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?

It's more of a radio play adaptation than an audiobook, with bits of dialogue interspersed with straightforward narration. There aren't ever sound effects/Foley in the audios I listen to, and for that reason I'm not sure if the background sounds in this one are distracting simply because of that, or because they're mixed too loudly. Other than that I'm enjoying it.

Babel-17 for the group, which was a tough read, but quite mind boggling.
Lagoon for the BR. Nnedi Okorafor again got me with her mix of SF and spirituality. I so love her writing.
Selected Shorts: A Touch of Magic, where I immensely enjoyed the performances of the narrators.
Drachenschlag: Im Schein der Welten, which I picked for my TBR-cleanup challenge, but couldn't rate. From my adult perspective, the prose was less than satisfying, so I wouldn't recommend it. But the author was 12 years old, when he wrote this book, and this is an awesome achievement, which I wouldn't want to diminish by a bad rating.
Now I started my first Tanith Lee book East of Midnight - unfortunately in German. I have quite some books left here on my shelf which I never read, or can't remember (all in German). So I want to squeeze them in whenever there is some space to breath between BRs.
This one seems to be translated rather poorly, so I'm struggling a bit with the prose.

Murderbot! =D
Okay, I get it. It is rather humorous, cranky, naive, charge at windmills, cynical and totally hooked on tv shows. I'm having a great time with the books. I'll hop over to the thread once I finish Exit Strategy.

Read a graphic novel On A Sunbeam: A Webcomic, which was very whimsical and fun with a science fantasy kind of world. I loved the art in it.
Almost finished with The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter. Still not sure how I feel about it, but I think I like it. It's the kind of book that pretty much exists to make references to other works, which is simultaneously fun and annoying for me. But Kate Reading narrates it, so she's tipping it to the fun side.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Reading The Red Tree from OverDrive and almost finished with The Silmarillion Rewrite, at the AO3 fanfic archive. Just a few chapters left. I laughed so hard reading this...

Wee~ Finished Exit Strategy and I loved it! I'll be in line to get the next book when it comes out in 2020.

I had the same reaction to it. I loved the idea of a group of monstrous girls co-operating and solving mysteries but unfortunately the "monstrous" part was underplayed (imo) and most of it dragged.

I had the same reaction to it. I loved the idea of a group of monstrou..."
It was clunky and lacked the author's branding on the characters. I enjoy it when authors take something well known and mold it into either something new or a different way to think about it. This book didn't really have that. I read it because it was liked by an author that I enjoy reading. Sometimes that works and sometimes it's whatever.
I bought Wake of Vultures because of the quotes (authors I like) on the book & it seemed interesting. It ended up being okay. I need to be careful about that because I've gotten several books due to quotes & end up asking myself why I wasted my money. They would be fine to get from the library or on sale but not at full price. I have the next two books in the Shadows series so I need to buckle down and get them in at some point.
I think I have had better luck reading books that friends (including authors) have read & enjoyed on GR than by going on quotes on book covers.

Inbetween waiting for them to become available on Libby, I've been reading the Stellar Conquest series by David VanDyke. I got Starship Conquest free on Kindle and enjoyed it so much I bought the second book as soon as I finished it. It was a really fun, short read, and a pleasant surprise! (I had no expectations going into it since it was free).



Firefight

Hmmm I wonder what adventures await me today.


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

* The Power by Naomi Alderman. This held my interest and had some interesting themes, but I had trouble buying into some aspects of the plot. I also thought the author made mostly the obvious choices and I would have enjoyed a little more creativity within the setting she built. My review.
* Then I began my read of Robin Hobb’s Enderlings series. I read the first three trilogies about 7 years ago, so I’m starting with those and then I’ll continue on to read the newer books that I haven’t read yet. So far I’ve read the first trilogy, the Farseer Trilogy, starting with Assassin's Apprentice. I enjoyed it as much as I remembered. I’m not normally much of a re-reader, but I did enjoy re-reading this with the foreknowledge of what will happen. This was especially true of the third book, which I think I raced through a bit the first time around. I was so anxious to learn the fate of various characters, whereas this time I already knew what was going to happen and could just relax and enjoy the journey.
My review of Assassin’s Apprentice
My review of Royal Assassin
My review of Assassin’s Quest
* Next, I read The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince. This is a novella written by Robin Hobb which gives us the “real” story behind the legend referred to a few times in the Farseer Trilogy. It's set long before the series, but I decided to read it after the first trilogy so the relevant references would be fresh in my mind before I got the back story. I think that worked well. For first-time readers of the series, I definitely wouldn’t recommend reading this first. I enjoyed how this added to the depth of the world, and it held my interest, but the story was a little too romance-y for my tastes. My review.
* Then I read Words Like Coins. This is a short story by Hobb, also set in her Six Duchies setting. We learn all about pecksies. This story stands alone perfectly well and could be read without any familiarity with her books at all. I’m not normally a big short story fan, but I actually really liked this one. My review.
* Finally, I read Songs of Love Lost and Found. This is an anthology of five romance stories by five authors, one of which is a short story by Robin Hobb set in her Six Duchies setting. I’m not very fond of romances, not unless it’s a well-done side plot in a larger story. Also, as I said above, I’m not that crazy for short stories. So I read this knowing that I was definitely not the target audience for it, and didn't really enjoy it any more than I expected to. I did manage two early bedtimes thanks to this book, though! The Hobb story was ok, but nothing special and I didn’t think it added anything substantial to her series. If you’re reading this series and you’re not a romance fan, you won’t miss anything by skipping it. I think I liked the Jacqueline Carey story in this anthology, though. I rated it the highest of the five stories anyway, although I had mixed feelings about it. I think it’s set in her Kushiel series, which I want to read eventually. It left me with the feeling that I was missing out on the bigger picture, so I’ll probably re-read it whenever I finally get to that series. My review.
Whew. So now I’m going to take a very short Hobb break and read an unrelated standalone, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. After that, I’ll carry on with Hobb’s Liveship Traders series.


I’m glad to read you enjoyed it so much. Hopefully the same will prove true for me. This is only my second Bradbury book, the first being Fahrenheit 451, and I'm happily going into it completely blind. I have no idea what it's about, although I suspect Mars may have something to do with it. :)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ..."
I loved your review, Beth!

...
"I’m glad to read you enjoyed it so much. Hopefully the same will prove true for me. This is only my second Bradbury book, the first being Fahrenheit 451, and I'm happily going into it completely blind. I have no idea what it's about, although I suspect Mars may have something to do with it."
--Strangely enough, not really. But it is still read in many public schools."
(that's all the hint I can give)

A lot of the authors are all friends, so... yeah.
One of my favorite collection of cover quotes comes from a book whose title I’ve forgotten. It had quotes like, “This book is wonderful!” - The author’s mom. “Buy this book! Dave owes me 20 bucks.” - author’s friend.😝

PROVE that's not a fake -- but such "proof" is impossible.
It's like saying "You have to PROVE that Baby Milk Factory ISN'T a factory for Weapons of Mass Destruction."




Jacqueline, love all of your adventures. Udayan, I keep meaning to try that. You jut bumped it up my list again :)

I made myself wait before going into the Blade of Tyshalle (The Acts of Caine #2) by Matthew Woodring Stover. The narrator is not that great. He tends to do all the voices the same way so that's poopers. However, I'm fine when the POV is Hari/Caine's. Boy! This story. Whew. There are definitely some bumps in the plot but I am drawn & revolted by the way Stover writes the scenes & characters. It's like he cuts down drive, emotions, actions to the very base and then make it super explicit. At the end of Heroes Die, I was on the edge of my seat & wondering how the heck Hari will be able to do anything later. Now, I'm in the thick of second book and I can't believe the crazy that's happening. I definitely need to see how Stover makes it all possible.


Of course you can! The challenges are just for fun, and many people don't read all the monthly picks. I hope you'll find something that interests you :)

Just so long as you keep up with your monthly dues, you’ll be fine. Send your $499.99 to Trike at Venmo.
(Don’t really do that. That was just a joke. I don’t know how Venmo works or if there is a Trike on there.)

Also a valiant effort to record contemporary popular culture works and phenomena in the literary pantheon, it feels.
Could work as a great read for the group too: while nothing like it and the story's brilliance stands apart from it, this heavily references a recent BR: (view spoiler) .

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

Most recently I finished Ghostwater, which after a bit of a slow start was really enjoyable. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

I’m in the mood for something that will move me, and if the first two Farseer books were any indication, Assassin's Quest should do just that. This month is so insane with buddy reads (and the reread of Children of Time which I want to join) not to mention the official group reads and I’m trying to get it ALL DONE. In the middle of a very very busy period in my work. But it is WORTH IT. RIGHT???!


The thing I liked about Dauntless was how the regular space fleet is basically a bunch of maverick/privateer types who don't work well together. Usually, you have a highly regulated format & procedure. I think Captain Jack will grow on me but it may take a book or two more of the series. Not sure how that will go but I'm willing to try.
Traitor's Blade - Best part are the glimpses into the author's head. The story is rather rough in my opinion and has a jarring tendency to flip flop from something cool to bland. There were several what the heck is happening moments. Great three musketeer vibe. An odd POV and somewhat awkward flashbacks. Kinda rough start but lots of potential for good old swashbuckling fun. I did this one as an audio and feel like there's a few parts I want to double check before I write up a review. So, I plan to speed read the ebook. I'm also checking to see if the story will come across better in print vs audio.

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Books mentioned in this topic
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And a little "Marching Morons" on the side? I like that combo.