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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - November 2018
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Rob, Roberator
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Nov 01, 2018 02:53AM
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I'm about to go to the World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore today, but once I come back, I think I'll continue with Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence (I'm finishing up Three Parts Dead as we speak).
So this is me just being extremely nit picky, and is not the fault of anyone who will see it here. The red text after the threads title lists the number of new posts (and this is actually really helpful ), and it also says “reply from moderator”. But if the moderator is the one who starts the thread it is not a reply. If the text said something like “post from moderator” then it would be accurate in both instances. Anyway back to your regularly scheduled monthly book readings.
Finishing up my Indie binge with the 650 page "Powers of the Earth." Then it's on to the final Murderbot installment, the third book in the "Howl's Moving Castle" series, and another Culture book, "Look to Windward."
New Laundry novel out from Stross. Very good so far....
When I finish The Passage, and start Emma Newman second book in her Planetfall series After Atlas, That will finish my laser challenge, Then start on my sword challenge with The Poppy War and the new book by GRRM.
I finished The Warded Man and really enjoyed it. I will probably read the second book next year. Monday I'm on to Zeroes. I'm going to listen to the audio version on hoopla but I bought the e-book too. Looking forward to it.
The Labyrinth Index was excellent as evidenced by the fact that I finished it at 4am. Off too... Something. Not sure what, yet
I was struggling with reading time for reading with my eyes and so switched from reading Secrets of Nanreath Hall in paper form to reading in audiobook - and I finished in about 3 days. It wasn't sword or laser but wasn't bad, even if I figured out "the twist" fairly early.I've also listened to two Hannah Swensen books lately. I've needed light books with some life stuff going on.
I'm hopping on a plane tomorrow for work and have Zeroes on Kindle and audio, and another two Hannah Swensen books in audio, too...
Finished Powers of the Earth. This is a different take on the "Lunar colony breaking away from Earth" idea. In this book the moon colony grew out of people running away from Earth. Rather than revolting like in Moon is a Harsh Mistress, they face an attempted takeover from an impoverished Earth that bluntly wants their presumed wealth.The book is Libertarian to its core. I learned about it at Worldcon during a consuite conversation when a fellow congoer pointed out the acceptance speech the author provided for winning the Prometheus award that year. I did love L. Neil Smith's expressly Libertarian book Probability Broach and several of the sequels were pretty good, so I picked it up.
This book covers what could happen when committed Libertarians have to organize to fight off a common threat. It's where ideological rubber meets the road. There are some pretty interesting discussions of historical precedents, not just the American revolution but also the founding of Iceland by refugees from Harald Fairhair back in the 10th century.
Many current sociological trends are sent up. There's a conniving female President who used to be a talk show host. Combat divisions include handicapped people. Trust fund kiddies go around lecturing refugees on how they should live while those refugees think they're coping just fine.
At 650 pages the book has a whole lot of time to explore these ideas. The pace crawls sometimes despite lengthy action sequences.
There's a nascent artificial intelligence and some uplifted Dogs, leading to a discussion on what constitutes personhood. All well done, but a fair deal more detail than I needed.
At the end of 650 pages the book ends on a cliffhanger. I can't fault the author since Peter Hamilton does this regularly. While Travis Corcoran isn't quite in the same league as Hamilton, he's fairly close and that's an accomplishment in itself. There's a few too many conversations as data dumps, but then, that's a common problem in SFF.
The book explicitly references Moon is a Harsh Mistress several times. One character is fairly obviously based on the provocateur Bernardo de la Paz. Just to confuse me, there's a character named Mike who ISN'T the lunar computer.
Science is handled well, lunar orbits and Earth to Moon physics work. Reduced gravity features in several scenes.
I'll show up for the sequel and likely the third book, being written now. But, since nothing is resolved at the end of the first book, I feel a bit like I just read a 650 page prologue. That's partly personal experience. I'm an old fart who remembers books that started and ended within 200 pages, and if you went over 300 you had better be established and have something significant to say, like with Stranger in a Strange Land. Plenty of good reading in this book, just went on too long for my tastes. But that's a sign of the times.
I just watched the Movie “Darkest Minds” without knowing it had been a book. It was an awesome story so that book series went on my to read list before the end of the year. I’m at the very end of “Something Wicked This way comes” and of course I have Stephen Kings Elevation to squeeze in, and the next book in the Renegade series. It’s going to be a busy next couple of months. I want to hit 700 total read books by the end of the year.
Just finished World-Building by Stephen Gillett. This is a non-fiction book on how to design scientifically accurate planets and solar systems for use in science fiction stories. It's part of a series from the 90's, edited by Ben Bova, which includes other books about space travel, time travel, and aliens and their societies. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot and if I ever get around to writing my best-selling, galaxy-spanning novel it will come in handy.Reading Zeroes now.
Finished up the final Murderbot novella, Exit Strategy. It's short, read it in two days and promptly returned to the library so the next patron can have it.These have been fun little snippets of story featuring a highly capable Security Bot with crippling social anxiety. Along the way Murderbot spends significant amounts of time trying to save humans who just don't have any sense in a crisis. Parts of this are a great analogy for geek life.
This installment ties the threads together nicely. The first half dragged a bit, mainly because it felt like a retread of what was done in the other installments. The second half broke new ground and led to a satisfying conclusion. And, finally some humans WEREN'T inept!
The door was left just a little bit open at the end, in case there is a clamor for more Murderbot. And there might be, it's a great setup. I dunno if people will keep paying so much for it though. The novella format was great to start with. Following the success of the first, I expected a book. Well, we got one, kinda, but it was in three installments. Each of those cost the same as a full length novel. I dunno how long Macmillan will be able to convince people to do this. Looking at the Amazon sales rank, currently 1,405 in all of Amazon a month after release, perhaps a long time.
John, just so you know, there's going to be a Murderbot novel in 2020.
Thanks David! I took a look at Amazon reviews right after writing the above and the main gripe I saw was cost. It was a nice gimmick. People in general really like this world. I'll be glad to see it continue.
Phil wrote: "Just finished World-Building by Stephen Gillett. This is a non-fiction book on how to design scientifically accurate planets and solar systems for use in science fiction stories. It'..."That sounds interesting. To the TBR list, Robin!
Finished Lovecraft Country - I gave it 4 out of 5 eldritch squiddy horrors. 🦑🦑🦑🦑
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals - 4 out of 5 dinosaurs!
🦕🦕🦕🦕
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Also finished Howling at the Moon - 5 out of 5 dieselpunk robots!
🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Currently reading Marvelocity: The Marvel Comics Art of Alex Ross - which is already going to be 5 out of 5 Spider-men. 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷
Finished up The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I found it very well done and wrote up this review.Continuing on with Alliances since my hold came up on this while reading Harry August.
In addition to Zeroes, which I finished up on Saturday, my November appears to be shaping up as follows:1. The Hollow of Fear, the 3rd Lady Sherlock book in audio. Not S&L, but I'm loving these gender swapped Sherlock stories.
2. The Monster Baru Cormorant in hardback from the library. While I remembered enjoying the first book, I had to read some reviews to reacquaint myself with everything.
3. The Sudden Appearance of Hope in audio. This was suggested to me a while back, and I figured I'd give it a go since I could get it from the library without waiting at the moment.
4. The Grey Bastards in hardback. I have no idea if I'll like this one, but I plan to pick it up after The Monster Baru Cormorant.
I also started The Wolf by Leo Carew a while back and wasn't really invested in the characters. I may try picking that up again.
My library hold of the non-fiction Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis came in, so I’ll be getting to that soon.
Lemming The Gray House (way too long and has no plot) and ended up reading two stories with similar titles: The Truth and The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling
Yeah, I liked The Gray House, but I also knew it was more of a slice of life story going in--though I don't know at which point you stopped because there are some great scenes and revelations in it that made me tear up.
Yesterday I finished Record of a Spaceborn Few. It wasn't as tightly focused in terms of plot and characters as the other two books in her universe were. Yet it was still an intriguing exploration of the culture she's created. I did like how she tied the lives of the characters she introduces together. I hope she writes more in this universe.Pondering what I want to read next...
@David H: Maybe around 120 pages. I did like the writing, the premise, and the translation was fantastic, but it was way too much work. I put it back on my TBR so there's a chance I might come back someday.
I finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal and it was phenomenal. I love it so much. This is my sci-fi Jade City. My review.Jumping into The Fated Sky next. Then I'll have terrible book hangover.
Finishing Persepolis Rising, and getting ready for a journey into the Stormlight Archives.
Dara wrote: "I finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal and it was phenomenal. I love it so much. This is my sci-fi Jade City. My review.”Same! Perfect summation.
Why aren’t we GR friends? Request sent!
Dara wrote: "I finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal and it was phenomenal. I love it so much. This is my sci-fi Jade City. My review..... You were right about Jade City. Got it on the list.
Yessssssss! Things continue to go according to plan... ::evil laugh::
Dara wrote: "Yessssssss! Things continue to go according to plan... ::evil laugh::"Our takeover plan is nearly complete! Mwa-hahahaha-
Um, did I say that out loud?
Nevermind, people. Nothing to see here. Move along. These are not the droids you’re looking for.
I am almost finished with Blood of Assassins! This series is one of the best I have read in a long time. RJ Barker is a new author, but his writing is fantastic. I encourage everyone to check it out. I am also reading Wrath of Empire.
grabbed the concluding volume in Corey J. White's novella trilogy Static Ruin. Fun romp of science fantasy and priced as novellas should be ($4 per volume and yes, I'm looking at the Murderbot series at $10).
Finished Firefight on Kindle last night and California Bones on Audible this morning. Loved both of the stories (though the narrator of California Bones not so much).Looking forward to delving into this month's pick next.
I finished the latest Murderbot entry Exit Strategy a while ago . It was as great as the previous entries. I slogged through Infomocracy and appropriately enough finished last night. It has some novel ideas and concepts but the plot was not exciting enough to get me to keep wanting to come back with it. Though I did it in audio and it was better than paying attention to my horrible commute. I will not be continuing with the series. Next up i'll read the S&L pick Zeroes and finish off Gundam Origin with Mobile Suit Gundam: The ORIGIN, Volume 11: A Cosmic Glow and Mobile Suit Gundam: The ORIGIN, Volume 12: Encounters
Read the third book in the Howl's Moving Castle series, House of Many Ways. Decent as a standalone. It's another tesseract house and a retread of the "new people in magic building" concept. The book starts off with new characters, but soon enough Howl, Sophie. Calcifer and a few others up.I wanted more of the world building with the connection to the outside world and didn't get it. The two sequels are fine as stories, but they don't advance the universe. That left me disappointed even though the individual stories were okay.
Finished Nobody Cares. Got this book after hearing about it recently on a podcast (I used to follow her on Twitter, when I still used Twitter, and loved her sense of humor) and it did not disappoint. Some of the essays are better than others but her writing style is so casual yet unique. She's very much that friend who annoys you by hating things you love but does so in an infuriatingly funny way making you laugh anyways. There's a lot of brutal honesty and self-reflection and the essays range from funny and whimsical to deeply personal and emotional. She touches on anxiety, empowerment, growth, alcoholism, mental health, death, things she just casually hates, feminism and also a few pages on her secret lifelong relationship with Leonardo Dicarprio that is not yet aware of. Highly recommend! After finishing Nobody Cares I trekked onto Cloud Atlas. I genuinely enjoy it so far but the beginning has been such a slog because I've had to pop open my phone dictionary at least 15 times in the first 10 pages. I consider my vocabulary pretty decent but I unfortunately was not familiar with harridans or tatterdemalions yet in my life. I'm assuming this is just because the beginning is old-timey and that once I get past this it will move along with less interruption *fingers crossed*
I'm listening my way through a 40 hour complete collection of Hans Christian Andersen stories (technically speaking a "Sword" book).The quality of the stories is variable and his parents weren't kidding when they called him Christian
Had a lull in the library pull list & don't want to start in on a few Indie sequels yet, so on a wild hair I decided I would finally get acquainted with Conan the Barbarian. All of Howard's originals are available on Gutenberg press...oh excuse me, only Gutenberg Australia. Now don't be naughty and go there if you're not an Australian. I mean, just because the author has been dead for 80 years and left no heirs that you'd be shorting.But anyhoo, I found all of the original run of Weird Tales plus one in Fantasy Fan collected in a book available at the LAPL. Am now about 40% of the way through, representing half of the titles. Some longer works in the later stories.
I can see the reason for the enduring interest in Conan. He's a compelling character, amoral but not unmoral, and lives by his own code. He is better than the average warrior but not so far out of reach as to be superhuman. Conan seems to owe a lot to John Carter of Mars, and one story involves an isolated city that lives on superscience suspiciously like a later Barsoom story.
Conan created the Sword and Sorcery genre, and the stories stand up today. Conan works best as "Conan the King," a former warrior who governs well because he understands the lower classes as well as the machinations of the aristocracy. In only one case did I find him unsympathetic, in one of the "pirate" stories when he killed a ship captain without apparent reason.
The stories take on a sameness when consumed all at once. Conan barely escaping death on account of his sinewy sinews; force of attack overcoming skill; a supernatural menace, dimly understood but killable only by one of Conan's strength and wiliness; and half the time a beautiful female, who is routinely incompetent for the adventure they are on. If one of my library books come in I'll take a break and read it first, not because the stories are bad but because they deserve to be savored. Each installment follows a pattern, yes, but the differences are enough to make each story stand out.
It's worth noting that Howard went out of his way to avoid the racism of the times. Where he has extradimensional black skinned almost-human evil characters he notes regularly that they aren't African (Howard says they weren't "Negroes" which was about as unracist a term as you could find in the 1930s.) I give Howard a lot of credit. In this he was Burroughs' and Lovecraft's better.
Finished Zeroes. I found it kind of mediocre. I liked most of the main characters, except Reagan, and the plot was mildly interesting. On the other hand the violence was over the top and it was written in present tense which I strongly dislike. I wish that trend would die.Reading Shadow Puppets now.
John (Taloni) wrote: "It's worth noting that Howard went out of his way to avoid the racism of the times. Where he has extradimensional black skinned almost-human evil characters he notes regularly that they aren't African (Howard says they weren't "Negroes" which was about as unracist a term as you could find in the 1930s.) I give Howard a lot of credit. In this he was Burroughs' and Lovecraft's better."And he was only 30 when he killed himself in 1936. His output in such a short time was amazing, and it would have been interesting to see his reaction to WWII and the Civil Rights era.
^Yeah, certainly Howard's work up to his death was high quality. Hard to say if he would have built on it or drifted off to one-note mediocrity. I tend to think he would have done well. Howard starts out with two "Conan the King" stories and then recasts him in other roles, so I think he could have branched out. He did have other works.I read things about Howard and don't know how much to agree with them. For instance, it's been said that he was unable to cope on his own, which is why he lived with his mother. Well, he got $130 for the first Conan story which is about $2K in today's cash. That by itself indicates he wasn't earning enough to live on his own, so different interpretation. He's also said to have channeled Conan while writing, and felt he *had* to write or Conan would punish him. Not sure if that is allusion or not.
He's also said to have relied emotionally on his mother. That he killed himself when she fell into an unrecoverable coma lends credence to that idea. Or perhaps it was his moody temperament that made him a good writer and that temperament overcame him. In any case, a great writer cut short.
Recently finished the audiobook for True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking, read by Don Coscarelli. I'm a huge fan of his work (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep, The Beastmaster, John Dies At The End, etc) and this was a real treat listening to. Also really enjoying Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis and The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. Very much looking forward to reading the next Milkweed Triptych book and so sad that this wraps up the amazing Broken Earth series.
Having a hard time getting into Zeroes, possibly because reading alongside the other two, which I absolutely love.
Finished with The Truth, one of the best Discworld novels I read so far. Too bad I soaked the book so I decided to leave it in the resort's library where I stayed in, hoping others will enjoy it as much as I did. Anywho, I started a book recommended to me because it has archery in it, The Ruins of Gorlan.
Mod
The Calculating Stars - ★★★★☆ - My Review
The Fated Sky - ★★★★☆ - My Review
Foxglove Summer - ★★★½☆ - My Review
Children of Time - ★★★★☆ - My Review
I also did finally manage to finish reading The Queen of Crows with my eyes, though it's been a bit of a struggle - ★★★½☆ - My Review
I finished The Fated Sky. My review. Spoiler: I loved it and I miss it and now I'm gonna go have some serious book hangover.
Finished The Blood Star and am now heading happily back into fantasy with Selections from the Writings of Lord Dunsay.
Dara wrote: "I finished The Fated Sky. My review. Spoiler: I loved it and I miss it and now I'm gonna go have some serious book hangover."Dara, this reminded me of a Twitter exchange I was part of recently:
Meredith Ireland
@MeredithIreland
Bookish person: 50 pages remain. The end is nigh. No distractions. No sleep. Neither hell, water wraith, nor skunk fire will keep me from the quest to conquer this book
Normal person: you can just finish later, you know
Bookish person: first of all, how dare you
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John Taloni
@JohnTaloni
Also Bookish Person: 15 pages remain. It is the epilogue in which I find out the ultimate fate of the characters. Though the main plot is over I can not face this book ending. I shall wait until the morrow to read and savor this last morsel.
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The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Calculating Stars (other topics)The Calculating Stars (other topics)
Holes (other topics)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (other topics)
The Labyrinth Index (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Bernard Cornwell (other topics)Larry Correia (other topics)
Claire North (other topics)
Hans Christian Andersen (other topics)
Mary Robinette Kowal (other topics)
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