What Else Are You Reading in 2019? Showing 1,151-1,200 of 3,237

[CBRetriever]

it's a bit steampunk as well as fantasy

[Beth]

Wyrd Sisters: the latest in my excessively slow read-through of Discworld. It's going to go faster after this, I imagine. Three Rincewind stories in the first five books nearly broke my will...let's just say he isn't my favorite. But this one was great. (review)

As a side note, finishing this one finally, finally put me into the black on my "read vs bought" challenge for 2019. Feels good!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

WOOO!! Congrats!!

[Dj]

Beth wrote: "Wyrd Sisters: the latest in my excessively slow read-through of Discworld. It's going to go faster after this, I imagine. Three Rincewind stories in the first five books nearly broke m..."

I just finished Wyrd Sisters recently as well. I enjoyed your review of the book. Like you I am also starting from the beginning of the series and found the first ones a tad slow. Although I do love the way he turns a phrase. The descriptons of the river in Anhk-Morpak is classic.

[Michele]

Pam wrote: "Read Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...."

I too felt like it didn't quite live up to the very cool concept/premise :(

[Michele]

Nathan wrote: "I have just finished Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, which is now up there with my favourite Discworld books. So now I'm going to move on to Soul Music as would really like to see this Death series t..."

I love Death (MY NAME IS BILL DOOR.). Along with the witches, my favorite denizens of Discworld.

[Michele]

Allison wrote: "Thanks, Rob! I won't write him off just yet, then. But I'm'a need a minute. I'm out of whiskey and Great British Bake Off...."

Now that IS a tragedy :)

[Michele]

Working on book 3 of GoT - A Storm of Swords. Almost to the Red Wedding, not sure I want to go through that trauma again lol

[Lowell]

Iirc, the book is less shocking during that event...

[Leticia]

I just finished Damned and that is a crazy weird book LOL but very funny. It's like "The Breakfast Club set in Hell."

[Andy]

Kaa wrote: "How did you decide which reading order you were going to go with [for the Patternmaster series]?"

To each their own. But for me...

As soon as I heard that pub order was different from book order, I strongly preferred pub order. Regardless of the the in-world order of the books, I wanted to see how the story and world evolved in Butler's mind.

Before learning about pub order, I had already read 2-3 chapters of Wild Seed (in-world book 1, pub order book 3). I'm sorry I read those chapters. Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind (pub order books 1 and 2) set up some intriguing things, and I would have enjoyed puzzling over those. As it is—that little bit of Patternmaster already gave me enough background to spoil things.

Not a huge deal, but I'd rather see how Butler meant things to be revealed than seeing how things happened in-world.

[Gary]

I finished reading One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence and The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan. I am reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. I plan to read Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow next.

[YouKneeK]

I recently finished The Day of the Triffids. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected to. I had some issues with the believability of the premise, but it didn’t prevent me from enjoying the story. Before reading it, I had the general impression that it was about apocalyptic plants. What I didn’t realize was that in chapter 1 nearly everybody in the world goes blind. That added a completely different element to the apocalyptic story than I’d expected or experienced before. The main character was likeable, as were some of the others. It even has some reasonably intelligent and useful women, which you don’t always get from 1950’s fiction. My full review.

However, I did find out too late that, despite no warning to the contrary, the Kindle version I purchased is an "Americanized" version with 11,000 fewer words and various words changed. It felt like a complete story when I read it, but I was pretty mad to realize that after the fact! Someday I'll have to read the real book. If anybody has this book and is wondering what edition you have, this link has details on how to tell.

I’m now reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.

[Lost Planet Airman]

YouKneeK wrote: "I recently finished The Day of the Triffids…
...despite no warning to the contrary, the Kindle version I purchased is an "Americanized" version with 11,000 fewer words..."

That is good to know, thanks! Forewarned is forearmed!

[Michele]

Leticia wrote: "I just finished Damned and that is a crazy weird book LOL but very funny. It's like "The Breakfast Club set in Hell.""

LOL! Well that's sold me on it for sure XD

You might also like Inferno.

[Matthew]

What in the world is an "Americanized" version of a book???

[YouKneeK]

Matthew wrote: "What in the world is an "Americanized" version of a book???"

In this case, it’s a book originally published in the UK that was revised to use more familiar American terms because the publishers apparently think we’re idiots. Although one of the odder things in the link above is that they replaced the word “tadpoles” with “polliwogs”. I don't know if that's a regional thing, but I’m much more familiar with the word tadpole than I am with polliwog.

[Lost Planet Airman]

Matthew wrote: "What in the world is an "Americanized" version of a book???"

Oh, like you've never noticed how colourless and humourless we Yanks are?

[Michele]

Matthew wrote: "What in the world is an "Americanized" version of a book???"

Pretty much just what it sounds like: a book published in another English-speaking country (e,g, the UK) adjusted for American audiences. For example, in England it's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone but in the US it's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Another example: The fabulous "Planet Earth" series was narrated beautifully by David Attenborough for the Brits but re-voiced by Sigourney Weaver (with a somewhat simplified text) for us Yanks.

As YouKneeK says, it originates in the idea that US audiences prefer content they don't have to put out any effort to understand -- a mistaken assumption, apparently, since even us Yanks preferred Sir David's dulcet tones :)

[Jacqueline]

Everyone prefers Sir David....

[CBRetriever]

the Sigourney Weaver version might also have been an abridged version...

I do remember one woman in the US help forums ranting about this book with all the misspelled words and bad grammar and when asked to provide a link to the book, it turned out it was a UK published book. And I saw similar posts on the UK forums about books being in US English.

Myself, I'll read whichever one is available or, as was the case when I lived in France and had both the US and the UK Kindle versions available, whichever was cheapest. I did have to resort to the Oxford English dictionary for the meanings of some words in the UK versions though, like placcy A lot of times I simply went to the UK forums and asked there, especially if it was a slang term.

[Matthew]

Thanks for the clarification. Ugh... That's annoying, but I suppose it's also not surprising. After all, I've worked retail before, so it shouldn't surprise me. :P

[Dj]

Mike wrote: "Matthew wrote: "What in the world is an "Americanized" version of a book???"

Oh, like you've never noticed how colourless and humourless we Yanks are?"

I don't know about colourless and humourless we are, but I know we are U less.
LOL

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

With only the most gentle and kindly of sentiments towards our UK members, you've heard the joke about why American English changed the spelling from English spellings, yeah?

Because we're better off without u.

=P

[Dj]

Allison wrote: "With only the most gentle and kindly of sentiments towards our UK members, you've heard the joke about why American English changed the spelling from English spellings, yeah?

Because we're better ..."

LOL. I think I might have heard it a time or two in the past, but it wasn't something that I recalled until reading this.

[Phillip]

I'm about to start Rocannon's World

It will be my first Ursula K. Le Guin book. I'm excited to begin.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Oh wow! Well, if you think it's good, I think it only goes up from there, Phillip!

[Thomas]

Kaa wrote: "I just finished Children of Time and loved it. I felt like, in a lot of ways, this was the book that I was hoping Semiosis would be and just wasn't. The exploration of social dynami..."

I recently re-discovered LeGuin myself! I just read her Orsinian Tales. IMHO, they have the beautiful language and thought-provoking ideas one expects from LeGuin. I also enjoyed the concept of writing "realistic" fiction in an imaginary country. How was the Hainish Cycle?

[Travis]

I just started The Shadow of What Was Lost. So far it's hitting all the epic fantasy sweet spots, and I can tell it's going to be fast and fun.

The Lathe of Heaven was alternately thought provoking and silly, like hanging out in a college dorm room cross-legged around the bong.

The Electric State is one of those books I really wish I was reading with others. There's so much to discuss, and I could not get over the haunting beauty of the art work. The ending, for me, was absolutely perfect, but I also really want to know how others found it. One of those read-in-one-sitting books that I sometimes find so rewarding.

The Raven Tower. OMG! I just loved every bit of this book. The narrator is such an astonishing success, and the way Leckie manages to be at once serious and wryly funny was immensely rewarding.

Finally, if you're in the mood for litfic and enjoy neuro-diverse narrators, I recommend Convenience Store Woman. It's another very fast read and another remarkable narrator.

[Ariana]

Travis wrote: "I just started The Shadow of What Was Lost. So far it's hitting all the epic fantasy sweet spots, and I can tell it's going to be fast and fun.

The Lathe of Heaven was..."

I also loved The Raven Tower! I agree, the narrator is amazing. It did take me a little while to stop flashing back to the Radch, though, because Eolo was her Tisarwat-voice, but I have listen to those more than once, and they definitely made an impression on me.

[Travis]

Ariana wrote: "Travis wrote: "I just started The Shadow of What Was Lost. So far it's hitting all the epic fantasy sweet spots, and I can tell it's going to be fast and fun.

[book:The Lathe of He..."

LOL! I'd meant the book's narrator, but, yes (!), I listened to it, and Adjoa Andoh might be my new favorite all-time reader.

(We need different words for the first-person narrator of the novel and the narrator/reader of the audiobook...)

[Ariana]

Travis wrote: "Ariana wrote: "Travis wrote: "I just started The Shadow of What Was Lost. So far it's hitting all the epic fantasy sweet spots, and I can tell it's going to be fast and fun.

[book:..."

Hah! Yeah, "audio narrator" vs. ... "narrative narrator"? Both are great.

[Jacqueline]

I started Raven Tower and my mind kept darting back to the Radch. Might have been too soon after reading the Imperial Radch series. I love Ann Leckie and I will start it again later in the year.

Picked up One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence on Thursday. Read the first 12 pages Friday morning before having to run around doing stuff and life has got in the way since. Yesterday was one of those “what can go wrong will go wrong” kind of days. And then I’ve been too tired to read when I get home and have been binging Netflix. Going to have another go later today. What I’ve already read is riveting though. He gets you right from the start.

[Rob]

I finished my reread (listen) of the original Riyria series with Heir of Novron. The first time around I not only gave it 5 stars (something I rarely do), but I added it to my favorites shelf.

I was happy to see it held up on my reread. I was finding reasons to keep listening each day, and stretching my memory to recall details I had long forgotten. It made for a few surprises and aha moments with regards to his current First Empire series Age of Myth.

Here's my original - ★★★★★ - (Review)

[Andy]

I've finished Mind of My Mind and will be moving on to Wild Seed. I've also started All Systems Red, the first book in the Murderbot Diaries. So far it's a lot of fun.

[Anna]

Murderbot! <3

Make sure to join in the collective squealing here.

[Tim]

Just finished Morning Star and have to say awesome first trilogy, waiting a month to read iron gold so can jump into dark age right when it comes out on audible, in the meantime going to check out lost gods by Brom, first fifteen lives of harry august, scythe, and maybe skyward or unsouled the cradle vol 1. So far lost gods is starting out good, a bit dark and different but its good traveling through purgatory.

[Krystal]

Thomas wrote: "I've just finished Blood of Elves. I've had this hold for a while but am really pleased to have finished it and that there is an adaption on the way which I can watch later. See my r..."

I loved the first book in the series, I didn't realise it eventually opened up into proper novels! Now I'm excited to get to this one!

[Whitney]

I'm currently reading Magic Triumphs

[Don]

Finished
"The Immortal" by Roger Zelazny.
Liked It.
"Outland" by Dennis Taylor.
Liked it.
"Embers of War" by Gareth
Powell"
Liked it.
"A memory of empire" by Arkady
Martine.
Liked it.

I am most curious to see where Arkady Martine takes her finely imagined universe. I would be reading "Outland 2" now, if it were out, Dennis Taylors writing style is fun and familiar.

[Don]

Gary Gillen, prepare to meet Americas first action hero George Washington. Chernow does a fine job, hope you enjoy that journey.

[Beth]

The Snow Queen: this one's on the group shelf and was also a buddy read with a few folks in the group. Tiamat was a cool setting, and one of the strongest things about the book. Unfortunately, it didn't quite hit the landing trying to be both a fairy tale like-melodrama and tightly constructed SF. And the writing style was really tiring. (review)

[Krystal]

I finished The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson and it was just as amazing as everyone has been telling me it is!

Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Robert]

Yesterday I finished Sister Light, Sister Dark. I knew it was the first book in a trilogy, but I thought it might be a stand-alone that became a trilogy. It's not a stand-alone, but it is a good book and I plan to get to the other books sooner rather than later.

[Lizzie]

I'm currently reading A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay and I'm caught between wanting to devour it whole in one piece, or savouring it slowly word by word. I've been so excited for this book for quite a while, and I am so glad to be able to say it is everything I hoped for! Having been a long time Guy Gavriel Kay fan, and an art history student too, this is just amazing. Still just over a quarter to go, which I will probably finish this evening.

[Travis]

Lizzie wrote: "I'm currently reading A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay and I'm caught between wanting to devour it whole in one piece, or savouring it slowly word by word. I'..."

Wow! I cannot wait to get a copy of this, and I'm so happy to hear it's meeting expectations.

[Gabi]

I finished Making Money by Terry Pratchett, which I apparently never read before. I stopped reading his books when his illness became apparent, cause I feared it would somehow dim the bright light he shone on my life. Making Money, though, was a good one, even though it lacked the deep thoughfulness I admire in his best works.

I raced through Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the sequel to his outstanding "Children of Time" and again he delivers! Tchaikovsky is one of the best SF authors to date, hands down, if not the best. I adored how he again took biological science and brought it to its uncompromising evolution. Simply brilliant, and exactly what I wanted to get ouf of an SF novel with emphasis on science (not like some others I've been reading lately … )

After that I listened to the rest of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, which I stopped to squeeze Tchaikovsky in. I loved the beginning of the book and the narration of the audiobook was very well done. But when the magical school part started it began to drag. Well, at least for me, looking at the raving ratings I'm in the minority here. I'm just no fan of magical school stories. I'm thinking about how to rate it, cause again that's a problem of myself and not of the book.

[Phrynne]

I am about half way through Jim C. Hines' latest Terminal Alliance. It is good and very different from his Magic ex Libris series which I loved.

[Sarah]

Ive been curious about Terminal Alliance. Glad to see a good endorsement!

[Jordan]

Phrynne wrote: "I am about half way through Jim C. Hines' latest Terminal Alliance. It is good and very different from his Magic ex Libris series which I loved."

I loved Terminal Alliance! Now if Terminal Uprising would just come out in audio so I can listen to it too.