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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - October 2018
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 The Iron Devils and (because 'tis the season) picked up Kirby McCauley's magnificent horror anthology Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror for the first time in probably 30+ years.
Finished with Age of Myth. Meh. I think I need to stay away from epic fantasy for a while.Starting my first Lavie Tidhar book, Unholy Land.
Finished Super Powereds: Year 2 by Drew Hayes last night. On to year 3. Book 3 is 41 hrs long on audible and book 4 is 60 hours. Normally books that long would take at least a couple of weeks depending on interest. Given how fast I finished the first two I expect I'll have both done by November as I couldn't stop listening.
I'm re-reading The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien before I read The Fall of Gondolin. I'm also re-reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
Super Powereds is great! =D I need to read Corpies. My fav by Drew Hayes is Second Hand Curses. It's well done. I thought it was cool that it was written to be an audio release first and the ebook came out after.
Working on spooky/seasonally appropriate audiobooks. Most of the way through The Haunting of Hill House, probably going with Octavia Butler's Fledgling next.
I really enjoyed Fledgling. It's different. I wouldn't say it's scary though.
Finished Hamilton's Salvation, and here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... It has a lot in common with Hyperion, both in the portals and the structure. Only book one of three though. I ended up doing a simultaneous kindle/audio read while I was home sick. Audio is 19 hours. A future Laser pick?
Just finished Echo, and just before that Seeker. I'm really enjoying Jack McDevitt science-fiction mysteries, two of my favorite genres. While the Alex Benedict books do follow a formula, they have a well-constructed story that pulls me along. And I find the mystery irresistible.
Trying to make a dent in my dead tree editions so I can find them new homes. Tried to start The Wolf by Leo Carew, but not really feeling it. Swapped it out to read Blood of the Four by Christopher Golden andTim Lebbon which I finished over the weekend, and now about 30 % intoTrail of Lightning byRebecca Roanhorse.On the audio book front I have about 2:45 left of Golden Son. I WILL finish this week......
Still waiting for my Lovecraft Country hold to come in. I’ve been First for 3weeks now.After finishing the excellent The Calculating Stars (I calculate 5 stars total), I read 7 graphic novels and 1 art book, and am now on to Irontown Blues, the return to John Varley’s cool Eight Worlds series. The first four chapters are great.
Calculating Stars
review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Monstress, Vol. 3: Haven (4 stars) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Art of Michael Avon Oeming: No Plan B (4 stars) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Action Comics (2016-) #1000 (3 stars) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Numbercruncher (5 stars) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Kill 6 Billion Demons, Book 1 (3 stars) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fantastic Four, Volume 1: New Departure, New Arrivals (2 stars) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 1: Vader (3 stars) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Trike - great review of the Calculating Stars. On the Dayton stuff... Kowal is good friends with Scalzi and has visited him... and he lives near Dayton. Wouldn't surprise me if she visited him on a recon visit.
Rick wrote: "Trike - great review of the Calculating Stars. On the Dayton stuff... Kowal is good friends with Scalzi and has visited him... and he lives near Dayton. Wouldn't surprise me if she visited him on a..."Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised that Scalzi set the interplanetary corporation’s HQ of Fuzzy Nation in Dayton.
Finished with Unholy Land - confusing despite the great alt-history background. Three stars.Starting something lighter this time, Moving Pictures.
Read The State of the Art by Iain Banks recently. It's a collection of shorts that exists mainly to justify printing a 100 page or so novella of the same name. The other stories are largely forgettable works. There's another "Culture" story that mainly exists to set up the idea that some people might actually choose to leave it. A macabre take on flower-picking. The book is worth reading for the novella alone. It's a take on the Culture visiting Earth that I found puzzling. (Note: That's introduced in the first few pages so it really isn't a spoiler.) First, it seemed to me that the Culture is the future of Earth's humans as they expand into space. Actually, Earth is discovered by the Culture in about the 1970s. This means that the human-dominated Culture is actually other human shaped and acting aliens. it's the Star-Trekification of a previously solid work, unnecessarily bringing in a galaxy that is humanoid for no particular reason.
Even with that, though, the story is amazing and well worth the read. The Culture doesn't really understand the crazed world of the 1970s and its constant threat of nuclear annihilation, extermination of large percentages of Cambodia's population under Pol Pot, wars everywhere and general despair of Earth's inhabitants. Yet they also find amazing creativity and have to ask themselves if meddling would benefit Earth.
We just finished Slan, and a good portion of the younger reading group here had little conception of just how apart SFF readers felt up through the 70s, really into the 80s until geek culture started to take off. In a similar way, those who have not felt the constant threats of that day might understand it via this story. In that sense State of the Art remains an important piece of SF history.
It also shows signs of age. There's a colleague of the main character that badgers her for sex to the point of blatant harassment. That would not be done today. The "humanoid galaxy" mentioned above. Large population hubs called Orbitals (small Ringworlds) that should be spottable with our telescopes. Even with these flaws the story gives the tone of a time that is past, but worth recalling if only to avoid its recurrence.
Keeping these separate: I was going to go on for some Indie works - Kate Danley's latest, a few books by Rob Kroese - but enjoyed State of the Art so much I decided to go on to the next Culture work, Excession. The blurb really got me with the idea of a trillion year old extra-universal object popping into our environs.An Excession is an event which greatly exceeds the ability of the Culture's Minds (large AIs) to comprehend. It could be a boon but just as easily a danger due to the gap in understanding. And if anything could be an Excession, a trillion year old object from another universe sure qualifies.
I'm now 70% of the way into a 500 page book and...well...not much has happened. There's Culture people acting Culture-y and a lengthy (LENGTHY!) travelogue for several characters. As for the Excession, it may as well be called "MacGuffin" since it really hasn't done anything yet. A major player got introduced in the first 10% and has pretty much sat around doing nothing so far. Another character was brought into the main plot for a reason that makes no sense given the medical science available to the Culture.
The book will probably end well - Culture books generally do - but it could move faster. I'm also getting a little sick of the endless travel that Culture books have. Yeah, I get it, big galaxy. It's still a meandering storytelling style that occasionally loses me.
Lariela wrote: "I'm re-reading The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien before I read The Fall of Gondolin. .."are you reading the illustrated version? I love the tale of Gondolin in Silmarillion so am now thinking to get the dead tree edition.
It's been a bit of a slow month book-wise, but I managed to finish Waking Gods, the second in the 'Themis Files' series. My reading progress was a bit exponential, in that I started quite slowly but the closer I got to the end the faster I would read to get there!It's very much the middle of a trilogy. Times are hard, things look bleak for our heroes, and so forth, but I'm still enjoying reading these and there is a little hook at the end to get you excited for the next book.
I finished Lovecraft Country. I didn't love it. My review.Not sure what I'm going to read next. I got The Calculating Stars today but I think I need more of an escape.
Dara wrote: "I finished Lovecraft Country. I didn't love it. My review.Not sure what I'm going to read next. I got The Calculating Stars today but I think I need more of an escape..."
Define “escape”. Maybe we can think of something.
Trike wrote: "Define “escape”. Maybe we can think of something."Something fun and light without the prejudices of the current world.
Dara wrote: "Trike wrote: "Define “escape”. Maybe we can think of something."Something fun and light without the prejudices of the current world."
In my TBR I have Year Zero, which is about aliens obsessively listening to humanity’s music until a galactic court orders that all galactic civilizations pay royalties to Earth... which results in us effectively owning the galaxy.
I actually have that. I've had it for years but never got around to reading it. I'm kind of dipping my toes in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath and seeing if it takes.
Maybe try something by Christopher Moore or Jasper Fford Dara.
Trike wrote: "In my TBR I have Year Zero, whi..."
Like I needed something ELSE for the TBR pile, Trike!
*adds to list*
*sobs quietly*
Tsk tsk, John. Adding interesting books to the pile is a good thing. =D Bwahahah
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Lovecraft Country - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
NOS4A2 - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
The other thing I do when I'm in the mood for a break is grab a novella (http://publishing.tor.com is a good start) or an anthology whose theme sounds interesting. That way I can get a little palate cleanser without committing to a full book.
Finished Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror and started The Assyrian by Nicholas Guild, which is historical fiction but scratches a lot of the same itches as, say, A Game of Thrones-style epic fantasy.
I finished Halloween Carnival Volume 1 and started Six Scary Stories. Was hoping to read more, but there's enough real horror going on around me, that I might need to go full escapist (back to Molly Harper or Darynda Jones.)Need some funny sci fi or sci fi romance recommendations so I can add more to the sci fi challenge.
Leesa, try the Callahan series by Spider Robinson or Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi or Mindswap by Robert Sheckley.
Funny that both Agent to the Stars and Year Zero have been mentioned in the last couple days. I actually think they compliment each other very well, and would almost make a good "double bill". The writing styles are pretty similar, use humor very well, and both are about the entertainment industry and aliens.
Finished We Have Always Lived in the Castle and I really liked this book. Very creepy and has a good vibe to it. Will probably get to the monthly book next.
Very high recommendation from me for the 3-book ‘Centenal’ cycle by Malka Older that starts with Infomocracy . It is essentally a thought experiment about a near-future form of world government in which global populations are organized into units of 100,000 citizens each, and the global intrigue resulting from multiple political parties vying to persuade these Centenals to vote them into power.That may sound like a dry academic exercise, but the author keeps the plot moving and gives us a number of fantastic characters who occupy different roles in this system. It really is a lot of fun to read. More than a little secret agent style action, combined with cool futuristic tech, and racing to uncover dangerous conspiracies.
Just started An Echo of Things to Come. This the second book of James Islington's debut series. I have enjoyed it so far!
Well, today is new Scalzi day (in the UK, at least - I think it may have been earlier in the US) so I have started reading The Consuming Fire.
Stuck with Moving Pictures. Early Discworld novels are just not as good as the rest... I will leave it for a while, since I have Blindsight's buddy read coming up. Gonna be my first Peter Watts novel.
I am reading Damn Fine Story: Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative and enjoying it immensely.
Just read "Every Heart A Doorway". A really enthralling novella.
Colin wrote: "Well, today is new Scalzi day (in the UK, at least - I think it may have been earlier in the US) so I have started reading The Consuming Fire."The book is already driving the white supremacist Nazi snowflakes into a tizzy and it’s been out for two days. Heh.
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The book is already driving the white supremacist Nazi snowflakes into a tizzy and it’s been out for two days. Heh. "
I'm not sure why that is, other than their general disdain for him, but I'm sure there was something in there that upset them that just didn't register with me when I read it.
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I took a bit of a genre break and read Anne of Green Gables, which I had not read before. I don't know why it took me so long. I loved it! Also my library hold on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society audio book came in. It was a fun, quick listen and way better than the Netflix movie.Now I'm reading Dracula for Halloween and resuming this month's pick on Audible.
Just finished An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. This was a fun roller coaster of a read. I highly recommend it!
Just finished Horrorstör. The design and layout of the book is really cool and well done but the characters/dialogue leave a lot to be desired. I really like Grady Hendrix from hearing him on various podcasts too so it was a bit disappointing. Also picked up My Best Friends Exorcism to read sometime in the near future.
ATalkingDogMovie wrote: "Just finished Horrorstör. The design and layout of the book is really cool and well done but the characters/dialogue leave a lot to be desired. I really like Grady Hendrix from hear..."I liked both, I think My Best Friends Exorcism is better.
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The Sword and Laser
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Charles Stross (other topics)Chuck Wendig (other topics)
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I'm currently about half way through Lovecraft Country and enjoying it.
Next up will be Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter and then Dracula.