SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading in 2019?
This year I have read solar lottery by philip k dick, and red planet blues. I am currently reading six wakes and sorry to bother you.
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Later in the boo..."
I actually didn't figure out the world until book 2. The joy is in learning who these characters are and a pretty stellar bit of twistery that changed how I perceived events in the first 2/3 of the book. 1/3 I was confused and in it just for the cool sounding words. Second third I wanted to understand what was going on. Final third I realized what was happening wasn't as important as why, and by then I was in love with Jedao.
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Is sorry to bother you a book? If not, no bother!! Let us know what you think of Six Wakes, that was a group read in 2017.
Allison wrote: "I actually didn't figure out the world until book 2. The joy is in learning who these characters are and a pretty stellar bit of twistery that changed how I perceived events in the first 2/3 of the book. 1/3 I was confused and in it just for the cool sounding words. Second third I wanted to understand what was going on. Final third I realized what was happening wasn't as important as why, and by then I was in love with Jedao."That sums it up well for me except I am pretty sure I still don't have it figured out, I just liked the weird world.
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Haha! I thought about clarifying that I am not sure I actually understand it all, but then thought that sounded scary. Book 2 was more linear, so I could piece together how the important-to-the-story stuff worked, let's say it that way?
I've read the two short fiction selections for March and they're both good! Here's a link to the reading schedule for anyone interested.Besides other group reads, I finished two other books this month:
The Hallowed Hunt 4 stars
Exit Strategy 5 stars
Exit Strategy was probably the weakest of the Murderbot novellas, but I loved the series enough that even the weakest chapter still earns a 5.
Didn't read too much while I was on vacation, but I did manage to finish Galápagos and Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback. Galapagos was good, but not quite what I was in the mood for, so it took me a while. Tracks was a book that I fell in love with and devoured. Although I did have to set it aside for a little bit when (view spoiler).I'm just starting A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers, and I stayed up later than I meant to last night reading the first few stories. Which is a good sign as I usually have trouble with short stories. Also still plugging away on Stars Uncharted. It's a good book when I'm listening, it's just not one that I feel super motivated to pick back up and I find myself reading other things first.
Read Diana Wynne Jones' last book, completed by one of her sisters - The Islands of Chaldea - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2732386892.
Re: Ninefox- am I then the only one who loved it from the get-go?
I finished one book from the Nebula list: Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller. There are several elements I love in this book (Narration structure, gender representation, animal bonding, worldbuilding), yet I somehow wanted it to go in another, broader direction. So I was a bit sulking at the end. Still 4 stars from me.And now I have to consider if I start late to the Frankenstein party and as a result will be completely late for the A Stranger in Olondria BR, or just stick to short stories and get back on track with my BRs ...
Rachel wrote: "Re: Ninefox- am I then the only one who loved it from the get-go?"I loved it from the beginning as well! I tend to love books that just completely drop you in it and let you figure it out as you go.
I started Brown Girl in the Ring a couple of days ago. Been running around so much with my father in law and napping because I'm not well either and I haven't got back to it. Woke up with another headache this morning (it's probably the same one I've had for days actually) so it's probably not happening again. It's an ebook and they aren't good when my head hurts. I really want to start keeping up with rereads and BOTM on here. Hasn't worked out yet but I'm trying. In other news I ordered Library at Mount Char off the net yesterday. Also ordered The Invisible Library. I usually don't do that but I've been looking for them for over 12 months and enough is enough. Can't even find torrents of them. Oh and I joined a library. Very library orientated yesterday. Since I've pretty much ended up permanently moved here to the beach I thought I'd better join the local library. Got 3 books out. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, Dumplin' and C is for Corpse. Wide range of genres. And I reserved The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.
Jacqueline wrote: "I started Brown Girl in the Ring a couple of days ago. Been running around so much with my father in law and napping because I'm not well either and I haven't got back to it. Woke up with another h..."The Immortalists was interesting. I especially loved the first half of the book. I'd be curious to know your thoughts.
Also - yay for libraries!
Sarah wrote: "Yesterday I forsook all adulting to read almost all 500 pages of The Wolf in the Whale. It's been awhile since I did that."This sounds great, Sarah. Magical realism is something I've come to very recently, but the couple I've read, I liked a lot. Onto the "want to read" it goes!
Beth wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Yesterday I forsook all adulting to read almost all 500 pages of The Wolf in the Whale. It's been awhile since I did that."This sounds great, Sarah. Magical realism ..."
I hope you love it as much as I did! It's one of those books you want to shout from the rooftops and shove into every reader's hand just to get them to look at it.
I read the first part in San Fran about 12 months ago and I liked it but the ebook was getting annoying so I stopped reading it and went to the library where we live in the outback and ordered it. They only got it recently but I'm over here at the beach and couldn't get it. I noticed that the library here had it when I checked online to see if it was a decent library but it's at another branch so I have to wait. I've decided that it is an alright library. They have all genres together though so the whole fiction section is one big free for all. I think I'll have to go in with a plan when I go again. They do have stickers on the spines telling you what's in them though. Lots of heart stickers I noticed. But then again I do live in a retirement type area. Lots of old people around. Westerns and romance aplenty lol But they did have Dark Matter which I thought was pretty good for a small council library.
Wolf in the Whale is now on my "find it" list. So many books and so little time.
Yes- I’m currently searching for it too. I’m weird in that I usually only buy physical copies of books I’ve already read, and this one is good enough to own. (The copy I read was from a library.)It drives me CRAZY when libraries put all of their fiction in one place!! It makes it too difficult to browse and unfortunately both of my libraries are like that. The result is I have to know what I want before I go in and almost never end up just browsing. Well- I do browse but usually it just gives me something to add to the TBR for next time since what I wanted has already been reserved and picked up for that trip.
I buy physical copies of most of the books I want to read. Even though I have most of them as ebooks already unless I really have to read it right now or I'm on a plane or something I buy and read the physical one. Reading from screens makes me exhausted. Lately I've been starting books and liking them and I put them down at the end of the day and I don't go back to them. Which is annoying. I don't know.....my attention span just isn't what it used to be and what I felt like today I won't feel like again for who knows how long. Oh well. I am determined to finish more books this month. We'll see how that goes for me eh
Sarah wrote: "Let us know how it is. I don't want to say I've given up on hyped books, but I certainly stopped expecting so much of them. I'm waiting for others to read this 800 page monster before I decide whether it's worth adding to my TBR or not."Yeah, I'd be interested to hear as well. I picked The Raven Tower for my hyped new read this week, so I'll be waiting a bit for Priory.
I am really enjoying Raven so far. Since it's narrated by Adjoa Andoh, I decided to listen to it, which was a good decision because I think the second person narration is easier for me to deal with in audio. And there's some strong folklore/mythology elements that it feels really fitting to hear spoken aloud rather than read.
Jordan wrote: "Rachel wrote: "Re: Ninefox- am I then the only one who loved it from the get-go?"
I loved it from the beginning as well! I tend to love books that just completely drop you in it and let you figure..."
Me too! I had already read Conservation of Shadows before starting it (which I don't necessarily recommend, as there is at least one story in there that contains spoilers for the trilogy, but I didn't realize that at the time), which may have prepared me a bit for Ninefox Gambit, but I often enjoy starting stories without much idea of what is happening.
Sarah wrote: "Yes- I’m currently searching for it too. I’m weird in that I usually only buy physical copies of books I’ve already read, and this one is good enough to own."
This is definitely me too. I guess it partly comes from being spoiled by having an excellent library, but I just don't really like buying books that I'm not pretty confident I'll re-read.
Just finished Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach and it was pretty good, as first-halves-of-books-cut-right-in-the-middle-without-even-the-slightest-hint-of-resolutions go. But I mean, if you like your books to have second halves, maybe give this one a miss.
Rachel wrote: "Re: Ninefox- am I then the only one who loved it from the get-go?"No, I did too. But then I was already a fan of the author. Plus, I had already read the prequel short story, "The Battle of Candle Arc" beforehand.
I'm digging my way through The Dark Forest, as a follow-up to having read Three-Body Problem last year. In some ways it's harder, in others it's easier. There's a fascinating amount of Phillip K. Dick-ish conceptuality to this, I think, and I also enjoy the offhand references to Asimov's Foundation trilogy.
Listening to it, of course, because that seems to be a lot of what I do nowadays.
In digital print, I'm also a few chapters in to Ancillary Sword, but just like Justice, I'm having a hard time jumping in. I didn't find Provenance to be this hard to start, so I wonder what exactly it is about the Imperal Radch trilogy that's doing it to me. I am looking forward to breaking out of the beginning into what is sure to be a massively cool space opera, though.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: well, that was weird. Not as weird as I'd imagined though. (review)That makes three for Sixth Sense already. Go me! (I'm not expecting the streak to stay this strong from here on, unfortunately)
Up next: Valor's Choice, Katanagatari 1, chipping away at The Iliad of Homer
I finished The Travelling Cat Chronicles and AH GAWD all the FEELS! It was not at all what I expected and I was perfectly fine to have my preconceived notions modified. Highly recommend.I'm slowly working through A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe. It's not bad although the NASCAR vibe beginning kind of threw me off. I'm only on chapter 4 but it seems decently paced.
My light nighttime read is And Then Came Paulette and my audiobook is Leviathan Wakes.
Karen wrote: "I finished The Travelling Cat Chronicles and AH GAWD all the FEELS!"I'm planning on reading it later this month!
Working on The Female Man and that book, while very interesting, seems very much a book written in the 60s-70sI finished Scorpio, Volume 1: Scorpio & Scorpio Rising which was very interesting dealing with parallel worlds and time travel and aliens and humans and popes and queens
I finished The Dark Forest a couple days ago.. and holy crap, what a ride. I'm still processing. The translation is a bit over-literal and repetitive, and there are some serious narration problems with the audiobook (a lack of pauses between character viewpoint changes, for instance)... but freeeow what a massively smart and compelling and *utterly terrifying* set of assumptions and consequences.
Jacqueline wrote: "Oh and Dj....because I commented about Emma Fielding on here Facebook saw it and tells me that you can get them on video....don’t you just love FB and the spying on everything you do? Yeahhhhh"That's why I generally don't ever accept a facebook sign in offer. It is bad enough Amazon and Netflix thinks they can tell me what I want. And sometimes they are right.
Karen wrote: "Dj wrote: "Jacqueline wrote: "I haven’t read any of the Aurora Teagarden books but I love the movies. In fact I love most of those Hallmark mystery movies based on cozy mystery books."Movies? The..."
I don't mind that so much as long as they keep the feel and the intention. Ready Player One was like that. The book was amazing, but in parts would have made an awful movie if they had stayed to that image, instead they changed almost everything while still keeping true to the feel and the intent. I was most impressed.
To bad, it usually doesn't work that way.
Jacqueline wrote: "Well of course they’ve heard of Police Allison. They end up being hot and become their love interest lol Even the Australian series Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries does that. And so does its new spin ..."I really enjoyed the Miss Fisher series. I hope the modern version shows up on Netflix so I can give it a look. Will probably lose something with her not being quite as rebellious seeming as she was placed in the '20s.
CBRetriever wrote: "Jordan had a good excuse (he died). Finished a book in 2005, Diagnosed with cancer 2006, died in 2007. Since it appears he was publishing a book every 2-3 years towards the end, he wasn't late, jus..."I think that Martin got distracted and Rothfuss lost his train of thought.
Raucous wrote: "Since this is the "what else are you reading" thread I could also mention that I recently finished listening to The Chronicles of Amber (books 1 to 5 of Zelazny's 10 book Amber series..."Really? I read the Amber series when I first went into the Army and then tried to read it again about twenty years ago. The second time I found that I didn't care if any of the characters died, and found myself wishing at times that the main character would so that the story could come to an end. Only Random seemed to have any redeemable qualities about him.
Now because I will admit that I am not the easiest person to please and everyone has different views I would be interested in hearing what you enjoyed about it.
I will not judge. After all, every opinion has worth unless you're a political pundit. Then your opinion is just trash. LOL.
Dj I just went with RPO. I tried to forget how great the book was and went in not expecting anything. Ernest Cline actually wrote the movie as well so any changes were fine by me. Just like Douglas Adams always changed Hitchhikers Guide for the different formats.
Finally finished The Republic of Thieves, book 3 in the Gentleman Bastard series, and I'm tired of this series and will no be continuing with it. Book 2 was better than book 3 (I didn't like the Pirate scenes). Book 1 was far and away the best one in the series and it just went downhill from there.Along with reading Les Misérables, I really, really need to find a pleasurable read...
CBRetriever wrote: "Along with reading Les Misérables, I really, really need to find a pleasurable read."Same. Opening Atlantis was both dumb and dull and when Robin Hobb murdered the puppy in Assassin's Apprentice it immediately ruined my day. She can go straight to Hell as far as I’m concerned. The comic book Sidekick, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 was also grim, so I feel like I’ve been wallowing in shit all week.
Not a "what I'm reading/have I read" post but a "what I'm going to read" post. I'm back up at the Farm for a few days and our town has 2 great new bookshops, a second hand bookshop and a couple of department stores that have heaps of books. It's a University town and there are lots of people who actually read here. Anyway I went to the best department store and one of the bookshops and bought some books today. This is after buying 3 the other day when I went to the shops down at the beach. They only have my favourite department store down there. No actual bookshops. The first 3 are from Wednesday, the next 3 are from the nice bookshop and unfortunately weren't cheap, and the last 2 were from the department store here.The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
The Other Wife by Michael Robotham
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
I'm actually supposed to be buying new clothes for the upcoming Winter season but I can't find anything I like so I'm buying books.
Just finished The Raven Tower this morning and loved it so hard. It's hard to really say much more than that without spoiling things.Currently reading A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers and Rogue Protocol. I can't get enough of Murderbot. <3
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Jordan, yay!! I'm so glad you liked it, and to hear that Raven Tower is good. I'd seen some mixed feelings. I really can't wait to get back to Murderbot either!!
I just finished Black Leopard, Red Wolf and...eesh. So many great things but I don't think it was cooked long enough.
Finally started Brown Girl in the Ring this morning. Only 27 pages in, so just settling into the world and dialects.
Jacqueline wrote: "Dj I just went with RPO. I tried to forget how great the book was and went in not expecting anything. Ernest Cline actually wrote the movie as well so any changes were fine by me. Just like Douglas..."I think for the movie format it was a perfect choice to up the action, but I also liked that more of the characters were involved in solving the problems that came up. Seemed less of a one-person show that was.
I did have a small problem with everyone being in the same city, took away the international feel, but I can see why it was easier for the movie to do it that way.
Trike wrote: "when Robin Hobb murdered the puppy in Assassin's Apprentice it immediately ruined my day."(view spoiler)
I’ve just finished Django Wexler’s Shadow Campaigns series. It has 5 books in it and the first book, The Thousand Names, is on our group shelf. I enjoyed it a lot. It never quite reached the point of “taking over my life”, so none of the books reached a 5-star rating, but three of the books earned 4.5 stars and the other two earned 4 so it was a solid read.It’s flintlock fantasy and there’s a heavy focus on military action. Sometimes I enjoy that and sometimes I don’t, but this was a case where I enjoyed it pretty consistently. I thought the author wrote it well and managed to keep it interesting and easy to follow, and also kept the focus on the characters throughout. I liked the characters very much. There are a couple pretty strong female POV characters, one of which doesn’t show up until the second book. There’s also a good bit of politics, at least from the second book onward. There’s some magic and the main plot revolves around that, but it isn’t a huge presence in the series because most of the people in the fictional world don’t believe magic is real and the people who do find out about it keep it quiet.
Anyway, I enjoyed this series and I thought the ending was satisfying. Below are my longer reviews:
Book 1
Short story (The Penitent Damned)
Book 2
Novella (The Shadow of Elysium)
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Next up, I’m planning to read Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. I tried her work for the first time in Fall 2017 with In the Night Garden and its sequel and I really enjoyed those.
Travis wrote: "Trike wrote: "when Robin Hobb murdered the puppy in Assassin's Apprentice it immediately ruined my day."[spoilers removed]"
So people say. In which case, the way she did it was just as despicable, because she wants us to believe the dog is dead. They have a psychic bond, the old guy tells someone to take the pup away and kill it, and then Hobb writes, “There was a sudden flash of red pain, and then Nosy was gone.”
How. Is. That. Better?
Saving abused animals is what I do, and this video is quite literally the least traumatic experience I’ve had in animal rescue: https://youtu.be/cGV-Fzo5jQk (It has a happy ending. Mostly.)
Robin Hobb has my all time favorite fantasy animal in Nighteyes. Sorry the early scene put you off on the series, I think you would have liked him too had you gotten there. But the series is often brutal to Fitz, lot of other terrible things happen to him later on too.I still love the books immensely though.
Has everyone voted this month? I know you haven't! This is how you have a say in what we read next month. Both polls have been extremely close from the start, so anything is still possible!April 2019 SciFi poll
April 2019 Fantasy poll
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Later in the book the weirdness clicks into place, and I suspect the reason people like it is because they have that satisfying frisson of figuring something out and thereby feeling smart. It didn’t save the book for me, but I can see why that feeling of “Oh! I get it!” would boost enjoyment for many people.