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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - February 2017
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Rick
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Feb 10, 2017 11:20PM
I liked Chalion a lot. For another take on that world and esp if you want a shorter work to read, grab her Penric novellas.
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Just finished The Salt Roads. It was alright but I prefer more fantasy in my fantasy. After Time and Again, The Golem and the Jinni, The Three-Body Problem and this one I'm beginning to wonder if the historical fiction book club reads as much sf&f as we do. At least I found the characters here more interesting than the ones in those other books.Starting A Short History of Nearly Everything.
I finished Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey earlier this afternoon. Very fun take on urban fantasy, and I loved a lot of what was going on in this world. Stark is an entertaining dick, haha. This was actually one of the first ebooks I ever got, back in 2010, but I never read it because I didn't actually get a Kindle until 2012, and by then it had just fallen by the wayside of the years until now. I'm glad I read it now, though!
Starting The Curse of Chalion for a group read and still braving my way into Seveneves. I have started to skim the orbital mechanics since he used one whole chapter to describe A entering B.
I've just started reading Titus Groan and so far I'm really enjoying it.Small Gods and Old Man's War are also on my list for this month.
Well I read The Alchemist, since it was a library book and I'll have to return it eventually. If it hadn't been such a quick read I would have Lemmed it. I'd heard it was an amazing book, but it certainly wasn't a life-changer for me.
Lamora/Ches wrote: "I've just started reading Titus Groan and so far I'm really enjoying it.Small Gods and Old Man's War are also on my list for this month."
The Gormenghast books (well, the first two, at least) really are remarkable and I need to revisit them one of these years.
Joseph wrote: "Lamora/Ches wrote: "I've just started reading Titus Groan and so far I'm really enjoying it.Small Gods and Old Man's War are also on my list for this month...."
I'm about 10% in, I think, and I'm already fascinated. I've also read a bit about Peake himself, so I'll be on the lookout for any books on him and the history of the trilogy.
Lamora/Ches wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Lamora/Ches wrote: "I've just started reading Titus Groan and so far I'm really enjoying it.Small Gods and Old Man's War are also on my list ..."
There was also a reasonably good (and incredibly well-cast) BBC adaptation back around 2000. I'd recommend it, but not until after reading the first two books, at least. (It only adapted the first two books which, TBH, is a perfectly fine stopping place.)
Just finished The Dark Forest and am headed straight into the final book. This trilogy is cool but really weird. It's "Asimov writes horror" with a side of physics and quantum mechanics.I just hope Cixin isn't a one-shot author. He's on my A list for certain.
John (Taloni) wrote: "I just hope Cixin isn't a one-shot author. He's on my A list for certain. "Hmm, he seems to have 3 other novels, all written before The Three-Body Problem.
He does seem to have a very large number of short story collections, though--it makes me wonder what the Chinese SF *market* is like--mainly short stories, like early American SF? Or just coincidence.
Mod
Winter's Heart - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)
The Empty Throne - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Shards of Honor ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)
Very much enjoyed Empire Games, the first of a new trilogy of books in Charles Stross' Merchant Princes universe. Only complaint really is that it is very much just the opening instalment of a bigger story and lacked a real conclusion of its own. It introduces us to a new main protagonist and puts a lot of pieces in place to tell the story of the next book(s).Am now reading Idle Ingredients - the latest novella in the very amusing Sin du Jour series.
I've been on a heavy sci-fi kick lately and am suddenly in the mood for some grimy fantasy. So I'm diving into my first Patrick Rothfuss with The Name of the Wind.
Brendan wrote: "Just picked up a newly released book, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley."I literally *just* ordered that. Super excited to read it.
Danielle wrote: "Brendan wrote: "Just picked up a newly released book, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley."I literally *just* ordered that. Super excited to read it."
I was mildly interested until I read the part of the description where the main character wakes up without a memory. Grooaannn. It's such an overused cliche that at this point it's a red flag for me.
Trike wrote: "Danielle wrote: "Brendan wrote: "Just picked up a newly released book, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley."I literally *just* ordered that. Super excited to r..."
That's unfortunate. :/ I'm finally getting back into reading (consistently) after graduating from the time suck that is graduate school, so I've fortunately missed most of the "Who am I?" plot devices.
Is it really that overused now?
Reading The Exorcist for another group. My first time, and I've never seen the movie (though I may have to now, for the sake of comparison if nothing else).
Danielle wrote: "Trike wrote: "Danielle wrote: "Brendan wrote: "Just picked up a newly released book, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley."I literally *just* ordered that. Super excited to r..."
That's unfortunate. :/ I'm finally getting back into reading (consistently) after graduating from the time suck that is graduate school, so I've fortunately missed most of the "Who am I?" plot devices.
Is it really that overused now? "
It's probably been overused since the birth of the novel, but it's really gotten out of hand lately.
The group read The Rook starts that way. I suspect it and others like it (The Maze Runner, False Memory, Before I Go to Sleep, Shadow, Idlewild, Jacob's Ladder) exist because classics by great authors have used the gambit, such as The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, and Fledgling by the better-than-nearly-everyone Octavia Butler. Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber starts this way, too. Plus the movies Memento and Dark City. Oh, and Hitchcock's Spellbound. The current Syfy series Dark Matter has a ship full of these amnesiacs. Of course, Wolverine from the X-Men is the superhero poster boy of this cliche. Not to mention the fifty gajillion video games that have used the same amnesia trick. It's just tiresome for me at this point. Being a couple decades younger, you probably won't roll your eyes at its use.
Trike wrote: "Danielle wrote: "Trike wrote: "Danielle wrote: "Brendan wrote: "Just picked up a newly released book, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley."I literally *just* ordered that. Super excited to r....."
It's definitely an easy way for the author to detail the world, because you discover it along with the protagonist. Is that lazy? Maybe.
Some good books being read this month!
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "It's definitely an easy way for the author to detail the world, because you discover it along with the protagonist. Is that lazy? Maybe."Hurley doesn't really go in for "detailing the world," so rest easy on that score. This isn't a situation like The Rook. There are multiple main characters and only one has no memory. Actually, it's a bit like the movie Memento, if you remember that, where repeated memory loss is a plot point.
Finished the Magicians trilogy with The Magician's Land and for something completely different, started Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee.
Brendan wrote: "Actually, it's a bit like the movie Memento, if you remember that"I see what you did there.
Tackling a couple of sequels next.Started Caliban's War in audiobook. Only took a couple of chapters to get sucked right back into that universe. Great storytelling.
For my on-screen reading, about to give A Gathering of Shadows a go.
I just tore through Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow - I thought both were deeply flawed, but the good qualities outweighed the bad qualities.So my question is, if I want to continue in the Ender story, what book do I go with next? The next book written....Speaker for the Dead? Or the next book in chronology, Ender in Exile? And should I keep trying to read the two series in tandem, or should I finish the Ender's Game series, and then hop over to finish the Ender's Shadow series??
Mod
So my question is, if I want..."
It really depends which story you're more interested about. If you want to follow Ender, you should read Speaker for the Dead. If you want to follow everyone else/stay on Earth go with Shadow of the Hegemon.
For me personally I read Ender's Game Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide.
Then I read Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant before coming back to saga with Children of the Mind.
Then I pretty much lost steam on both, and found out more about the author and decided to quit both series for good at that point.
Personally I love both Ender's Game/Shadow but found each book less and less good (although I enjoyed Children of the Mind a lot more than Xenocide).
They diverge in style and content quite a bit after the first books. I personally enjoyed the Shadow books a lot more.
Rob wrote: "Amy wrote: "I just tore through Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow - I thought both were deeply flawed, but the good qualities outweighed the bad qualities.So my question i..."
Thanks for your input!
I'm not sure if I like the writing/story enough to press on through all of them, but at this point I want to continue. I'm wondering where I should fit in Ender's Exile....better to read it in it's chonological order, or in the order they were written?? It probably doesn't much matter.....
Mod
FWIW I always try to read in publication order. If there are questions raised in one series that are answered in another, then it's best to read the material and wonder about it just like readers did at the time.For me this is the "Magician's Nephew" problem, as that book came last in the Narnia series but is chronologically first. It answers questions that readers thought about while reading the Narnia books. Or look at it another way, would it really help to see the Star Wars prequels first and know that Darth Vader is Luke's father?
John (Taloni) wrote: "FWIW I always try to read in publication order. If there are questions raised in one series that are answered in another, then it's best to read the material and wonder about it just like readers d..."With the Narnia books, you also have the narrator issue -- even though Magician's Nephew takes place before previously-published books, the narrator in Magician's Nephew refers specifically to events in those earlier books ("Remember when the Pevensies found the Lamppost? That's why there's a lamppost.")
John (Taloni) wrote: "FWIW I always try to read in publication order. If there are questions raised in one series that are answered in another, then it's best to read the material and wonder about it just like readers d..."This is generally my philosophy on the matter as well. I can think of one example - The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King - that it truly does not matter if you read it in chronological order or publication order. There are no revelations to explanations that significantly impact the story. It can be read seamlessly between books 4 and 5, or it can be read as a sweet flashback.
Generally, though, I think publication order is the right choice. I just wouldn't assume it is ALWAYS the right choice.
Slight correction: The Magician's Nephew is not the last Narnia book (that's The Last Battle); but it is #6 of 7.I did happen to read the Ender's Game series out of order; I read Speaker for the Dead long before I read Ender's Game. I felt like I had gotten the gist of what had happened with Ender prior to SftD, but yeah.
Amy wrote: "I just tore through Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow - I thought both were deeply flawed, but the good qualities outweighed the bad qualities.So my question is, if I want..."
For me, the best in the saga is Speaker for the Dead. I've read it a lot of times and there's a few moments where I ALWAYS cry.
About Shadow of the Hegemon, loved it the first time I read it, but read it again 10 year later and hated it.
Ender in Exile is not great, but is not bad either.
But if you're unsure if to continue with the saga, I'll recommend to read the short story A War of Gifts. It's a fast and good read.
Put me in the camp for following the "Speaker" series, but I do think the "Shadow" series is more evenly written, and closer to the first in feel. So like others said if you did prefer following Bean, that would be readable as well.
Currently working my way through The Grace of Kings and Ammonite. Also reading a chapter a day of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion which is non genre but timely.
I found the Ender series declined in quality rapidly, not unlike the Dune series. However, I read the short story version of Ender's Game after reading the first four books and found it to be superior in every way to everything that followed after.It just proves the point Jack L. Chalker once made when he said that short stories expanded to novels do nothing but increase their length.
Rob wrote: "Then I pretty much lost steam on both, and found out more about the author and decided to quit both series for good at that point."
This. Orson Scott Card is a terrible human being by any standard. The sooner he's minimized, the better.
Trike - since you liked Chalion, try the Penric novellas. Same world, different characters. Nice when you want a novella sized chunk of reading too.
Finished The Crown Tower and picked upThe Rose and the Thorn and The Death of Dulgath as I seem to blitz through Michael J. Sullivan books.
It's odd to me that people go after Card for his politics which I find to be far less than they are made out to be. However, after the fairly decent Ender's Game I read the next two despite declining quality. I think I read the fourth - perhaps it was the third - and disliked it so much I haven't picked up a Card novel since. I haven't read much Herbert either, same reason. Dune is still great, Ender's Game decent, but the sequels put me off both authors. Has nothing to do with politics.
John (Taloni) wrote: "It's odd to me that people go after Card for his politics which I find to be far less than they are made out to be. However, after the fairly decent Ender's Game I read the next two despite declini..."Apparently his later works are much more in your face with his politics and much of the antipathy toward Card isnt about politics in his fiction but about his stated opinions on LGBT issues and that he funds things against those. Some people don't feel like contributing, however minimally, to a person whose views denigrate them, people they love or simply don't like to fund bigotry.
John (Taloni) wrote: "It's odd to me that people go after Card for his politics which I find to be far less than they are made out to be."It's only because he advocates for armed insurrection against the US government because he disagrees with allowing gays to marry, and thinks anyone who is LGBT should be imprisoned and harassed by police. His words.
He channels millions of dollars to causes that try to bring about this sort of thing, and both his actions and words have gotten innocent people killed. And for some reason Card felt that being homophobic and anti-American wasn't enough, he added racism to his repertoire of screeds. He is utterly despicable.
Finished Ninefox Gambit, which was kind of amazing, and am actually reading one of the anthologies I've backed on Kickstarter, Women in Practical Armor.
Yeah I was unsure about Ninefox for a while but really liked it too.
I finished reading Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. It is the sixth book in his First Law Series. It is a grim dark fantasy western tale only he could tell. I am reading Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook. He is the author guest at ConCoction in Cleveland, Ohio. I felt it was high time that I start the series.
I also started Storming by K. M. Weiland and will start Lock In by John Scalzi.
Also finished with The Curse of Chalion - gave it five stars - not perfect but this book got somethin'.I guess I have to order Shards of Honor and her Penric books too.
Starting The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories By Philip K. Dick. Gonna be my second journey with PKD after the Android book.
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The Sword and Laser
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The Salt Roads (other topics)Crossroads of Twilight (other topics)
Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology (other topics)
Women in Practical Armor (other topics)
Naamah's Blessing (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jacqueline Carey (other topics)Joe Abercrombie (other topics)
Joe Abercrombie (other topics)
Glen Cook (other topics)
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