The Sword and Laser discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - August 2016
Just finished Counterstrike: Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 3: Volume 3 by Joshua Dalzelle About to start The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
I just finished Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle (singer-songwriter of The Mountain Goats.) It is about a man who develops a text based RPG after an accident leaves him disfigured and basically trapped at home. But then there is another accident. I'm still weighing what I think but I thought some readers in this group would enjoy this read. Just over 200 pages, main character named Sean.
Reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane. So far it vacillates between melancholy and a straight-up bummer. Well-written, though, and I suspect I can see where he's going with the theme.
Finished Mad Ship and starting Ship of Destiny. I'm really enjoying this trilogy and can see why so many people say it is a mistake to skip it.
John (Taloni) wrote: "Due to other people being interested in Poseidon's Children #3 at the library (harrumph!) I went on to the first book of Rick Riordan's Norse series, which we own. Pretty good so far. I suppose ser..."The audiobook narrator pronounced it danDILLion so I don't know what to believe.
I'm finally getting around to reading The Hungers Games. After that I think I'll be moving on to Steven Erikson's 9th Malazan book. On audiobook I'm getting caught up on the expanse. I just finished Cibola Burn (which was excellent) and once my next credit rolls in Nemesis Games. I have all the novellas in that universe to listen to as well.
I finished Shadow of the Giant
by Orson Scott Card. It was kind of dull and fortunately it brings to a close the "Shadow Series," although there is another side story ("Shadows in Flight") and a planned book that will tie in with the conclusion of the main "Ender" series. I think those will wait for another day.I'm starting The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
by Robert A. Heinlein. Since the only other Heinlein books I've read were Job and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, both seemingly equally reviled by Heinlein fans, I'm looking forward to reading what is widely considered to be one of Heinlein's best books. I'm also reading A Feast for Crows
by George R.R. Martin and also The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015
edited by Rich Horton.
I have been playing with the Serial Reader app and decided to try The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, old-school "science fiction" that is really more like fantasy. Very old fashioned language and not much plot so far.
Kicking out the jams by returning to the Destroyermen series with Straits of Hell, where our intrepid heroes are scrambling to recover from their massive battle against the intelligent dinosaurs in book 9 before the Grik regroup and destroy them.
I've been in a funk lately, I think because work is kicking my butt. I've been listening to the Nikki Heat audiobooks by "Richard Castle" (yes, it's a show tie-in thing). I'm currently on the third book, Heat Rises. They're light and perfect for summer.I'm slowly making my way through this month's pick. It's not that I'm not enjoying the stories but that it's easy to put down after you finish a story...and with work kicking my butt, the last thing I want to do is read (with my eyes) when I get home (the audiobook for this one didn't work very well for me).
Finished up The Sword of Summer. Riordan is really phoning it in now. The setup is derivative of the Percy Jackson books, with a bully Valkyrie standing in for the bully daughter of Ares, the artificial time limit to the quest, and helpful companions who really have no reason to be there. Plus Annabeth shows up, because tiein.The cutesy use of Nordic symbols into modern situations is okay. Political correctness runs amok. The use of Boston as a location is okay, although Riordan sticks to touristy areas. I grew up in Boston and almost never bothered with the places he uses, although I know where they are.
It was a decent enough story even with the flaws. I'll likely read the next book in the series, although I won't run out to buy it.
Randy wrote: "I finished Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card. It was kind of dull and fortunately it brings to a close the "Shadow Series," although there i..."Hahahaha, it's funny that you think any series related to Ender will EVER finish. 50 years after Card's death there will still be new Ender books xd
About The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I read it like 1 or 2 years ago and loved it. Nowadays it's depiction of technology can be seen like a bit naive, but I still think is a really good book. Reminds me a little to Red Mars with the "oppressed people trying to build an utopia", although I think Heinlein is a bit better writer than Robinson. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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I finished Cryptonomicon. At first was a bit wary cause a few years back I tried to read Snow Crash and was unnable to finish it, but in the end decided to give it a chance and I'm happy I did it. Those damn 1300 pages took me all July but finally did it. Liked the WWII story, not so much the modern one. The ending was quite nice, tying all loose ends, but I'm not sure suffering 600 pages of Randy was worth it XD Also, didn't understood the point of inventing Wales 2 (Qwghlm) and Brunei 2 (Kinakuta). Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Also read Dragonflight. Fast fun lecture, interesting and well written. Will definitely continue with the series.
Cryptonomicon is probably my favorite book. I'm doing a reread right now, and that is a very rare thing for me to do, but it's been 12 or so years since I first read it, so I've forgotten just enough to enjoy the second reading. If you enjoyed the WWII stuff more, you could always deep dive on the baroque trilogy. Quicksilver I thought it got a bit more esoteric then Cryptonomicon, but it is meant to be a companion piece.... sorta. I will say the modern stuff in Crypto is at the odd spot historically now, where it feels dated, but not enough dated where it's period piece ish, and cool. Give it another 12 years and it will feel quaint.I don't think a dramatization will ever get made of this story. But I always thought a cool way to do this would be as too separate TV shows, one set in WWII, and one set in the modern story line. Both running at the same time of the year, either back to back, or different nights on the same network. Almost completely different casts, different production personal, different, looks, but probably the same show runner to keep the stories in sync.
Reading Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October while waiting for The Last Wish to come in at the library. Not great, but a fun read thus far.
Finished the great The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and started on the ebook of The Axe and the Throne.
Picked up Terminal World as I finished Draco Tavern quickly and that was available from the library. Reynolds has an odd obsession with technological degradation, but so far the story is good.Draco Tavern was every bit as excellent as I remembered. My only complaint is that it was too short, but then, to keep the high quality Niven likely only wrote what he was truly inspired to put down.
I've gotten spoiled by some great library selections but should really get back to buying books again. After Imprudence and the last Poseidon's Children book, I'm not sure what I would check out, even with LA public library's great selection.
I've been away on holiday, and missed the start of this thread. I usually jump in much earlier!While away, I quickly finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two. It was fun to revisit the Potterverse, but not as satisfying as the novels. I'd love to go and see the play performed though.
I find myself rather toiling to get through The Annihilation Score. I don't think it's the change of viewpoint character that's bothering me, rather it's a different tone and pace to what I've come to expect from the 'Laundry' novels. I'm seldom disappointed by Charlie Stross, but this one's not quite cutting it.
And finally, very much neither Sword nor Laser, I've started The Revolving Door of Life. These books are the literary equivalent of comfort food, as far as I'm concerned. I've been reading the series for so long that the characters feel like old friends. 2 or 3 short (and entirely inconsequential) chapters at night make for just the right end to the day.
I keep starting books, and OverDrive notifies another book on my hold shelf is available... Currently reading Star Wars: Life Debt, Indomnitable by W.C. Bauers, Dune Messiah (on my re-read of the series), and American Gods because Veronica and Tom keep raving about it!
Completed Manners & Mutiny last night. It was a satisfying conclusion to the Finishing School Series and I'm a little sad it's over.It's past time to get back into the Dresden series. I had to look back through my Goodread's read list to find out Changes was where I left off, lol.
^ The next-gen books from Gail Carriger are out, Prudence and its sequel Imprudence. Not as good as the Soulless series, but still worth reading.
I've read Prudence and enjoyed it. I still need to get the new one. So many books, so little time, lol.
Finished Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Great read. Really enjoyed every minute of it. My review I want to read Chernow's Washington: A Life but it's $15.99 on kindle and that's ludicrous. Probably going to start The Obelisk Gate soon.
Mod
Wow. I don't know how you stopped there. The 18 month wait for the next book to be published was awful for me.
I'm not much of a binge reader. Call me weird but I have to take breaks between books in a series.
I just finished The Obelisk Gate (sequel to The Fifth Season). It came out on Tuesday, and I absolutely devoured it this week. Not quite as eventful as the first book - but in my eyes NK Jemisin can do no wrong. Her prose and characters remain so powerful. I'm just in awe of her as an author. This month I've also read The Lie Tree (fantastic), Sleeping Giants (meh), and the big "hyped" book of the summer, The Girls by Emma Cline (which I really didn't enjoy).
Next up: The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar. I've been waiting to get this from the library for ages, so I'm very excited to dive in.
Misti wrote: "I'm not much of a binge reader. Call me weird but I have to take breaks between books in a series."I used to be much more of a binge reader back in the day, but that was also when I didn't have internet and Netflix, so I was actually reading for 3-4 hours/day if not more. These days I'm much less likely to binge, especially on a big, fat series, unless (as is the case for my current Ice & Fire read) I can do a big chunk of it when I'm on vacation and cut off from other forms of media.
Mod
Not so much binging. More about how that book ended. I generally don't binge book series either.
Just started the last volume in my Library of America edition of Dashiel Hammett's novels, The Thin Man.
John (Nevets) wrote: "Cryptonomicon is probably my favorite book. I'm doing a reread right now, and that is a very rare thing for me to do, but it's been 12 or so years since I first read it, so I've forgotten just enou..."Ty for the suggestion. I'll give Quicksilver a chance ;-)
Finished Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters. This is the third book in a mystery series set in an English abbey in the 1100's with Brother Cadfael as the hero. It's the only one I've read so far and it stood well on its own. I quite enjoyed it although I was glad to have the Kindle dictionary function for a few archaic words that I didn't know.This was a nice, quiet little book if you want a break from SF&F but still want a genre feel.
Just finished listening to Nice Dragons Finish Last & would recommend it. I've started Beloved for a book group & I've got to say, about 40% done & it's really not working for me. I don't care for magical realism & this is too dreamy & disconnected to really draw me in, I spend too much time wondering what the heck is going on. Is this a metaphor? Or just an event? Should I bother remembering this or is it just color? Wait, who are we talking about now? And sooooo many allusions, too many for my mind to keep track of. I'll finish this, but at this point I can say I'll pr'ly never read another Morrison book ever again.
Armored a short story collection edited by John Joseph Adams, and I'm listening to the Lies of Locke Lakota by Scott Lynch (man do these dudes have potty mouths)
Phil wrote: "Finished Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters. This is the third book in a mystery series set in an English abbey in the 1100's with Brother Cadfael as the hero. It's the only one I've read so..."Cadfael is awesome. I've only seen the BBC series. It looks like they have the books on Kindle Unlimited, and the page lengths look like before books became doorstops - think i'll start trying to squeeze in a Cadfael mystery in between reads.
Sky wrote: "Phil wrote: "Finished Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters. This is the third book in a mystery series set in an English abbey in the 1100's with Brother Cadfael as the hero. It's the only one..."The Cadfael books are wonderful. If you want to see how an author can cram a mystery, a romance, lively characters, scenery, and history, and personal moments all into a 300 page book, without it feeling too rushed or unrealistic - these are the books.
They do stand alone well, though if you get hooked it definitely pays off to read them in order. There are a lot of little character defining moments for Cadfael that build up very well to the final book, plus a few things that pop up now and again that will make more sense if you've read at least the first two (A Morbid Taste for Bones and One Corpse Too Many) and the 6th book (The Virgin in the Ice).
For Sky though, you've already seen the show, so you'll know a lot of those details. But the show went all out of order, which was weird. And they had 3 different actors for Hugh, which was so annoying, especially after Sean Pertwee was so perfect.
I've been doing a bit of rereading after finishing Roses and Rot (really good) - some Masters of Rome, some Outlander, some Cadfael, and some Sookie Stackhouse. Not sure why, when I have a huge to-read list - I think I couldn't settle on anything new for a while.Now I've started The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. I've loved everything else I've read by him, and this one has sucked me right in.
Michele wrote: "For Sky though, you've already seen the show, so you'll know a lot of those details. But the show went all out of order, which was weird. And they had 3 different actors for Hugh, which was so annoying, especially after Sean Pertwee was so perfect. "It's been about 20 years since i watched the show, so hopefully the books will still have some element of surprise :)
It's funny, i was just thinking the other day i should check if Cadfael was on Netflix or Prime video. Seems I should read the books first.
Halfway through Terminal World right now. It's really quite tedious. I'd consider lemming it but I have nothing else teed up.I suppose I could go back to the Wheel of Time books. I've read three, though, and that series seems dedicated to reading tourism over plot. Not sure I can handle another eleven 600 page tomes.
EDITED TO ADD: Imprudence came in! I'll now binge-read Terminal World to finish it, then on to something more pleasant.
Currently in the early stages of both Machine Man and Planetfall. At about the 1/3 mark in each. So far, so good.
Michele wrote: "I've been doing a bit of rereading after finishing Roses and Rot (really good) - some Masters of Rome, some Outlander, some Cadfael, and some Sookie Stackhouse. Not sure why, when I...Now I've started The Last Kingdom"...
That book will not disappoint. I enjoyed the entire Early England series. Although the hero (IMO) is not as likable as Sharpe.
Mod
The Guns of Empire, that series continues to be fantastic.
Fight Club - Review
The Guns of Empire - Review
The Last Wish - Review
This month I've finished Academ's Fury, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished, and I just started Sleeping Late on Judgement Day and also Timebound
So I started on Foxglove Summer and found out it is book five of Peter Grant so I went back and started book one Midnight Riot. If Jim Butcher and Neil Gaiman had a torrid love affair and produced a love child, who in turn became a fanboy of the X-Files and honed his writing skills on DR Who scripts, then you would have Ben Aaronovitch. Then I went to the LA Library Overdrive and not a single book was on hold. That is just wrong. Ben Aaronovitch should be a "Add your name to the wait list" author.
I've just read through 12 Gotrek and Felix (warhammer) books once again. I then started The Last necromancer by CJ Archer - brilliant beginning but at 45% it turned into an over the top Mills and Boon special and had to be violently deleted. Shame it had such good promise up to that point, but the writing about her kidnapper and scary person with flushes and beating heart and other bad bad bad Mills and Boon lavish over the top similes to say she had the hots for him - I just could not bare to read another word.So Now I've just started Silver Crown King by Morgan Blayde. I like the over the top ubber violence.
Just finished Great North Road and The Aeronaut's Windlass. Both are quite good.Now reading West of Eden and Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War.
Next up (getting away from SF&F for a while), Burr and Follow the River.
Stephen wrote: "So I started on Foxglove Summer and found out it is book five of Peter Grant so I went back and started book one Midnight Riot. If Jim Butcher and [aut..."Yeah, couldn't agree with your more. That's a great series and the narration on Audible is first rate.
I'm finally reading my first Brandson Sanderson novel, he is an author I've wanted to read for a while now and like many books/authors I own I've been holding out on reading them. My brain does this whole lets save the best for last kind of thing, but alas why wait, why waste my time reading less then stellar books.
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The Sword and Laser
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Before that I read Three Parts Dead and liked it, will be reading more in that series.
Right now I'm reading Roses and Rot which is good, though it started out like a normal "estranged sisters trying to reconnect" type story, but now (30%) it's starting to get fantasy with Faerie weirdness. Kind of reminding me of Tam Lin but modern day.