Books of the Month, August 2016 - The Three Body Problem & Age of Myth

[Mpauli, Bitten by a radioactive book]

Our books of the month are The Three-Body Problem for SF and Age of Myth for Fantasy. Enjoy!

[Cupcakes & Machetes, Hybrid Creature]

Isn't this for August??

[Kirsty, Jedi Master]

Hybrid Creature (devours books instead of brains) wrote: "Isn't this for August??"

Yes! haha. Get's so confusing doing the polls so early in the month!

[Kirsty, Jedi Master]

The Three Body Problem is currently 99p on Kindle

and free (In US/Canada) as part of Tor.Com's new Ebook Club

[Sarah]

The Three-Body Problem doesn't do it for me, but I am glad to have a reason to bump Age of Myth up the TBR pile :)

[Rinn, (Retired mod) Captain of the SSV Normandy]

Title updated to avoid confusion ;)

[Paul, A wanderer in unknown realms]

I will order Age of Myth tomorrow as soon as I get paid.

[Ryan]

I bought it on special months ago! The Three-Body Problem that is.

[LittleBookDruid]

And here I am, so behind my July books still... :'(
Just started The Magician, the Long Way is still long way to get read. Though my excuse is Camp NaNoWriMos :D But I want to read these books...

[Veronica]

I recently read the ARC for Age of Myth and enjoyed it. Not sure I'll get to the other selection this month.

[Greg]

I wasn't crazy about The Three-Body Problem the first time around - I felt like the characterizations were cardboard-thin plus frankly a lot of the book was boring for me. The last 1/4 was fairly gripping though and the very tiny amount about the Cutural Revolution in the book was interesting (though not much depth there either). I haven't decided if I'll re-read it for the group read or not.

I wonder whether the English translation was part of the problem. The language in the translation was just serviceable, not very vivid or engaging for me at all. Has anyone read it in the original Chinese? If so, was the writing style itself more interesting? I think there's only one English translation available unfortunately.

[Ryan]

I tried the original Chinese version but I couldn't understand a word, Greg.

[Greg]

Ryan wrote: "I tried the original Chinese version but I couldn't understand a word, Greg."

Ha ha, well that's what would happen to me for sure!!

[Audrey, Queen of the Potato People]

Cool. I have Age of Myth ready to go. Still waiting for Angry Planet from the library.

[Fannie]

Looking forward for the discussion on the Three-body problem. I read it some times ago and really loved it.

I will try to find Age of Myth for next month.

[Margo]

Just picked up The Three-Body Problem on amazon for 99p. I'm not going to read the fantast book as I have just bought Theft of Swords and don't want to get the series mived up.

[Emma]

I am definitely going to read the age of myth and I have just bought the 3 body problem even though I'm not sure about it, as it was only 99p on kindle.

[Michael]

Hey all, thanks for selecting Age of Myth as one of your August reads. I don't want people to feel uncomfortable when posting, so I'll not be in the discussion thread (making it an "author-free" zone). However, if you want to make an Author Q&A thread, I'd be glad to stop by and talk with people there. Either way, thanks again for selecting the book and I hope people enjoy the read.

[Veronica]

How cool, thanks!

[Robin P]

Michael Sullivan is the most fan-friendly author I know of. He's always gracious with readers or groups. I just finished (and enjoyed) the audio version of Age of Myth so I'll look forward to the discussion.

[Audrey, Queen of the Potato People]

Agreed.

[Margo]

I have just started Theft of Swords, my first taste of Michael's work and I'm loving it. I'm sure I'll read Age of Myth at a later date, but for now I don't want to get the series muddled. Why did noone tell me about these books sooner lol

[Kirsty, Jedi Master]

Thanks Michael, that's really good of you! :D

[Ryan]

If I read Age of Myth first, how much would it spoil the earlier series?

[Dawn]

I don't think it would affect the earlier series at all Ryan. This is a completely new set of books set in a much earlier time period but the author is setting up a Q&A discussion of you want to ask him directly.

[Ryan]

Cheers Dawn

[Audrey, Queen of the Potato People]

In the Riyria times, they have this mythology that some believe and some don't. Age of Myth shows what really happened, so I understand waiting and reading the others first. I'll know better after reading Age of Myth.

[Robin P]

It's fine either way. Sullivan does a great job in each series and you'll have everything you need whichever one you read first. The only problem is that for Age of Myth we have to wait a year for the next installment.

[Dawn]

A year! But he's already written it!

[Margo]

That's another reason I like to read older series lol

[Greg]

Margo wrote: "That's another reason I like to read older series lol"

Me too Margo - plus they're more easily available at libraries, etc. :)

I'm definitely planning to join in on Age of Myth though.

[Lel]

Cant wait to read 'Age of Myth' I love Michael's books, but I have heard mixed things about The Three Body Problem so not looking forward to that so much. But hey, I thought I would hate A Scanner Darkly as well and loved it.

[Melanie]

I kind of loved and hated Three Body Problem. The beginning is really long and drawn out. Then it got really good (like can't-put-this-book-down kind of good). And then it has a strange ending. It was a Hugo award winner, rightfully so, and I'm glad to have read it.

[Whitney]

age of myth is not at my library yet. Maybe I can get them to order it I couldn't even find it on order. It's strange as I think I've seen some of the books at my library but couldn't find them catalogued. Will try again.

[Wayland, Ernest Scribbler]

No library anywhere near me has Age of Myth. *sigh*

[Audrey, Queen of the Potato People]

Wayland wrote: "No library anywhere near me has Age of Myth. *sigh*"

That's so sad. Does your library do inter-library loans? Mine does, though they don't publicize it. (You fill out a request for them to buy it and they'll check it out from some library anywhere in the country instead.) I went ahead and bought it.

[Wayland, Ernest Scribbler]

They do ILL's but they won't if the book is within a year of publication. So this one is too recent.

[Audrey, Queen of the Potato People]

I am not crazy about Three-Body Problem so far. I'd have quit by now if it weren't for an energy cell. (I'm at 30 percent.) It's just not doing it for me.

[Kirsty, Jedi Master]

I really wasn't expecting to enjoy three body, but i absolutely loved it. Something about it really captured my imagination and I was really hooked on it.

[P.H.]

Age of Myth was a bit of a slower start than I'm used to with MJS but it picked up steam. I liked how he brought different details together for a pretty good ending.

[Audrey, Queen of the Potato People]

Age of Myth is my reward for reading a certain quota of 3-Body each day.

[Sarah]

Started Age of Myth today. I agree that it is slow starting, but there's a lot of stage setting to do.