What are you Reading this March?

[Bobby]

and and they're both dynamite.

[Tony]

I finished Black Hand Gang, which is the first book in the No Man's World trilogy. I thought it started slowly, but the last third really lifted my interest in the book, so I will go on to the second book The Ironclad Prophecy. But before starting that, I'm taking a bit of a palette-cleansing break and reading Elementals: The Natural Order.

[NekroRider]

Finished The Couple Next Door gave it 3/5 stars mostly for the outrageous soap-y drama that I found pretty funny. I felt like I wanted to speed through it though cause many pieces to the mystery I suspected too early on and I was just waiting for the confirmation lol

Now I'm going to continue my ongoing Forgotten Realms reread with Servant of the Shard

[Pierre]

I finished Queen of Sorcery, 2nd book of The Belgariad, which I enjoyed as much as the first one. I am immediately starting Magician's Gambit, and I am certain to keep reading all 5 volumes.

[Jim]

The Bughouse Affair was a bust for me. I quit fairly early on. My 1 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

War Cry by Brian McClellan was a really good novella & quite different than his Powder Mage series, although still fantasy. It's only a novella, but he really painted an interesting world. I hope he does more stories in it. My 4 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Short Stories of Gordon Randall Garrett are really good. Written in the 1960s, these 3 short SF stories have really interesting points of view. I doubt they're for everyone, but I appreciated them. My 4 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And now I'm working the 5th in the Daisy Darymple cozy mystery series, Damsel in Distress. No murder so far which is a nice change of pace.

[Faith]

My review of The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Mary]

Daughter of Danger by John C. Wright

[Tony]

I have finished Elementals: The Natural Order and have now started on the second book in the No Man's World trilogy - The Ironclad Prophecy

[Tamara Noël ☯️]

I am currently reading ...
▪The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer•Bradley
▪A Shade Of Vampire 72: A Conspiracy Of Realms by Bella Forrest
▪ The Stone Crusher by Jeremy Dronfield

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Allison wrote: "DNFed A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe. Too nonsensical for me and the characters were all jerks...."

One of my GR friends rates every single book he reads either 5 or 4 stars. He rated this one 3 stars. That's what I'd call a red flag, so I think I won't even try this one.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started reading:


The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham


Neil Gaiman And Charles Vess' Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

[Tony]

RJ wrote: "I started reading:


The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham


John Wyndham was one of the very few science fiction authors that ever made it on to school reading lists when I was in high school (mid 70s). He really is an excellent author.

[Andrea]

Tony wrote: "RJ wrote: "I started reading:

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
John Wyndham was one of the very few science fi..."

In school we read The Chrysalids so about 20 years later he's still on high school reading lists

I just finished a non-SFF book, now to get back to reading the Time Quartet with Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle. I figured I'd finish that series within the first couple months of the year, you know just breeze through them as they are short and for kids, but other stuff kept getting higher priority so it's starting to drag. Only one more after this.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Tony wrote: "John Wyndham was one of the very few science fiction authors that ever made it on to school reading lists when I was in high school (mid 70s). He really is an excellent author."

Andrea wrote: "In school we read The Chrysalids so about 20 years later he's still on high school reading lists..."

Thank you both! I am extra-pumped to read it now. I also noticed that at least a couple of Wyndham's books have been re-released by the NYRB which gets him some Legit Points in my ledger.

[Allison]

RJ wrote: "Allison wrote: "DNFed A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe. Too nonsensical for me and the characters were all jerks...."

One of my GR friends rates every single book he reads either 5 or 4 star..."

Where were you two months ago with this information!!

Ah well, they can't all be winners. (And I think you're wise to pick something else.)

I'll be following your reviews of Wyndham!

[Brendan]

Andrea wrote: "In school we read The Chrysalids so about 20 years later he's still on high school reading lists"

Found the Canadian.

[Jim]

From Here To Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature was an interesting lecture, not quite up to the 4 stars I gave it in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Andrea]

Brendan wrote: "Andrea wrote: "In school we read The Chrysalids so about 20 years later he's still on high school reading lists"

Found the Canadian."

*studies the quote* You are indeed correct but I can't figure out from that line how you determined that :) I didn't use the "ou" spelling where Americans have just "o", and that could have made me British. Or is Wyndham particularly known to be only on Canadian school reading lists?

[Andrea]

Finished A Shadow in Summer, glad I bought the omnibus since I'll definitely be reading the rest.

Since that was on my eReader, my next selection is another of Baen's free books, an anthology called Werehunter by Mercedes Lackey. I pretty much picked that one because I had accidentally opened it once and my eReader now keeps showing it on the main page as 2% completed so figured now is as good a time as any to complete it.

[Brendan]

Andrea wrote: "*studies the quote* You are indeed correct but I can't figure out from that line how you determined that."

I've never heard anyone but Canadians talk about Chrysalids as assigned reading. It was for me too, and it always struck me as a bizarre choice. Lewis isn't even a Canadian author and its far from his best known book.

But I guess it's one of the only reasonably well-known novels set in Newfoundland & Labrador, so it made its way onto the reading list somehow.

[Faith]

My review of Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Mary]

Deadly Assessments by Drew Hayes

[[deleted user]]

Finally went back to read Older's State Tectonics after skimming the first two books to remind me who was who. Older doesn't really help re-introduce the characters, so it was hard getting re-started in the series without the review (the stories, on the other hand, have been largely self-contained.) . She takes her Infomocracy thought experiment in unusual global politics, "micro-democracy", to some unexpected places.

[[deleted user]]

Reynold's latest is Permafrost, a time-travel ("retro-causality") novella (as in Quantum Leap) in which a desperate future seeks to cache some seeds from the past to survive a world without insects. The first half feels very familiar to previous time-travel stories, but some nice characters partially save it from its own paradoxes.

[NekroRider]

Finished Servant of the Shard earlier today, rated it 3.75/5 stars (3/5 on GR). Enjoyed it more than the Silent Blade but not quite as much as some of my 4-star Realms books. It was another fun romp across Faerun. Have decided to move on to the next book Sea of Swords in my Realms reread journey. Am rereading them in original order of publication before Salvatore decided to turn Servant of the Shard into the first book of the Sellswords, since that was the original order I read them in anyway.

[Mike]

Finished The Rithmatist and now reading Calamity.

[Andrea]

Finished Many Waters, a strange time travel version of the Noah story, and given it's religious nature and the fact its for kids, I was surprised to find the word "slut" in it.

I also finished the issue of Analog with The Mountains of Mourning in it (May 1989), I thought I could read a short story a day, but it's actually made up more of novellas and novlettes so they needed their own dedicated time to read :)

Now I'm reading The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip for the next group read.

I also decided to start on The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard for my pre-1950 slot. I realized it could also serve for the genre blender, as it's a "non-fiction fantasy" which is about the weirdest combo if you think about it. I figure this isn't something that I'll read right through, but rather a chapter here and there, after all it is a textbook and not a story.

[Mary]

Lore is a good book for info if rather dry.