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?
So glad to hear that Ancillary Justice is worth the early bits. I think it's just begun to grow on me. The gender thing is weird, and I'm not sure if I like it or not.
@Allen: I didn't read any background information about book or author, but the title aptly describes the whole story :).@Anna: can the third book be read without having read the second one?
Gabi wrote: "can the third book be read without having read the second one? "Yes! There is a tiny link to the first book, but nothing that connects it to the second.
Finally finished Artemis last night and it didn't improve for me at all. It'll take a while before I feel like getting into The Martian I'm afraid XDMeanwhile I just finished Rocannon's World. As I understand it it's her first book in the Hainish cycle and I was very impressed with it! I had already read the three next books, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions and The Left Hand of Darkness, (in reverse order) and felt the two middle ones were weaker storywise than the brilliant Left Hand of Darkness, so I had not expected to be so immersed in Rocannon's World, but I was very moved by the end.
I think I'm just ultimately drawn to how she writes, her way of constructing sentences, her focus on interaction between species, anthropology, her sparse world description but rich dialog. So now I'm on to The Dispossessed cos it's the last that's available on the audiobook service I subscribe to, before I move on to The Changeling :)
Dawn, do you mean Storytel? I've almost decided to subscribe, is it worth it? It says it's unlimited, but is it truly unlimited, even if I listen to one audiobook per day?
Dawn wrote: "Finally finished Artemis last night and it didn't improve for me at all. It'll take a while before I feel like getting into The Martian I'm afraid XDMeanwhile I just finished [boo..."
I absolutely loved The Dispossessed. The world-building was fascinating.
Anna wrote: "Dawn, do you mean Storytel? I've almost decided to subscribe, is it worth it? It says it's unlimited, but is it truly unlimited, even if I listen to one audiobook per day?"Yes, Storytel! Is it available for you? Yep, totally unlimited, you can listen to as many as you want for a monthly fee. Far, far better deal than Audible (and they cost the same) that only gives you one book a month. I only use that for the few I can't find on Storytel.
I'm in Denmark so our selection might differ, but here I have lots of English language books available, thankfully.
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Ahhhh Dawn The Dispossessed is just beautiful. I hope you enjoy! I’ve been reading her short stories this year between novels and the best of them are just so powerfully beautiful in every way. She was an utter genius.
Kirsten wrote: "I absolutely loved The Dispossessed. The world-building was fascinating."I'm only half an hour in (the main character only just landed on Urras) but am already completely engrossed. I saw it was a very highly praised social utopian speculative work, very fascinating!
What I love about Le Guin's way of world building is she doesn't explain a lot in exposition, she shows you through dialog and what the characters experience, but only just the amount of information you need, then you can fill out the blanks in your mind. You don't get a lot of "On (planet name) people wore this or that or did things this way or that way". The characters just observe it, so it doesn't feel like the author is telling me, it feels like the characters are either telling each other or just living it and you get to experience it through them.
Oops, sorry, I get carried away!
Anthony wrote: "Ahhhh Dawn The Dispossessed is just beautiful. I hope you enjoy! I’ve been reading her short stories this year between novels and the best of them are just so powerfully beautiful in every way. She..."I'm already totally captivated by The Dispossessed and I only just started! I'll get to her short stories eventually, I have no doubt they're magnificent!
Dawn wrote: "Yes, Storytel!"Yes, it's available in Finland. Audible has a far better selection, but I'm having to rely more and more on audiobooks these days, and I don't want to own every book I listen to. Our library system doesn't have a great audio selection in English, especially not SFF. I'm also starting to get *really* fed up with Audible lately, for several reasons, the latest being that suddenly almost everything on my wish list has changed to 'not available in your region'. Nice to know that it's truly unlimited. I've been postponing the trial, because I feel like I should make the most of it and listen non-stop :D
And Storytel has all my childhood books on audio in Finnish, like all the Moomin books and Astrid Lindgren, so I can listen to bedtime stories! ^_^
Since the Internet is, by definition, global, it certainly would annoy me too if Amazon (or whoever the vendor is) started pulling out of any region, like the EC. Indignation aside, and on the principle of "If you can't beat 'em, join em," would amazon.de have good audio texts in English?
ALLEN wrote: "Since the Internet is, by definition, global, it certainly would annoy me too if Amazon (or whoever the vendor is) started pulling out of my region, the EC. Indignation aside, and on the principl..."
I think we all agree that the time for regional locks have. But I'm guessing that it means any distribution company will have to renegotiate contracts with everyone, since worldwide distribution is just that more bigger, and it's a lenghty and costly affair, so they're all behind. That's why new services like Netflix are ahead cos they could start from scratch with a lot of films and tv shows, instead of having to change their whole, huge back catalogue.
Meanwhile we, the users, are impatient and would like to pay, legally, for access NOW.
As for amazon.de, do you mean ebooks? I have no idea. In Denmark we don't have our own Amazon, we have been granted access to a small selection of videos for the UK Prime selection, but when it comes to both audio and ebooks, we have to use Amazon.com. I have no idea why this is, but we cannot buy ebooks or audios on Amazon.co.uk but have to use the American one. So what Amazon.de offers, no clue :-/
Anna wrote: "Dawn wrote: "Yes, Storytel!"Yes, it's available in Finland. Audible has a far better selection, but I'm having to rely more and more on audiobooks these days, and I don't want to own every book I..."
Sounds like you would definitely get a lot out of it! You could always try a month, it's the same as one book on Audible anyway, and in that time you could listen to a lot of Moonin books and check out the selection and see if there's enough for more than a month's subscription?
Strange that you get the "not available in your region" message, I can only see books that are *actually* available for me, so I just don' t see them if they're not available for me. Really mean to tease you and then go lol nope, you can't get it, nyah nyah >:(
Amazon has just moved into Australia properly. Unfortunately it now only gives us access to 10% of the mail order stuff. The Australian government wants its tax money and so we can only order some of the stuff. If we order from overseas they won’t deliver it to Australia. Apparently. They are offering a much diluted Prime service in a couple of months. Not sure on how much of the Kindle and Audible stuff we can have now. I signed up for a trial of Kindle on my iPad and I couldn’t access all the books. And yeah that’s all down to them not owning the licences in the country they are operating in. We get a rather diluted Netflix service too for the same price as the US. It’s better than nothing but when you offer a quarter of the content (and that’s being optimistic) you shouldn’t be charging the full price. People used to get around it with VPNs and watch Netflix from all over the world but they can detect that now. Now that was a great Netflix service.
Strange you say that Dawn....in Australia a YouTube or other video that is embedded into an article usually won’t play. You hopefully press the play button and it starts to load and then you get “not available in your region” or some such nonsense. Really annoying. Some days it seems that it is happening with half of YouTube.
Dawn wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Since the Internet is, by definition, global, it certainly would annoy me too if Amazon (or whoever the vendor is) started pulling out of my region, the EC. Indignation aside, and o..."
Dawn, I don't know about amazon.de for purchasing or subscribing to audiobooks, though I have ordered English-language items like the WORLD ALMANAC and a Monopoly game from amazon.de as gifts for my Ukrainian Postcrossing pal -- and they are faster getting there and no more expensive than the "mother store" Amazon(USA).
Personally, I do think it's a pity that the northern European and Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Finland, where so many people know such excellent English, should have restricted access to Commonwealth and USA books or other media (audio, discs) in English.
As you so well said, people want abundant AND LEGAL access and are willing to pay for it! Doesn't this sound like a situation ripe for exploitation by consumer capitalism?
Dawn wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Since the Internet is, by definition, global, it certainly would annoy me too if Amazon (or whoever the vendor is) started pulling out of my region, the EC. Indignation aside, and o..."
That's because Amazon is the mothership and as they create new Kindle/Digital Stores they restrict the access on those stores to countries covered by those stores. In some cases, like China, the government is involved in determining who can and can't shop there for digital items.
Originally Ireland couldn't buy digital content from amazon.co.uk, but negotiations changed that. I have a feeling that that decision will shortly be reversed as the UK exits the EU since Ireland is a member of the EU.
Jacqueline wrote: "Amazon has just moved into Australia properly. Unfortunately it now only gives us access to 10% of the mail order stuff. The Australian government wants its tax money and so we can only order some ..."Very true, all of this. Netflix knew they would get their money from subscribers anyway so of course it didn't bother them that people circumvented the region locks with VPNs. Which, btw, is totally legitimate, since if I was on holiday in England, I can't watch my regular Danish Netflix that I pay for or the shows I was watching there, cos it thinks I come from the UK, and that pissed people who were on holiday off. But yeah, Netflix lost that one in court so it's blocked now :(
Dawn wrote: "Strange that you get the "not available in your region" message, I can only see books that are *actually* available for me, so I just don't see them if they're not available for me."That's the thing, I don't know if I'd have noticed if the majority of books I'd already added to my wish list hadn't started showing that message. If I search for something that's not in my wish list, I get no search results. It's like the book doesn't exist. So now I no longer use Audible's search, I use google, so I can at least see if the audio is available in general.
The weirdest thing is that for example the Earthsea books are all available on Audible, but only the last three are available on Scribd or Storytel. That makes me think the first three shouldn't be available on Audible either. I mean if the problem is my region, that doesn't change no matter what service I use.
That's why I want to pay Storytel in the future, instead of Amazon or Scribd, because at least I know everyone who pays the same price as me gets the same selection.
There are rumors that Amazon might be coming to Finland, so I guess it's possible we might get our own Audible, too. But that's no reason to start pulling things from us before it's up and running.
I've gone through the Storytel selection and I know there is a lot I want to listen to. I was just unclear if it's truly unlimited, I mean how can they afford to pay any reasonable amount to the authors, if I listen to 30 audiobooks per month?! :D
We had to finally, regretfully, pull the plug on Netflix: when we subscribed to the DVD-by-mail service, it seemed most of what we wanted was available only through streaming -- after we switched to streaming, it seemed most of what we wanted was only available per DVD. A relatively small subscription fee per month, and we really liked some of their productions, like the American HOUSE OF CARDS. But as cash-strapped retirees, we decided to let it go. Cheaper to go to a real cinema every now and then. We still stream Vudu, and buy budget DVD's.
I enjoyed watching Netflix when I was holidaying in the UK. They have better shows than we do :) Before they started up here they were very happy to take peoples money and they didn’t care where they were from.
Our government is pissing in the pocket of the cable tv company anyway. We only have the one. They got upset about Netflix starting and they get upset about Pirating and now if you want to torrent stuff you have to find back doors into the sites because they’ve cut off access to them. All because Foxtel were upset that people were downloading game of thrones instead of paying the $50 a month to get the basic package and the drama package. If you want movies and sport and docos that’s around $120 a month. If it was cheaper we’d go for it and stay legal but it isn’t so a lot of people download it. Especially since we’re paying $90 for our internet to start with and $100 for our mobile phones. And $14 for 2 screens on Netflix and $12 for the Australian streaming service Stan because they have a heap that Netflix doesn’t. So that’s around $236 a month for just that before I even think about electricity and other bills. My daughters electricity is around $200 a month. And this is why I don’t have Foxtel. Too expensive on top of everything else.
Jacqueline wrote: "Strange you say that Dawn....in Australia a YouTube or other video that is embedded into an article usually won’t play. You hopefully press the play button and it starts to load and then you get “n..."The only problem we have like that are television promos from networks, like Fox. Those we can't view on YT or Twitter. Someone else has to rip them and upload them. It's ridiculous, it's just an ad! Marvel's ads work just fine, though. Maybe Fox are just idiots ;-)
I know from a German friend that Germany has a huge problem with GEMA, their music copyright organization. They are barely allowed any music on youtube. Even German bands who upload their music, for free, is not available to view! That's just silly.
Jacqueline wrote: "Amazon has just moved into Australia properly. Unfortunately it now only gives us access to 10% of the mail order stuff. The Australian government wants its tax money and so we can only order some ..."If amazon.au says it won't deliver to the USA, there is no talking them out of that (I've tried). As you say, governments want the maxiumum of tax money, so some of these restrictions don't always make sense.
You know something else unusual? I can often order the same books, and I mean usually U.S. books by U.S. authors, from Bookdepository for about two-thirds the price of what a U.S. Amazon Prime member would pay. The service is called bookdepository (dot com), it's UK-registered, although it has been wholly owned by Amazon(USA) for over seven years, and it ships free to the U.S., too. Usually they send non-USA (i.e., Commonwealth) editions of the American books I order: for example, both KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and IN COLD BLOOD, which I ordered recently, have different covers and slightly different trim sizes than the American versions, but otherwise are the same -- no omissions or abridgement.
Now catch this act -- about a third of the titles I've ordered thru Bookdepository ship from Oz to me! (In the most recent case, Braeside, Victoria). Much slower, but reliable and cheaper and how this makes 'free market' sense is beyond me. Our US Dollar, in the President's benighted opinion, is too strong relative to other nations' currencies, but I don't see how it can be THAT much stronger. Maybe Amazon.uk or Amazon.au cut a great deal with Penguin and got shockingly low per-unit prices??
Moral: It's Ammy's world, we just live in it, and now they make movies.
ALLEN wrote: "Dawn wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Since the Internet is, by definition, global, it certainly would annoy me too if Amazon (or whoever the vendor is) started pulling out of my region, the EC. Indignation..."
Oh yes, when it comes to physical books and merchandise amazon.de is excellent! Even I have bought books there that were cheaper than any UK store. Amazon has a warehouse in Germany, that's why they can ship pretty cheap from there, I guess.
But what I don't understand is, within the EEC, there are plenty of Amazons, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and yet for audio and ebooks, digital media, I cannot use them in Denmark, even if they're in the EU, I can only buy digital books from the American Amazon. I just don't understand this? I'm sure there is a reason, tax wise or something, but I can't figure it out. Everything else is much more costly from the US both in shipping and in import tax, but not ebooks and audio.
Oh well, I use Amazon.co.uk for physical books and .com for digital until they harmonize this.
Yeah I used to use book depository for university textbooks. 1/4 to half the price here. I use booko.com.au It is one of those comparing sites like trivago is for accommodation. It lists all of the different mail order companies from all over the world including book depository and amazon as well as Australian places when you search for it. No matter where it is in the world of its on the net it will find it and give you the best price. Wonderful site. I haven’t used it as much lately though. I like to browse and hold stuff in my hands. In Oz we get paperbacks when the rest of the world gets hardcovers. Our new releases can be $A16 in the right shop. $A32 in the bookshops. When America gets a new paperback release we laugh haha because we’ve had it from the start. That’s about £8 for a new book. Probably $US10. And if you can get free delivery you’re laughing.
I'm reading A Death in the Small Hours by Charles Finch and listening to Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb
I buy new books off bookdepository too, and they are cheap comparatively, but still cheaper in other countries. My Slovenian friend paid less for the same book than I do. Our tax is just high I guess 😞I feel like we’re getting off topic here. Sorry, admins!
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We have a great thread on where we buy books, if you'd like to continue the conversation:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Dawn wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Dawn wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Since the Internet is, by definition, global, it certainly would annoy me too ... [...abridged...]My amazon.de books are usually put in the mail by "S.A.R.L. Luxembourg." OK, no more at this thread -- I'm baffled anyway.
Dawn wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Dawn wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Since the Internet is, by definition, global, it certainly would annoy me too if Amazon (or whoever the vendor is) started pulling out of my region, the EC...."read post 2261 for why. When Denmark has it's own Kindle Store, people will be complaining about why they can't buy books from there.
This author explains it fairly well in simple terms:
https://www.malindalo.com/blog/2013/0...
Reading The Outsider by Stephen King. He is still knocking them out of the park.
Udayan wrote: "Reading The Outsider by Stephen King. He is still knocking them out of the park."Have you read the Bill Hodges trilogy?
@Rob : Yes. The Outsider is kind of a fourth book in that series.
Yup. That's why I asked. I really enjoyed all four.
Exactly. I am a big fan of his and have read almost all his books. Was a bit sad with his quality post the unfortunate accident. Glad to see that he is back to his best with this series.
I'm mostly a Dark Tower fan. I've read those books and pretty much any other with even a small connection. I'm not a big horror fan. The few of his mostly horror books I've read I haven't enjoyed as much.My favorite non Dark Tower related book of his is Joyland
I'd probably call the Hodges books more Paranormal Mystery/Thriller which is probably why I liked them so much.
Remember how I asked about Sheepfarmer's Daughter / The Deed of Paksenarrion a while ago? I read it, and what the hey. The book is like a paladin in that it follows all the rules, is very boring and at times pompous. But it was perfect for me at this time. After all the horrors our August group reads put me through, it was a joy to spend >500 pages plodding in mud and training with practice swords. I would never recommend this to anyone unless they're super interested in extremely detailed army life in an alternate medieval universe. But guess what, I'm about to start the sequel!
So I've been slacking off the last 3-4 weeks on my book reviews and finally got around to writing some of the backlog that's built up.Mortal Engines - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)
Attack on Titan, Vol. 26 - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
The Empire of Ashes - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Neverwhere - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Thrawn: Alliances - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Blackflame - ★★★★★ - (My Review)
Anna wrote: "Remember how I asked about Sheepfarmer's Daughter / The Deed of Paksenarrion a while ago? I read it, and what the hey. The book is like a paladin in that it follows all th..."Haha well I'm glad you liked it enough to continue. There's a bit less training and marching in the next one if I remember correctly. There's also a prequel about Gird, which I liked even better than the original series.
The sequel does seem more interesting, I’ve read three chapters. I already wanted to bust out Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale during the first book, but the elf companion and ring of animal friendship are making it really hard to resist starting yet another playthrough.
I finished up wise mans fear yesterday, REALLY good, better than he first book IMO. I started reading Kurtain Motel last night, horror, got it for free on kindle, over a quarter of the way in and I’m pleasantly surprised by it! Good spooky atmosphere.
I have just finished Men at Arms which is one of only 2 Pratchett books I really enjoyed (4 stars, which for this genre is excellent) and A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael. I am nearly finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on audiobook, but it's not a book I could get through in print alone as while I think the narrator is excellent, I don't like the book. However, I will garner big points for it in a reading game elsewhere in GR and it helps make driving my son to and from work much more enjoyable. My kids don't get to drive until they can pay for it and this is his first job. Sadly, all of the money he's earning will go to his college commute and there is no parking at that school (he'll be a freshman) plus no new driver needs to drive rush hour into a big city (okay, not as big as NYC or something, but big by my standards and the driving is horrendous).
Dawn wrote: "Finally finished Artemis last night and it didn't improve for me at all. It'll take a while before I feel like getting into The Martian I'm afraid XDMeanwhile I just finished [boo..."
I liked The Martian a lot, but am not going to read Artemis due to what I've read about it. They are quite different. I've heard the protagonist in Artemis isn't particularly likable. Not on this group, but in pbt, where reactions have been mixed.
I think The Martian is an example of the stars aligning for an author. It is a perfect combination of author style, premise, and character. Andy Weir managed to write a book much better than his current talent level justifies. Artemis is much closer to the quality he should be producing. I hope he'll eventually match his debut novel, but he needs to keep developing.
Karin wrote: "I have just finished Men at Arms which is one of only 2 Pratchett books I really enjoyed (4 stars, which for this genre is excellent)I read most of the City Watch books (through Night Watch) before joining GoodReads. I read The Science of Discworld earlier this year but I haven't continued with that series yet. I did like that one though.
I am nearly finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on audiobook, but it's not a book I could get through in print alone as while I think the narrator is excellent, I don't like the book.
JS & MN is not for everyone, I suppose. (I loved it, but I'm not surprised when people don't like it). I keep meaning to try something else by that narrator though (Simon Prebble, I think).
Beth wrote: "Karin wrote: "I have just finished Men at Arms which is one of only 2 Pratchett books I really enjoyed (4 stars, which for this genre is excellent)I read most of the City Watch book..."
Yes, I agree--some people I know love JS & MN, but others don't even finish it. I don't recall the name of the narrator as it's in the van, but I will probably wait a while before listening to another book by him to clear this book out of my head a bit.
Just finished Caraval by Stephanie Garber. I really enjoyed it but then again I’ve been enjoying most of what I read since I’ve started reading again. I think out of 55 books so far this year I’ve only not liked 3. Time to get back to The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden methinks. I started it a couple of weeks ago and then put it down and haven’t picked it up again.
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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