What Else Are You Reading - September 2014

[Ctgt]

Dara wrote: "The only other Kay book I've read is Tigana but I loved it. "

Tigana was my first and probably still my favorite to this point. Last Light was just a notch below IMO. But still very good.

[Lindsay]

I love Kay's writing, and Tigana, Lions of Al-Rassan and a Song For Arbonne are all brilliant books, but my favourite of his is the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy.

[Ctgt]

Lindsay wrote: "I love Kay's writing, and Tigana, Lions of Al-Rassan and a Song For Arbonne are all brilliant books, but my favourite of his is the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy."

I loved Lions as well. Still have Arbonne and Finovar waiting in the wings.

Just started City of Stairs

[Jeff]

Listening to Trapped & I think I'm going to take a break from the series once done. Getting kinda lackluster & need a break from Oberon. Have yet to progress in Stories of Your Life and Others past the 1st story. Just too much going on to sit down and read. Gonna have to carve the time and crank it out.

[Roger]

Jeff wrote: "Listening to Trapped & I think I'm going to take a break from the series once done. Getting kinda lackluster & need a break from Oberon. Have yet to progress in [book:Stories of You..."

I felt the same way, I enjoy the Iron Druid series but I have to space out my reading of them.

[Dara]

Lindsay wrote: "I love Kay's writing, and Tigana, Lions of Al-Rassan and a Song For Arbonne are all brilliant books, but my favourite of his is the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy."

Lions of Al-Rassan is on my list as well.

[Ludo]

I just finished The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and gave it a 5 star rating. I have written a review. It's a very satisfying read and I highly recommend it.

Still listening to Dune Messiah and I have started The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

[Kristina]

Jennifer wrote: "I'm finally getting around to Red Seas Under Red Skies. I was leery at first about starting it because I adored The Lies of Locke Lamora and had heard the second book w..."

I felt the same way, but enjoyed the second book in the end...and the third book, imho is the best...

[Tamahome]

Hmm, I just heard Kameron Hurley on AISFP. Is The Mirror Empire good?

[Dara]

Tamahome wrote: "Hmm, I just heard Kameron Hurley on AISFP. Is The Mirror Empire good?"

A bunch of friends read it recently, all with varying opinions from loving it to not liking it much at all. Your mileage may vary.

[Lindsay]

It's complex and inventive with several POV characters across several completely different cultures.

The cultures are widely varied - one is utterly female dominated (to the point of male infanticide) with race-based slavery, another is about as female dominated as our culture is male dominated but also features plural marriage and ritual cannibalism and yet another is closer to our own with gender politics but is an imperialist warrior culture.

The world is very different from ours as well with various carnivorous forms of plant life making rural life difficult. There's also a moon-based magic system where whichever moon is ascendent determines the power level of its adepts.

All this remarkable world-building is the best thing in the book though, because it's all so very complicated and the exposition is very light and mostly on-the-run. It means you're spending a lot of time trying to understand the world and trying to sort out where each of the characters fit in which leaves little time to understand what the actual plot is or consider where it's all going.

So three quarters of the way through the book I couldn't have explained the story to someone, but I think I could have talked about the setting for hours. And I kept reading it compulsively.

In summary, challenging and confronting, worthwhile, but not to everyone's tastes. I suspect it would read better a second time through.

[[deleted user]]

Dreamships by Melissa Scott. Marvelous Cyberpunk book with LGBT representation. A little heavy on exposition but I think that works well with cyberpunk.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Lair of the White Worm. Enjoyed this so much more than Dracula. It was atmospheric and gothic and had some nice touches.

Currently reading Digital Libraries by Karan Calhoun, who is brilliant. I've had the pleasure of chatting with her over lunch once. Just started The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis, not far enough along to make any comments. But the title looked promising. And finally, The Boggart and the Monster. A kids book but I never let that stand in the way of a good story.

[Rowan]

Just finished, 'Essentia' by G.M Whitney good sci-fi fantasy novel, quick read. Kind of hard to get in at first but I recommend it.

[Tara]

Just finished reading The Crimson Crown and started with Sabriel, so far so good...

[Jennifer]

Kristina wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "I'm finally getting around to Red Seas Under Red Skies. I was leery at first about starting it because I adored The Lies of Locke Lamora and had heard ..."

I'm almost done with Red Seas Under Red Skies and I enjoyed it almost as much as the previous book, especially the second half. I'll be diving right in to The Republic of Thieves. Especially with your endorsement of it.

[Phil]

Finished How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. This was another mixed feelings one for me. There are some parts that were beautifully written and touching and there was some nice word play but on the other hand a lot of it was purposefully confusing and an exercise in stunt writing which doesn't appeal to me. At least I have a "Y" for my sf/f A.B.C.'s now.
Starting Betrayal by Aaron Allston.

[[deleted user]]

Just read the new Star Wars book I've been looking forward to most.


I think it's Luceno's best to date. It's the first book from him I've read where it was not only interesting, but engaging. Normally his stuff can be a little boring.
Here's my review.

[Sky]

Finished City of Stairs. It took me quite a while to get into it, over half the book, but in the end I really enjoyed it. Still debating what to read next, I am thinking of going back and reading all the non-mistborn/WoR Sanderson books I haven't read yet, but in the meantime I am knocking off another Dresdin book, Small Favor

[Tamahome]

Friends With Boys, a Faith Erin Hicks comic (I'll have to find The Adventures of Superhero Girl somewhere.) Quick review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... No, I'm not a high school girl.

[Misti]

Breezed through Summer Knight. It's my favorite of the Dresden series so far.

I can't decide whether to read The Honor of the Queen or Wool Omnibus next.

[terpkristin]

I just finished The Broken Eye and while it wasn't as tight as the two previous books in the Lightbringer series (The Black Prism and The Blinding Knife), it was still enjoyable. I enjoyed seeing the main character grow and seeing two other characters come to the front as main character (bonus points that both are women).

I'm not really sure what's up next. I've been in a funk, reading-wise, lately, not to mention exhausted from putting in long days at work recently. Guess I'll go through my list and see what sounds like fun, what sounds like it might not require much brainpower. ;)

[Rob, Roberator]

terpkristin wrote: "Guess I'll go through my list and see what sounds like fun, what sounds like it might not require much brainpower. ;) "

Like Harry Potter?

[terpkristin]

Rob wrote: "terpkristin wrote: "Guess I'll go through my list and see what sounds like fun, what sounds like it might not require much brainpower. ;) "

Like Harry Potter?"

Yes. :) It's definitely back to that series. And...finishing Veronica Mars...

[Rob, Roberator]

Slow week with me reading and listening to two monster books. I did manage to finish listening to Reamde this weekend (38.5 hours!). I found it pretty good, but I suspect it won't be for everyone (My Review).

[[deleted user]]

Just finished listening to The Warded Man. I loved it. Now I'm going to try and squeak in City of Stairs before I move on to Alif the Unseen.

[kvon]

Just read The Severed Streets, book 2 of supernatural policemen of London (no, the other policemen) (no, not the spies). A bit of a slow start, but near the end when they are closing in on the killer it got compulsive. And Neil Gaiman getting a cameo is all right with me.

Currently finishing Alif the Unseen, and just started rereading Neuromancer for my other book club.

[[deleted user]]

terpkristin wrote: "And...finishing Veronica Mars...

Is the Veronica Mars book any fun? I'm on the waiting list at the library. Not sure if it's worth it or not.

[Sandi]

I am totally loving The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. I got an ARC through FirstReads. I have a hard time lately with both print and ebooks, especially paper. But, this is gripping. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time as I'd like to read paper books. It's just too painful to read them in bed and too hard to read them in lamplight.

I'm listening to Through the Door by Jodi McIsaac. I didn't have high expectations, but I'm really liking it. Kate Rudd is a terrific narrator.

[Gaines]

I'm reading Brain Rose. Finding it hard to get into, but I think it's my frame of mind; the prose seems good enough. Finally got a good sleep last night so hopefully will be able to focus more the next time I pick the book up :-)

[Carolina]

I finished and really liked World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and The Haunting of Hill House. I am now moving to Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass and waiting for my copy of Alif the Unseen for next month.

[Michele]

So this month I reread the first 3 Expanse books and then Cibola Burn. I really like this series, so excited to see the show.

I also read A Discovery of Witches and the other two books in this trilogy. I liked it aside from the extreme "romance" tropes - a nice change of pace from Angry Kickass Female urban paranormal stuff.

I read Lock In by John Scalzi and enjoyed it a lot - easy read, maybe the mystery part was a bit weak and suffered from all the other stuff he was doing in the story, but still good.

And right now I'm halfway through The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein which I borrowed through Kindle Unlimited and I'm really liking it so far, very interesting world and good female characters. A lucky find :)

[Lindsay]

Now that's an eclectic mix of books. The Steerswoman sounds like an interesting read.

[Jonathon]

Over the course of September, I've read/finished reading:

Lock In and Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi
Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson,
Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan
Sleeping Late on Judgement Day by Tad Williams
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Geekomancy by Michael R. Underwood
Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

There's been some good stuff in there, some stuff that wasn't so great and some stuff that was kinda in the middle.

Standouts for me were The Way of Kings and Abaddon's Gate. I liked The Way of Kings enough to start on Words of Radiance - I'm a little over the halfway point on that now - and I've loved the Expanse novels since we had Leviathan Wakes as a pick a couple of years ago.

I've been finding the Wheel of Time series increasingly more disappointing as they've gone on and especially this latest one that I've finished - it just felt like nothing happened except for a lot of waiting around for something to happen. Anyway, almost to the end now so glass half full and all that.

After finally finishing Ancillary Justice, I can see why it swept all of the awards, I can also see why it wouldn't be some folks' cup of tea.

[terpkristin]

Jonathon wrote: "I've been finding the Wheel of Time series increasingly more disappointing as they've gone on and especially this latest one that I've finished - it just felt like nothing happened except for a lot of waiting around for something to happen. Anyway, almost to the end now so glass half full and all that."

Yeah, the first time I read the series, I started feeling this around book 8 and got annoyed with the books until the ones Brandon Sanderson wrote. Audiobooks helped me through it.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I just finished The Future for Curious People: A Novel, a light funny love story about what might happen if you could see the future you would have with anyone you already knew. Now with more librarian.

[Ty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I just finished The Future for Curious People: A Novel, a light funny love story about what might happen if you could see the future you would have with anyone you already knew. Now..."

This sounds like an interesting premise. I might have to pick it up. I'm not sure what I'd do with more librarian in my life, though. I guess she could tell me where things go and to be quiet a lot.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Ty wrote: "This sounds like an interesting premise. I might have to pick it up. I'm not sure what I'd do with more librarian in my life, though. I guess she could tell me where things go and to be quiet a lot...."

You have a lot to learn about librarians! :)

Oh this is funny, a quote from the book:

"You're also afraid of things that are out of your control," he says. "That's why you like to spend all day shelving books in alphabetical order."

"You have no idea what a librarian actually does," I tell him.

We've been over this.