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?
Rose wrote: "I'm currently reading The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins graphic novel at the moment, and it's pretty good! I've read a few graphic novels/comics based upon Dungeons and Dra..."Good Omens! ❤
I think I will have to re-read that before watching the show.
I started Falling Free yesterday, but didn't get too far before I got too tired. Looking forward to diving in more deeply today.
Can Falling Free be read without reading the previous books? Books that generate a lot of talk make me curious enough to read ^^
Dawn wrote: "Can Falling Free be read without reading the previous books? Books that generate a lot of talk make me curious enough to read ^^"It's a stand-alone book. Feel free to read & conquer. =) And join the conversations.
Rushed through three novellas back to back.The Black God's Drums - Interesting worldbuilding. Not enough story.
Exit Strategy - Murderbot treat. Hilarious and poignant in turns.
Lies of the Beholder - A fresh bit of mindbending from Sanderson from his beguiling Legion books.
Mod
The Black God's Drums - Interesting worldbuilding. Not enough story.
Exit Strategy - Murderbot treat. Hilarious and poi..."
There are buddy reads for Black God (coming up) and Exit Strategy (already posted)! I hope you'll weigh in on them if you feel like it, Udayan (and haven't! I haven't followed Exit Strategy). I always enjoy your thoughts.
Colleen, I hadn't heard of that series. So far so good?
I have the Ashton Place kids audios on my Audible wishlist, I keep waiting for them to be in a sale so I can grab all of them and hopefully enjoy hours of non-traumatizing fun.edit: Ooh, I just noticed audios 1-5 are on the subscription service I'll be trying out in November, I guess that means I'll have to make them a priority!
edit2: And #6 in on Storytel, so that means I can stop waiting for Audible sales!
Finally finished listening to The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter and, yeah. It was okay. Not great though. I think I might give the next one another chance because I do want to see what she does with Van Hellsing.I also read Gunner Cade, which was another okay book. Not too bad I guess, considering its age. I've been trying to throw some more older sci-fi in to my reading.
Currently listening to The Stars My Destination and bogging down some between my dislike for all the characters and the speech patterns that are being used. It gets such good ratings though, so I'm persevering and hoping I can start to enjoy it more.
Also reading An Easy Death, which is the first in Charlaine Harris' new series. So far it's pretty entertaining. It's the light, fun read that I was hoping for.
Over the last week I read the final two books in Lisa Shearin's "Raine Benares" series, Treasure & Treason and Ruins & Revenge. I enjoyed them, though I missed having Raine's point of view in these last two books. The action shifted to another character, and while he wasn't as witty and snarky as Raine, it was good to follow him. I liked coming back to the world and learning a little more about it in the midst of another adventure.
Finished Midnight Riot and I really enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.Began listening to Arcadia simply because I had no other audiobook downloaded. In the world building stage so I have no true opinion yet.
Making an attempt at a classic, Where Angels Fear to Tread, simply because it's short. I know, wrong reason, but I have to read a few classics in my life time.
Should be finishing up Dark Witch in the next few days. I'm not as thrilled with this Nora Roberts book as I was with Year One because it's too....wordy and not enough doing. Hope the second book in the trilogy gets better.
Mod
Arcadia was a book I enjoyed quite a bit but it took all my focus! I'll be curious how it works listening to it :)
Allison wrote: "Colleen, I hadn't heard of that series. So far so good? "
I've been enjoying. Definitely one of the series that I look forward to new releases on. And this is the last in the series, and I've been waiting on it forever, so yay.
Allison wrote: "Karen, did you listen to Midnight Riot? I read it with my eyes and found it fun, but people rave about the audiobook!Arcadia was a book I enjoyed quite a bit but it took all my focus! I'll be cur..."
Allison, yes, I listened to it. The narrator did a pretty good job so I had no problem differentiating voices. Only complaint I had was his breathing techniques were a bit noisy but that was easy enough to deal with when you're so drawn into the story.
About 38% through The Snow Queen and so far I'm not enjoying it too much. The story is very slow and I find the characters unappealing . I'm trying to find the critically acclaimed and award winning book. I hate to not finish a book but am seriously considering putting this one down. There are so many other books to read. I'll give this one until 50 % to get better then I'm done.
I think Snow Queen was slow going but it does get more involved in the second half as I remember it!
I have to re-read the Show Queen as well. This book was one of the favs of my youth and I would like to see how I feel about it nowadays.
Ellen wrote: "About 38% through The Snow Queen and so far I'm not enjoying it too much. The story is very slow and I find the characters unappealing . I'm trying to find the critically acclaimed an..."Yeah, I did not like The Snow Queen much at all. It was incredibly slow, I was never really invested in the characters, and the plot didn't really do it for me. A lot of people seem to like it though, so ymmv.
Just finished Small Gods for the umpteenth time and it never fails to move me. It was interesting to see Pratchett's credo for being good against Tepper's credo "too good is bad" in Grass, which I also finished some days ago. Both views have their merits.Before that, I read East of Midnight, where the only positive thing I can say is, that it was fortunately a short read (I hope, I just picked the worst of Tanith Lee's books) - and Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, where I had high hopes, that weren't exactly met. At least it was a nice change from the typical bad Nazi-German having a … well … bad necromancer German … ;-) - at least, it was a cool bad German.
Mod
Also read Dreadnought which was very cute with lots of great moments...and several that I think could have been amped up.
Now reading An Unkindness of Ghosts which I selected for my "cover love" portion of my TBR challenge. I am not far in but woof it is grim and evocative. I am very interested in seeing where this goes!
Allison wrote: "Now reading An Unkindness of Ghosts which I selected for my "cover love" portion of my TBR challenge. I am not far in but woof it is grim and evocative. I am very interested in seeing where this goes! "Such a gorgeous cover. I really look forward to hearing what you think about this one.
Mod
Thanks! Hey, while you're here... Re Unkindness (view spoiler)
I don't remember exact details from Unkindness, but it's certainly a tough read.edit: Meaning I can't give you details on when to expect what.
I've started in on Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers, now that the audible version is available. Been listening to it on my daily commute.So far it's sad and proceeding slowly, but that's kind of expected. Chambers doesn't seem to really write high adventure, but more explores the slices of life in her universe. I really like her worldbuilding, and the fact that her aliens are both *alien* AND *people.*
After reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant for the group read, I decided I needed some short, fun reads for a change of pace, and I already had 2 that fit that description checked out from the library.So I'm starting Artificial Condition and Sovereign today. The second novella in the fun Murderbot Diaries series, and the second book in a YA super hero series is perfect as a palate cleanser for me. Then it's on to The Sparrow for the October 15th buddy read.
@Allison: Unkindness is on my TBR challenge too, just waiting for the hold to come through from the library. I'm really excited to hear your reactions.In the meantime, I've finally gotten through all my Temeraire re-reads and am about to start book 7, which will be the first that I hadn't read previously.
I also read Santa Olivia and Saints Astray. I thought Santa Olivia was great, and had a really interesting premise and story. Saints Astray, on the other hand, had very little plot, and while I enjoyed Loup and Pilar running around being in love, the constant creepiness from the male characters was really uncomfortable for me.
It took a while for me to get used to the narrator for Extracted. It was fun! The first of a trilogy. The series is about time travel & trying to figure out who is pushing the timeline into extinction. I didn't know what to expect and it took a bit of work to figure out who is when/where. Once I figured that out, I was hooked. Good start to a character driven plot and I think there's going to be a lot of action later.
Anna wrote: "I don't remember exact details from Unkindness, but it's certainly a tough read.edit: Meaning I can't give you details on when to expect what."
(view spoiler)
Mod
edit: Meaning I can't give you details on when to expect what."
[spoilers removed]"
Okay, thanks for the heads up! I shall proceed cautiously.
Im currently reading the Fablehaven book series by Brandon Mull. All the birds in the sky by Charlie Jane Anders
This book grados my attention and then loses it. I’m a little over halfway and don’t know if I want to continue it.
The Five Kingdoms book series by Brandon Mull.
I’m reading the Becky Chambers RECORD OF A SPACEBORN FEW
Kaa wrote: "@Allison: Unkindness is on my TBR challenge too, just waiting for the hold to come through from the library. I'm really excited to hear your reactions.In the meantime, I've finally gotten through..."
Agree wholeheartedly on Santa Olivia and Saints Astray. The second booked sucked a bit after a promising first book.
I finished
Ship of Magic. This Hobb's was a bit of a struggle for me. And for the ending, Hobb could have easily ended it with a "To Be Continued" sign.Still, Robin Hobb (pen name) has a knack for developing unsavory characters and spoiled brats, not to mention those that go and do stupid things to frustrate the readers. :)
Onto the next in the series:
The Mad Ship.
Just finished Blindsight by Watts and hated it, sorry to say. So to cleanse my pallet I grabbed Ghost Story by Peter Straub, and Emile and the Dutchman by Joel Rosenberg
Jim wrote: "Just finished Blindsight by Watts and hated it, sorry to say. So to cleanse my pallet I grabbed Ghost Story by Peter Straub, and Emile and the Dutchman by Joel Rosenberg"Ghost Story -- one of the scariest books I've ever read.
I just finished Aye, Robot, by Robert Kroese. It's a humorous book, in the vein of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams.Currently, I'm listening to The Genius Plague by David Walton, a fascinating sci-fi thriller about a fungus infection that bends people's brains to protect the Amazon rain forest.
After that, I'll get back to the anthology Infinite Stars: Definitive Space Opera and Military Science Fiction. I originally bought it because it had a short story by Alastair Reynolds, but there's a lot of other good space opera in there, too.
Amazon had a 'deal' on a collection of work by Clifford Simak. The two novels I've read, though years ago, City and A Heritage of Stars, plus a collection of short stories, some of which I may have read. Simak was one of my first 'favorite' sci-fi authors and I'm pleased to find some of his early work available on Kindle. I've been going back and re-reading some of my favorites from earlier (much earlier) years lately.
@Udayan: I felt as though the two books were intended for entirely different audiences, which is probably not the best approach to a series. I'm more or less in the overlap between the two groups, so there was quite a bit of Saints Astray that worked for me. Still, if I hadn't read the reviews and known what to expect, I would have been very disappointed by how different it was from Santa Olivia.
Kirsten wrote: "I've been listening to Dauntless by Jack Campbell"What do you think?
I need to bump Ghost Story up on my TBR. =D
Dawn Christoffersen, Falling Free is a stand alone novel and excellent.
Soo wrote: "Kirsten wrote: "I've been listening to Dauntless by Jack Campbell"What do you think?
I need to bump Ghost Story up on my TBR. =D"
I'm really enjoying it, right up there with Honor!!
Don wrote: "Dawn Christoffersen, Falling Free is a stand alone novel and excellent."Love Bujold!!!
Just finished "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller. I don't generally go for Romances but the new vision of the Achilles tale was good enough to get me through.
I forgot that Diplomatic Immunity takes place on Graf Station. Now that I read Falling Free, I plan on re-visiting Diplomatic Immunity to connect more dots. =D@ Kirsten, awesome! I enjoyed the first book. I have the next one on my audio app to listen to at some point.
I know it's a little outside the scope of this group, but I just finished a great nonfiction book about horror books from the 70's and 80's called Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction. I really enjoyed learning about the horror genre. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Does anyone know of a similar book about pulp sci fi novels?
Soo wrote: "I forgot that Diplomatic Immunity takes place on Graf Station. Now that I read Falling Free, I plan on re-visiting Diplomatic Immunity to connect more dots. =D@ Kirsten, awesome! I e..."
You've read Labyrinth, right? It introduces one of the Quaddies and some of the backstory of Diplomatic Immunity.
I'm not sure if I have. Hmm. I wonder if I have it somewhere. I need to make a note to look.
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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I'm also reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch! Because I saw the trailer for the upcoming TV series and that really pushed me into finally starting the book after having it on my shelf for the last 5 years. I'm really into it, and I'm very pleased that it's living up to the hype.
It's been hard finding time for leisure reading lately, too. There's only ~3 weeks of the uni semester left and there's still so much to do for my courses. But it's been nice getting back into the swing of reading fantasy and sci-fi. Makes for a nice break from all the distressing things I have to read for class.