What are you Reading right now? Part 2.

[Lizzie]

I am on book 3 of Archangel Project series by C. Gockel. .

Read book 8 of Lt. Leary. I like the series but am slowly buying it. .

I finished the 3 books by Lowell of the Seekers Tales.

[M.]

I am in the Star Scavenger series. I have started reading the third book Goliath Emerges and what a ride. The author Ogden has built great characters without loosing the main hero. This author gently slips in a new character with good detail and with the whole story adds a lot of surprises and skin of the teeth escapes. Like his partners, the readers also want the hero to just begin killing some of the bad guys, but he is just to good to break that rule in himself. Geez. Maybe he will kill the Goliath. Another page and another problem.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Deadbot by Jerry Boyd was good. If you like the other books in the series you will like this one. Not a fantastic book, but light, humorous, with some action, and the main characters are the kind that will try to help when they see someone in trouble.

Currently rereading Plan B by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It’s available in the omnibus Korval's Game. It makes sense read on its own but if you like to follow characters chronologically then read Agent of Change, Carpe Diem, then Plan B. We discussed Agent of Change a few years ago. Carpe Diem isn’t exactly space opera - almost everything happens on a planet that has no spaceships of their own. Plan B is back closer to the usual definition of space opera, with spaceships, and military action both on the ground and in space.

[Ellen]

Currently reading The Exiled Earthborn by Paul Tassi and The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Plan B was great. Even after reading it so many times before, I found it quite hard to put down at bedtime, and ended up staying up an hour or so late to get to a decent stopping place.

Now I’m rereading I Dare which follows chronologically, but has storylines happening elsewhere as well as on Lytaxin.

[Trike]

I quite liked Rogue Squadron once it got going. If you hate JJ Abrams movies as much as I do, I seize this opportunity to bash him some more: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jo]

I Dare is my favorite. It stays on my reread shelf

[C. John]

Finished reading Randall Garrett's novel Too Many Magicians. Here is my review of the book. There is a minor connection for this work to Mission of Honor, which I think some people in this group has read.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[M.]

I am reading Unsung by Scott Bartlett and find it has grabbed my interest

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I Dare was great. Now I’m rereading Queen Anne's Revenge by Blaze Ward. It’s in the same universe as his Auberon series which I think we discussed already. We may have discussed this book even because it’s a decent entry point with different main characters. Excellent quirky military SF, with a disabled ship far behind enemy lines creating mayhem until they can repair enough to limp home. That former drama major in college on the boarding team going Lights, Camera, Action was hilarious.

Edit: yes we discussed it in March 2019
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Melvin]

Star Wars: Thrawn - actually it's pretty fascinating so far. But then, I am only a few chapters in.

[C. John]

Finished reading E. E. Smith's third Skylark novel below is my review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[M.]

I just finished Unsung by Scott Bartlett and what a ride. A hero who is a bad guy and must become a really bad guy to save those he loves. A lot of fights but still real Soap Opera Scif I and I love the extra characters. He has won the Bart!e but seems to have lost the war. Oh well I am about to start the next in the series Unsung Story Ramada where he starts out to save the galaxy. What a great deal for only 99 cents.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Queen Anne’s Revenge, now rereading the direct sequel, titled Packmule. Mayhem far behind the enemy lines.

[Trike]

M. wrote: "I just finished Unsung by Scott Bartlett and what a ride. A hero who is a bad guy and must become a really bad guy to save those he loves. A lot of fights but still real Soap Opera Scif I and I lov..."

Does the dog die?

[C. John]

Only SFish thing I am reading right now is Space Commando Comics #57. Supposed to be getting a Poul Anderson item in from Amazon today, which will immediately be place on my TBR shelve.

[M.]

No the dog doesn't die but I won't spoil the story so read about Maneater!
Mmm

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Packmule, now reading the third in the trilogy: Persephone.

[C. John]

Finished Space Commando #57 . Pretty quick read.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Persephone by Blaze Ward. Wanted to follow the characters and couldn’t recall if there ever was any follow up but had a vague impression of at least a small one, so now I’m rereading Winterhome which is the Jessica story thread taking place at least semi concurrently. This book is far more serious, so not as much fun but I’m being stubborn.

[Audrey]

I am reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I had to bump that to the head of the line because it is a library loan. So far, not a lot of plot (more than 75% through); the characters are in a ship meandering their way to a new space-lane tunneling job.
Next up is Dark Knight Station: Origins by Nathan Lowell for the February group read.

[Leonie]

Audrey wrote: "I am reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I had to bump that to the head of the line because it is a library loan. So far, not a lot of ..."

I didn't mind this book, but I preferred the sequel. A Closed and Common Orbit

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

About halfway through Winterhome it does indeed join up to continue the storyline where Persephone ended! Winterhome juggles at least twice as many storylines as Persephone but it’s usually not too confusing.

[Betsy]

I finished Trader's Leap. Too much woo-woo for my taste, but it was still a good story and I did enjoy it. 3/5 stars.

[M.]

I have started Andreas Karpf's Prelude to Extinction. I felt I needed some true Sci-fi and just started it but the characters are great already.

[Lizzie]

in the middle of book 2 of Nathan Lowell's Smuggler's Tale.

Finished book 9 in David Drake's Lt. Leary series.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Lizzie wrote: " in the middle of book 2 of Nathan Lowell's Smuggler's Tales
Suicide Run is very good. Home Run is even better IMO.

Winterhome was worth rereading although not as much fun as the side trilogy was. Now I’m rereading Space Deputy by Jenny Schwartz. I picked this one for complicated reasons. Book 4 is due out in March. I have a fantasy book that is preordered coming out Monday, and another Tuesday. I need a book to read TODAY but it needs to be one that if I don’t finish it today, it’s fine to just set aside for my new books.

[C. John]

Teresa wrote: "Lizzie wrote: " in the middle of book 2 of Nathan Lowell's Smuggler's Tales
Suicide Run is very good. Home Run is even better IMO.

W..."

Sounds complicated, but sort of makes sense.

[M.]

I am in the middle of Prelude to Extinction and I have to say I love it. I am drawn into it just by the characters. There is a problem and a mystery on each page and chapter, but the best is Jack the Captain and his strong way of dealing with people who have been together for over ten years on along trip. I am so impressed with him even though I know he is not real. Then there are the characters around him. Kurt who is an engineer and can understand things that he can fix with his hands and is confused about time travel. There is his wife who finds time travel possible. What a ride.

[Piuma]

Hello! I am currently reading Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson. Even if I am still at the beginning of the Dorsai saga, I have a lot of expectations from this unfinished saga, but unfortunately previous 2 read books of the saga, do not fully convince me.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I didn’t like that one nearly as much as I liked Tactics of Mistake and Dorsai!. There’s a novella (?) in a collection of a few stories about the defense of the planet by the elderly, disabled, and children that was very good too. I’ve read most of the series at least once but only those three are ones I bothered buying ebook editions for rereading more recently.

[Piuma]

I already read Necromancer and Tactics of Mistake . But until now I preferred Tactics of Mistake, instead Necromancer was really hard for me to finish it.
Currently "Soldier, ask not" has an intriguing theme (war journalism), so I hope it will be better forward in the pages than Necromancer.

[C. John]

Have read Tactics of Mistake and one other whose name eludes me. My copies did not travel west with me, unfortunately. Interesting story about Dickson. When those two advertisements supporting and opposing the Viet Nam war were run Dickson refused to sign either of them.

[C. John]

Soldier, Ask Not! Thank you, that was the other one I read. I should stick both of those on my used to own shelf.

[Piuma]

Interesting story also your travel to West (BC I read :-) lucky you, one of more fascinating places for my imagination since I was a child: Canada, Alaska and Northern USA are wonderful). Really was Dickson neutral on that war issue? I did not know, useful to know

[C. John]

He said he had friends on both sides so he didn't want to take a side. I actually attended a panel at a SF convention in Toronto. The war came up and from what I recall he was not a gung ho supporter of it.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

That third Dorsai book I bought as ebook to reread was Spirit of Dorsai

[C. John]

Somewhere I have a couple of collections of the Hoka stories he wrote with Poul Anderson.

[Craig]

Craig wrote: "Leonie wrote: "Lizzie wrote: "Banned? Really?? It never occurred to me that this was a book that had ever been banned.

Canada banned Hitchhiker's Guide. The USA, it was banned in some school and ..."

I hear you on cultists of any ilk. I poked a little fun at the immediate past US pres in one book and you'd think I was advocating for child cannibalism. I too wrote a very HHGTTG series and that cult does not relish it. It's just a book is right!

[C. John]

HHGTTG means ?

Canada gets a little weird as far as banning go. A lot of bans are because a book is considered appropriate for one age level/grade but not another. It gets complicated due to the different school systems. Ontario goes to grade thirteen, but only if you are headed to university. If not then you graduate with just grade 12. Quebec finishes at grade 11 and then you do two (if going to university) or three (if not) at a CEGEP. All other provinces finish high school at grade 12, period. We had Stranger in a Strange Land for one of our grade 13 English courses, but I am not sure if I would have wanted to see it used at a lower level.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

HHGTTG = Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

[Piuma]

C. John wrote: "Somewhere I have a couple of collections of the Hoka stories he wrote with Poul Anderson."

On Wikipedia I found only a few notions about this saga with Anderson, so please what is the main theme of this collections, if you remember? I hope not only wars, because I am already reading Dorsai saga which it seems to be only based on wars (by itself already a bit a stupid thing), and for the moment I would say that I have had enough about SciFi wars.

[Piuma]

Teresa wrote: "That third Dorsai book I bought as ebook to reread was Spirit of Dorsai"

Hoping in a future without wars, or better: war presents only in "junky" SciFi because mankind must to evolve, not regress with these tragic errors. Said this, after I had finished this Dorsai saga, I'd like to find another wonderful saga like the Foundation by Asimov, that is no wars (apart the Mule ;-) )
Please what do you suggest me?

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I don’t know anything remotely like Asimov’s Foundation series. If you want space opera without wars though, try the series that starts with Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. I’m sure that I’ll think of others eventually. You may want to start a new thread just to discuss this.

[Piuma]

I would have a question about GR, please could someone answer? Does it exist a way on GoodReads book cards to know if there are other language editions of a certain book?

For example, on GoodReads the editions of the book of the month does not inform about other country languages in which the book was published:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio...
If I was able to know the presence of a SciFi book translated in my language (in my case Italian lang), I could participate too me in the reading.

Thanks in advance for any interest.

[Piuma]

Teresa wrote: "I don’t know anything remotely like Asimov’s Foundation series. If you want space opera without wars though, try the series that starts with Quarter Share by [author:Nathan Lowell|10..."

Thank you very much Teresa! in the meanwhile I will search for a book copy in my language ;-) of Quarter Share, obviously if present. Otherwise I will try to read it as my first book in literary English (not real, the first one was The Last of Mohicans many many years ago :-) ) ... uhm I am used to read only IT technical English, really hard to do

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

This month’s books are not available in another language, as far as I know. I pulled up the other editions of Agent of Change by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller and spotted one in German and one in Polish but I know darn well it was translated to Russian at least and likely other languages. New books sold by Amazon get automatically added to Goodreads, but old ones and ones not in the Amazon system get added when some human bothers to do so, usually just someone who has that book.

If you want to be able to discuss a book that is available in Italian, I suggest you nominate it, although it would need to have an English edition as well for a decent chance of it being chosen for next month.

[Betsy]

Piuma wrote: "I would have a question about GR, please could someone answer? Does it exist a way on GoodReads book cards to know if there are other language editions of a certain book?"

It's not easy to do on Goodreads. First, at the top of this listing there is a faint link that says "Expand Details". Click that. It will expand the detail information about each edition so that it includes what language it's in. You can also sort by title so that if the title is in a different language it stands out. But you still have to scan the whole list.

Unfortunately, I don't believe any of Nathan Lowell's books have been published in other languages. He's a self-published author and not widely read in countries other than the U.S. Sorry.

[Piuma]

Thank you Betsy and Teresa.

The book suggested me by Teresa is just what I would like to read. More relaxing reading :-) after wars of the Dorsai Saga.

[C. John]

Piuma wrote: "C. John wrote: "Somewhere I have a couple of collections of the Hoka stories he wrote with Poul Anderson."

On Wikipedia I found only a few notions about this saga with Anderson, so please what is ..."

The Hokas are an alien species that resembles (I think) teddy bears. They are also highly adaptive in that having encountered humans they have started to copy all sorts of human societies. The stories are quite humourous actually and were intended to be so. I recommend picking up some as they make a nice break from more serious and/or heavy SF. Information on the series does seem difficult to find. While searching I was surprised to discover Dickson was born in Canada. Never knew that.