Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion
What We've Been Reading
>
What are you Reading this December
So I finished reading The Hobbit
, and have now moved on to reading Circe
. I picked the book because it won one of the Goodreads awards, I'm not sure I am enough into it to really have gauged whether i agree with it winning, but I am enjoying it so far.
I finished: 
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum (Yes, the guy that wrote the Oz stories.) was a lot of fun. Highly recommended for all ages. Best of all, it's completely free of any taint of religion. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This month I have read A Girl in Time by John Birmingham and its sequel The Golden Minute and the graphic novel Lady Pendragon. Slotting into the Christmas spirit, I am currently reading Claus: Legend of the Fat Man
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 Future Home if the Living god which was...ok. I gave it three stars but it is still...shifting in my mind. A friend May have given me an unsettling realization regarding it .. still not sure
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 a TBR challenge by the end of the year. I think I’m gonna make it!!
Rachel wrote: "especially is you enjoy women POVs: nursing women, warrior women, wizard women, even the ‘bad’ side had women with agency! ..."
If you'd like to try a pregnant woman PoV, I suggest Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters. (It's one of those stand-alones with sequels involving other characetrs.) I'm pretty sure it's the only fantasy I've read with the protagonist pregnant throughout.
If you'd like to try a pregnant woman PoV, I suggest Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters. (It's one of those stand-alones with sequels involving other characetrs.) I'm pretty sure it's the only fantasy I've read with the protagonist pregnant throughout.
Finished Knight of the Demon Queen...I read that Hambly was having a dark time when she was writing these books, must admit I wouldn't want to have been in her head given these were the kinds of thoughts she was having. And maybe I should have stopped with the first two, because both of those were more or less standalones, this one ends with a cliffhanger however so I'll have to finish the fourth and last book after all.But before that *drum roll* the last Pern book! Sky Dragons by Anne McCaffrey (actually it was Todd). I decided that Dragon Codex won't count towards finishing the series, I just don't want to pay $30 for another hardcover, especially if it's as much a muddled mess as most of Todd's books became. I'll wait for the library to get a copy.
Andrea wrote: "But before that *drum roll* the last Pern book! Sky Dragons by Anne McCaffrey (actually it was Todd)...."
Congratulations. Pfew.
Congratulations. Pfew.
So tell us....how bad did it get in the end? How badly did Todd F it up?I grew up with Pern and I stopped reading when he started writing....
Dragon's Kin
This one is actually fun, it's focusing on watch-whers and for a younger readership. I'm not too impressed by the later books.
Rachel wrote: "So tell us....how bad did it get in the end? How badly did Todd F it up?I grew up with Pern and I stopped reading when he started writing...."
I was actually deciding if I'd keep all the Todd books and I think what I'll do is keep Dragon's Kin since it does cover a different aspect neglected by Anne, though I felt it still didn't fit into the what Anne set up around watch-whers in the core Pern books. It also doesn't get all tangled up with what comes next so is a nice standalone.
The rest got...weird. First, there is a LOT of time travel. In all of Anne's books they made a point about how dangerous it was (probably to avoid using it as a solution for everything). Now they had valid circumstances requiring it, but they started using timing it as if it were a daily thing to do...which also lead to the 5 books or so covering and re-covering and intertwining and twisting everything together since they just kept overlapping themselves, sometimes existing 3 or even 4 times at the same time. And the really bizarre relationships between the characters, it got absurd. Everyone is sleeping with EVERYONE else, sometimes multiples at the same time. I mean I know the dragons influence some of that, but it got a little silly, kind of this weird Weyr orgy thing. People riding other people's dragons (which in some way make sense, I mean the dragons are intelligent, why can't they temporarily trade riders if the need arises?) And lots of angst...maybe Clare is right and was directed towards YA readers? And in the current book, the dragons are living in trees...yes, trees holding up a full grown bronze. Uh huh.
The one thing that does carry through all the Pern books is that while the "enemy" is Thread, it's not a sentient thing, it's like the weather, something you can't outwit or really defeat. So it's really a story about relationships between the people on a relatively small scale, not some epic battle against an alien force or demon invasion. That does carry through all the books, and Todd's writing style (if not the content) does hold true to Anne's, I wouldn't be able to tell one from the other just by how they write. So while the plot lines are wonky, it still feels like Pern.
One quarter of the way through the last book...
I’ve read some reviews that feel the sexy part get really....off and grotesque and in pern like.
Rachel wrote: "I’ve read some reviews that feel the sexy part get really....off and grotesque and in pern like."I wouldn't say grotesque (it is all offpage anyway) but it is decidedly weird. I mean the people of the Weyr are more open sexually, what with being driven by your dragon's desires and with the green/blue riders all being male. I've often wondered what it was about Pern that produced so many homosexual men, seeing as the blues and greens are the most common dragon colour, and browns often fly greens too, just percentage-wise I'm not sure it makes sense. But still an interesting concept given Dragonflight was written in the 70's.
So one already has to have an open mind when it comes to Weyr life, but Todd took it to some kind of weird extreme, there is one mating flight that involved two dragons and four humans...followed by two more mating flights literally right after the first with three of the humans and the dragon (with other queens/weyrwomen)...and then all the characters have to angst over it for the next few books. A lot of obsessing over having babies and being pregnant (you'd think women in Pern never had babies before the way they needed constant watching from the first signs conception...I mean yes, need to be careful but still, you don't need to call in the Masterhealer if the baby kicks kind of thing, maybe because a man was writing it?)
Yeah that sounds....like I’d be kissed st what he’s done to Pern, makes no sense. Get off my lawn! Lol
@Andrea, well that sounds like the series turns into a spectacular trainwreck! I am enjoying reading the original books, and I think I'll stick with them! (Just finished Dragonsong so I'm well behind you!)
Cat wrote: "@Andrea, well that sounds like the series turns into a spectacular trainwreck! I am enjoying reading the original books, and I think I'll stick with them! (Just finished Dragonsong so ..."It's in a completely different time period (the third pass) so in many ways it doesn't add anything to the series so it's certainly not a necessity to read unless you're an obsessive completionist (or if you'd already bought the books without knowing what they were like in advance, like I did, hehe. Since I paid for them I kind of had to read them...)
Finished The Draining Lake some time on Thursday. Rated it 4/5 stars, quite good mystery and background story. I'm usually not really into Cold War stories but this was very well done and didn't turn into American "red scare" stuff thankfully. Have since been reading Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. First of what looks like will eventually be a series. Didn't have much reading time yesterday so still in the early stages. Very fun monster-hunting book so far
Recently finished Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus... what a bunch of drama queens, honestly!
Laura wrote: "Recently finished Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus... what a bunch of drama queens, honestly!"Amen
Finished Trail of Lightning earlier today. 4/5 stars very fun book. Kind of like low fantasy, future post-apocalyptic world s&s. Fast-paced book with really great worldbuilding. But at times felt a bit too rushed. Still highly enjoyable though and interested to read the next one when its out.Now reading a book I've been highly anticipating and waiting for the perfect moment to read: War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell
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.
*sets off the fireworks* Finished the entire Pern series (as it existed at the start of the year) including all the short stories! I was afraid, with only about 10 pages left in the book, that it wasn't going to wrap up the storyline, but it did, whew. Don't know if I'll try to read another 25+ in another series in a single year again but it was an interesting adventure. For all the faults in the later books, at least on the whole they are always optimistic in nature and even if some needed a kleenex box nearby, they were ultimately always positive stories. As discussed on another thread, that seems to be more rare these days.Now that there's only about a week left of the year, I still have 5 books in my to-read shelf, plus two I'm halfway through reading. Obviously not going to get through all those, but I will be able to fit A Diversity of Dragons
Five To Twelve by Edmund Cooper "The twenty-first century is drawing to an end. Earth's social structure has undergone a complete reversal - women dominate society and men have been reduced to the status of manipulated objects.
Into this world comes Dion Quern, a self-styled troubadour who refuses to conform to the social norm. But he discovers that women are superior to men in both bodily strength and number. And how can one man hope to change a whole society?"
The 'The 5th Wave' trilogy is about an alien invasion that kills almost the entire human race. My reviews of the three books:The 5th Wave
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Infinite Sea
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Last Star
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've read a couple of good books lately. At the Helm, Volume 1 is an SF anthology filled with great stories by new & emerging authors. It was unexpectedly good. I gave it a 4 star review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers only got 3 stars, but it was interesting. An Indian civilization in the future full of political intrigue & cool tech.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished War of the Wolf automatic 5/5 stars. Another amazing read from Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories!Will soon be starting The Silent Blade as I hop back on my Forgotten Realms re-read journey.
I finished: 
The Dark World by Henry Kuttner
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And I started reading:
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
Finished A Diversity of Dragons, had beautiful illustrations by John Howe (who worked on the LotR movies) and covered a lot of dragon myth and legends. Also nice was that McCaffrey included excerpts from modern dragon tales such as Dragon and the George and of course Pern, to show even more range in dragons. I was happy I read Dragonsbane since Morkeleb showed up, but there were other series I'll still need to read some other year. I wonder what other dragons would have made it in if the book was published only this year, I'm sure Temeraire would appear. There's a long list of dragon books in the appendix so I'll definitely have enough ideas to do another dragon themed reading year some day!Now to finish a series, Dragonstar by Barbara Hambly. I'm hoping that seeing as she needs to wrap up the series, it's not going to end on a completely depressing note, in fact things are looking up a little bit already.
Finished Dragonstar, definitely more upbeat than the previous too.Now for my last book of the year Brief Cases by Jim Butcher. Unless one of those stories happens to have a dragon in it, this is also the end of my dragon year :)
It's coming to the end of the month (and the year!) and I've just finished what will be my last book of the year I, Robot which I did really enjoy as a thought exercise. It also just seemed like a cosy book - you knew they'd figure it out and there would be an answer! And sometimes those cosy books are just what you want... as has been reflected in my re-reading of a couple of Redwall books - Mossflower and Taggerung. They are great kids books even if they do tend to make me very hungry. I also re-read Living Dead in Dallas as a bit of fluff urban fantasy. I read Dragonsong which I did really enjoy. I'm sure I'll slowly make my way through the rest of the series. Definitely not going to attempt it in a year like Andrea! (Seriously, well done very impressed you finished)
For group reads - I read The Courts of Chaos, and started The Fifth Season... sorry guys, still struggling through... And I'm going to get cracking on The Last Unicorn
And that's a wrap for the year!
Forgot to post but finished The Silent Blade by Salvatore, 3.5/5 stars or 3/5 by GR rating, the other day. Have since started reading The Spine of the World also by Salvatore. May take a break from my Drizzt re-read after this, well see
I finished my review of 2018 on Goodreads. It was a super year for my reading! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished both Tolkien's Beowulf and Butcher's Brief Cases!I didn't finish what I had on my e-reader even though I'm almost done with that too, but I only had about 15 minutes left of the year and wanted to spend it with family and not sitting in my room with my Kobo :)
So that ends my dragon year which was a lot of fun. And wow, there are so many other dragon books, I could do another 3 years of it. But time for something different now!
Andrea wrote: "Finished both Tolkien's Beowulf and Butcher's Brief Cases!I didn't finish what I had on my e-reader even though I'm almost done with that too, but I only had about 15 minutes left of the year and..."
Btw, I love that you've changed your profile picture to fit with your themes!
I finished my last two 2018 reads barely in time!
Cat wrote: "Btw, I love that you've changed your profile picture to fit with your themes!"Thanks! I love Michael Hague's unicorns.
Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy
Books mentioned in this topic
The Quest for Saint Camber (other topics)Camber the Heretic (other topics)
2018 on Goodreads (other topics)
The Spine of the World (other topics)
The Silent Blade (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Katherine Kurtz (other topics)Michael Hague (other topics)
Jim Butcher (other topics)
David Zinn (other topics)
David Zinn (other topics)
More...
Mike wrote: "I finished White Night today and moved on to Small Favor, the next book in the Dresden series."
I should be starting Small Favor pretty soon, too.