What are you reading this November, 2017?

[[deleted user]]

Now that you've taken off those awkward Halloween costumes and stuffed yourself with the kids' candy, what are you reading as you prepare yourself for Black Friday?

[Rosemary]

I am reading The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle. I picked up books two and three in the series at a library book sale (fill a bag for $4.00!), and got the first by interlibrary loan. Also reading Dies the Fire; enjoying both so far.

[Allison]

Rereading The Way of Kings so that I can remember what all's happening in time for Oathbringer! So excited. I love this series. It's all of my favorite things in one book! Magic, strong characters, a gang, a cause, a mystery...

Listening to Six of Crows and really enjoying it, YA and all. It's gritty, sort of like The Lies of Locke Lamora in the beauty of the colorful yet tight descriptions and crisp dialogue.

Up next I have the rest of the available Stormlight Archive books, which will likely get me through the month!

[Brendan]

Finished Autonomous by Annalee Newitz. It was... okay? She was going for some morally ambiguous characters, with some success, but as a result it left me not really feeling good about anything that happened.

I had a bit of trouble envisioning how we get to a world where robots have citizenship rights but humans don't, even if we grant that the world will become a propertarian dystopia.

Currently reading The Last Continent since I've had it for over a year, but it's part of the Wizards series which is the weakest of the Discworld books.

[Brendan]

Allison wrote: "Listening to Six of Crows and really enjoying it, YA and all."

I hated this book.

[[deleted user]]

Allison wrote: "Listening to Six of Crows and really enjoying it, YA and all...."

We had a discussion of Six of Crows just about a year ago. Please feel free to extend it.

[Allison]

Brendan wrote: "Allison wrote: "Listening to Six of Crows and really enjoying it, YA and all."

I hated this book."

Haha to each their own! I have a thing for books with gangs. But I can see it being grating too.

Thanks, G33z3r! I may do :)

[Saul the Heir of Isauldur]

Just started the first Elric novel by Michael Moorcock. I've been wanting to read it since I heard of it. Elric of Melniboné I'm enjoying it so far. I like the trippy sword and sorcery.

[Andrea]

Finished the Charlaine Harris anthology Touch of Dead, was fun to return to the world of Sookie Stackhouse.

I also read The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman...see I had to return some books to the library but neither Shards of Honor nor The Dispossessed were available (put them on reserve, hopefully will get them soon) and didn't want to come back empty handed after the hassle of going all the way out there, so looked for something short I could squeeze in and basically stumbled across that one (think it was even shelved incorrectly). Interesting twist on the Sleepy Beauty fairy tale but didn't love it.

I also picked up The Wanderer since it was there but it's a bit too early to read it yet so I started The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson. Since it's an anthology I can easily interrupt it between stories when the other books become available.

[Richard]

I picked a Mike Hammer book, The Big Kill by Mickey Spillane.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I'm reading:

- Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
- Ringworld by Larry Niven
- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
- Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee

Hope to finish most of those this month, and will also try to read At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft and The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber.

On the back burner I'm still picking away at A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin.

[Cat]

I found out that I'd somehow missed the release of Etched in Bone, immediately got it out of the library and read it in a night. It was good but not as good as the earlier books in the series. But yay, finished a series!

Currently I've got another series finishing book Winds of Fury lined up (although it's been a while since I read book 2 so I can't really remember the plot, a perennial problem) as well as Bridge of Birds which I'm looking forward to, although I always worry when books are meant to be funny, it's so difficult for humour to come across in words.

An anthology of short stories So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy for my author bingo challenge plus Killer of Enemies (Native American author).

Oh and The Jewel and Her Lapidary for the group read.

[Gary]

I am currently reading Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey (Book #5 of The Expanse) and Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Book #3 of the Stormlight Archive). I am reading the Oathbringer preview chapters on Tor.com. The full book comes out on November 14, 2017. I plan to read Blood and Tempest (Book #3 of Empire of Storms) by Jon Skovron next. It will be released on November 28, 2017.

[I.W.]

I'm reading The Emporer's Edge by Lindsay Buroker. Money's tight right now, so the free-first-in-the-series thing indies do is helpful. Someday I'll buy the rest of the series or get it from the library.

[Mary]

The Book of Lord Shang. a Classic of the Chinese School of Law.

[Andrea]

IW wrote: "I'm reading The Emporer's Edge by Lindsay Buroker. Money's tight right now, so the free-first-in-the-series thing indies do is helpful. Someday I'll buy the rest of the series or get it from the li..."

I've read the first three in that series, they were pretty fun reads. It was a 3-in-1 and given a promotion I had when I first got my Kobo it was free (I have $5 to burn so instead of getting 1 "quality" I went for quantity...this one turned out to be a winner, the other 3-in-1 was a dud...so not bad for free). Wonder if libraries carry it, being independently published...

[Kaeri]

Just finished Age of Swords. 3/5

Will start on The Hate U Give, I need a fantasy break.

[Gary]

I am currently reading Custer at the Alamo by Gregory Urbach. As Custer and portions of the 7th Cavalry approach the Little Big Horn they encounter a spell cast by a Sioux medicine man. Suddenly Custer and company are 40 years in the past and not far from San Antonio. So far a well done tale For those who liked The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove you might want to give this book a try.

[Shaitarn]

Just started Age of Assassins.

[Falconwing]

Just finished The Gladiator of New York City Great book. Different , even for fantasy.

[Cody]

I am reading Percepliquis , i really love the series and his first empire series is looking to be great

(view spoiler)[ except Minna :( (hide spoiler)]

once i have finished Percepliquis I will move on to oathkeeper by Brandon Sanderson (due out on the 14th i think) hopefully i will finish Percepliquis on the 13th :)

[Silvana]

Finished with The Dragon’s Legacy - a debut grimdark novel that is quite good (worldbuilding, characters, plot) and I will definitely continue with the rest.

This week I'm taking a break with SFF with some nonfiction reads. In two weeks I'll start Shaman's Crossing with the Robin Hobb group.

[Andrea]

Yay, finally got my paws on Cordelia's Honor (aka Shards of Honor omnibus) so I'll be able to join in the discussion soon. Got a good dark and dreary rainy day today so perfect for reading.

The omnibuses of this series are strange, they have combos like 1&7, then 2&6 then 3&9...I guess the order one reads this series doesn't matter much? Wondering if I should read #7 since I have it in my hands, or return the omnibus half read and pick it up again when through the ones in between? :)

[[deleted user]]

Andrea wrote: "Wondering if I should read #7 since I have it in my hands..."

Yeah, go ahead and read Barrayar. It's the direct sequel to Shards of Honor in the series' timeline, and is the only other book focused on that time & characters. (If you read the afterword to Cordelia's Honor, Bujold will tell you she outlined Barrayar after Shards, then put it aside in favor of the Miles stories for awhile.)

[Kaeri]

Just finished The Upside of Unrequited and it didn't do anything for me at all. I don't know why it got rated so high. Plot was too basic.

[Mary]

Frostborn: The Gray Knight by Jonathan Moeller

[Sarah]

I am currently reading:
The Night Circus
The Blade Itself
Black Powder War

Also hoping to get to:
Hounded
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Just One Damned Thing After Another

[Shaitarn]

DNF the terrible Age of Assassins. About to start Sword-Maker.

[Richard]

I love the Tiger and Del novels

[Caitlin]

I'm avoiding An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors until I get done with this quarter of school (one more week!) since it's taking a lot of willpower not to just binge read it all right now and forget about schoolwork. And in the meantime, I'm reading some of the stories in From a Certain Point of View which I'm honestly not a big fan of so far.

I'm also planning on starting The Jewel and Her Lapidary this weekend so I can hopefully join the discussion. I'm a bit of a slacker when it comes to the discussions.

[Caitlin]

Sarah wrote: "I am currently reading:
The Night Circus
The Blade Itself
Black Powder War

Also hoping to get to:
Hounded
[book:One Hundred Years of Solit..."

I loved the entire First Law trilogy, though I'd say that of pretty much everything I've read of Joe Abercrombie.

[[deleted user]]

Sarah wrote: "I am currently reading:
The Night Circus ..."

I surprisingly enjoyed The Night Circus. It was definitely different from the usual Fantasy fare. We discussed The Night Circus way back when.

I also liked the First Law trilogy. You seem to have some good books going.

[Sarah]

Caitlin wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I am currently reading:
The Night Circus
The Blade Itself

Good to know!


G33z3r wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I am currently reading:
The Night Circus ..."

I surprisingly enjoyed The Night Circus. It was definitely different from the usual Fantasy fare. We discu..."

Kinda meh on Night Circus to be honest, but enjoying The Blade Itself.
Just getting in to Black Powder War, but so far I am really enjoying the Temeraire series.
I'll have to check out the discussion once I finish Night Circus.

[Allison]

Oh I loved Night Circus! But yeah, it's one of those polarizing books, I think. I read it right after a bunch of really heavy, plot driven books, so I think it was a relief for me.

Speaking of heavy (literally) plot driven books, I've moved on to Words of Radiance. The little thing next to the text box says no profanity, and I can't type me singing choral music, so I don't know how to convey how much I love these books. It's a lot, though. Possibly top five most loved things, up there with the humans in my immediate family and fresh bread.

[Mary]

I enjoyed The Night Circus but it's not to everyone's taste. More so than ordinary, perhaps

[Roger]

Mary wrote: "I enjoyed The Night Circus but it's not to everyone's taste. More so than ordinary, perhaps"

I really really liked The Night Circus, I don't normally like books that use a lot of imagery but for lack of a better word the imagery in this book is beautiful.

[Brendan]

I've never read The Night Circus, though I have read Nights at the Circus.

[Andrea]

Finished reading Shards of Honour, will add my comments to the discussion once I catch up on the posts.

And yay, finally got my grabby paws on The Dispossessed, but since I have to return The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber next week thought I get an early start on that one first. After all, I'm already late for Le Guin's book so a little more late won't change anything :)

[Cat]

I'm the odd one out - I hated reading The Night Circus (yes, I went and read the discussion, definitely the odd one out). I just found it so freaking tedious. Zzzz....Zzzzz.....Zzzz....

Anyhow, books I'm currently reading - just read Red Sister which wasn't as great as I'd hoped. The main character just kinda annoyed me. The writing was very good but I just got bored. Which was disappointing, I'd had high hopes.

I've just started on So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy for geography bingo challenge which is a collection of short stories, which so far have left me cold (although I did recognise the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? alternate POV thanks to our group read! Yay!).

In an attempt to finish up a series, I'm reading Winds of Fury which is just solid feel-good high fantasy

[NekroRider]

Just finished my first book for November. I finally got my hands on Parable of the Talents and started reading it Halloween night. Finished it today and while I did really like it I didn't find it lived up to how absolutely awesome the first book was.

Now excited to move on to The Tower of the Swallow. Really been enjoying the Witcher series overall and looking to finish the last two books this month.

Cat wrote: "I've just started on So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy for geography bingo challenge which is a collection of short stories, which so far have left me cold (although I did recognise the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? alternate POV thanks to our group read! Yay!). "

I don't usually get into short story anthologies very much, but I really liked So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy. Several of the stories/concepts I would have loved to see turned into novels.

[Brendan]

NekroRider wrote: Just finished my first book for November. I finally got my hands on Parable of the Talents and started reading it Halloween night. Finished it today and while I did really like it I didn't find it lived up to how absolutely awesome the first book was."

Reading this right now. Its spooky how prescient it is.

[NekroRider]

Brendan wrote: Reading this right now. Its spooky how prescient it is..

Yep, it really is. Hell, just the whole "Make America Great Again" reference written 2 decades ago made me shudder. Interested to see what you think once you've finished it.

[Cat]

NekroRider wrote: "I don't usually get into short story anthologies very much, but I really liked So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy. Several of the stories/concepts I would have loved to see turned into novels."

Well I only just finished the first section so I'm hoping I find some gems I like! I rarely do anthologies either but I've found them useful in the past as a springboard for finding new authors I like

[Robert]

I loved The Night Circus. It was beautifully written and had a really poignant plot.

[Andrea]

I finished reading The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber and have discovered I really don't like the multi-pov disaster type books like this one or Stephen King's The Stand or Justin Cronin's The Passage...guess I'll expand on that when the discussion starts.

I stumbled across another J G Ballard book and out of curiosity grabbed it since it was short. It's due back on Friday so that kind of forced it to be next on my list - Concrete Island. Not sure why it's categorized as SF but I'm only a quarter of the way through so far.

[Andrea]

NekroRider wrote: "Yep, it really is. Hell, just the whole "Make America Great Again" reference written 2 decades ago made me shudder."

Trump wasn't the first to use that catch phrase, saw some late night comedy show pointing out that it was used by Clinton or Reagan (or someone else, don't recall exactly...but I seem to recall finding the irony it was a democrat so probably Clinton?), so might not really be all that prescient but rather using a expression that was currently floating about 20 years ago?

[Rosemary]

I just finished reading The Atlantis Gene, now I'm going to try to get to the end of Uprooted, which I started long ago and never finished.

[NekroRider]

"Andrea wrote: Trump wasn't the first to use that catch phrase, saw some la..."

Ah I see, I'm not from the US and was too young in the 80s to be aware of that. Thanks for that. I looked it up out of curiosity after seeing your post and apparently it was indeed Reagan who first used it in the 80s. Clinton apparently picked it up later. But given that Parable of the Sower was published just after the Rodney King riots and that a great deal of the novel focuses on the trends of the Reagan/Bush Sr. administrations it makes sense that that too would be a direct Reagan reference.

That said, the current state of US politics (and global politics with a renewed rise of the far right pretty much everywhere) still makes these books all the more chilling.

Ops, and to update my reading to stay relevant to the thread: currently reading Lady of the Lake. I really loved the intro to this book. Very comical twist to the Arthurian myth :P

[Andrea]

NekroRider wrote: "Ah I see, I'm not from the US"

Neither am I, but in Canada we get all the US news and comedy coverage anyway. In fact I'll see Trump coverage at least a dozen times a day, but our poor Trudeau is lucky to show up a couple times a week :)

[Andrea]

Finished Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard, no idea why both GR and my library shelved it under SF because it is just psychological fiction. There were moments when the cruelty of the characters towards each other challenge that of the characters in The Library at Mount Char, but seems Ballard tends to be really mean to his characters. I liked it better than The Drowned World though, in it's twisted way it made much more sense.

Time to catch up on The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. That book is so popular it has been out of the library since late August, and someone has already reserved the book for when I'm done with it. I don't know if its one person who just reads really, really slowly or for some reason everyone wants to read it now :)