SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading in 2018?
I loved Wicked on Broadway. My daughter had seen it here in Sydney a couple of years before and came with us to New York and she loved it the second time too but said the first one in Sydney was better. Is that the same as reading it twice?Finally finished listening to Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Took a while but I really enjoyed it.
Just finished Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (The ! is part of the title).Actually, full disclosure, I tried to read it last year and it defeated me. It is the most densely-packed book I've ever attempted, even more so than Gravity's Rainbow, which was a nightmare. Even more dense than other Faulkner books. So after losing track of what was going on several times, I gave up.
Then this year I decided to try it again on Audible, and success! What a book! I loved it. I love how the story is told in interlapping layers by different narrators, each with their own details to add, but each with their own prejudices, so that in the end, even though you know every detail of the story, you're still not sure what really happened. Now I want to try it again in print to get the full effect.
colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "And I'm reading 'After Alice' and all I can think is, "Yeah, maybe he had a point... " ."I was kinda disappointed in that one too :P
Robert wrote: "Earlier today I finished Curtsies & Conspiracies, the second book in Gail Carriger's Finishing School series. It was a rollicking good time. A good bit of action in the story. A cha..."I enjoyed it too. The airship is utterly preposterous, but so OTT that I didn't mind. (Preposterous as in massively overweight - steam engines, coal, mahogany trim, rails on deck.)
Finished:Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell - OK
and
Psycho Shop by Alfred Bester - really odd little book but interesting
Finished The Night Masquerade, #3 in the Binti trilogy. I thought it odd that the author called it anti-climactic. I found it very climactic from a thematic perspective.
Finished The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood. One of my "books of the year". Simply loved it.
Udayan wrote: "Finished The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood. One of my "books of the year". Simply loved it."Cool. He’s the artist who did those wonderful covers for the Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan.
So I justThe Three-Body Problem along with Fifty Clever Bastards and Code Name Verity.And I was looking for some good sci-fi book and I just started reading The Abyss Beyond Dreams. I am curious how it's gonna turn up.
I finished The Abyss Beyond Dreams, which I liked by the end after a slow start - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)and
Head On which was a quick and fun read - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
I also apparently forgot to write a review for Falling Free back in February - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)
Are you gonna read the sequel to THE ABYSS BEYOND DREAMS?I couldn’t get past the first chapter of LOCK IN for some reason. Scalzi is very much hit or miss for me (more often a miss) although I liked REDSHIRTS and some of the early OLD MAN’S WAR books.
MadProfessah wrote: "Are you gonna read the sequel to THE ABYSS BEYOND DREAMS?."Yeah. I started A Night Without Stars right after Head On. I'm liking it more than Abyss so far.
As far as Scalzi goes I'm probably something like:
Fuzzy Nation - 4.5
The Human Division - 4
The Collapsing Empire - 4
Old Man's War - 4
Lock In - 4
Head On - 4
Redshirts - 4
The Ghost Brigades - 4
The Android's Dream - 4
The Last Colony - 4
The End of All Things - 4
Zoe's Tale - 3.5
Agent to the Stars - 3
So I tend to favor his newer work over his older I guess. But most of his stuff seems to work well for me.
I've only read about half a dozen Scalzi so far but they have all been between 4.5-5 stars for me and I think The Collapsing Empire is the best so far.His writing just makes me smile with enjoyment.
Read the sequel to Rider at the Gate by C J Cherry - Cloud's Rider and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2228499001.Also read: Fox's Earth by Anne Rivers Siddons, and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2370498624.
Anna wrote: "We need a support group for people who are drowning in buddy/group reads."If anyone else is feeling like this, I suggest dropping some less interesting books from your schedule. I decided to take a huge load of books back to the library unread, and forget about reading this month's group rereads, as well as some books I'd planned to read for another group. Now I feel excited to read again, because I no longer have a task list which makes it feel like a chore.
Reading should be FUNdamental, not fundaMENTAL....on 3 hours’ sleep, that’s as good as I’ve got today.
is reading "The Summer Dragon" and very much enjoying it. picked this one up after noticing it mentioned on the thread. thanks folks.
Finished my re-read of Prophecy's Ruin by Sam Bowring
My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just as good, if not better the second time around.
Don wrote: "is reading "The Summer Dragon" and very much enjoying it. picked this one up after noticing it mentioned on the thread. thanks folks."You are very welcome. I really really loved that one. Hope you are liking the gorgeous artwork as well.
Finished Stone Mad. Was kinda disappointing after the glorious rush that was Karen Memory. We went deeper in the lead character studies but didn't like the plot all that much.
Currently reading The Raw Shark Texts for a group read. Read it years ago, had forgotten how weird and wonderful it is.
Finished After Alice. Gave it 2-stars, which might be a bit generous, tbh.Now I'm mostly through Gunslinger Girl, which I'm generally enjoying, even though the story and the writing are both a bit basic.
I read Woman on the Edge of Time over the weekend and I loved it. I'm fairly certain I read it when I was 19 or 20, in that period of time when I was getting into reading but wasn't tracking what I read. I expected to find the vision of utopia trite and dated, but instead I found much to love about it and I think I would thrive in that imagined future.
Finished up Landline, It was meh. Got a bit repetitive and angsty.Started The Woman in Black. Already 1/3 of the way through and nothing scary...yet.
Also reading Rules of Civility. Not very far into it and trying to figure out if I want to continue. Any thoughts or words of encouragement?
In an effort to read the 2018 Hugo best novel finalists currently reading New York 2140. Planning The Collapsing Empire next.
Karen wrote: "Also reading Rules of Civility. Not very far into it and trying to figure out if I want to continue. Any thoughts or words of encouragement? "I gave it four stars - it wasn't exciting but I did get involved in the characters. He wrote a much better book in A Gentleman in Moscow!
MadProfessah wrote: "How is New York 2140??"A little slow starting . I'm only a 100 pages in and it's 600 pages. Time will tell. Just starting to get an idea what it's about.
Started on "The Heart of What Was Lost" by Tad Williams. Had forgotten just how good Williams is. Hooked.
Eric wrote: "I finished 
Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel and will start 
Tigana." Tigana is awesome, hope you'll enjoy it too! :)
Aleksandra wrote: ""Tigana" is awesome, hope you'll enjoy it too! :) "Thanks!
I've just got less than 50 pages left of The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden. I'm really enjoying it. It's sf/ f set in Port Elizabeth, SA. I'm reading it for my Read Harder Challenge to read a novel set in Brazil, Russia, India, China or South Africa.Next up may be The Kingdom on the Waves for a RL book club.
Just finished "The Summer Dragon" and I enjoyed it. Nice take on the dragon thing.
being a man of few words I sort of understand folk who say, I'm reading this, I just finished that. I would like to encourage at least one additional word to give me a clue how you feel/felt about the book.
Eric wrote: "I finished Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel and will start Tigana."Love Tigana. A very different sort of story with a lot of heart.
Michele wrote: "Love Tigana. A very different sort of story with a lot of heart."I've learned Tigana is "pig" in the Bulgarian language. The author gives a prologue lesson in name pronunciation using Italian as the key. This will be intriguing. I had hoped to be into it by now. But, things got in the way and then my reading mood evaporated.
Thanks Michele,
says Wow ! I believe events will be driving "I'll be gone in the dark" to the top of the best seller lists. it will be the second coming of "in cold blood". They just caught the real monster among us and it was a writer and her book that helped to bring him down.
Just finished Furyborn by Claire Legrand
My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A solid start to a new fantasy trilogy
About a vampire family living in a village in England. Is there a genre for a comic/paranormal?My review of The Radleys by Matt Haig
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And I just finished this on audio. It was so good!My review of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Phrynne wrote: "And I just finished this on audio. It was so good!My review of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
https://www.goodreads...."
How was the narrator?
Read Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2369821906.
ask Phrynne do you mean tongue-in-cheek in cheek comedy paranormal like Christopher Moore? Or situational Paranormal comedy.
liked "Children of Time" alot also. It's a book that sticks with you for a bit.
Don wrote: "liked "Children of Time" alot also. It's a book that sticks with you for a bit."spiders.............
shudders and I have Spiderlight in my TBR pile
another shudder
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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Funny story, though. When I first read [book:Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch ..."
I had the exact same experience with Wicked. I really enjoyed it when I read it originally but I picked up the book a couple years later and was not such a fan anymore.