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?
Currently I'm about a fourth of the way through Lord of Chaos but I took a detour today and absolutely loved reading All Systems Red. I also finished up the non genre book Arabella by Georgette Heyer. I think I may binge the whole murderbot series before I finish Lord of Chaos though.
It’s easy to binge Murderbot that’s for sure. And don’t forget the 2 page prequel that Dawn gave us the link for in the Murderbot buddy read thread.
Yay for more Murderbot fans! =)I just wrapped up the third book of Sharing Knife series and a little cautious about diving into the last book. I'll probably start it tomorrow. This series is not as strong as either Vorkosigan Saga or World of the Five Gods but it's been fun to get reacquainted. One more book and I'll be done with this series.
I have a few Penric stories to go and I'm holding off on those a bit because I'm not sure if I like where it's going.
I recently finished a trilogy by Elizabeth Bear ending with The Steles of the Sky. It was satisfying, especially is you enjoy women POVs: nursing women, warrior women, wizard women, even the ‘bad’ side had women with agency! Also finished bingo BR Future Home if the Living god which was...ok. I gave it three stars but it is still...shifting in my mind. Allison May have given me an unsettling realization haha
Now I’m working on Eifelheim (for fans of brainy first contact tales it says) Hugo nominee and The secret lives of Owls to complete my TBR challenge. I think I’m gonna make it!!
Allison wrote: "Let's see...I read and really enjoyed The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps except for the ambiguous end. I'll likely be reading more by Wilson in the future!"Allison, I think you will really like A Taste of Honey. I re-read both of these books (set in the same world, but otherwise unrelated) in the last few days, and I loved them both all over again. (I think I just have a thing for ambiguous endings.)
I also finished How Long 'til Black Future Month? and it was as completely amazing as I was hoping. There wasn't a single story I didn't like, and several that completely blew me away. My review (with comments on individual stories below) here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Thanks, Kaa! I think I'll have to go for it. I very much enjoyed his writing style and if it's in the same world, that's even more appealing. I also hope I love How Long!
Onto
Fool's Fate book three of
The Complete Tawny Man Trilogy: Fool's Errand, The Golden Fool, Fool's Fate.
I hit a wall with work last month and have fallen behind in personal reading goals and group reads but I’m finally catching up, with both The Song of Achilles (which moved and impressed me very much) and The Traitor Baru Cormorant (which was chilly but intriguing and wound up engrossing me more than I anticipated, although I understand why it seems to have split people around here so much) under my belt. Now onto Rosewater, but not before I scratch my short story itch. And then I will finally get back on track with everyone else by getting to this month’s selections. Feels good to be close to being back on time!
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It’s good to hear you have a break and you are back on track so fast. I love The Song of Achilles too. It’s so beautiful:)
Welp I did it. I binged the whole lot of Murderbot and I'm so happy. I may have bullied two more people into reading them.
Good on ya 😊 I ready Murderbot and the Imperial Radch books (Ancillary Justice, Sword and Mercy) around the same time. I was having a people based AI binge at the time. Loved that series too. Have you read them yet?
I'm reading Exit Strategy right this moment! I love it and I only have about 50 pages left. I don't want it to end.
Anthony wrote: "I hit a wall with work last month and have fallen behind in personal reading goals and group reads but I’m finally catching up, with both The Song of Achilles (which moved and impre..."Song of Achilles is just so good! Maybe my favorite book of the year.
This week didn't leave me much time for reading, but I'm still committed to finishing S., which is a lot of fun, so far. (But also a lot to lug around while traveling.)
I finished both of the December group reads Jade City and China Mountain Zhang, which were both excellent reads. I'm glad that they got voted.I read The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, where my reaction was funnily vice versa to Allison's: I had problems with the first part and adored the ending.
The BRs Rivers of London and Redshirts were both on the average side for me. It was nice reading, but not overwhelming.
And since The Way of Kings really killed me with its ingenuity of characters, worldbuilding and plot, I am now listening to part II Words of Radiance where the narrators once again did a great job.
For my eye reading it is now back to the Nightrunner series with Shadows Return, the first book of the series that I didn't read before. The blurb sounded a bit cringe-worthy, but would I mind a kinky plot if I have Seregil and Alec …? NOPE! :D
Day before yesterday I put aside The New World by Andrew Motion as my second to last colonial/ post- colonial book on the Read Harder Challenge. Yesterday I read Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen, so glad to have read this for my penultimate A- Z author name challenge. This morning I finished the Vorkosigan novella The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold. I have a Frankie Y. Bailey detective novel to pick up for RH and a book of poetry by Jenny Xie(I think) at the library, to start.
Phrynne wrote: "My review of On Basilisk Station by David Weber 
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Nice review. I enjoyed this book as well. Have to say if your planning on going on with the series, you might be doing a bit more skimming as the series goes along. He doesn't give up on the info dump habit.
Jacqueline wrote: "Rick Riordan is fun. I read Percy Jackson years ago after my kids left home and I love them. Currently in the middle of the Magnus Chase series."I find that in some ways I prefer the Magnus Chase books. In part due to the fact that he isn't a child of one of the Major Gods.
Anna wrote: "Allison wrote: "Anna is extremely hard to recommend to because she's read everything"That's not even close to true! Well the first part is, but not the second."
Wait? If Anna reads anything, wouldn't that mean she was easy to recommend to? Just suggest anything at all and there you go.
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That's not even close to true! Well the first part is, but not the second."
Wait? If Anna reads ..."
She doesn't just read anything is the problem and more significant a factor she's already read it. I haven't been able to out hipster her yet!
Godsgrave was not entirely what I expected. It took a bit of effort (a lot) to plow into the story. It was totally worth it. I'm not sure why this installment was so lopsided in progression but all the elements that I love about the first book were present towards the end. This one hit the "high drama" mark. Think daytime soap opera. Despite the holes peppering the story, I really liked how the book ended and look forward to the last book in the trilogy. I really enjoyed how the author portrayed the idea of what you believe to be the truth vs what happened. How there's a bit of truth on both sides and the whole of the truth may not resemble either.
Other than that, this was like crazy Game of Thrones and Spartacus.
I have my fingers crossed about the magic system because the minor developments were really cool. I hope there's more about that in the last book.
Allison wrote: "Dj wrote: "Anna wrote: "Allison wrote: "Anna is extremely hard to recommend to because she's read everything"That's not even close to true! Well the first part is, but not the second."
Wait? If ..."
Switch to movie or music suggestions. Might help you tip the balance.
I finished The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
. What a great series!My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just started Artemis. It’s starting out well.
Kirsten wrote: "Reading 
Lilith's Brood: The Complete Xenogenesis Trilogy by Octavia E. Butler"I love that series. I plan to finish it in February.
Deadhouse Gates: what an undertaking. But it was great, really impressive. (review)All set for the BR of the first book next month...
Beth wrote: "Deadhouse Gates: what an undertaking. But it was great, really impressive. (review)All set for the BR of the first book next month..."
That was a great review. I'm still a little sceptical about reading them out of order, but I'm glad it worked for you. If you go from the first book to the 3rd book, most of the characters will be the same, so maybe you are on to something for people who couldn't get into Gardens of the Moon.
Jamesboggie wrote: "Kirsten wrote: "Reading Lilith's Brood: The Complete Xenogenesis Trilogy by Octavia E. Butler"I..."
This is the 3rd time I've started. I am going to do it this time!!
I am reading a fantasy novel, Nation by Terry Pratchett. While Fantasy is not my usual niche, sometimes I do read a Pratchett.
Well, I ended up starting another Maureen McHugh book, the last novel that's available as an ebook, Half the Day is Night. I've only read the first chapter, but so far I like it, and her writing is exactly what I've been in the mood for all month. I'm getting those lovely underwater chills that Into the Drowning Deep didn't manage to give me, and there's an interesting mix of languages, which always appeals to me. I'll be enjoying this over Christmas, and then maybe get back to Jade City in time to get it done by the end of the year. In any case, it looks like December won't be my worst reading month of 2018 after all, thanks to McHugh.
I completely forgot that I started reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone aloud to my son. He’s 9 and hasn’t read the books yet, but had seen the first few movies. For that matter, I’ve only read the first 3 myself.
Last book of the year for me is Lady Gregory's 'Complete Irish Mythology'. I would have been told many of these stories as a kid, but realised all these years later that I can't really remember any of them! Reckoned it was time for a refresh! Just scratching the surface so far, and the language is a bit dated, but it's definitely well worth a read if you've an interest in this type of thing!
I finished reading City of Cayn (Book #2 of the Son of Cayn trilogy) by Jason McDonald and The Autumn Republic (Book #3 of Powder Mage Trilogy) by Brian McClellan. I am reading Artemis by Andy Weir. I plan to read Origin by Dan Brown next.
Since my last post, I’ve finished the Rain Wild series by Robin Hobb, the fourth of five subseries in the larger Realms of the Elderlings series. I had a few complaints here and there, but I enjoyed it quite a lot over all. They didn’t reach the engrossment level of the books with Fitz and the Fool in them, but few books do. I did enjoy them equally as much as the Liveship Traders subseries. My reviews:Book 1 – Dragon Keeper
Book 2 – Dragon Haven
Book 3 – City of Dragons
Book 4 – Blood of Dragons
Now I’m taking a very short break from Hobb to read Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. After that, I’ll head into the final Elderlings trilogy with much trepidation.
Perfectly for Christmas I finished two 5-star reads: The first being Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, which I re-read several times over the years. It never fails to fascinate me.The second is Words of Radiance, the second installement of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Here I have to admit that I was kind of relieved that I found some things I had qualms with. It is unnatural to keep such a formidable quality over so many pages ;). I fear I must keep away from other epic high fantasy series, cause a comparison with the Stormlight Archive can only lead to frustration.
With this I have to sign off for this year, otherwise I will be the one starting the typical family fights over X-mas, cause I can't keep my nose out of books.
I wish everybody wonderful holidays and give my heartfelt thanks to this terrific group and our fantastic mods for months I enjoyed so much! Already eager for the next reading year.
YouKneeK wrote: "Since my last post, I’ve finished the Rain Wild series by Robin Hobb, the fourth of five subseries in the larger Realms of the Elderlings series. I had a few complaints here and there, but I enjoye..."So my next series is a quadrilogy. Egads!
Eric wrote: "So my next series is a quadrilogy. Egads!"Yep, but it’s pretty short. The average page count is only about 500, and the total page count is less than that of all the other subseries except for maybe the first one. I think books one and two were originally supposed to be a single book; they definitely read that way.
Oh, and if you’re heavily spoiler-adverse, don’t read the character list at the beginning of the first book before reading the first book. It doesn’t spoil anything major, but it does give away information long before it’s revealed in the actual book and I regretted reading it. The characters are easy to keep straight anyway.
Gabi wrote: "...I wish everybody wonderful holidays and give my heartfelt thanks to this terrific group and our fantastic mods for months I enjoyed so much! Already eager for the next reading year. "Thank you for these months too, Gabi! Have a great Christmas <3
(going to put that Words of Radiance on a hold for a bit, in favor of China Mountain. It's a race for the spot of the first and/or the last read of the year for those two now, it seems ;D).
I just finished Siege Tactics by Drew Hayes. Now it's on to NOS4A2 and The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps for buddy reads that I'm slightly late on.
YouKneeK wrote: "Oh, and if you’re heavily spoiler-adverse, don’t read the character list at the beginning of the first book before reading the first book. It doesn’t spoil anything major, but it does give away inf..."Thanks for the heads up and book length info. I'm about a third of the way through
Fool's Fate. The third in the Tawny Man trilogy.
Gabi wrote: "Perfectly for Christmas I finished two 5-star reads: The first being Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, which I re-read several times over the years. It never fails to fascinate me...."
I'll follow Gabi's example:
Happy Holidays!
I'm trying to get in 4 books before the year ends. I'll see how that goes. Haha
Duncan wrote: "Last book of the year for me is Lady Gregory's 'Complete Irish Mythology'. I would have been told many of these stories as a kid, but realised all these years later that I can't really remember any..."Sounds like fun.
Gabi wrote: "Perfectly for Christmas I finished two 5-star reads: The first being Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, which I re-read several times over the years. It never fails to fascinate me.The sec..."
I haven't read Hogfather, but I did really enjoy the movie version. It was great fun. Death's Grandaughter is so much fun.
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Working for the Devil (other topics)Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (other topics)
Fool's Assassin (other topics)
Exo (other topics)
2018 on Goodreads (other topics)
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Samuel R. Delany (other topics)Samuel R. Delany (other topics)
Samuel R. Delany (other topics)
Aliette de Bodard (other topics)
George Mazurek (other topics)
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Now I have to have a look at the last few prompts from Popsugar and AtY to see what I need to finish. Hmmmm Popsugar has True Crime, Feminism, Time Travel and Halloween to fill. Even though I’ve probably filled some of those if I check my last couple of months books. AtY has from first 10 in my TBR and a medical or legal thriller. I do have books to fill all of them here even though I left the legal one I was going to read at home. Oh well....