What Else Are You Reading - December 2016

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished Babylon's Ashes yesterday and I enjoyed it so much I made an exception on my normal weekly review writing schedule: My Review

[Eric]

Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan - short stories ostensibly about crime and Japan (or by Japanese authors). Has turned out so far to be more horror than crime, but we'll see. (got as part of a story bundle)

CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics - a survey of various women who worked in comics starting around the 1900s. (backed the kickstarter)

The Emperor's Agent - 22% in and it's all been setup so far. But basically a french courtesean / stage actress ends up working as a spy and using her talents to get info. Don't know if the author is being loose with accuracy, but essentially she's a companion (w/ benefits) when she doesn't earn enough money from her acting - making her talent set someone Geisha-like. (got as part of a story bundle)

The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Part 01 - started this ages ago based on a version from The Gutenberg Project. Most likely will not finish in 2016. It's funny and feels fairly fresh in style for something written 400 years ago, but it just doesn't pull me in the same way many other books do.

[Joseph]

Staaaaar Waaaaarrrrs, nothing but Star Wars!

Finished Catalyst - A Rogue One Novel and started Battlefront - Twilight Company.

[Sumant]

Here is my review of The Last Kingdom.

[Keith]

Now reading The Very Witching Time of Night: Dark Alleys of Classic Horror Cinema, about horror and cult films from the 1930s/40s. Primary take-away: the Barrymore family was lunatic. And old Hollywood scandals were infinitely more interesting and creative than current celebrity scandals.

[John (Taloni)]

Mostly done with The Human Division. Not really impressed. It seems like a bunch of vignettes that don't fit together shoehorned into a novel. This was originally a serial, which is fine, but good serial fiction makes an overall arch as well, and this one doesn't deliver on that.

(view spoiler)[Plus, this book doesn't take the Conclave storyline forward, so it's a whole book of interstitial tales. I don't mind Scalzi going to secondary characters, but this book doesn't move the overall storyline forward. (hide spoiler)]

Perhaps I'll feel differently by the end of the book. But, if I'm left bored at the 75% mark of a book in a series I've otherwise been enjoying, it's not a good sign. It feels like Scalzi is phoning it in.

[Louie]

Keith wrote: "Now reading The Very Witching Time of Night: Dark Alleys of Classic Horror Cinema, about horror and cult films from the 1930s/40s."

On topic, I would recommend further reading on the Val Lewton produced horror films. Perhaps, Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career. But definitely the Scorsese produced documentary, Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows.

[Rob, Roberator]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Mostly done with The Human Division. Not really impressed. It seems like a bunch of vignettes that don't fit together shoehorned into a novel. This was originally a serial, which is fine, but good ..."

I really enjoyed Human Division, but it's definitely a different approach to the world than the previous stories. I felt like some of the stories moved the overall story forward, but there were a few "stand alone episodes".

The book after uses a similar format, only it's more like 4 novellas than a collection of short stories, and I didn't like that one as much.

[Eric]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Mostly done with The Human Division. Not really impressed. It seems like a bunch of vignettes that don't fit together shoehorned into a novel. This was originally a serial, which is fine, but good ..."

Is that the one w/ pal from book 1 doing ambassador work? I enjoyed that one in the vein of the I, Robot stories - they're always getting stuck w/ the crap jobs and have to reason their way out.

[Rick]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Mostly done with The Human Division. Not really impressed. It seems like a bunch of vignettes that don't fit together shoehorned into a novel. This was originally a serial, which is fine, but good ..."
I bought this serially as it was released and stopped about 2/3 of the way through when Hart went home for a visit. The entire thing annoyed me because it wasn't clear that it was the first of 2 books that formed a story together... so here I was buying the chapters one by one figuring I'd get a self-contained story and he went off tossing irrelevant chapters in the middle. Annoying.

[Keith]

Louie wrote: "On topic, I would recommend further reading on the Val Lewton produced horror films. Perhaps, Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career. But definitely the Scorsese produced documentary, Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows. ."

Thanks. I love Lewton movies and really enjoyed the documentary, but I didn't know about that book. It's on the list now.

[Shad]

I finished up Stiletto, the follow up to the Rook. Here is my review. There are what might be slight spoilers if you haven't finished the Rook, but nothing that isn't in the cover copy for Stiletto.

I will probably move on to Deadhouse Gates next, but I also have a copy of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection that is begging to be read as well.

[John (Taloni)]

I did finish up The Human Division. The story I liked best was actually an "extra" not done in the serial, the one featuring Sorvalh. It had a "Known Space" feel to it. I liked the humanizing of the alien, a more compassionate character than many of the humans in the Old Man's War universe.

Was going to read some other stuff but noticed that End of All Things had come available so went right on to that. About 20% in, fair to middling so far.

(view spoiler)[I find it odd that the book starts out with a disembodied brain for a big chunk of the book. It's like Scalzi is going more and more to writerly tricks. I would guess that the last two Old Man's War books were essentially forced on Scalzi by his publisher. Also, the coincidences are too much. The pilot is a friend of Hart Schmidt? And winds up in Harry Wilson's care?

But, it's still good action. I'm enjoying the plot well enough. And there's no two ways about it, Scalzi comes up with some interesting aliens. The duel at the end of the 5th book was pretty great. The story itself not so great, but the descriptions of the alien were really creative. Definitely kept me interested. (hide spoiler)]

[Rick]

End is a series of 4 novellas.

(view spoiler)[Rare got the job initially because he knew Hart. Didn't feel that much of a setup to me (hide spoiler)]

You'll seem more of Sorvalh in End and I agree, it's an interesting alien.

[Trike]

I looked back at my reviews of Scalzi books and found I gave The Human Division 4 stars (review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) while I only gave The End of All Things 3 (review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). My takeaway was that they're good, non-serious fun.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished listening to Ahsoka. It was really short, but enjoyable (My Review).

[Sky]

I read The Wall of Storms. I really enjoyed it, though it is probably not for everyone.

My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Next I am finally getting to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and then Babylon's Ashes. If I can finish both by the end of the year I will be happy.

[Walter]

Finished The Rook. Now reading The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of Three Sisters.

[John (Nevets)]

Sky, Angry Planet should be a quick read, the style is pretty easy to fly through (even though I listened to most of it). I think you will really enjoy it, think of it as a lighter salad ahead of what I'm guessing will be a heartier meal in Ashes.

[Rick]

Ninefox Gambit was on sale so I grabbed it. Weird and wonderful.

[Sky]

John (Nevets) wrote: "Sky, Angry Planet should be a quick read, the style is pretty easy to fly through (even though I listened to most of it). I think you will really enjoy it, think of it as a lighter salad ahead of w..."

:D The biggest problem is trying time to read with a baby. But now that I am commuting to the office a few times a day and he has a predictable bed time and actually wakes up less during the night (and I've recovered my sanity somewhat from all the sleep deprivation) I've found I have more time to read.

Looking forward to both reads (and listens in mixed audio/kindle)

[Joseph]

Finished Battlefront - Twilight Company, which was better than it had any right to be, and started Bloodline by Claudia Gray, which seems to be mostly about Leia in the lead-up to Force Awakens.

[John (Taloni)]

Decided to go back to some Peter Hamilton and was pleased to see that both books in The Chronicle of the Fallers were in. Figured I could use more Nigel oriented space opera so I picked up The Abyss Beyond Dreams only to find that it's more of the Void. Urgh. I don't exactly hate the Void storyline but I found it tedious and have had enough of it. I hope it doesn't last.

[Dara]

Here's my review of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I finished it yesterday and was largely unimpressed. Perhaps it wasn't fair to read this book right after finishing a Hobb series. Moving on to another Hobb with Fool's Assassin.

[Brendan]

Dara wrote: "Here's my review of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I finished it yesterday and was largely unimpressed."

Your review and score pretty much matched my impression of that book.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I started Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, finally.

[Dara]

Brendan wrote: "Dara wrote: "Here's my review of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I finished it yesterday and was largely unimpressed."

Your review and score pretty much matched my impression of that book."

Thanks! A lot of my friends liked it a lot and I liked it at first but was underwhelmed.

[Walter]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I started Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, finally."

A good read. The photos make the book.

[David H.]

I finally finished Cloudbound by Fran Wilde. I don't know why, but it took me forever to get through this book. I highly recommend reading this soon after the first book, Updraft, because I was so lost with Cloudbound. I spent the last half of the book not knowing why there was a character hanging around. I think I will still attempt the third book since that's supposed to bring back Kirit as a POV character, and I do like Wilde's writing normally, I just had a tough time with this one.

[Sumant]

Here is my review of The Pale Horseman

[Trike]

Started the first Mageworlds book, The Price of the Stars, on the plane today. These books have been in my TBR pile for nearly 25 years. They're clearly inspired by Star Wars but go their own way, much like Mass Effect does. I liked how it starts right in the middle of the action and bits of worldbuilding and backstory are incorporated as they go. It moves right along: I'm already on page 112 of 560.

For once the cover is an accurate representation of the main character, from a scene around the 100-page mark. That's refreshing

.

[John (Taloni)]

Oof. The Abyss Beyond Dreams is rough going. First off, I just don't like the Void storyline. I thought we were done with that in the last Commonwealth series. Three 600 page books, did Hamilton think there was something he missed telling about the Void? Apparently so, because now we have a near replica of the last planet with an obvious stand in for Edeard.

Then there's the obvious rips. (view spoiler)[First Pern with the spore eggs falling from space, representing a danger to the local area. Then Moon is a Harsh Mistress with a revolution using a defined cell structure that is presented as unusual.

But beyond the ripoffs, the revolution deliberately smashes the means of production to hurt the working classes, all in the name of "improvement." It's right out of last century's communism. I'm supposed to find this sympathetic? A book on technology that is anti technology? (hide spoiler)]

When I realized this was a Void book, I thought that I would at least get switches back and forth to the Commonwealth. At 50% of the way in, nope. We had what amounted to a long prologue, then it's back to the Void where technology doesn't work. Oh, the people live long lives somehow and there's sex all over the place. Er...yay?

The first series (Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained) was two 1,000 page books that were essentially one long novel. It dragged, and parts of it bored me silly. I eventually got into it and enjoyed the artistry of the slow burn. That was a technology oriented story and I definitely found the technology appealing. People essentially immortal, travel by wormhole, eventually warp drive, what's not to like? Whereas the Void is an anti-technological return to Renaissance era life. No thanks.

Had this been the first Hamilton book I read, I would likely have lemmed it and dropped the author. Really hoping this gets better, because right now it is not looking good.

[Trike]

I couldn't even make it 1/3 through Pandora's Star.

There's "writing an epic" and then there's whatever Hamilton does.

[Rob, Roberator]

I liked Pandora Star and Judas unchained a little. I liked the void trilogy ok, but less than Judas.

I've had Abyss for awhile, but haven't gotten to it yet. I guess we'll see if I share your sentiment.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Walter wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I started Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, finally."

A good read. The photos make the book."

Absolutely... the evil santa is quite scary.

After buying a whole bunch of free Open Road books the other day, I started Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol by Elizabeth Hand. Why not do a seasonal read?

[Rick]

Trike wrote: "I couldn't even make it 1/3 through Pandora's Star.

There's "writing an epic" and then there's whatever Hamilton does."

Self-indulgent blather?
|
I read the first Void book and there's a part where one of the characters basically shoots energy from his hands... but it's not magic, it's nanotech in his cells... except emitting energy like that would fry the cell. Uh...

That combined with the weird glorification of some primitive world by so many people in a high tech world was just... weird.

[John (Taloni)]

Rick wrote: "That combined with the weird glorification of some primitive world by so many people in a high tech world was just... weird. "

Yeah. I love love love the technology of the Commonwealth. If I had to pick an SF future to live in, I think I'd pick that. So why spend all this time on a forced nontechnological world?

Wasn't Nigel supposed to be going to head to the Magellanic clouds? Let's go there please. Enough of the Void.

[Rick]

And he never explains why people who live in a high tech future would want to migrate to the Void. He doesn't even hand wave it away with a law of large numbers explanation (1% of so many people is still hundreds of millions...).

[Isak]

Got two picture books this Yule so I will probably get through them this month, they look great: Nordiska väsen and Flodskörden : illustrerade sägner ur Slingans landskap 1995-1999 =D

[John (Taloni)]

Finished Abyss Beyond Dreams. I'm glad to report that it got better, but because it started out terrible, it really only improved to "fair to middling."

Then, because it came off hold at the library (and both Babylon's Ashes and Three-Body Problem are close) I went ahead with the sequel, A Night Without Stars.

(view spoiler)[Um. Well. So now we have a return of the Prime in the early book. A society similar to Chinese or perhaps Russian Communism. Technology that made it to the 1950s or so but not any further, because....there is no because. Manned spaceflight for no particular reason except to allow Hamilton to wax at length at a substitute for the Apollo missions. One would think that the state of the art would have...moved on in two centuries? Even in a stagnating society? (hide spoiler)]

It's all well and good as fodder for vacation days, and it is not so bad as to have me lem it. But this is not the Commonwealth book I was hoping for. Kind of reminds me of Penguin Opus...

[Stephen]

I started Malice because I had heard good things about the series. So far it seems like a cross of between George RR Martin and Robin Hobb.

[Phil]

Finished The Rook. It was OK but could have been better. I enjoyed the main story with post amnesia Myfanwy but like many others I didn't like the intrusiveness of the letters. I actually didn't mind the info-dump ones but found the letters recounting old Myfanwy's life to be boring.
Starting The Good, the Bad and the Smug by Tom Holt, which I got in my Christmas stocking yesterday. I seem to be reading a fair number of humorous books lately which is certainly welcome.

[Joseph]

Finished Bloodline (and on the day of Carrie Fisher's passing, no less) and am finishing the year with comforting junk food: Sagas of Conan by L. Sprague de Camp et al.

[TRP]

I'm just starting It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

Reading some of the blurb from the site (see below) for this book it could be a could future pick for Sword and Laser.

"Written during the Great Depression when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, rampant promiscuity, crime, and a liberal press."

[Jonathan]

Finished (really fun book) and now starting on . Can't go wrong with a Neal Asher book.

[Darren]

Finished Against a Dark Background.

Apparently there's an unpublished epilogue to it out there. Wish I could find a link to it that works. I think that's it for me for Banks for a while. Gotta save the last two of his sci-fi books for later.

A friend recommended TAKE US TO YOUR CHIEF And Other Stories

First Nations Sci-fi, from around my corner of Canada. So far it's pretty decent, and so will likely be either the last book of 2016 or the first of 2017, for me.

[John (Taloni)]

Started and lemmed The Difference Engine. Read the first 15% and couldn't tell what the story was about. Skimmed another 15%, still nothing.

This book seems to be for those in love with the London of the 1850s, especially the scientific scene of the day. I feel as I did with Gravity's Rainbow: I see the artistry and some people may enjoy it, but I'm not among them.

I've enjoyed Gail Carriger's Steampunk books and this is supposed to be the book that set off the Steampunk genre. But I can find no joy of life, no fun, not even a coherent story.

[Rick]

Darren wrote: "Finished Against a Dark Background.

Apparently there's an unpublished epilogue to it out there. Wish I could find a link to it that works. I think that's it for me for Banks for a wh..."

http://web.archive.org/web/2016030501... is the epilogue.

[Silvana]

Finished Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Very well researched and lots of interesting politics. Liked it alot.

21% into The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham. I am excited to read this one! So far it is as good as The Expanse.

[Rob, Roberator]

Silvana wrote: "21% into The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham. I am excited to read this one! So far..."

I enjoyed that series a lot. His Long Price series starting with A Shadow in Summer