What are you reading this November, 2017?

[Jim]

I get the Diabolical Plots email which contained a good story this time. “Regarding the Robot Raccoons Attached to the Hull of My Ship” by Rachael K. Jones and Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali
http://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fic...

[Roger]

Oathbringer followed by Artemis, pretty exciting month!

[Faith]

I finished The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. My review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[[deleted user]]

I read The Shadow of What Was Lost, partly because it kept nagging me in recommendations. Maybe if I hadn't read so many "ancient evil rises again and only Joe can save the world by undertaking a quest to revive an ancient weapon" epic fantasy I would have liked it more, but I felt I could see the author's hand manipulating the structures beneath the story (Especially in the way all the "right" people seemed to run into each other.) It may be possible I've become too jaded for the genre.

The Two of Swords: Part Sixteen – It's sooo delightful to have Parker returning to this series, left hanging for a year after #15. I got the remaining 3 episodes queued up on my Kindle. I love the way Parker tells a story. This one is half conversation during a coach ride, and neither character has a reputation for truthfulness, yet the entire chat is mesmerizing.

The Mad Lancers – A side story (prequel) to McClellan's recent powder Mage novel Sins of Empire. If you read the latter and are curious how "Mad" Ben Styke got that nickname, this is definitely for you. Otherwise, not so much.

Strange Dogs – An Expanse novella telling a story on a distant colony planet following events in the main storyline. Expanse fans only, of course.

Perfect State — This Sanderson "Cosmere" novella is so undistinguished, I was halfway through before I realized I'd already read it.

Audible had Nice Dragons Finish Last on sale one day, so I read this contemporary/future YA about a young Dragon whose family thinks he's just too nice to be a dragon (and he plays too many video games.) Ah, Young love amid the ruins (of Detroit.) At least it isn't a generic a vampire / werewolf story, so credit for setting. Not planning on finishing the series, tho.

I'm going back to my magazine stack, now....

[Shaitarn]

Re-reading The Steel Remains.

[Sarah]

I have finished The Night Circus and Black Powder War and randomly decided to read The Art of War.

Still working on The Blade Itself and started Hounded two days ago.

[Andrea]

FINALLY finished Varney the Vampire. It had it's good moments, lots of mysteries and tricks, but being a Penny Dreadful in nature, where authors got paid by the word/chapter, it was also a soap opera, where you could read 30+ pages and the plot doesn't move. In fact there were entire chapters where a characters sits down to wait for someone, picks up the book, and next thing you know you're reading a story for the next 20 pages that has absolutely nothing to do with plot. And I don't know if my copy was truncated, but it also ends with several threads left hanging, which is extra frustrating after going through all the irrelevant stuff...I'll need to double check that.

*edit*
Oh....wow...my copy of Varney stops at chapter 96 but there are 237 chapters so I'm not even halfway yet! And that was already over 700 pages.

Next on my eReader I've got In the Field Marshal's Shadow: Stories from the Powder Mage Universe by Brian McClellan before I start forgetting details of the Power Mage trilogy I read earlier in the year.

[Cody]

Andrea wrote: "FINALLY finished Varney the Vampire. It had it's good moments, lots of mysteries and tricks, but being a Penny Dreadful in nature, where authors got paid by the word/chapter, it was also a soap ope..."

wo, i didnt know books could be that long, is a chapter published mothly or something?

[Andrea]

Seems like Penny Dreadfuls were published weekly, so they aren't so much a book as they are a TV series in textual form. And if you consider my soap opera comment, well those can go on for years, apparently Varney went from 1845–47. Note that I did not realize any of this when I started (just Googled it now), I expected a novel like Dracula :)

One of the two authors of Varney also wrote Sweeney Todd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_d...

I found a place where I can download the rest of it, but unsure if it's worth reading nearly double of what I've already gone through, though I might read the final chapter just to see how it actually "finally" ends!!

[Cody]

Andrea wrote: "Seems like Penny Dreadfuls were published weekly, so they aren't so much a book as they are a TV series in textual form. And if you consider my soap opera comment, well those can go on for years, a..."

haha i couldnt imagine picking up horror sherlock holmes not realising it was a series! congrats on getting that far!

the last chapter could be scary, imagine you knew no characters in it!

[Mary]

A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls

[[deleted user]]

Jim wrote: "I get the Diabolical Plots email which contained a good story this time. “Regarding the Robot Raccoons Attached to the Hull of My Ship” by Rachael K. Jones and Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali..."

Thanks for the pointer, Jim. I enjoyed it as well. Rachael K Jones wrote my favorite short story of 2016, " Charlotte Incorporated ", as well as a story we too-briefly discussed as part of the 2014 Hugo Long List short story discussion, Makeisha In Time.

I hadn't previously encountered her co-author.

(Also, the publication date of June makes me smile to know I'm not the only one way behind on my periodical reading :)

[Brendan]

Read Parable of the Talents: actually quite a bit darker than the previous book, though it ends (almost too much so) optimistically. Butler's writing is always top class, and this dystopia is so prescient and close to present day that it's kind of upsetting. ★★★★☆.

The Jewel and Her Lapidary: I didn't like the beginning or the ending. Magic systems also don't interest me much. ★★☆☆☆.

Doomsday Book: Thought it picked up quite a bit in the last third. Unusually it had very likeable child characters, though it was balanced out by over-used comedy gags for adult characters, and a weird lack of telephones in the future. Overall I'd say quite a good book but I think not quite enough to make me eager to read more of her time travel books. Wrestled between a 3 and 4 for this one. ★★★☆☆.

Currently reading The Sisters of the Crescent Empress: The last three books have been pretty heavy subject matter, so a book based on the end of House Romanov will be light and uplifting.

Edit: I noticed that my november reading has been a little gender skewed. Are there any notable genre writer that are men that people would recommend? I usually prefer to alternate my reads but finding decent male writers has been a bit of a difficulty lately.

[Jim]

The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is LONG, but I'm 4/5 of the way through it.

[Mike]

I hit the 2/3 mark in . I finally feel like I'm coming into a home stretch on this one.

[Allison]

Books finished so far:

The Way of Kings - just as good the second time around!
Six of Crows - fun but the ending made me so angry I don't know that I want to continue.
Words of Radiance - I think I enjoyed it more the second time, but it made some questions I had more pronounced, too.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - not SFF but it was quick and I needed something I could chew a little more quickly. I liked it. I can see this being a really pivotal book for young people and compared to other books that deal with similar themes, I thought it was "healthier" than some.
Edgedancer - Another fun read! I like Lift so I enjoyed spending time with her. Some pretty big plot development for a (comparatively) tiny book.
The Color of Magic - silly! Most of it was enjoyable, but I'm glad I started elsewhere in the Discworld.

Now reading:
Oathbringer - I need to blast through this so I can think for myself again. It's just sitting in my head, blocking thoughts.
??? I usually also listen to an audiobook at the same time, but nothing's really calling to me, and I feel guilty because I also have three library books (American Gods, Who Fears Death and War for the Oaks) that I feel I should be reading but that also seem like books I should save for when I have independent thought again.

I would be down for some ideas on lighter fare audiobooks that could be good to munch on!

[Jim]

I finished The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley & gave it 3 stars. It's really way too long & not very good save for the last half of the last volume, but it's obvious influence on apocalyptic novels makes it worth suffering through. Reading just the last volume would probably be enough. I think the characters & all would fall into place quite well. Anyway, you can find my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Andrea]

My timing is a bit off for the discussion, only starting Ready Player One today.

First I had to finish up reading The Dispossessed first and get that back to the library. Look forward to reading the discussion since I'm not entirely sure what I think of it.

[Tanya (Novel Paperbacks)]

I'm reading The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller right now, just finished reading David Gemmell's Legend and have a huge stack of others before I add many more books to my collection at Christmas.

[Ivan]

Just finished Artemis in Audiobook which I enjoyed quite a bit. Some of the reviews I read were on the fence, perhaps Rosario Dawson just breathes life into the character.

I have been debating reading A Wrinkle in Time only because the trailer for the movie looks amazing. Just keep getting the feeling the book and movie are going to be worlds apart.

In the meantime going through some TPB comics while I wait for Persepolis Rising to hit next month.

[Jim]

I finished The Mongrel Mage, a brand new one in Modesitt's Recluce series late last night. I gave it a 4 star review here.

[Richard]

I just started Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It was recommended based on my love of the Eclipse: Phase RPG series.

[Cat]

Andrea wrote: "My timing is a bit off for the discussion, only starting Ready Player One today...."

I'm also a bit late with Ready Player One - mainly because I completely forgot that it was coming up! I only started it last night and I'm enjoying it so far.

November seems to be bit of an average month for books, nothing really mind-blowing. I'm still reading through the So Long Been Dreaming anthology (I'm reading one a night so the stories don't all run together in my head). But, it's not really doing it for me. Even the good stories are average and the rest are just baffling.

I've also finished Bridge of Birds which was alright, but the jokes got less funny. Which was a little disappointing, don't think I'll go on with the rest of the series.

I did finishWinds of Fury, it's always a nice feeling to wrap up a series. Not terrible impressed with the ending though. Average.

I randomly spotted Red Sister at the library which has been on my to-do read list for a little while. Sadly, it just bored me, I couldn't stand the main character.

I did enjoy The Jewel and Her Lapidary. Probably the best book of November so far.

I've got Killer of Enemies lined up for my author bingo challenge but I'm not expecting great things from it... Definitely an average reading month.

[Shaitarn]

Just started The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay.

[Peter]

Just finished Challengers of the Unknown by Ron Goulart.
I'm now reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.

[Mary]

The Undying Wizard by Jonathan Moeller

[Vishal]

I just completed The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

[Andrea]

Vishal wrote: "I just completed The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan"

I'm planning to read that trilogy in December :) After all the serious SF I've been reading in November I needed something light and fantasy.

[Bighomer]

Just completed Uprooted and Dungeon Calamity

[Andrea]

I finished the collection of Powder Mage short stories In the Field Marshal's Shadow by Brian McClellan. It was wonderful to return to that world, particularly after having spent a month reading only SF. I really enjoyed getting some of the backstories filled in, like how Vlora came to be adopted by Tamas, or how Taniel met up with Ka-poel (though for some reason that was the one I liked the least).

I had toyed with the idea of doing a year long SF theme after I finished my dragons, perhaps driven by Hugo/Nebula award winners, but I'm clearly more a fantasy person after all.

Anyway, this freed up a spot on my e-reader so I thought I'd continue with the Barsoom series (after all I left it off on a cliffhanger) so The Warlord of Mars (book 3) by Edgar Rice Burroughs is next.

I also finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, in fact I couldn't put it down by the end! I really enjoyed it, even if it wasn't perfect (well, is any book?). So that means my next dead-tree book will be the second half of Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold - Barrayar.

So yes, just after complaining of too much SF, I am reading two more of them :) Though one could argue Barsoom is more fantasy than science LOL

Oh, and I'm still in the middle of reading The Martians, a short story collection by Kim Stanley Robinson, so even more SF.

[Rachel]

I realized I haven;t posted at all this month - so how much did I accomplish in a month?

I finished The Refrigerator Monologues
It was good but kind of hard hitting, and I'm not sure I'll be able to look at favorite superHeros the same way again. Certainly worth a read.

Also got through The Gunslinger; and Magic Rises (I see why the contrived drama would really annoy some); and completed The Fox's Tower and Other Tales which was flash fiction by Yoon Ha Lee (Ninefox Gambit) that I kept for phone reading.

I made good progress on The Way of Kings and now am almost 700 pages in, but had to take a break for Provenance which I really enjoyed. Same universe as the Ancillary series but a narrower focus.

Now I am still working on WoK and The Prey of Godswith way too many books lined up and waiting (literally physically lined up...)

(Also first time trying to link to books so fingers crossed...)

[Rachel]

Andrea wrote: "I finished the collection of Powder Mage short stories In the Field Marshal's Shadow by Brian McClellan. It was wonderful to return to that world, particularly after having spent a month reading on..."

Barrayar (second half of the omnibus actually) is one of the books physically staring at me....maybe a side read with others who want to continue???

[[deleted user]]

I started KA by John Crowley. As I typed this, I noticed the "crow" in Crowley for the first time. Dar Oakley, the protagonist, is a crow. Interesting book. Very high context. This is my first Crowley novel to read. Earlier, I finished Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio.

[Brenda]

I have begun THE MOON AND THE OTHER by John Kessel. This feels like a major book.

[NekroRider]

Brendan wrote: "Read Parable of the Talents: actually quite a bit darker than the previous book, though it ends (almost too much so) optimistically. Butler's writing is always top class, and this dystopia is so prescient and close to present day that it's kind of upsetting. ★★★★☆."

Yeah definitely much darker but I thought it was still well done. I found it wasn't done in the way that some books do where things are intentionally over-the-top brutal just to be supposedly "realistic" but ends up being gratuitously violent. Not so in this book. As far as relationship to present day politics/society, one of the really chilling aspects were the discussions between pro-Jarrett/anti-Jarrett characters, the reasons why certain characters left the community or chose to support Jarrett and his church. (view spoiler)[ Jarrett's supposedly unsanctioned crusaders also reminded me a bit of Trump's affiliations with the far-right too. Never officially affiliated but never denouncing them or their actions either. (hide spoiler)]

Btw, out of curiosity, what did you think of (view spoiler)[ Lauren's daughter's perspective? In some ways I understand why she felt abandoned by her mother or angry with her, but reading Lauren's journal entries to me it never seemed like she was actually choosing her religion over her daughter. And she seemed to look for her daughter about as long and hard as the other parents in the book were...not to mention her efforts were impeded by the fact Marc basically hid her daughter from her for years. I dunno, I found myself getting frustrated with her daughter's perspective. (hide spoiler)]

[Brendan]

There's a large time skip between the end of Lauren's diary and the epilogue when the two finally meet. I think the daughter's bitterness mainly stems from that time span, where she's growing from a child into a young woman, and Lauren had given up searching for her to focus on her cult, or at least that was Asha's perspective. Asha does come across as a bit selfish, but also reasonable.

[Mary]

Have Sword, Will Travel by Garth Nix and Sean Williams

[Kaeri]

Just finished Oathbringer and it was epic AF.
Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Andrea]

Finished Barrayar yesterday, enjoyed it more then Shards of Honour (to be fair the author had several more books of practice in between) and now I really want to learn more about Miles Vorkosigan :)

And...well it's December now, guess I should start a new thread!

[Rachel]

Finished The Way of Kings finally!! And The Prey of Gods.
Now working on our group read: The Wanderer.

[Cat]

Wrapping up November I read Ready Player One which was a bit of fun. I re-read Hexed, part of the Iron Druid series, which again, was a bit of silly fun. Sometimes it's nice to just read fluffy books that don't require to much thought and you just go along for the ride!

Unlike, So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy which I found confusing, dull and overall disappointing. There were some good short stories in it, but overall, nup. Very disappointed by that.

I also read the first two books in the All Souls Trilogy to see out the month A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night. Which I was given by a friend, not to my usual taste - supernatural/paranormal, romance, random historical fantasy. The books were long and not particularly eventful. Forgettable. I'm not quite sure why they were so popular. Anyway, I was given them second-hand for free so I can't really complain