What Else Are You Reading - May 2019

[Rob, Roberator]

What's grabbing your interest this month?

[Mark]

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch is scheduled for release this month.

[Trike]

Finished Spinning Silver this morning. It did not float my boat.

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

[Stephen]

Finished the The Fated Sky, excellent and almost finished with the audio of The Martian Chronicles. Today was the release day for Mark Lawrence first foray into Science Fiction with One Word Kill. Mark is doing the Jeff VanderMeer deal of releasing the trilogy all in one year.

[Sky]

I finished one Mark Lawrence book and am on to the second. Holy Sister was an excellent end to the Book of the Ancestor Trilogy. I am starting One Word Kill next and am really excited to read something different from what Lawrence usually does, given he is my favorite author :)

[Jen]

I started reading The City of Brass after the excellent interview with S.A. Chakraborty and I'm finding it really fun.

Also have cracked open Kings of the Wyld but am not very far along in it yet.

[Phillip]

Jen wrote: "I started reading The City of Brass after the excellent interview with S.A. Chakraborty and I'm finding it really fun.

Also have cracked open [book:Kings of the W..."

I had fun with Kings of the Wyld, but the sequel has left me disappointed.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I started Condomnauts by Yoss, a popular Cuban author, translated into English. I'll just post the publisher summary here:

"n the 24th century, Josué Valdés’ rise from an orphan in the slums of Rubble City, Cuba to one of the galaxy’s most accomplished explorers was nothing short of meteoric. On the streets, Josue raced cockroaches for cash—until he discovered his true-calling: as a sexual ambassador for humanity and the Nu Barsa colony.

Every so-called “condomnaut” knows that diplomacy and trade deals depend on sexual pacts in the galactic community—and every encounter becomes a close encounter. While some condomnauts have been raised and genetically enhanced to meet the needs of any tentacled insectoid in the galaxy, Josué is a natural whose ego could eclipse the big dipper. Our intrepid condomnauts travel light years across the galaxy and discover that old rivalries—and prejudices—are never far behind. When the first extragalactic beings arrive in the Milky Way, and with them the potential to negotiate for extraordinary new technologies, Josué must call upon every ounce of his talent to seal the deal for his colony and all of humanity."

So bonus points for a openly gay character, and it is somewhat funny so far, but I'm only about 35 pages in. He has just encountered telepathic aliens who have anticipated his ideal life form....

[Silvana]

Finishing Shadow Games.
Starting Time Was tomorrow.

[Trike]

Started yet another Vorkosigan book today, Brothers in Arms, which is terrific so far.

[Joel]

Gave up on Foundryside. It just wasn't for me.

Now starting Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence.

[Keith]

It's science fact week for me, so I am reading The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency, alongside Firebird

[Jessica]

I recently finished The Night Tiger and In an Absent Dream, and am now reading Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies about Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be.

[Ruth]

Just starting The Magicians

[Silvana]

Finished with Time Was, beautifully written, more a mystery/romance novel than SF, yet I feel the romance part was more engaging.

Starting my reread of Before They Are Hanged.

[Rob, Roberator]

Catching up on reviews for the last few weeks. Luckily two of the books I did were rereads and I already had the reviews done!

It also helps (I guess?) that I'm in a reading slump, so my "reading" output is mostly limited to audio books right now. I just don't seem motivated to ever pick back up The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

First off I finished off Marc Lawrence's excellent Book of the Ancestor with Holy Sister. I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as Red Sister. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)


I then finished up my reread of Theft of Swords. I was happy to see it held up for me. I was worried after pushing so hard for it to win the S&L March Madness I wouldn't like it as much as I remember. The later books are better, but I still enjoyed this one. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

I then took a quick fantasy break to continue the Bosch series after catching a deal on the second book: The Black Ice. I didn't think this one was nearly as good as the first, but liked it enough that I'll probably continue if I can get a cheap copy or (ideally) borrow the audio from the library. - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)

Then because I enjoyed my read of Theft of Swords I went right on to do a reread of Rise of Empire. It was interesting to pick up on some foreshadowing I missed the first time reading it. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

[Erik]

Starting Rise of Empire with my recent libro token. Putting aside Red Sister for now until I can read it and continue the series. Too many series going at once so going to try and tidy that up a bit.

Picked up Consider the Lobster and Other Essays again and am almost finished with the 60 page essay on American reference. It's a dense read but actually very enjoyable. Excited to get through this daunting essay (I had made very little progress on this for a while due to a handful of reasons) and get on with the rest of this collection.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Erik wrote: "Picked up Consider the Lobster and Other Essays again and am almost finished with the 60 page essay on American reference. It's a dense read but actually very enjoyable. Excited to get through this daunting essay (I had made very little progress on this for a while due to a handful of reasons) and get on with the rest of this collection."

Did you know the essay version of Consider the Lobster was first published in Gourmet magazine? I have to wonder how readers of that publication felt about being confronted with his insights. (I recently read Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir where Ruth Reichl devotes an entire chapter to the process of getting DFW to write for Gourmet....)

[terpkristin]

DFW was amazing but definitely not a typical Gourmet contributor. I forgot about that essay, I should read the collection (and that memoir!).

[TRP]

Just about to start The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish
Proto-Science Fiction FTW

[Erik]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Erik wrote: "Picked up Consider the Lobster and Other Essays again and am almost finished with the 60 page essay on American reference. It's a dense read but actually very enjoyable. Excited to get..."

I did not! That's wild though. I haven't read the titular essay yet as I'm going in order but that will be really good to keep in mind once I start that one.

[Bill]

Erik wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Erik wrote: "Picked up Consider the Lobster and Other Essays again and am almost finished with the 60 page essay on American reference. It's a dense read but actually v..."

Wallace’s title is a play on the classic book by the legendary American food writer MFK Fisher, Consider the Oyster. That might explain the first appearance of Foster’s essay in Gourmet. Fisher’s work is amazing if you are a human being who likes food. Check her out!

[Bill]

I just finished The Fifth Season. I know the group read that a couple of years ago. I really loved it! What a richly imagined world, and a really interesting treatment of the relationship of humans to ‘nature.’ Now, it’s on to C.L. Polk’s Witchmark.

[Sheila Jean]

Over the weekend I finished The Priory of the Orange Tree which is a standalone fantasy I enjoyed quite a bit. Most significant characters in the novel are female.

Now, I'm reading the first two books in the series The Fall of Shannara. And in Audio I'm doing Blackwater: The Complete Caskey Family Saga which so far is like a family drama with some supernatural elements. I've read the 3 (of 6) parts so far.

[Seth]

Sheila Jean wrote: "Over the weekend I finished The Priory of the Orange Tree which is a standalone fantasy I enjoyed quite a bit..."

I had heard that was good, but then saw it was 800 pages, figured it would be the first part of a trilogy, and got scared of the time investment. Now that I know it stands alone, I think I'll give it a try, thanks for the info and recommendation.

I just finished The True Queen, second in the Sorcerer Royal series by Zen Cho. It's an excellent Regency fantasy read.

[Jessica]

I am no on to Rosewater. The Priory of the Orange Tree is next for me, as I have it out from the library now.

[Aaron]

I have been going on a short story binge since the Hugo nominees came out last month (many of the Best Short Story & Best Novelette nominees are freely available online from the publishers, some even as an audio version). Far and away my favorite for Short Story was A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies and I was reminded of it by another short story I just read, The librarian. The latter seemed especially relevant as The Martian Chronicles makes an appearance.

[Trike]

Currently listening to The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency, which is really interesting and definitely sci-fi related. Just the stuff about the hydrogen bomb is as nuts as any SF flick, what with the politics and infighting and the whole “we might set the Earth’s atmosphere on fire” angle.

[Melissa]

Empire of Grass. So far so good. Book 2 in the Last King of Osten Ard trilogy. It takes place 30 years after the end of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.

[Colin]

Took a detour from things Swordish and Lasery to read Fallen Angel, a new release from Christopher Brookmyre - one of my favourite authors. A gripping read with plenty of room to speculate on whodunnit. (Felt very pleased with myself for sussing out one of the big reveals at about a third of the way in!)

Going to dive into Foxglove Summer next, the fifth Rivers of London novel.

[Dara]

Finished my re-read of Cibola Burn. My thoughts from the first time are still accurate. My review.

Not sure what to read next. Finally Expansed out so maybe I'll just take a break.

[John (Taloni)]

^Brutal! Loved the review, especially the part about the (I'm at work) md. Will have to read more Data reviews!

[Mark]

Dara wrote: "Not sure what to read next. Finally Expansed out so maybe I'll just take a break."

You can read the Expanse RPG Quickstart PDF which can be downloaded from a link at

https://greenronin.com/expanse/

The Quickstart is 42 pages of info about the RPG.

[Ruth]

Reading The Magicians and enjoying it - gotta love a school that (view spoiler)[ turns its students into geese and makes them fly to the South Pole (hide spoiler)].
The characters are all likeably unlikeable.

[Dara]

John (Taloni) wrote: "^Brutal! Loved the review, especially the part about the (I'm at work) md. Will have to read more Data reviews!"

Thank you! :-) I'm not shy about why I don't like something but I try not to eviscerate things without good reason. Cibola Burn isn't horrifically bad but it's easily the worst Expanse novel.

Mark wrote: "You can read the Expanse RPG Quickstart PDF which can be downloaded from a link at

https://greenronin.com/expanse/

The Quickstart is 42 pages of info about the RPG."

OMG my friend back the campaign and he's waiting for the physical book to give to me. I am excite!

[Dara]

Ruth wrote: "Reading The Magicians and enjoying it - gotta love a school that [spoilers removed].
The characters are all likeably unlikeable."

They are and that's what I love about the books. They're so real and I think the things I don't like about them are things I don't like about myself.

[Trike]

Dara wrote: "I'm not shy about why I don't like something but I try not to eviscerate things without good reason."

That’s my job.

::: sharpens knives :::

[Robert]

Yesterday I finished The Bayern Agenda: Book One of the Galactic Cold War. It's a space opera spy thriller that takes place in the same universe as his first book, The Caledonian Gambit. The new novel has a strong and twisty plot. I enjoyed the two viewpoint characters and the others they met along the way. I liked that the universe is much more filled out in this novel than in the first. I know about both these books because Moren is on The Incomparable podcast quite a lot.

[Ruth]

As well as reading The Magicians in hard copy (and I’ve just ordered the sequel The Magician King from the library) I’m also still chugging through The Poppy War in ebook and audiobook. Even using Whispersync I’m finding it a bit of a slog tbh - the story just feels kind of predictable and I’ve heard that the climax is horribly violent so I’m not looking forward to it. I feel like I need to read it because of the buzz around it but it’s started to feel like a bit of a chore.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Reading Red Sister.

Found it on my iPad and remembered it getting good reviews here

It's pretty good for a book I got for free off the iBook store and forgot I had :-)

[Rob, Roberator]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Reading Red Sister.

Found it on my iPad and remembered it getting good reviews here

It's pretty good for a book I got for free off the iBook store and forgot I had :-)"

One of my all time favorite opening lines.

[Trike]

I’ve now listened to 9 of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga books this year and am about to launch into #10. In this instance I’m glad I’m arriving to the party late, because now I get to consume the sprawling epic in great big gulps.

[Jonathan]

I just finished listening to Mortal Coil. It was fantastic. I finished Holy Sistera little over a week ago and really enjoyed it! it was a satisfying end to the trilogy. Still reading Ones and Zeroes, and started listening to The Final Empire again.

[Joseph]

Finished Swords of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Four, read The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard (it's a novella and on the shortish edge of the range) and started The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, another novella in the same universe.

[Adelaide]

I am on the second book of the Wheel of Time series. Way back when I used to reread them when the new books came out, but I gave up on that on the 8th or 9th book when I decided to wait until they all came out. Then Robert Jordan died. But then the books got finished! And then life happened. It's probably going to take me 2+ years to read all 14. ( I don't like binging series. I get bored after awhile.)

[Erik]

Finally got a library card! First on the audiobook borrow is Little Fires Everywhere which was one of the few books I looked up in with a minimal hold (it came a day later).

[Trike]

Erik wrote: "Finally got a library card! First on the audiobook borrow is Little Fires Everywhere which was one of the few books I looked up in with a minimal hold (it came a day later)."

You now have the key to the door that opens to a magical world.

Also download the various library apps like Hoopla and Libby, which deliver ebooks, movies, comics and audiobooks directly to your devices.

[Stephen]

I am finally doing Dune after moving it around in the To be Read pile for decades.

[John (Taloni)]

*gasp*

Okay, the first one is great, the second one okay, the third one wtf.

I know people who love all the sequels. I am not one of them. But Dune is great. And even if you don't like it, the book is so important a part of SF history that it's good to read it.

I'm really interested to hear what you think once done.

[Ben George]

John / Stephen. All SFF fans should read the first one. I'll leave it to your discretion if you continue.

That book defined much of my adolescence. I really need to re-read it.