Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion
What We've Been Reading
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What are you reading this June, 2018?
Right now I'm wrapping up
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis along with
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson and
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. Later this month I'll be starting
Lost Stars by Claudia Gray (our Contemporary Group Read for June - I hope you all join in!),
Foundation by Isaac Asimov and
VALIS by Philip K. Dick.
Yep, even remembered to change my calendar this morning, but forgot to pay attention to the thread I was posting in. Technically The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern belongs here.For what it's worth we're having summer weather, super hot and humid!
I have committed to too many reads this month... finishing The Moon and the Other(which so far surprises me it wasn’t nominated for any awards)Also looking at group reads or buddy reads of:
Semiosis (looks interesting)
The Diamond Age
Akata Witch
Into the Rolling Deep
Plus RevenantGun on the 15th....
Plus all the Hugo Packet stuff...
Who want to take my kids so I can read all month?
Finished Children of Time, won't be one of my favorites but it definitely had some aspects I really enjoyed. Since that was on my eReader next in line is Llana of Gathol by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the second to last of the Barsoom stories.
Continuing my summer of fairies, I'll be working on John Crowley's Little, Big. The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke, and hopefully get into Lud-in-the-Mist
Same with Rachel, I am also quite overcommitted this month with these buddy reads: The Moon and the Other - ongoing
Rare Book of Cunning Device - ongoing
Hugo Awards nominees for short stories - just finished
The Fireman
The Alloy of Law
The Plantagenets (nonfiction) - ongoing
Revenant Gun
Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists
Autonomous
The Scar
I got to spend an enjoyable weekend reading my grandchildren stories of their choice. Now back to what I am reading: Completed:
Shorts:
Longs:
Picked up a couple of books from the library - have already raced through Sorcerer to the Crown which was a surprisingly action packed book for a historical fantasy. I initially thought it was going to be more similar to a fantasy of manners or Regency style, but oh no, it got magical and action-packed, fast. I really enjoyed it. I also picked up The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. and The White Dragon to read while I impatiently await my next book delivery.I'm waiting for the second and third books (Paper and Fire and Ash and Quill) for Rachel Caine's YA The Great Library series. Plus Old Man's War and The Shamer's Daughter
Starting Wing Wind . I really, really liked the first book, Draigon Weather so I was excited to see this one was out.
It's Wheel of Time month for me. I'm halfway through The Great Hunt and I also plan to finish The Dragon Reborn. It's a reread but I find it quite enjoyable because I read them long time ago and forgot lot of details.
Not really Sci fi but kind of sci fi at the same time, I am reading Among Others, as well as The Masterharper of Pern.
At least three people are currently reading something Pern related :)Finished The Illustrated Man. While many of the stories were predictable I still enjoyed most of them and the way they were written.
Started on the sequel to Dragonhenge, The Stardragons: Extracts From The Memory Files by Bob Eggleton. Turns out these "dragons" are actually sentient space probes but Eggleton convinced me they still count as dragons after reading the first story.
I think my last post was in the May thread. Since then I finished the second Traitor Son Cycle book The Fell Sword which took me a couple of weeks to get through...or rather the first half of the book took me a couple weeks and I wizzed through the second half in a matter of a couple days. Second half was definitely much stronger than the first. Rated the book 3.5/5 stars mostly for that reason. Since I hadn't had time to grab the third book right away I continued on my Forgotten Realms re-read with The Legacy and am about 100 pages away from finishing it. Probably the weakest of the FR books I've re-read so far. Anyways I have the next Traitor Son book now so will continue with that series after I'm done the Legacy.
Are we doing a side read of Revenant Gun in this group? I remember interest.....
Rachel wrote: "Are we doing a side read of Revenant Gun in this group? I remember interest....."I'm reading it as soon as im done my Diamond Age re-read.
Rachel wrote: "Are we doing a side read of Revenant Gun in this group? I remember interest....."
I plan to read it very shortly after it comes out Tuesday (pre-ordered ebook.) So, yes, I was planning on starting a discussion topic about that time and see who shows up.
I plan to read it very shortly after it comes out Tuesday (pre-ordered ebook.) So, yes, I was planning on starting a discussion topic about that time and see who shows up.
I finished:
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished The Legacy and gave it 2.5/5 stars. Not that it was a bad book just much weaker than the rest so far. The combat scenes were too repetitive and almost got the sense it was written just to set up the next four books. Just wasn't as fun or entertaining a read as the others.Now reading The Dread Wyrm, 3rd book in the Traitor Son Cycle. Only about 30 pages in but already feeling sucked into it. Plus super happy it starts off heavily focused on the Red Company.
Finished The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern on Friday, and I will finish Stardragons tonight, really enjoying the latter.Next in line is The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer for the group read. Wanted to get into the next Pern book but didn't want to fall so far behind in the group reads that we'll be doing the contemporary when I'm only starting the classic :)
Amazon reports that Revenant Gun has shipped! Better get through The Diamond Age and Semiosis faster......(and The Girl n the Tower and Into the drowning deep...)
I found Jennifer Government to be wickedly funny, a dark comedy satirizing (mostly) corporate greed. John Nike (people get their last names from their employers) is a sociopathic marketing executive who makes Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli seem like a Saint. (SF Aside: John Nike's favorite book is The Space Merchants. :) His plan to kill a few kids to boost sneaker sales triggers an almost farcical thriller with half a dozen characters around the globe. Engaging plot and I laughed a lot.
Strangely, I thought this was a recent book; I was surprised to see it was from 15 years ago. I guess I missed it. (That explains why there's no Jeff Amazon, Mark Facebook or Sergey Google.)
Strangely, I thought this was a recent book; I was surprised to see it was from 15 years ago. I guess I missed it. (That explains why there's no Jeff Amazon, Mark Facebook or Sergey Google.)
G33z3r wrote: "I found Jennifer Government to be wickedly funny, a dark comedy satirizing (mostly) corporate greed. John Nike (people get their last names from their employers) is a sociopathic marke..."Anything that references The Space Merchants is OK in my book. I'll add this one to my wish list.
I just kicked
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
Rating: 1 star
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
G33z3r wrote: "I found Jennifer Government to be wickedly funny, a dark comedy satirizing (mostly) corporate greed. John Nike (people get their last names from their employers) is a sociopathic marke..."Yep it's been around awhile. Funny enough I used to play the browser based game inspired by the book way back when but never actually read the book itself. Thanks for the reminder about this might add it to my to read list.
I finished Llana of Gathol on my eReader, though it was one of the longest Barsoom books I seemed to have zoomed through it.Started a free short e-story Charla Visits Earth by Dianne Astle which is tied in with the free Ben the Dragonborn e-book a read a little while back.
Since I've already read most of it on the way to work this morning, I'll finish it on the way home, so my next read will to finish the Barsoom series with John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It combines two books - John Carter and the Giant of Mars, and Skeleton Men of Jupiter
Andrea wrote: "I finished Llana of Gathol on my eReader, though it was one of the longest Barsoom books I seemed to have zoomed through it...."That's possibly my favorite book of the series. Like me, you want to read the complete series, but I would recommend skipping that last book. Keep the good memories. What goes on in Jasoom & Sasoom should stay there. Believe me!
;)
Jim wrote: "That's possibly my favorite book of the series. Like me, you want to read the complete series, but I would recommend skipping that last book. Keep the good memories. What goes on in Jasoom & Sasoom should stay there. Believe me! "Seems like the Giant of Mars one is written by Burroughs' son, so I was already planning to expect a difference. I'm a completionist so can't help myself, gonna make it to the end! Same with Pern though I've heard the Todd books aren't all that great.
thoroughly enjoyed
- now to come up with a decent review for it
All this Pern makes me want to go back!No time now, though. Finished Planetfall and it was such a great representation of anxiety it gave me a panic attack! The end let me down a little, but it was a wild ride.
Now trying not to be bludgeoned by Across the Nightingale Floor and Into the Drowning Deep. Both started great and then fell down into a vast pool of over-explanation that I'm hoping I find the stairs for soon.
I'm still making my way through Oathbringer. I'm not sure I'll get it done by the end of the month. And I thought Words of Radiance was a big book!
David wrote: "I'm still making my way through Oathbringer. I'm not sure I'll get it done by the end of the month. And I thought Words of Radiance was a big book!"I just finished Oathbringer at the end of May. Really good book.
Currently, in June, I'm doing a re-read of the Dresden Files. I'm on book 3, Grave Peril.
Jim wrote: "May the Force be with you!:)"
*whew* I needed the support...that was...well...worse than most fanfics I find for free online. In the process of trying to figure out why so many people gave it 3 or more stars I get the feeling that it was intended for kids and that people had fond memories of being their first experience of Barsoom? Which is the only explanation because if they had read any of the rest of the series Giants of Mars compares so badly. I don't think I've ever seen such blatant overuse of a word before! I swear the word "earthman" was used in each and EVERY paragraph, a word I'm sure almost never used by Burroughs himself (or at least so rarely it didn't stick). But at least it was short.
Since I'm almost there, I'm on to Skeleton Men of Jupiter which at least was written by Burroughs himself. You know, you don't always notice if someone writes well until it's compared to someone who doesn't. I can't even necessarily put a finger on what made one so bad and stilted and what made the other flow so naturally (there are a few obvious ones but not one that explained the overall feel I got). But at least I'm hoping to end on a slightly better note :)
I hadn't realized the "Giants of Mars" wasn't written by ERB. I don't remember much about them, thankfully. Good luck & I hope the skeleton men are better.
Currently rereading
, and enjoying it very much. Also reading a new Valdemar novel,
.
Last night i finished reading The Well of Ascension, to which I gave 4 stars in my review but it would really have been 3.5, I did not enjoy the book as much as I expected. I started The Hero of Ages, third book in the series, I hope that I will find it better.
I finished reading Head On (Lock In #2) by John Scalzi. I am reading The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book #1) by Robert Jordan. I plan to read Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway next.
Decided to pull Swords and Deviltry onto the currently reading shelf. I will plow through it pretty quickly once I finish the mystery I am finishing reading today.Re Giants of Mars, I think it was one of those Big Little Books. For a better faux Burroughs book, read the 25th Tarzan book, which was written by Fritz Leiber and adapted from a movie starring Mike Henry as Tarzan.
Finished Diamond Age.Now back to Pern before I fall too far behind the pace and can't make it through the full series by the end of the year - The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
Aha, was wondering why Skeleton Men of Jupiter had no real ending. Turns out Burroughs died before he could finish it. So it kind has an ending, and one can presume Carter finds his dear Dejah Thoris and returns to Mars with her, but you just don't get to see it firsthand (probably something would have gone wrong first and the story would be more the usual length of the rest of the Barsoom books).So while I was digging through all the random stuff I'd dumped on my eReader I found Hidden by Megg Jensen which has some dragon content so jumped on that next. Doesn't have the best of reviews though, will see...
All this Sanderson is making me eye my next series by him! I am thinking Warbreaker next still, but everyone's doing Mistborn, so maybe I should give book 2 a try out of a dutiful sense of band wagoning.While I contemplate how to fit in another enormous series commitment, I finished:
Planetfall which is like VR for experiencing anxiety, but unfortunately the story wasn't as strong as the atmosephere.
Across the Nightingale Floor which was either the prettiest disappointment or the grimmest gem of a book, I'm not quite sure.
Into the Drowning Deep is a Syfy-budget monster B movie in book form. You will like it as much as you like Syfy budget monster B movies, I reckon!
Now reading Raven Stratagem in anticipation of getting Revenant Gun. Loving it so far! Also listening to The Hate U Give and wanting to sob and/or punch things. Eye of the World is serving as a very nice bookstand while I finish the other books on my list first. Sorry, Rand. You are very slow.
Allison wrote: "Across the Nightingale Floor which was either the prettiest disappointment or the grimmest gem of a book, I'm not quite sure. "Been wanting to read that one for a while now (love stories set in feudal japan) and you've certainly given it an interesting review. Now I'm even more intrigued to read something that's a "pretty disappointment" or a "grim gem" :)
So many books, so little time...
I just started
Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
which also happens to be our Contemporary Group Read, starting today! I hope you will all join me.
Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy
Books mentioned in this topic
The White Dragon (other topics)The Shamer's Daughter (other topics)
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (other topics)
Senlin Ascends (other topics)
Sky Hammer (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Rachel Caine (other topics)Josiah Bancroft (other topics)
Jonathan Moeller (other topics)
Octavia E. Butler (other topics)
Connie Willis (other topics)
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(*Technically not summer yet; Also, your hemisphere may vary.)