What Else Are You Reading - December 2017

[Silvana]

Persepolis Rising. Which I think should be an alt pick for this month :D :D

[John (Taloni)]

Finished up a Neal Asher book, second in a trilogy. Zero Point is a non-Polity book with the nondescript series title "The Owner." It's a dystopia where a disruptive human - Alan Saul - first takes down a corrupt world government, then heads to space in a captured asteroid, along with 2,000 other people. The main macguffin in this book is the development of an Alcubierre (inertialess) drive. There's an inevitable reduction in Alan's powers after the first book since he would be too strong for reasonable conflict. The reconstituted Earth government is of course after them, with Big Honkin' Space Battle to follow. A subplot with his sister being in charge of the Mars base works well. All in all decently done.

Next on to All Systems Red, the chronicles of a murderbot. Well, the main character will kill, but only as needed. Mostly it wants to do its job (security and protecting those designated by its owners), be left alone, and consume mass quantities of geek style entertainment. In other words, it's every scifi reader's fantasy. I am chortling my way through this short novel and will likely read more in the series.

[Colin]

Finished up Places in the Darkness. It's pretty much what you would expect when a renowned (in the UK at least) crime writer decides to tackle sci-fi! The gritty underbelly of spacefaring civilisation. Gruesome murder, rival criminal organisations, corrupt police, plenty of red-herrings and misdirection.

Maybe a little slow to get going, but had me gripped from about half-way through right until the end. So much so that I upgraded to get the Audible reading as an add-on so that I could fill even more of my waking hours with it.

Now looking at a few books that I put 'on hold' for various reasons to see if I can (or still want to!) finish them by the year end.

[AndrewP]

Joseph wrote: "And finished Phoenix in Obsidian (it was short) and started the final John Daker book, The Dragon in the Sword: Book 3 of Erekosë Trilogy."

Keep going :) After about 20-30 books Moorcock's overall multiverse starts to come together. In some of them the same scene is repeated in different books from a different POV.

[Joseph]

AndrewP wrote: "Keep going :) After about 20-30 books Moorcock's overall multiverse starts to come together. In some of them the same scene is repeated in different books from a different POV."

Keep goin..."

Oh, yeah, I still have my entire shelf full of Moorcock paperbacks from mostly back in the 1980s. I revisited Elric a few years ago (the new Del Rey editions) and need to work Corum into my schedule sometime in the next year or two.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Yellow and black: A season with Richmond by Konrad Marshall

I doubt there would be many other S&L members reading this ;-)

Only the real cool kids :-)

[Iain]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Yellow and black: A season with Richmond by Konrad Marshall

I doubt there would be many other S&L members reading this ;-)

Only the real cool kids :-)"
No just sad ones, Richmond blearggh! Carn the Cats.

[David H.]

The Very Hungry Pregnant Lady by Emilie Sandoz-Voyer. A parody of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, this is hilarious. Someone got it as a gift for my wife, who's due in 3 weeks. She is in fact very hungry.

Genrenauts: The Complete Season One Collection by Michael R. Underwood. This collects all the Genrenauts novellas--fun take on genres and story tropes as Genrenauts attempt to fix stories on Story Worlds.

[Geoff]

Recently read a little book called Oathbringer, it was amazing. Then read my fifth Vorkosigan book, The Vor Game. Once it got going, it was great.

And now, I've just started From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. Its the lesser known car book from King.

[Rob, Roberator]

Geoff wrote: "And now, I've just started From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. Its the lesser known car book from King."

I've read that because it has some minor connections to Dark Tower. I haven't read Christine because it doesn't afaik.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Rob wrote: "I've read that because it has some minor connections to Dark Tower. I haven't read Christine because it doesn't afaik. "

It doesn't directly. But Christine is bought off an old guy named Roland D. LeBay.

The movie has a toy car that looks like Christine.

Iain wrote: "No just sad ones, Richmond blearggh! Carn the Cats."

You guys had your turn ;-) I've been waiting 37 years for this :-)

[Iain]

Tassie Dave wrote

Iain wrote: "No just sad ones, Richmond blearggh! Carn the Cats."

You guys had your turn ;-) I've been waiting 37 years for this :-) ."

Grumble, MCG not a home game, Grumble, ....

Now I better leave this as way off topic :-)

[Trike]

David wrote: "The Very Hungry Pregnant Lady by Emilie Sandoz-Voyer. A parody of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, this is hilarious. Someone got it as a gift for my wife, who's due in 3 weeks."

Congrats!

Hopefully it's a December birth. #MommysLittleTaxWriteOff

[David H.]

Haha, yeah, he's due December 27, so we'll see! I think my wife is hoping for a January birth, so his b-day won't be conflated with Christmas. :)

[Rik]

Still listening to Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson. 55 hrs long, I'll be on it a while.

When I finish I'll be starting Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey, the 7th book in the Expanse series (we read the first, Leviathian Wakes, a few years back here at S&L). I'm looking forward to it as its the book that begins the end game of the series which is planned for nine books. It also apparently takes a massive time jump of 30 years from the prior book which could be interesting.

[Sky]

David wrote: "Haha, yeah, he's due December 27, so we'll see! I think my wife is hoping for a January birth, so his b-day won't be conflated with Christmas. :)"

Congrats!

Mine is 19 months now. My reading throughput is about what it was 10% before the kid, but its worth every second :)

[David H.]

Thanks, Sky! And makes sense--I'm planning on drastically reducing my Goodreads reading challenge goal for 2018 in light of that!

[Ruth]

David wrote: "Thanks, Sky! And makes sense--I'm planning on drastically reducing my Goodreads reading challenge goal for 2018 in light of that!"

Congratulations... and don’t underestimate the amount of reading you’ll do in the middle of the night while trying to get the baby to sleep in the first few months.

(I had a baby at the end of July and my reading rate has actually gone up since then, although I expect it will reduce once he gets a bit bigger)

[Colin]

Finished Pavaria. This is a really good read (if a little short) and Tom should be plugging it harder on the podcast! I would have said it was an even better read than Pilot X although I now realise I've given them both 4 stars ...

Also done with this month's pick, but felt pretty ambivalent about it.

Now resuming A Gathering of Shadows which I had shelved several months ago in order to read something more pressing and never quite got back to.

[Dara]

I started Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. I'm not super enthralled by it but I'm intrigued enough by the central mystery to continue.

[Sheila Jean]

Sheila Jean wrote: "So I'm 44+ hours into the Oathbringer [...]

In E-Book I'm still working on The Jack Vance Treasury, [...] The City of Brass [...], and have to pick up my hold on To Guard Against the Dark..."

So I finished Oathbringer and The City of Brass. Loved them both. I also managed to listen to Tower of Thorns, which I also enjoyed.

My preorder for The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter showed up in my Audible account so I'm now listening to that. and am about 50ish pages into To Guard Against the Dark. I should make some progress on that one this weekend.

[John (Taloni)]

Read a variety of Gail Carriger shorts.

My Sister's Song was her first professional sale. A great story of a small group defending itself from invasion by Romans using an unconventional method. Gail's better known for Steampunk but wow, this is a straight up historical adventure and very well done.

The Curious Case of the Werewolf That Wasn't is a prequel featuring Alessandro Tarabotti, the father of Alexia who is the protagonist of the main series. Alessandro is a dashing Italian rogue in a James Bond style role that is mostly villain. Well done action, but I just have a hard time relating to an evil dad after following Alexia through five books of the Parasol Protectorate plus appearances in related works.

Then Poison or Protect, a more adult take on Preshea Buss, one of the characters from the lighthearted Finishing School books. This is an update I could have done without. The Finishing School was for female spies and included a small subplot about how some of them looked forward to being widows, the implication being that they killed their husbands. It was all played for laughs and was funny in a macabre sense.

In this book, Preshea is an adult and four times widowed. The humor of Finishing School is set aside for a series of existential crises. Preshea hates herself and her life, with some reason. Lord Akeldama shows up, more serious in this work than in others, but even his appearance couldn't save the book.

This being a romance as well, there's a hunky fellow who of course *back of hand to lifted forehead* she just couldn't possibly be with, but must! He's Scottish, of course. Carriger does seem to like her Scottish rogues. The doom and gloom made it almost completely unengaging to me and despite its short length, I considered dropping it twice. The male MC also has some deep dark secret, which is that (view spoiler)[he likes to eat pussy. Er, what guy doesn't? This isn't exactly 50 Shades territory. (hide spoiler)]

Anyhoo, I returned the book to LA Library as soon as I was done. There's a long wait list for this book. I hope the other peeps in line enjoy this book more than I did.

[Allison]

Still reading American Gods. Liking it but it's taken quite a bit of time to get to the point that it comes together. I think some of that might be that it's the first book after my Stormlight Archive bender, and I'm both very tired and still swept up in that ending. We'll see what the final section does for it! It's still very entertaining though.

And about 1/3 through Red Sister. It started off shaky for me, but I'm really enjoying it now. It's like if Harry Potter and Fifth Season got together and said "what if we were both charming and very, very sad?"

Also reading The Once and Future King again because the first part is a delight, and the rest is beautiful even if it is also very sad. Still dancing around reading Who Fears Death and feeling guilty about how long it's taking to get to War for the Oaks. Don't stare at me like that, War, I'm doing my very best.

[Iain]

Just finished Artemis ★★★☆☆ which is not a patch on The Martian. A novella mashed up with a science lecture with a protagonist who is just a little to competent for my tastes.

No on to Oathbringer, give me strength.

[Aaron]

David wrote: "Haha, yeah, he's due December 27, so we'll see! I think my wife is hoping for a January birth, so his b-day won't be conflated with Christmas. :)"

As a christmas baby, I can attest to getting as far from then as possible. My late December & early January friends say that the surrounding days aren't much better.
My advice is to ensure you hold distinct birthday celebrations and try to make a point of separating the events, especially if they are on the same day. It helps some.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Ruth wrote: "(I had a baby at the end of July and my reading rate has actually gone up since then, although I expect it will reduce once he gets a bit bigger)"

Yup. When mine was born she never, and I mean NEVER, slept so I stayed up all night rocking her and reading to her out loud. So naturally she grew up (teenager now) to be...a basketball player.

[David H.]

Sky, Ruth, and Randy: I can't tell if I'm supposed to look forward to this or not anymore ... Haha!

Aaron: Definitely something we're keeping in mind--we actually have 3 close friends whose birthdays are on or around Christmas that we've been talking to about this.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

David wrote: "Sky, Ruth, and Randy: I can't tell if I'm supposed to look forward to this or not anymore ... Haha!"

And when your child is a teenager, you still won't know. ;-)

Just kidding of course, my daughter is the greatest thing that happened in my life. Congratulations!

[Robin]

Allison wrote: "Still reading American Gods. Liking it but it's taken quite a bit of time to get to the point that it comes together. I think some of that might be that it's the first book after my..."
I am impressed that you can read several books at once, in such different worlds. I loved Red Sister, but I'd never stir it up in a blender with The Once and Future King. That's my touchstone for Arthurian retellings.
But maybe your brain isn't a blender like mine is . . .

[Allison]

Robin wrote: "Allison wrote: "Still reading American Gods. Liking it but it's taken quite a bit of time to get to the point that it comes together. I think some of that might be that it's the fir..."

Haha they are very different! But I think that's better. If I was reading three magic school books, I think that'd be more confusing.

It's not so bad, really. I read one book at night and listen to another book when I'm doing tedious tasks during the day, so there's almost no overlap. And then OaFK is my all time favorite book, so I should put "reading" in quotes. It's mostly reminding myself where chapter breaks are and reciting all my favorite parts as I get to them.

[Joseph]

Finished The Dragon in the Sword and now am going for more old-school sword & sorcery with Trollslayer, the first of William King's Gotrek & Felix books.

[kvon]

I read three short stories by Bujold that I only recently found (Penric's Fox a sequel to Penric and the Shaman; and two sequels to Penric's Mission) bringing the Penric books up to six, or a decent novel. I just find that magical world enjoyable.

I also read All Systems Red by Martha Wells as well. Looking forward to more stories from the Murderbot. Again short, novella length, but a sweet read.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished reading The Fall of the Readers, which was good, but not as good as the last book - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

[John (Taloni)]

^Waiting on a copy out of LA library. Start a thread! I'll be there soon.

[Sumant]

Just finished The Sorcerer's House and here is my review of it.

[Rob, Roberator]

Jennifer wrote: "Who else is reading Persepholis Rising? I'm on chapter 27 and want to discuss it!"

I am. I should probably finish it tomorrow.

My other group is discussing it if you're interested.

We have it broken down into 4 sections, so you could jump into the first two without spoilers for the later parts.

[Silvana]

re: Persepolis Rising
I am at Chapter 31 and ready to discuss whenever this month. Probably going to be my last SF this year too.

[Shad]

Almost done with Off Armageddon Reef on my Kindle. Started Oathbringer over the weekend. Decided to reread the chapters that were posted to tor.com. The early chapters are (view spoiler)[making me think the author of Oathbringer in the world is Jasnah. I'll have to see how I feel as I get closer to the end of part 1 again. (hide spoiler)].

[Colin]

Jennifer wrote: "Who else is reading Persepholis Rising? I'm on chapter 27 and want to discuss it!"

At my current rate of progress I should be all set sometime in 2022. (I'm a late convert to the series and so far I've only done a book a year to stay ahead of the TV series.)

[Sky]

I just finished Dawn (Legend of Galactic Heroes Vol. 1)

Great space opera book, brilliantly narrated by Tim Gerard Reynalds.

The translation is excellent, and the story is particularly relevant in these political times.

I look forward to continuing with the rest of the series.

Next up is Persepolis Rising which i am doing in both audio and kindle.

[Iain]

Silvana wrote: "re: Persepolis Rising
I am at Chapter 31 and ready to discuss whenever this month. Probably going to be my last SF this year too."

Hoping it takes a couple of weeks to come into the library as I am slogging through Oathbringer which is probably the end of my Goal for the year.... It should count as three books :-(

[Gregory]

I just finished Pavaria by Tom Merritt, and then moved onto Artemis by Andy Weir. Both were fun reads, Pavaria was fairly quick (you could flesh it out more Tom). I really enjoy Andy Weir’s writing style and the book is a fun read with interesting science goodness.

[AndrewP]

Shad wrote: "Almost done with Off Armageddon Reef on my Kindle. Started Oathbringer over the weekend. Decided to reread the chapters that were posted to tor.com. The early chapters ..."

Don't know how you can be 'almost done' with Off Armageddon Reef, I couldn't put that book down once I got to the climactic battle scene :) I'm at the other end of the series, about 1/3 of the way though At the Sign of Triumph, the 9th and final book of the Safehold series. Well, at least for now.

[Dara]

Lemmed Six Wakes at 35%. My review touches on why. Started reading Jade City by Fonda Lee instead.

[Jenny]

I am seriously impressed with everyone who's already finished Oathbringer. I haven't even read The Way of Kings, but I have it on my Kindle from a free download. Would you recommend listening to it on Audible? I've been listening to books a lot more than I've been reading them so maybe I should go that route when I eventually do start the series.

Speaking of audiobooks, I spent the last two days at home listening to Age of Myth and I am really enjoying it. Michael J. Sullivan does it again.

I'm also making progress with The Name of the Wind which I love and enjoy so much. If I want to have it finished by the new year I need to step up my speed...

[Travis]

Jenny wrote: "Would you recommend listening to it on Audible? I've been listening to books a lot more than I've been reading them so maybe I should go that route when I eventually do start the series.."

I was able to download a copy of the Words of Radiance audiobook from my library, so I went back and forth between reading and listening on that one. I had a few quibbles, especially with how some of the female characters were voiced, but overall I thought they did a pretty decent job.

[Allison]

Travis wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Would you recommend listening to it on Audible? I've been listening to books a lot more than I've been reading them so maybe I should go that route when I eventually do start the seri..."

Per usual, I just came here to agree with Travis. It's pretty good, not quite how I heard them, but it was nice learning how to say veristitalian. And various names of places.

[Brendan]

Dara wrote: "Lemmed Six Wakes at 35%. My review touches on why. Started reading Jade City by Fonda Lee instead."

Interesting. I definitely agree that the characters in Six Wakes were not overly likable. They all needed motives and secrets for the Clue-style set up to work. But I didn't find most of them flat at all. I found the mystery aspect and the ethical questions fairly interesting to follow even if i did find the ending resolution unsatisfying. The way Lafferty set up and played with the clone laws reminded me of Asimov's laws of robotics.

[Dara]

Brendan wrote: "Interesting. I definitely agree that the characters in Six Wakes were not overly likable. They all needed motives and secrets for the Clue-style set up to work. But I didn't find most of them flat at all. I found the mystery aspect and the ethical questions fairly interesting to follow even if i did find the ending resolution unsatisfying. The way Lafferty set up and played with the clone laws reminded me of Asimov's laws of robotics."

I'm okay with unlikable characters if I understand where they're coming from but I never got that from what I read in the book. I would have liked a bit more on the ethics of clones but perhaps that comes later in the book.

[Brendan]

Ah, yeah the backstories were sprinkled through the book and I think they went a long way in telling the reader why the clones were acting the way they were.