What Else Are You Reading - August 2016

[John (Taloni)]

I finished Terminal World. What a terrible book! It reads more like notes on a novel than a novel itself. We're over 50% of the way into the book before the point of the novel even starts to become apparent. The science is implausible, which for Reynolds is very odd.

Events happen but no one is leading it. There's no real resolution. I wouldn't read a sequel, but there are lots of loose ends that could lend themselves to one.

Reynolds is obsessed with this idea of technology being degraded, either by nano attack (Revelation Space) or differing physical laws. It's just not working here. It was probably wise of him to drop this idea after one book.

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "I finished Terminal World. What a terrible book! It reads more like notes on a novel than a novel itself. We're over 50% of the way into the book before the point of the novel even starts to become..."

I had that same reaction to Revelation Space.

[Esther]

Rivers of London has been on my 'to buy' list for ages but other books always seemed to get prioritized. This month I decided I should stop prevaricating and the book landed in my post box yesterday.
From your description, Stephen, it sounds like he was born to write for me.

[Kristina]

So I mentioned I had just started this Timebound and I want to say how much I am enjoying it. It reminds me very much of Time and Again. It's also a Kindle Unlimited book-as is the rest of the series, so if you are a subscriber you can check it out for free.

[Chris]

Just finished Leviathan Wakes. It was one of those books I picked up based on the cover and word of mouth. I liked the variety of elements contained within the story. Not sure if I'll continue further in the series but this was a good start.

[Brad]

Chris, I'm on Nemesis Games right now and I can tell you it's worth it. To me the first 3 books were good but just good. Cibola Burn and Nemesis Games have been excellent and way bigger in scope.

[Stephen]

I am listening to Moon Over Soho, Peter Grant #2. It is a breeze to listen to, thank to the cool voice of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and the fact that Ben Aaronovitch has the first person narration that makes it easy to follow,

[AndrewP]

Stephen wrote: "I am listening to Moon Over Soho, Peter Grant #2. It is a breeze to listen to, thank to the cool voice of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and the fact that Ben Aaronovitch has ..."

For that particular book you might want to give this a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUFg6...

[Rick]

@esther - Rivers of London is a very fun book as are the next ones. Enjoy.

@trike and John T - Having read much of Reynolds' novel length stuff I think he's actually best at standalones. House of Suns and The Prefect were, for me at least, quite good.

@Stephen - Huh, I might need to try that series in audio. A recent fave series of mine though.

As for me... I opend Dhalgren and decided I need to be in the mood to sit and read at length. Same for Viriconium though I think that's much more approachable. I re-read an old favorite that I might not have actually read before though I was sure I'd done the entire series - The Sinkiang Executive

[Brendan]

Rick wrote: "Same for Viriconium though I think that's much more approachable."

Oh my goodness, In Viriconium, the third story in that collection, is one of my favourite books. I still havent finished reading through the whole collection, I do about a story every couple months.

[John (Taloni)]

I'm having the opposite of my usual problem. Imprudence is such fun that I don't want it to end! Even though I'm 90% of the way in and it will obviously end of a cliffhanger, I'm good for more.

As a plus, my wife and I go to the Steampunk convention in San Diego regularly, and Gail Carriger is a guest this year. Yay!

[Phil]

Finished Bridge of Birds. Loved it. What a funny, sweet book. I'd class it with The Princess Bride and The Last Unicorn. Will start recommending this book to my friends.
Starting Orbit Unlimited by Poul Anderson.

[Brad]

Just about to finish Nemesis Games (expanse #5) and it was really good but it kind of seems like part 1 of a 2 parter. Mostly it just set up Babylon's Ashes for the conclusion. I also started Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance. He's a fascinating guy.

[John (Taloni)]

Just to note, the Expanse shorts are pretty good. Novella length as I recall. The LA public library has all of them on ebook, but they don't cost much on Amazon either.

[Silvana]

Yep, I would recommend all Expanse novellas. The ones about Amos and Epstein drive are my faves.

Just finished Gunslinger (hated it, could not get into the dreary and cathartic storyline even with imagining Idris Elba as Roland *sigh) and continuing Story of Your Life (Ted Chiang). I think I should read the ebook version instead as I missed alot of technical description from the audio.

[Brad]

I've read The Butcher Of Anderson Station, The Churn and Gods of Risk so far as those came before Nemesis Games. I liked Butcher and Gods but found Churn to be incredibly boring, although it did help with some back story for Nemesis Games. Next I'll read The Vital Abyss.

[Stephen]

The reason why I like the novelettes is I wish more slow writters would pick up on it. Would it not be great to get a Hot Pie story? Or perhaps a Sovoy one?

[John (Taloni)]

Now reading Monster Hunter International. I can see the appeal, and Correia certainly knows his guns. It's decent enough urban fantasy, or actually since so much of it is set in the country, perhaps rural fantasy. Anyway, the constant gun talk does get wearing, and the story drags in parts. I understand why Correia did well with this, but I'm unlikely to read the sequels.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished listening to The Obelisk Gate and really enjoyed it, though not quite as much as The Fifth Season. It's still a great series so far (My Review).

[Trike]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Now reading Monster Hunter International. I can see the appeal, and Correia certainly knows his guns. It's decent enough urban fantasy, or actually since so much of it is set in the ..."

Guns seems to be pretty much all he knows. I lemmed that book so hard, it was as if I put it into an electrified lemming machine and turned it all the way up to Full Lem.

[Aaron]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Now reading Monster Hunter International. I can see the appeal, and Correia certainly knows his guns. It's decent enough urban fantasy, or actually since so much of it is set in the ..."

The gun talk isn't nearly as bad in the other books, it's still there but not to the same degree. The first book was marketed directly to gun nuts on a gun forum soooo the obvious happened.

I would personally just try his fantasy series, it's a later work so it's more polished and no guns!!!