What Else Are You Reading? June 2014

[Terry]

The Crimson Campaign at the moment and enjoying it.

[Dylan]

Finished 500 Ways To Write Harder and a Joe Hill short story.
Next: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

[David Sven]

Finished Robin Hobb's Renegade's Magic.
My Review

Now come to momma Alastair Reynolds Blue Remembered Earth

[Darren]

Started in on The Eagle Of The Ninth. Enjoying it.

[Bryan]

I joined David in reading Reynolds, this time House of Suns. Delightful space opera so far.

[David Sven]

Bryan wrote: "I joined David in reading Reynolds, this time House of Suns. Delightful space opera so far."

I loved that book.

[Ben]

Bryan wrote: "I joined David in reading Reynolds, this time House of Suns. Delightful space opera so far."

Good man.

[Alex]

Already read 5 (kinda) books this month: The Truth About Alice, The Guard, The Eslites and L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 30. Now currently reading; Er ist wieder da

[AndrewP]

I got to book 5 of Narnia before getting bored. Taking a break now before tackling the last 2 books. Currently reading Robopocalypse, which started off strong but then degenerated into mediocrity. Last night I started Powersat for a bit of light reading.

[Jake]

I did my best with Royal Assassin.
my review.

[[deleted user]]

I probably would have finished reading The Obsidian Heart by Mark T. Barnes by now, but I've been watching the World Cup coverage since the Opening Ceremony.

[[deleted user]]

Been reading Wheel of Time-Lord of Chaos, and re-reading The Golden Bough by Frazer. Once I finish those two I will read The Crimson Campaign!

[Sky]

Just finished reading The Crimson Campaign and all 4 novellas. Book 2 was even better than book one...can't wait for the conclusion! Debating what to read next...Either Dresden Files #8 Proven Guilty or start on Expanse Saga with #1 Leviathan Wakes, until some of us start reading Prince of Fools on the 24th in Not a Book Club Club.

[[deleted user]]

Sebastian wrote: "Been reading Wheel of Time-Lord of Chaos, and re-reading The Golden Bough by Frazer. Once I finish those two I will read The Crimson Campaign!"

I loved Lord of Chaos! The ending will blow your mind.

[[deleted user]]

I just finished up The Obsidian Heart. Here's my review. I can't believe these books aren't more well known in SFF circles; The Garden of Stones kicked The Red Knight out of the top spot for my favorite 2013 debuts, and The Obsidian Heart only ratchets up everything that was excellent in The Garden of Stones.

[Walter]

Just started The Life of Elizabeth I. Have always felt weak where history is concerned, so lately I've found myself plugging histories and historical biographies in wherever and whenever I can find room for them.

[Carolina]

Walter wrote: "Just started The Life of Elizabeth I. Have always felt weak where history is concerned, so lately I've found myself plugging histories and historical biographies in wherever and whene..."

I did that one on audio, and I really liked it

[Walter]

Carolina wrote: I did that one on audio, and I really liked it.

Not very far in, but it's quite good. Think I'm going to have to add her other two volumes on the Tudors.

[Carolina]

I finished The Clockwork Scarab, Fangirl and Nosotras que nos queremos tanto. Reading right now Promise of Blood (in french is called Les Poudresmages which sound very different to me) as well as Emerald Greenand a galley for Unknown Unknowns

[Erin Vanessa]

I'm reading a couple books for my history class on the American West (which are better than I expected!), and for fun I'm also reading Hexed, the second in the Iron Druid Chronicles. Wonderful book, highly recommended if you like urban fantasy!

Also, I'm slowly reading The News: A User's Manual.

[Jonathon]

So far this month I've read Avatar Book Two, which is my 4th novel from the Star Trek relaunch stuff. I'm really liking them so far, after having some bad experiences in the early 90s I'm pleasantly surprised.

I did the audiobook of Grave Peril. This is one of the series that I've been doing exclusively as audibooks and I'm loving James Marsters' narration. Still keep picturing folk as people who played them on TV though.

And on the comic/graphic novel front I've done the 3 trade paperbacks of David Schulner's Clone and the last 3 trade paperbacks of Y: The Last Man. Clone didn't really set my world on fire but it's not bad and I've liked Y pretty much continuously from issue 1.

Currently working on Geekomancy after hearing about it on the podcast (About a third of the way through it now). It's pretty fun stuff so far, it's a great palate cleanser for bingeing on the Star Trek relaunch novels.

[Emma]

Just finished reading Promise of Blood, which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would.

Now I'm working on the VF alt pick, Mistress of the Art of Death, and I'm re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I find it oddly appropriate I'm reading about the Quidditch World Cup during the World Cup.

[Shad]

Finished Promise of Blood. Here is my review.

Going to get back to Allegiant and the Sword & Laser Anthology. I've been reading a story here and there from the anthology and have enjoyed it.

(Thanks to terpkristin for pointing out the review link had been wrong)

[terpkristin]

Shad wrote: "Finished Promise of Blood. Here is my review.

Your review link goes to the edit review function, just FYI...

[Lariela]

I'm reading Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier.

[Shad]

If you go to the edit review page, there is a list of commands on the right. You want the link command which is:
(<)a href="URL"(>)text that shows(<)/a(>)


To get it to show, I had to put parenthesis around the brackets for the XML. Use the command above without the parenthesis and it should work.

[Sandi]

Whew. I finally finished A Clash of Kings. I started it in March--2013. Now, I have marked A Storm of Swords started. I got the 5-book series for $10 a few months ago on my Kindle, otherwise I wouldn't be starting it. The bundle has each book as a chapter. My Kindle tells me that it will take me 18 hours and 51 minutes to read the third book.

Before I delve into more of A Song of Ice and Fire, I plan to finish Tomorrow and Tomorrow, a digital galley I got through Penguin's First to Read program. I have to review it by July 2. I also want to finish Promise of Blood this month. And, I would like to polish of some other books that have been languishing: The Lost, Sacrifice of Fools, and Range of Ghosts.

In audio, it looks like I'm going to finish Crown of Renewal just in time to start Shattered. There have been so many must-listen books coming out since the end of May, it looks like I won't be chipping away at my backlog for the foreseeable future.

[Sandi]

Oh, yeah, I forgot that I'm halfway through Authority and would like to finish it this month too.

I need to get that currently reading list pared down to two books in text and one audiobook at a time.

[Jeff]

Started reading Promise of Blood & liking it so far. Also listening to Mr. Mercedes.

[Rob, Roberator]

Another weekend, another bunch of reviews that I'm catching up on.

I finished listening to The Last Command. (My Review)

I also listened to War Crimes (My Review)

Finally I read The Color of Magic (My Review)

[Bryan]

I finished House of Suns, which was a lot of fun.

Now digging into T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his account of the Arab Revolt in WWI. Gorgeous, haunting stuff so far.

[AndrewP]

Spent the weekend doing so decorating and listened to the entire audiobook of Fuzzy Nation while painting.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished The Pillars of Sand, great ending to one of the most underrated fantasy series released last year. Here's my review.

Now it's on to Hollow World! Looking forward to what sort of tale I can expect from Michael J. Sullivan post-Riyria.

[David Sven]

Rabindranauth wrote: "Now it's on to Hollow World! Looking forward to what sort of tale I can expect from Michael J. Sullivan post-Riyria."

I'll be interested to know what you think of this one.

[[deleted user]]

David Sven wrote: "Rabindranauth wrote: "Now it's on to Hollow World! Looking forward to what sort of tale I can expect from Michael J. Sullivan post-Riyria."

I'll be interested to know what you think of this one."

Will do! It's surprisingly short so I may very well finish it tomorrow, haha.

[Rob, Roberator]

David Sven wrote: "Rabindranauth wrote: "Now it's on to Hollow World! Looking forward to what sort of tale I can expect from Michael J. Sullivan post-Riyria."

I'll be interested to know what you think of this one."

So you're saying my opinion isn't enough?

[David Sven]

Rob wrote: "So you're saying my opinion isn't enough? "

The more opinions the merrier :)

[Liam]

I finished Dr. Sleep by Stephen King this weekend. As much as I worried it wouldn't be a worthy successor to The Shining, it did a good job. It isn't as scary or as raw, but it's definitely an appropriate conclusion.

I'm in the middle of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and I just started Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

[Joseph]

Finished Veil of the Deserters, which was excellent!, and started The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories by Robert W. Chambers. Yes, it was True Detective that inspired me to pick it up, but for the record I'd read it at least two or three times in the past because of the Lovecraft connections.

[Sky]

Rogues was just auto-delivered to my Kindle, so I'll be working through the anthology while I finish Proven Guilty :)

[Ben]

I've been reading The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. It's my first foray into Lovecraft and I really like it a lot.

I'm also in the middle of Abaddon's Gate so I can catch up to Cibola Burn next.

[Pat]

About to finish The Martian & Cibola Burn is waiting at the top of the pile. Yay.

[[deleted user]]

I was really worried where it came to Hollow World, Riyria's a pretty big act to follow. Turns out it's a really great read, now it's one of my top reads for the year! Here's my review

Next up:

[Jennifer]

I just finished up The Rithmatist, which honestly started out a little slow in my opinion, but then once I got further in found it quite enjoyable. (Should have known Sanderson wouldn't disappoint). I also finished up a reread of the Death Note manga. And speaking of Riyria, I just started up Rise of Empire.

[Phil]

Just finished Promise of Blood. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I don't really see the comparison to A Dance of Cloaks that some are making. This is written much better than that.
Starting Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century Volume 2: The Man Who Learned Better by William Patterson.

[Kami]

Just finished Ender's Game. Was gonna go through the entire 'universe' of novels in the chronological order. Now i'm not too sure.

[Micah]

Kami wrote: "Just finished Ender's Game. Was gonna go through the entire 'universe' of novels in the chronological order. Now i'm not too sure."

I thought the same thing. I have heard independently from multiple sources that they progressively go downhill in each book. I read Ender's Game as an adult for the first time a few years ago. I think I am going to just let that one stand on its own and not read the series.

[Carolina]

Just finished Smaragdgrün which was a nice end to the trilogy and Unknown Unknowns, I liked the main idea but I think it needs work in the execution.

[Joseph]

Micah wrote: "I thought the same thing. I have heard independently from multiple sources that they progressively go downhill in each book. I read Ender's Game as an adult for the first time a few years ago. I think I am going to just let that one stand on its own and not read the series."

I've only ever read the first three Ender books, many, many years ago (so I didn't have to worry about my enjoyment of the books being impacted by my opinion of Card as a human being). I quite liked the first two; the third one (Xenocide) I was enjoying right up until the point that (view spoiler)[the spaceship became God (hide spoiler)].

After that I kind of ignored the series because, based on the descriptions, it looked like he wasn't actually moving things forward; just going back and retelling the same story from the POV of every single living being in the Enderverse.

[Rob, Roberator]

Personally I liked the Shadow books far more than the Ender books, but those fell off too.

I'm pretty much done reading Card at this point though. Too many other books out there.

I might reread Ender's Game/Shadow at some point since I love both of those books, but done with rest.