What Else Are You Reading - May 2018

[Erik]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Snow Crash hasn't aged well. It might have been revolutionary in 1992, but not now.

I wish I'd lemmed it. You roll your eyes when Hiro Protagonist is introduced and it goes downhill from there ;-)"

Yeah I got through this whole book and there was just nothing redeeming in it for me. The humor was so painfully heavy handed and wink-winky that it was hard to take.

[Erik]

Have so far finished The Buried Giant and Ender's Game and about to finish The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

Should be ready to start Circe (in the mail) in a few days.

[Sheila Jean]

I finished up the last two Rysa Walker audio books in her The Chronos Files YA series. I enjoyed the history changing time travel series, but I didn't spend much effort actually thinking about it.

Picked up 1Q84 in the last 2-for-1 Audible sale since I finally found two books I was interested in grabbing. Just a few hours in so far of this 46+ hour audio book.

Still reading Lost Gods by Brom which I grabbed from Lem's library. I'm liking it so far, but it's dark and I just haven't been in the mood to go unto the underworld at the moment, so I'm stuck about 125 pages in. I will definitely finish, but I think I'm going to read something lighter in the short term.

[Dara]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Finished up Snow Crash and, since there are 5 people waiting per copy, made like a good little library denizen and promptly returned it to LA Public Library / Overdrive. The book picked up after a puzzlingly long riff on Domino's pizza and turned into a decent read. The language and religion segments were superior. However, I still felt like I was reading a dated sequel to Buckaroo Banzai with a slice of Dr. Strangelove thrown in, with the jokes going 20 minutes too long. Still and all, decent premise when it FINALLY got to it half way through the book. The "Metaverse" made me gag, AOL on steroids, and the ending came very abruptly."

Snow Crash is far from my favorite Stephenson novel. Luckily, his works all tend to be different from one another so I've found others that I've loved. I feel like people really love Snow Crash a lot or they're merely lukewarm.

[AndrewP]

Continuing the WoT buddy read with The Great Hunt and going to start the final book in the Milkweed trilogy (Necessary Evil) this weekend. Circe is not going to be available in any reasonable time from any of my libraries so I'm going to skip it, besides, we read a mythology pick last month. It's a really popular/trendy pick with at least two of my book clubs reading it so that's a lot of people wanting to check it out.

[Dara]

I read The Vital Abyss while on vacation last week. I ended up really enjoying it. My review. Got Persepolis Rising as a birthday gift last week so I went right into that next.

[Stephen]

Andrew, Circe is nothing like last month book. It is brilliant! It is for me, one of the best books written this decade. Easily in my top 10. It is beautifully written.

[Ruth]

Just finished Steelheart. As ever Sanderson has great world building skills and a cleverly twisty (but entirely consistent) story. I must confess that I found the relentless focus on cool guns in the hands of a white teenage boy a bit... distasteful? Insufficiently removed from reality?

[Ben George]

@Ruth If it makes you feel better the book was written before the controversy made it to the mainstream.
I still liked it :)

[Ruth]

Ben wrote: "@Ruth If it makes you feel better the book was written before the controversy made it to the mainstream.
I still liked it :)"

Oh, I assumed it was written well before the latest spate of shootings. And I did like it as an adventure story. There was just something very uncomfortable about turning from the news about the Santa Fe shooting to my supposedly escapist recreational reading - and then reading about how the teenage protagonist fetishised weapons (especially rifles), and also how he fixated on a beautiful unobtainable woman. He doesn't do anything creepy towards his crush I should add, although the book does feature A LOT of gun violence. I guess I'm used to Sanderson's books being set in wholly imaginary worlds and I found this one slightly less effective as escapism.

[Rob, Roberator]

Dara wrote: "I read The Vital Abyss while on vacation last week. I ended up really enjoying it. My review. Got Persepolis Rising as a birthday gift last week so I went right into..."

Happy Birthday!

[TRP]

Just finished Life Debt by Chuck Wendig on audiobook. It's a good story but the use of the present tense and the almost constant action and threat made me feel like I was being beaten up.

[Dara]

Rob wrote: "Happy Birthday!"

Thank you good sir!

[Trike]

Dara wrote: "Rob wrote: "Happy Birthday!"

Thank you good sir!"

Hoppy birthdah!

[Dara]

Trike wrote: "Hoppy birthdah!"

Thank ya, fine gent!

[Rick]

In the middle of the new Neal Asher The Soldier and The City of Brass. Started The Song of Achilles but I think I'll stick that on hold for a little.

[Ruth]

Just finished Annihilation and I really want to read the rest of the Southern Reach trilogy... but I’m away from home and library and I already have so many unread books on my Kindle that I can’t really justify buying more so I guess I should wait until I get back!

Also reading The Golem and the Jinni and just started The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock.

[Iain]

Just finished Dragon Haven which tore along at break neck speed (after a slowish first book). Jumped straight into City of Dragons as I want to see how all this turns out.

Picked up Blameless from the library to sit on the to be read pile until I finish the Rain Wild books (a week at this rate).

[Rob, Roberator]

I've been slacking off on my reviews so I've finally caught up on the last few weeks today.

Clear and Present Danger - I've enjoyed this one the more than any of the other Tom Clancy books I've read thus far. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

Night's Master - This book was not for me. - ★½☆☆☆ - (My Review)

Wrath of Empire - Another fantastic job by Brian McClellan - ★★★★★ - (My Review)

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood - This books is a blend of funny, shocking and heartbreaking stories. I'd never have guessed Trevor Noah had been through so much based on his TV persona. His mother is really an amazing woman too. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

[Silvana]

Cool, I also gave Wrath of Empire five stars.

So, I've finally finished Embassytown, which cemented the idea in my head that China Mieville is a crazy genius, a Caravaggio of SFF et cetera et cetera.

I also powered through all the Hugo nominated short stories. Fandom for Robots is my favorite.

Now, also finally able to read The Moon and the Other by John Kessel.

S&L challenge tally:
Sword: 22
Laser: 13

[Stephen]

My Laser is lagging too, so I Overdrived Edge of Tomorrow as it is short. Next up Little Fuzzy another short novel. Then on to Fuzzy Nation.

[John (Taloni)]

The Scalzi redo is actually pretty enjoyable. I've seen several hardcore Piper fans say they hate it, but I didn't have a strong memory of the original when I read Scalzi's version, and I thought he did a good job.

[terpkristin]

I finished Warbreaker. Once I got to kind of understand who the characters were and what the magic was, I was hooked. I was thinking about the book when I wasn't reading and making excuses to listen. Definitely 4 stars, when I get around to writing my review. Apparently the Kindle version has annotations on why Sanderson made the characters, which I also want to check out.

I'm currently listening to The Song of Achilles, since Circe is a sort of sequel.

[Trike]

terpkristin wrote: "I finished Warbreaker. Once I got to kind of understand who the characters were and what the magic was, I was hooked. I was thinking about the book when I wasn't reading and making e..."

Warbreaker is movie-ready. It would look great onscreen.

[Erik]

Catching up on previous S&L picks I've finished The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter and Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Alchemist's daughter was very readable and fun. Will definitely get book 2. Futuristic Violence was just really meh. The blink system was well done and it's use throughout the book felt very on point given current state of livefeed viewing. The bad guy was just so bad though. Listened to the audiobook and Christy Carlson Romano did a wonderful job but when she voiced Molech it was painful. Understandable because Molechs character was pretty bad (I was doing yardwork and the first time Molech speaks I gave an audible "nooooooooooo" haha). If anyone wants to read this book my recommendation would be to picture Molech talking like Hansel from Zoolander. Once I had this epiphany I could vaguely see a scenario where he'd be tolerable.

Also finished The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017. I understand criticisms that there wasn't enough sci fi and that the few sci fi stories didn't really push the envelop but I really enjoyed this collection. Also a lot of YA type stories for whatever reason. Some standouts for me included The Venus Effect-Joseph Allen Hill, Everyone From Themis Sends Letters Home-Genevieve Valentine (this would make an excellent Black Mirror ep), Casper D. Luckinbill What Are You Going to Do?-Nick Wolven (Fahrenheit 451 universe terrorism), and Not by Wardrobe Tornado or Looking Glass-Jeremiah Tolbert.

[Joel]

I'm reading Solar by Ian McEwan. It's amazing how well the author understands science (the content and the practice) and scientists on top of his detailed, psychologically acute writing. This is almost a piece of hard science fiction, as much of the story revolves around new attempts to harness power from solar energy. I can't get over McEwan's ability to present such vivid details and such tragic situations in a voice that is so sarcastic, almost comical. The protagonist is a really loathsome character, but I can't stop reading it.

[Rik]

Tracey wrote: "I'm hoping I can get this on the Libby app for free. It's not showing up yet :( "

If you haven't started The Outsider by Stephen King yet be warned its basically a sequel to Bill Hodges trilogy by Stephen King, the first of which was called Mr Mercedes. Its stand alone enough that you don't have to have read the three Bill books but if you haven't you'll be left a little out of the loop after the book shifts protagonists half way through. One of the major supporting characters in the Bill Hodges trilogy is a high functioning autistic woman named Holly Gibney who is extremely intelligent but very socially awkward and OCD. She becomes Bill's investigative partner in his books for her analytical ability. She's brought into the Outsider about half way through and is the main protagonist for the second half of the book and many spoilerish references are made to things she and Bill did in the Bill books.

I've got about 4 hrs left to finish the book but so far its good and as I expected it starts out as a basic crime mystery and then goes supernatural.

[Rob, Roberator]

Ooh. The Outsider was on my radar, but now I'll have to move it up to the top of the list. I LOVE Holly.

[Joseph]

Finished Delusion's Master and went straight into Delirium's Mistress, the fourth of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books.