What SF are you reading now, 2000-2014?

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started reading:


Blackout by Connie Willis

[Deb]

I am trying to trim down on unread books so I have started Prey by Michael Crichton
his book has been languishing on my 'unread' bookshelf for years, ever since I picked it up in a book sale. Somehow I was never in the mood, but I decided I would just MAKE the mood.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Deborah wrote: "I am trying to trim down on unread books so I have started Prey by Michael Crichton
his book has been languishing on my 'unread' bookshelf for years, ever since I picked ..."

I kind of liked that one. It was one of the earliest books I read about nanotechnology. It was also one of Crichton's last books if I recall correctly.

[Deb]

RJ from the LBC wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I am trying to trim down on unread books so I have started Prey by Michael Crichton
his book has been languishing on my 'unread' bookshelf for years, ever..."
I am liking the way he has combined the nanotech with insect behaviour and he certainly uses evolution and human hubris very effectively. There are a couple of... what seem to be plot holes, that are kind of driving me up the wall, but overall I am liking it so far.

It is interesting that he wrote this one after Jurassic Park which seemed to me (as far as I can remember) to flow better than this one.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Deborah wrote: "...It is interesting that he wrote this one after Jurassic Park which seemed to me (as far as I can remember) to flow better than this one."

I thought Jurassic Park was his best. The movie hit the highlights but glossed over a lot of the underlying message.

[Jim]

The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham was good space opera with the memorable characters I expect from him. A lot of setup needed, but he handled it well & the narration was excellent. It's really a 3 star read, but it gets an extra star as I'm looking forward to more in the series.

[Jim]

I tried A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson, Jeff Rovin, but it didn't light mine. I was really looking forward to this since I've liked other books that Rovin has written with Captain Kirk, so I thought one with Scully would be cool. About 25% of the way though & nothing happened except some kid freaking out for apparently no reason & the fix is some pretty magical hypnosis. If I cared about her or the MC, her shrink, it might hold my interest, but I didn't. The kid seemed as if she would be interesting, but I was only given a quick glimpse at her before she became a prop. Good narration, crappy characters, & the story is moved too slowly, so I moved on to The Last Human by Zack Jordan. It's pretty good, although sags in places.

[Michelle]

halfway through To Sleep in a Sea of Stars...going well! Not overly hard science fiction with an interesting well paced plot. Characters are starting to gain some depth, albeit a bit predictably. refreshing read and enjoying it thus far!

[Ed]

I'm reading short story collection Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker. I really liked the title story, which is an story of two women after the collapse of society.

[Jim]

I finally read the last book in the Donovan Trilogy, Pariah. It wasn't quite as good as the rest, but still well worth reading. W. Michael Gear is an anthropologist so his SF stories of future worlds & cultures have a lot of factual roots. This is the second trilogy of his that I've read & I'm impressed again. Good characters in an amazing world.. I highly recommend both the Spider & Donovan's World trilogies. His wife is also an anthropologist & they've written a lot of books together set in the native American past. I haven't read any of those, though.

[Leo]

I started The Passage. I hope it's interesting enough for me to enjoy the whole trilogy.

[Jim]

Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon was a reread, but in audio instead of paperback. There are 5 books in the series & it's a mighty good start in either format. Fun space opera similar to Honor Harrington or Miles Vorkosigan in some ways. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started listening to:


Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor

I usually only listen when I'm driving so not sure how long it will take me to finish it.

[Ed]

I just read the book of stories In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders. It isn't classified as SciFi by everyone, but many of these stories use SciFi tropes and ideas. Because of the "experimental" techniques, it would fit right in with New Wave SF. It is deeply cynical about consumerism and marketing and other aspects of modern society. So am I, so it works for me! 4 stars!

[Leo]

It took me some weeks but I finished The Passage and now going straight on with The Twelve. I had the trilogy shelved for a few years, scared of the amount of pages: 766 + 568 + 602. I allready expected to like it and would like to read all three of them in a row. They fit in nice in this year of outbreaks. And I tend to read longer books too in 2020, with the unabridged The Stand being the winner counting 1172 pages.

[Ed]

I've started on The Humans and am sure I'm gonna love it.

Also reading a preprint of ФантАstika: Almanac of Bulgarian Speculative Fiction. (Not all stories in it are from after 2000, but some are and all the translations are recent.)

[Jim]

I just finished the 5 book series of Vatta's War by Elizabeth Moon. It starts with Trading in Danger. I've read it before in paperback. This time, I listened to it in audio. I wasn't thrilled with the narrator, but she wasn't terrible. A really fun space opera either way.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished


Blackout by Connie Willis
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Taking a little break before starting the second part of the story. My brain can only take so much of Connie Willis at any given time.

[Leo]

Still in the mood for post apocalyptic horrors and sadness, I happily started Station Eleven. It is not exactly what I expected, but it's difficult to put down and that always feels great.

[Oleksandr]

I started Saturn's Children, and it is quite nice mix of classic adventure but in a setting where all humans dies and robots run the show told from POV of an odalisque android

[Peter]

Ed wrote: "I just read the book of stories In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders. It isn't classified as SciFi by everyone, but many of these stories use SciFi tropes and ideas. B..."

Thanks. I tried an earlier Saunders, which I didn't like, but WTH. Another rock on Mt TBR!

[Leo]

Reading The Terror by SF icon Dan Simmons. Must be classified as horror I think. About two wooden ships frozen in the arctic seas in 1845. Crews are fighting the cold, scurvy, polar bears and something unknown that's lurking in the dark. Great read.

[John]

Well, it’s not exactly current but...

I’ve just sent my manuscript off to my editor. My working title is “The Awakening of Artemis.” So, I went to Amazon and searched Artemis to see what came up. There were two. One of which was “Artemis” by Andy Weir, author of “The Martian” which was made into a movie starring Matt Damon.

[Leo]

That's hilarious John. What are you going to do?

[Infosifter]

I'm reading Protector, 14th in the Foreigner series by C. J. Cherryh. This series is consistently interesting with lots of fascinating alien politics and intrigue, as well as some action.

[Cato]

I just read To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. It a novella, that you can read in one go. I would recommend it!

[Sabri]

Leo wrote: "Still in the mood for post apocalyptic horrors and sadness, I happily started Station Eleven. It is not exactly what I expected, but it's difficult to put down and that always feels..."

If the mood is persisting and you haven't read it yet, I'd recommend Metro 2033. My wife bought it for me on a whim and I enjoyed it although I think a fair amount is lost in translation (especially with the dialogue). Apparently there's a videogame based on it as well.

[Ed]

I tried the Metro 2033 videogame and kept dying over and over because I'm simply terrible at that sort of thing. Looks good if you can avoid dying too often.

[Oleksandr]

In Russia, metro 2033 became a shared universe with over a hundred novels by scores of authors

[Sabri]

Oleksandr wrote: "In Russia, metro 2033 became a shared universe with over a hundred novels by scores of authors"

Cool! I look forward to checking some of that out. I only just noticed from Wikipedia that there are two (very imaginitively named) sequels. Don't know if this is considered to be in the realm of the "Zone" trope that seems to crop up in Russian sci fi, but that is more generally something I'd like to explore.

Edit - apparently you're the 2nd most popular Ukrainian reviewer on goodreads this month. Will you be celebrating with wine, or beer?

[Ed]

Sabri wrote: "Will you be celebrating with wine, or beer? ..."

... or Kvass ?

[Oleksandr]

Sabri wrote: "Edit - apparently you're the 2nd most popular Ukrainian reviewer on goodreads this month. Will you be celebrating with wine, or beer?."

With writing another review :)

[Leo]

Sabri wrote: " I'd recommend Metro 2033"
Looking good, it's on the tbr.

[Allan]

I played Metro 2033 a few years ago too and loved it. It was challenging but I got the hang of it and finished it. The only I didn’t like was that ammo was so limited. I tried a few months ago to play the updated version but my pc’s sound isn’t working and that makes FPS games impossible.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started reading:


All Clear by Connie Willis

[Deb]

I just finished by Sam J. Miller which I thought was spectacular in every way.

[Peter]

Deborah wrote: "I just finished by Sam J. Miller which I thought was spectacular in every way."

Huh. We usually agree on books. But I *hated* this one, and DNF'd it. Here's why: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Deb]

Peter wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I just finished by Sam J. Miller which I thought was spectacular in every way."

Huh. We usually agree on books. But I *hated* t..."

Lol - yes I know. I think we have also disagreed on another floating city dystopian book. Suspension of disbelief is a strange sort of thing; it either works or it doesn't and there is not always that much logic to it.

I don't find floating city technology as inherently unlikely as you do and the rationale to this one worked well enough for me. The plot and characters and cyberpunk environment were good enough that I could wave the floating city aside.

If I was going to quibble about unbelievably unlikely things in this book (and I'm not) mine would be about the near impossibility of a woman traveling for all those years on her own with an Orca and polar bear.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finally finished the audiobook of:


Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor
Rating: 1 star
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Please note: I am aware that my opinion does not conform to the popular opinion of many other Goodreads readers. No need to point that out or let me know how I can correct myself to be like everyone else. Let's just shake hands and agree to disagree.

[Peter]

Deborah wrote: "I don't find floating city technology as inherently unlikely as you do and the rationale to this one worked well enough for me. The plot and characters and cyberpunk environment were good enough that I could wave the floating city aside."

Actually, I'm fine with *some* floating cities. This one, building the damn thing offshore Greenland, when you could have built a MUCH NICER place onshore for 1% of the cost....

Naomi Kritzer (I think) has an unsold novel based in floating cites offshore LA. Old cruise-ships, in part. I read the first story of this recently & it's *really good*. OK [looks] Ah, SEASTEAD stories, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?3.... "Liberty's Daughter", the kickoff story, was reprinted in Hartwell's Year's Best SF 18, which I just finished. Good anthol! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Peter]

Why she couldn't sell the novel beats me. Maybe she needs to add some CATS. Maybe she needs a better Agent!
Spoiler alert: "Liberty's Daughter" ends on a cliffhanger.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started reading:


Old Venus edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, a follow-up of sorts to their anthology Old Mars, containing stories styled after the Golden-Age idea of the solar system (little green men, etc.)

[Oleksandr]

Just finished 2020 novel by Nancy Kress titled The Eleventh Gate, here is my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Deb]

I am reading We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker which is a very engaging story about a future (only just, the future) world, where people are getting 'pilots' embedded in their brains to improve their day to day performance.

[Oleksandr]

Deborah wrote: "world, where people are getting 'pilots' embedded in their brains to improve their day to day performance."

I read The Last Human, which has the same idea, only there are tiers of intelligences and dumbed-down AI installed to most intelligent species (it is a space opera)

[Deb]

Oleksandr wrote: "Deborah wrote: "world, where people are getting 'pilots' embedded in their brains to improve their day to day performance."

I read The Last Human, which has the same idea, only the..."
Hm... that looks quite interesting actually, though not particularly similar in any way I can think of. I might keep an eye out for that one.

[Oleksandr]

Finished The Last Human by Zack Jordan, here is my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the Audiobook of William Gibson's unused screenplay:


Alien III by William Gibson
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Worth a listen but nothing amazing.

[Allan]

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I started reading:


All Clear by Connie Willis"

How did you like these two? They make up the only double-winning (Hugo & Nebula) book I haven't read. I read Doomsday Book but haven't got to To Say Nothing of the Dog yet.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Allan wrote: "RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I started reading:


All Clear by Connie Willis"

How did you like these two? They make up the only double-..."

I'm almost done with All Clear and I'll post a review then, probably end of August. But here are some early thoughts - the book (it's really one book, divided into two volumes) is more of a historical novel about living in London during the Blitz than a SF novel. Doomsday Book was more serious, or at least the historical parts were serious (the "modern" sections were, frankly, irritating) but To Say Nothing of the Dog is much lighter and funnier (read Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome before To Say Nothing of the Dog for full effect). Blackout/All Clear as a novel moves very slow and can be bothersome for those who just want it to get to the point, but as a description of what life was like during that time it's an amazing feat.