SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
What Else Are You Reading?
>
What Else Are You Reading in 2019?
Diane wrote: "Having just finished Sabriel, I’m now starting Downbelow Station. Loved Sabriel."Yes I loved Sabriel and some of the sequels. Haven't read beyond the first two. Need to go back and re-read to do the lot in one go!
Read another Clark Ashton Smith short story collection, Lost Worlds: Volume 2: Atlantis, Hyperborea, Xiccarph and Others - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2867995776and
Volume 1 of Joe Abercrombie's trilogy The Blade Itself - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2934335538.
makes a "arroooo" noise reminiscent of the agitated Godzilla growl.
just put the "home distillers workbook" by Jeff King to practical use.
Read Blood Heritage by Sheri Tepper and posted a review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2939750061.
Jacqueline wrote: "I’m just getting back to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I started the audiobook ages ago but got an hour into it and realised that I hadn’t really heard any of it. I bought..."I found the other two books in the series better than the first. The first has kind of an episodic style that means there isn’t much of a plot besides all the characters getting to know each other, but the other two seemed much tighter in execution.
I’m currently reading The Priory of the Orange Tree. I think it’s great, but I petered off about halfway through because I read a lot of it in a short amount of time and then got exhausted.
I’ve finished The Odyssey by Homer. It wasn’t a terribly fun read for me, but I think it was worth the time. I admire the concept of epic poetry recited orally, and the fact that something written almost 3000 years ago still has such an influence today. It’s just that the story wasn’t all that interesting to me. The parts from Odysseus’ odyssey were already pretty familiar to me and didn’t add much to what I already knew of them, and those parts took up less of the poem than I expected. The other parts I was less familiar with were also very predictable due to blatant foreshadowing. Odysseus isn’t the most likeable character, either. I already knew he wasn’t the noble hero I had pictured him as when I was first exposed to some of his stories in 7th grade, but I did get tired of his constant whining, boasting, and lying. My review.Next up, I plan to start my next large series read, Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Cycle, beginning with Magician: Apprentice. This was actually the book that got me hooked on fantasy back in my early 20’s, about 20 years ago. I tried it after playing a fun and unique computer game that was based on the books. I didn’t read the whole series because only half of it had been published back then and I never got around to seeking out more of his work, but I loved it at the time and am both excited and nervous to see how it holds up now that I have more fantasy under my belt. I expect I’ll still love the earlier books, but I remember some of the later books I read as being less enjoyable, so we’ll see how it goes.
Read the follow up to Sheri Tepper's 'Blood Heritage', The Bones and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2939751877.
I finished The Migration, by Helen Marshall (sorry on the app, ergo no links) and will take up Downbelow Station again.
I took a fantasy intermission with Jane Eyre, and it was better than I expected, to be honest!My review is here if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I’m about a quarter way through THE SPARROW by Mary Doria Russell
One of these days I’m going to reread The Sparrow, MadProfessah! I really liked it.
I've finished The Dark Tower, the last book in Stephen King's series of the same name. What a journey it was, with highs and lows, a few bumps in the road, and copious amounts of wtf-did-I-just-read.
Catching up on some reviews:First I listened to Aftershocks, which I really liked. I had been sort of losing steam on his Frontline books, and I thought this is the best thing he's written to date. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Next I listened to The Wolf's Call. Given my disappointment with Queen of Fire I was a bit apprehensive about this one, but that turned out to be unwarranted. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Finally I read The Poppy War, which I really enjoyed. I found the first part to be my favorite, but I still enjoyed the later parts enough that I plan to continue the series at some point. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Diane wrote: "One of these days I’m going to reread The Sparrow, MadProfessah! I really liked it."I'm too late to save MadProfessah*, but I'm planning to read The Sparrow later this year. I'll try to let folks know!
*Well, not really, but it sounded cool to say. Maybe if I wait, MP will want to join in, though.
Working. On. Words. Of. Radiance.
Recently. Started. Oathbringer.
Seanan just about broke my brain with alchemy, mathematics equations and timeline jumps in Middlegame. On to Vicious by V.E. Schwab to give my brain a bit of a rest. :)
Carolyn wrote: "Seanan just about broke my brain with alchemy, mathematics equations and timeline jumps in Middlegame. On to Vicious by V.E. Schwab to give my brain a bit of a rest. :)"I loved Vicious and its sequel Vengeful. The short chapters jump around alot, but the book is easy to follow. Fortunately it's not your typical superhero saga - this story definitely has a dark side!
I have Vicious and Vengeful sitting out in my bookcase. Really need to get to them. Still currently reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I’m really loving it so far. You can see why she got best series at the Hugo Awards. During the last week the dog has had the zoomies a lot and wants me to play with him more. Must have been the full moon or something. I’ve done well to get 300 pages into the book. I did start listening to it on audiobook ages ago and got over an hour in but couldn’t remember anything much so I bought the book. I’m having a better time of it with the book.
Great to see that Artificial Condition won best Novella. Yay Murderbot 😃 Still got to get around to The Calculating Stars. I better get onto that. Best Novel. Both of them won the Locus, Nebula and Hugo awards for this year. The trifecta. Not too shabby.
I am reading SFF poetry for the Elgin Award. It occurred to me that I have about 50 collections to peruse by Sept. 15th! Flying Solo, Herb Kauderer - this was fun! Follows an alien flock of birds and one in particular as she/they infiltrate Terra, and begin the avian uplift and takeover. Pretty funny, but I’m not sure it’s an award contender.
Candle and Pins, Jacqueline West - I’m not finished yet, but it’s gone into my finish later category for genuine consideration.
Poetry for the Neon Apocalypse, Jake Tringali. This one is wild and psychedelic, more experimental than most. It’s not the easiest poetry to parse but interesting. Going in the “to consider” pile.
I've read The White Road by Lynn Flewelling which has the great advantage of featuring my fav fictional pairing, yet I must admit that the plot wasn't really ingenious. This series is my comfort reading.Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber which was terrific in the ant parts and terrible in the human parts. I still gave it a high rating, cause my mind just eliminated the human plotline.
I wouldn't be surprised if Tchaikovsky used it as inspiration for his Children of Time.
I re-read A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, this time as read aloud for my boys and in the German translation out of the illustrated collection (I needed an excuse to buy the collection even though I already own all of the books in original language) To my surprise I enjoyed it a lot more this way and we went straight on to the next book.
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson was a cleverly done mix of fairy tales and Nordic saga told in a very fitting prose.
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold was a pleasant surprise. I read it cause the second part won some awards and I try to read through as many award winners as possible. Even though it deals with a lot of fantasy topics I don't care for, the not taking himself too serious tone of the mc was delightful.
This Is How You Lose the Time War and Crime and Punishment are on hold for the moment cause both are more labour than love for me.
Instead I shoved away my reading schedule and dove into a much anticipated re-read of Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
I just finished Queen of Ruin, which wasn't quite as good as Grace and Fury but still a good read.My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
~ Giulia ~ wrote: "I've finished The Dark Tower, the last book in Stephen King's series of the same name. What a journey it was, with highs and lows, a few bumps in the road, and copious amounts of wtf-di..."One of my favourite series!
I have been completely absorbed this last week by the Locke & Key graphic novels by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. My friend lent me the Omnibus edition of books one and two, which is a beautiful hardcover, but said she was waiting for the next two to come down in price. I was so hooked I just had to carry on, and discovered that they were on Kindle Unlimited - hooray one month's free trial! But then, horror, I got up to book 6 and it wasn't on Unlimited!! And I loved the story enough to be fairly confident I will re-read, and so I have treated myself to Locke & Key Slipcase Set - which I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of, so I can finish this amazing, creepy, shocking, and beautiful story! (And of course lend them to my awesome friend, too!)
Mod
LOL, Gabi, I love the expression "more labor than love!"
Krystal, I'm not sure I'm familiar with that author, I'll have to check out your review.
Trench, I'm so glad the hype didn't kill it for you! I also was wary about Dune and ended up liking it more than anticipated.
Lizzie, Locke and Key is on my list!! How nice that your friend was able to get you started and you'll be able to help her finish :D
I finished Wanderers in a reading marathon over the weekend, and enjoyed it a lot. I'm not sure I would compare it to The Stand as others have, it was really doing it's own thing. I also finished Fallout 4 over the weekend. So it's been very apocalyptic around my house lately.
Lizzie wrote: "I have been completely absorbed this last week by the Locke & Key graphic novels by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. My friend lent me the Omnibus edition of books one and two, which is a beautiful ..."It's a good time for it, since there's something coming out in October with 2 new short stories and, of course, there's the Netflix series coming soon.
colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "It's a good time for it, since there's something coming out in October with 2 new short stories and, of course, there's the Netflix series coming soon. ."WHAAAAAATTT!!!! *hyperventilates* I did not know this; I am now extremely excited! Thanks :-)
Trike wrote: "Still. Reading. Way. Of. Kings."Arrrrgh.
Page 773. 516 (!!) pages to go.
FFS Brandon, get to the gd point.
LOL, Trike. I have yet to start it. I have the book on Audible, but can’t start it now, while I’m at my In-laws. Lounging on the couch, reading incessantly is OK, but not shutting myself off completely with ear buds.
So instead I’m reading a ton of poetry.
Loving David Lunde’s Absolute Zero.
Diane wrote: "LOL, Trike. I have yet to start it. I have the book on Audible, but can’t start it now, while I’m at my In-laws. Lounging on the couch, reading incessantly is OK, but not shutting myself off comp..."
In audiobook format I’m guessing it’s eleventy-billion hours long.
I listened a bit to the audiobook and the readers (one male, one female) were fine, but too workmanlike for my taste, and they read a pretty ponderously slow pace, which did not help.
Trike, Yes, it’s like 40+ hours long. Anthony, I listen at 1.25x normal speed, or if they read really slowly 1.5x. Can’t do it any faster than that though. But 1.25x shaves off a good chunk of the total time and makes a slow reader quite tolerable.
I haven’t tried speeding an audiobook up, for fear of turning the readers into chipmunks. Also, as a performer, I balk at the notion of a performance being altered in that way. But I understand the effectiveness of speeding it up in terms of saving bucketloads of time!
Anthony, I feel much the same way about a performance. However, if there are lots of long-ish spaces in a reader’s delivery, I don’t feel so bad about speeding it up. It depends on how slowly they read, but anything faster than 1.5x starts clipping/scrunching the words and I just can’t deal with that. The software for this sort of thing has gotten better over time and the pitch of the actor’s voice stays the same. I don’t know exactly how it works, but I feel a ponderously slow delivery loses nothing by speeding it up ever so slightly.
Mod
I've seen advice telling audiobook narrators to read slow intentionally, because the producers know that they will be sped up by most listeners. I find 1x painful unless I feel the speed is already conversational New England-paced.
Thanks for the clarification, I may try that in the future if pace is an issue. I’m curious, Allison, as to whether you agree with my assessment that the narrator of Perdido Street Station maintained a great pace in his performance?
Mod
I’m curious, Allison, as to whether you agree with my assessment that the narrator of Perdido Street Station mainta..."
I would say so, yes! I mean, I still sped it up because I'm a monster, but not more than 1.25 for 3/4 of the book, which is usually my starting speed until I adjust to accents and timbre. It was almost unintelligible beyond 1.5 speed, which means that he had almost zero pause or syllable lengthening that you usually get when a narrator is also that precise in his diction.
I just finished The Waking Fire and I loved it. It would have been perfect for this month's fantasy theme about a lost civilisation: such a cool world full of wonders and just there for the brave explorer. Now on to the sequel The Legion of Flame!
I always listen at 1x, and rarely find narrators too slow. I also really like Micheal Kramer and Kate Reading (who are married apparently and live near me). I haven't done their Stormlight books, but they do wheel of time together as well. They also do a bunch of stuff individually that I've enjoyed.Everyone has different tastes though. Trike sounds like he's in agony and I'm tempted to pick up the audio versions of Stormlight to do a reread because I've loved them all so much.
I always listen at 1x. Only because my iPod goes from 1x to chipmunk in one go (and I still have no idea how I did it) and my car won’t make the thumb drive go any faster. I can change it if I’m using my phone or iPad but some days I have trouble with 1x so I just roll with it. Remembering that I listened to over an hour of Long Way to a Small Angry Planet sitting here in my chair and I had no idea what I’d just listened to. I do remember what’s going on when I’m driving, cooking or cleaning though. Go figure.
Jacqueline wrote: "....Remembering that I listened to over an hour of Long Way to a Small Angry Planet sitting here in my chair and I had no idea what I’d just listened to...."I keep having troubles concentrating on the
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
One-Night Stands with American History: Odd, Amusing, and Little-Known Incidents (other topics)Prudence (other topics)
Terminal Uprising (other topics)
Terminal Uprising (other topics)
Chanur's Legacy (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Gail Carriger (other topics)Adrian Tchaikovsky (other topics)
Adrian Tchaikovsky (other topics)
Adrian Tchaikovsky (other topics)
Elizabeth Moon (other topics)
More...
I won’t say more, because that would be spoilery plus, I really have no idea where this is going. I thought at first it was going one way, but now know it’s not that. Vague vaguery, I know. It’s basically SF Horror. But not gruesome.
There’s a lot about dealing with the grief of serious illness, death and the changes both those things bring to people and their family and loved ones. It’s well-written (I enjoyed Marshall’s poetry in the past) and thought-provoking. Its subject is tough, but it reads easily, if you know what I mean.