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?
The Oxford Comma was always a thing. And then it wasn’t. But it should be. Anyhoo....
Trike wrote: "Just about done with Oryx and Crake, continuing my streak of Super Happy Fun Reads.... my cataracts have progressed to the point where I can’t read printed type. I can only see the iPad by zooming in until seven words are on a line."
I've had the second and third books in this series on my TBR list since Oryx and Crake came out. It's been a long time since we listened to that one (so long ago that it was on some weird now obsolete physical format) so I fear that I'll have to start over. I'll need to be in the right place mentally for a series like that and I'm not there right now.
Ouch. Nine words per line for me. I can still read printed books if the light is bright enough but the last time I tried this I discovered that my thumbs aren't good at holding them open anymore. I think sometimes about donating my print books to the library. But... Books! This won't be easy.
I've just started listening to You're Going to Mars! (Audible only). It was highly recommended by a friend but I'm not far enough into it yet to say much beyond observing that the narrator is very enthusiastic.
Kindles or Nooks and digital books work quite well as they can increase the size to two words per line on a paperback size page (3-4 if in landscape mode) and they're very light. I'm slowly replacing my paper books with digital books. it's even easier with classics as there are scads of collected works by an author for $1.99-2.99
Finally finished my nighttime reading book that I started in 2017:William Styron, The Collected Novels: Lie Down in Darkness, Set This House on Fire, The Confessions of Nat Turner, and Sophie's Choice. The first two went really slowly, Nat Turner had about a 4 month hiatus when we moved and Iraced through Sophie's Choice which was excellent
Read book 1 in a cosy crime mystery series - The Herring Seller's Apprentice and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2760711382.
Dj wrote: "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."I just finished The Second Chronicles of Amber (the Merlin cycle) and I felt a bit of what you described by the end. I enjoyed the Corwin books (The Chronicles of Amber) because I identified with the main character, found Zelazny's universe both interesting and creative, and was pulled along by the plotting. Plus they had sentimental value. None of that was really there for me with The Second Chronicles of Amber. I did enjoy some of the women he introduced but they didn't play much of a role in the books in the end.
I finished reading Star Marque Rising by Shami Stovall, and I thought it was an excellent example of Space Opera Science Fiction.
Raucous wrote: "Dj wrote: "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 character..."Fair enough. I am always fascinated by how two people look at the same thing and have different views. Thanks for sharing that.
I love the groupshelf! There are such jewels to be found. In my endeavour to get into the 3 digit realm for read books there, I make my way slowly and somewhat randomly through the titles.Now I have read The Carpet Makers which had me in awe. Seldom did I encounter such a structurally perfect execution. Mind blowing!
Gabi wrote: "I love the groupshelf!."Very cool, I didn't know there was a groupshelf. Where do I find that? [Edit: never mind...found it!]
Listening to Boneshaker, which is so booorrrring that I’m already cranked up to 1.75 speed. Wil Wheaton as a chipmunk is much more entertaining.
I just finished A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers. While there were some good stories, I thought it was a mixed bag.See my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Trike wrote: "Listening to Boneshaker, which is so booorrrring that I’m already cranked up to 1.75 speed."Interesting—I enjoyed that book and remember it moving along pretty well. Then again, it was a few years back, and I was reading rather than listening. Maybe I quick-read the slow parts without remembering.
Andy wrote: "Trike wrote: "Listening to Boneshaker, which is so booorrrring that I’m already cranked up to 1.75 speed."Interesting—I enjoyed that book and remember it moving along pretty well. ..."
It didn’t help that I listened to Scott Westerfeld’s similar but vastly more entertaining steampunk/biopunk books Leviathan and Behemoth a couple weeks ago. Boneshaker really suffers by comparison.
Boneshaker suffers by being boring and stupid... YMMV
Trike wrote: "Boneshaker really suffers by comparison."colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Boneshaker suffers by being boring and stupid...
Ah well.
It's been 7-8 years since I read it to my son as a bedtime story. Maybe I'm recalling it through his reaction to it, and/or maybe it was better suited to a younger audience. I don't remember it clearly, but I would definitely remember if it was a beloved book (not) or if it annoyed me (also not). I do know we had fun reading it, though.
colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Boneshaker suffers by being boring and stupid... YMMV"
Hmmm, YMMV? I am fairly certain that I missed that one in my Acronym training class.
Your Mileage May Vary
I gave up on
Darklands and
The Complete Rhenwars Saga: An Epic Fantasy Pentalogy.I'm giving
Neverwhere a shot.
Eric wrote: "I'm giving Neverwhere (London Below, #1) by Neil Gaiman Neverwhere a shot."A few years ago I tried Neverwhere but didn't get far. A few weeks ago I tried again and really enjoyed it. I think his foreword helped me the second time—reading that he was trying to do something like Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz, but for grownups.
Hope you enjoy it.
Neil is currently holed up somewhere writing. He posted a picture of a deer watching him through the window on Instagram this morning. His wife commented that it was waiting patiently for his next novel soooo it looks there will be something on the way eventually. I'm halfway through Coraline and have read The Graveyard Book, Ocean at the End of the Lane and Good Omens. Not too bad reading one author after only 16 months back reading. I read 85 books last year. Mostly completely different genres and authors. Only 7 finished this year but I'm halfway through another 14 or so. Really need to finish some of those before I pick up another one. Yeahhhh like that's going to happen lol
Also I picked up my beautiful signed copy of Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence to read yesterday. I got Holy Sister last week so it's time to get back to Nona. Brilliant series. Red Sister (the first one) was....well...brilliant. One Word Kill, his first foray into sci fi comes out soon. Can't wait.
Andy wrote: "A few years ago I tried Neverwhere but didn't get far. I think his foreword helped me the second time—reading that he was trying to do something like Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz, but for grownups."Thanks for that interesting perspective. I've done the "didn't get far" thing with this book. That was with the audiobook version and it doesn't include the foreward. It feels like it's time to try again with that in mind.
Forgot to post that I finished P T Barnum's autobiography recently, The Life of P.T. Barnum and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2760789909.
Since my last post, I’ve finished the last two books in Connie Willis’ Oxford Time Travel Series, Blackout and All Clear. These two books tell one story, but stand alone from the previous two. Several historians travel back in time to witness various World War II events, mostly in England, but things naturally go wrong.Blackout had a rough and rather boring start, but it picked up once it started focusing on events in the past. It eventually became a fast read that was hard to put down, and All Clear remained the same. I did have a major complaint about part of the premise that I thought was excessively illogical even for a time travel book, but otherwise I enjoyed the books. They were more serious, with a tone closer to that of Doomsday Book rather than the campy humor of To Say Nothing of the Dog, but more hopeful and less depressing than Doomsday.
My longer reviews:
Blackout
All Clear
Next up I’m starting Haze by L. E. Modesitt Jr. This will be my first book by him.
Raucous wrote: "I've done the "didn't get far" thing with this book. That was with the audiobook version and it doesn't include the foreward. It feels like it's time to try again with that in mind."I hope you enjoy it this time around.
Read Clark Ashton Smith's collection Lost Worlds: Volume 1: Zothique, Averoigne and Others and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2764449018and
book 1 of Midori Snyder's Oran trilogy New Moon - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2769771728.
Once again under the title of “what I’m going to read”....On the weekend I visited the big city (Brisbane Qld Australia) for my son’s 30th Birthday. His local shopping centre (Mall) has 2 rather excellent bookshops and since I had saved my money from the last few months I went Book shopping. My Daughter in Law, who came with me on this shopping expedition, sent my son and husband a picture/gif or something with Belle in the Beast’s library telling them that this was me at that moment. Yeahhh probably.
Anyway I came home with
Days of Blood and Starlight and Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor.
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton and
The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton (sequel to The Belles)
I also bought the hardcover 20th anniversary edition of HP and the Chamber of Secrets by JKR and The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French for my son for his 30th birthday. I’d read The Grey Bastards last year and loved it. Hopefully he does too. And I also got him the LEGO model of the Saturn V rocket. He’s really a rocket scientist but is currently working on trains. Not much call for Aerospace Engineers here at the moment so he’s falling back on the Mechanical Engineering part of his dual degree. Anyway the rocket is 1 m tall (39 inches in old money). And the book to make it is 150 pages long. Could be a fun build. His fiancée bought him a build it yourself R2D2 that you can control.
I’m currently reading Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence.
Jacqueline wrote: "I also bought the hardcover 20th anniversary edition of HP and the Chamber of Secrets by JKR ..."20th? It's really been that long? Wow. I feel old...
That LEGO Saturn V model looks amazing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxtUr...
(Long video but I think that the opening shot is worth seeing.)
It does look amazing. I was trying to find a lego model that he would like and I couldn’t find anything and I was about to leave and looked up and there it was. I was so excited about it and I knew it was perfect for him.
the Lego pop up books are interesting too - it was a kid from Portland Oregon who designed themhttps://www.koin.com/news/oregon/geor...
Started on, Leviathan Wakes, book one of an eight book series and Im hooked.Leviathan Wakes
James S.A. Corey
Over the weekend I finished The Fated Sky. I quite enjoyed it. I think I would like to read a bit more about the characters and the alternate timeline. However, the next books I plan to read will be one of Gail Carriger's novellas and Theodora Goss' latest.
Trike wrote: "Currently listening to A Wizard of Earthsea, which I’m enjoying quite a lot."Who's reading it?
Jacqueline wrote: "Neil is currently holed up somewhere writing. He posted a picture of a deer watching him through the window on Instagram this morning. His wife commented that it was waiting patiently for his next ..."There's a great piece on YouTube of him reading one of his creepy short stories live at the NY Public Library :)
So let's see, recently I finished Lud-in-the-Mist (a lush and beautifully written fantasy, though I'm not sure how I feel about the ending); Rear Window And Four Short Novels (we read a Woolrich for a group read on Literary Darkness and I was impressed so gave this a try; excellent tight-wound suspense and more than a sprinkling of creepiness!); and Neverworld Wake (picked up at random at the library, quite a good YA). Now enjoying a re-read of Inferno, a modern re-telling of Dante :)
Michele wrote: "Trike wrote: "Currently listening to A Wizard of Earthsea, which I’m enjoying quite a lot."Who's reading it?"
Harlan Ellison.
I just finished Haze by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. I was not a fan. It seemed really promising when I started it, especially the part about exploring a mysterious planet which is a SF trope I haven’t read much of in recent years, but I was often bored by it. It’s very political, but not the fun kind of politics with intrigue and nuances. I never cared much about the main character or his story, although there were brief moments here and there when I did get interested. This was the first book I’d read by the author. I’ll probably try his Recluce series eventually to see if that appeals to me any better. My longer review.Next I plan to start The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin. I really enjoyed her Broken Earth and Dreamblood books. This series is older and I’ve seen mixed reactions to it, so I’m trying not to set my expectations too high. In any case, I feel pretty confident I’ll enjoy it more than my last book. :)
YouKneeK wrote: "Next I plan to start The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin. I really enjoyed her Broken Earth and Dreamblood books..."I finished her How Long 'til Black Future Month? recently and was totally blown away by how amazing every single story was. I'm planning to start on THTK next as well.
I absolutely devoured The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan, which is book 2 of the Memoirs of Lady Trent.Absolutely delightful - it took the overall theme of the first book and smoothed and polished and engaged with the very concept very deeply. It reminds me of a not-quite-so-stuck-up Amelia Peabody, but as a fantasy travelogue rather than a historical mystery.
I'll definitely be blowing more audible credits on the rest of the series.
Right now, I'm going to focus on finishing off the Hugo Nominee Novels and then back to working on the club bookshelf.
I read The Rosewater Insurrection which was every bit as innovative, blunt, weird and real like the first part of the series, And I read The Bone Witch, which was nothing of the above. On the contrary, it cemented nearly every prejudice I had about YA novels and left me so grumpy about the loss of those 8 Euro, that I instantly started Butler's Patternmaster series, instead of waiting for a BR. I read them in published order with the chronological last one first. Patternmaster is Butler's debut novel and hell is this a difference to the Bones Witch. She even managed to write a whole story without talking about clothing every other chapter ... (Sorry, still grumpy ^^')
Lol Gabi XD It’s nice to have solid authors that won’t disappoint, like Butler, to fall back on when you’ve been annoyed with something else you’ve read.
Michele wrote: "I finished her How Long 'til Black Future Month? recently and was totally blown away by how amazing every single story was."I’d like to read that one eventually as well. I’ve seen a lot of positive comments about it. I’m not always the biggest fan of short stories, but once in a great while they make a nice change of pace.
Starting A Discovery of Witches, with some slight trepidation. Not very far in, but already rolling my eyes a bit at the description of the vampire guy.
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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The Oxford comma is a thing because without it the universe crashes and burns. Trust me, I'm an editor.