'll dive in, I am really impatient to start it! I also need to log in to my library and request the next Deverry book, that I know will be a quick read.

[Ken]

Just finished Ancillary Mercy. Another disappointment. I loved the first book but these next two, while good were sort of disappointments.

Started on some non fiction baseball book The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Hoping to finish The Chantry Guild so I can get a jump on our group read with the next Deverry book, The Bristling Wood, AKA Dawnspell.

[Justine]

Here is what I've been reading lately:

I finished The Rose & the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh, the conclusion to the duology that started with The Wrath & the Dawn. It tied up the storyline fine, but it felt a bit rushed to me and I didn't like it as much as the first book. Overall, though, I liked the duology as a whole.

The Map of Bones by Francesca Haig - this is the second book in The Fire Sermon trilogy. I liked the book fine, but WOW, it was really, really, depressing. The post-nuclear setting, the story, everything about it was absolutely sad and depressing. The series itself is pretty well written though, and I'm planning to read the final book when it comes out next year.

Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh - this one I can't recommend. At all. This was McIntosh's first foray into YA and it just didn't work as far as I'm concerned. Firstly, the book reads like it was written by someone who thought "this is how you write YA" and feels like the author is really talking down to an audience that he feels is less sophisticated than him. Secondly, the story itself just kind of falls apart about 2/3 of the way through and the end is a mess. There are much better YA books in the SF genre out there.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston - this is a contemporary YA book about a teenage cheerleader who is drugged and raped while she is away at a cheerleading camp. The book deals with the subject in an idealized way, but it is excellent, and extremely well written. I would recommend this book if you have any interest in contemporary YA. Johnston is the author of the fantasy book A Thousand Nights, which is also excellent.

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley - this is a book lots of people love, but for me it was just OK. The backstory is given in the form of letters written by the main character to herself because she has lost her memory. It's an interesting technique, but to me it felt like too much of an info-dumping device, particularly in the first half of the book. Also, the humour felt a bit misplaced to me. But, as I said, I seem to be in the minority, because a lot of people loved this book and although I wanted to, I just didn't. I was just OK for me.

The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier - this is a standalone YA fantasy novel (yay!) It's a quiet fantasy with no romance sub-plot and I actually liked it quite a bit. I would recommend it if you are a fan of old style Robin McKinley, particularly books like Chalice, as it had a similar type of feel to it although perhaps a bit less developed than McKinley at her best.

Railhead by Philip Reeve - this is another standalone novel. So, above when I was saying that there are better YA novels in the SF genre? Well this is one of them. It absolutely puts Burning Midnight to shame. This book is fabulous and I completely recommend it. It is incredibly imaginative, the worldbuilding is first rate and the story is fast paced from start to finish. This book and The Lie Tree were my favourite reads this month to date.

The Raft by Fred Strydom - this is a very interesting book and one of those that you can't really talk about too much without giving the whole story away. It is a real mind trip type of story and probably would be enjoyed by people who like a bit of a mystery. I haven't finished my review on this one since I just finished it tonight. I'm still kind of thinking about it. It was good though.

Next up for me to read is Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan.

[Lindsay]

Justine wrote: "Next up for me to read is Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan. "

I hope you like it more than I did. I may just have had my grumpy pants on that day.

[Justine]

Lol:) Lindsay I don't have high hopes to be honest but I might enjoy it more going in with lowered expectations.

[Christine]

I just finished Morning Star which I strongly recommend; I had difficulty remembering the numerous characters since it had been soe time since I had read the previous two volumes. Now starting on Shatter Me

[Justine]

I reread Golden Son right before reading Morning Star; I agree it was a great finish to the series. I'm really looking forward to Iron Gold:)

[Christine]

I finished Shatter Me which was greatly marred by heavy handed romance. Not sure I will read the second book (although
I am interested in the world and general story line). Now I'm reading Eon: Dragoneye Reborn which I do like

[Sumant]

Here is my review of Gap into madness.