What are you Reading right now? Part 2.

[Piuma]

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...

Thank you John, very useful to know that Hokas is quite humourous, not in this particular moment, but who knows perhaps in the future I could read them.
P.S.
I knew Gordon was born in Canada, I had read precisely on Wikipedia, my official source for books :-)

[C. John]

Never really had cause to check his biography, only his bibliography. Most places list him as a US author.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I remember reading the various Hoka stories and finding them amusing at the time, but that was decades ago.

I finished the two fantasy books that I had preordered, and now I’m back trying to finish my reread of Space Deputy. This is my third reading of it, and while it’s readable I keep looking for something more interesting to switch to. Possibly it was just too soon since my previous reading of it.

[M.]

I am in the Space Assassins Series. It is something different but still Space Opera. A whole universe full of the use of magic, some people with none, some with a little and some with a lot. There are ways of gathering and keeping a stock of magic. An interesting universe created by Scott Baron. I am in the second one now The Vespus Blade and it does keep my interest. Hozark (I guess the hero?) who is an Assassin who drinks the book of powerful people he kills to take their magic only kills under contract and those who deserve to die. He has a normal who he calls Bud who has a crazy pilot who gets into lots of trouble. He also has a trainee assassin lady Delmeza who is able to be of great help in tight conditions. They don't wait for problems they face them head on. Never a boring page in this story.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Space Deputy. Rummaged for another book and settled on rereading The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh.

[Ally]

Hello ! It's been a while. After the 2nd lockdown (in November, in France), the curfew ... First it was from 8pm to 6 am, but since January it's 6pm to 6am and still no bars and restaurants ... and still working from home.
I spent some time on TV (Amazon Prime ...).
I watched all The Expanse (didn't read it). It was great, I was just disappointed by the story of the 5th season, the subject.

I continued to read Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkever series.

I read Anne McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet series and Planet Pirates series (with the famous Sassinak !). Thanks Teresa for pointing me to these books.

I read Axioms'end by Ellis Lindsay and I was disappointed. Too YA for me.

Then Ready Player Two by Cline Ernest , that I enjoyed like the first book. I like the world building. It's the perfect universe for the most extreme fandom !

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson was fun.

I gave 5 stars to Richard K. Morgan's Thin Air.

I just finished To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. Just 3 stars, it was entertaining and that's it. For a book that long you could expect characters with more depth and a worldbuilding better detailed.

I started Lunara Station series by Clara Woods (free on Amazon) . It is nice and fun and doesn't pretend to be more than that.

[Ally]

I forgot Berseker by Fred Saberhagen . Didn't catch my interest.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh was good even rereading. I have to wait at least three years between rereads though because it has a lot of action that I need to forget. After that I read a couple of new books, one fantasy and one alien romance - neither is worth rereading but I did manage to finish them both.

Now I’m rereading Ascending by Meg Pechenick. I find myself comparing it to The Marann by Christie Meierz. Both books have a female main character who is a linguist who is sent alone to be immersed in an alien culture for an extended period. In Ascending the aliens arrive on Earth with far higher technology than we have. In The Marann the aliens are on a planet and it’s an Earth ship that goes there. Completely different story lines but it’s interesting to see the different directions they take and compare them to each other.

[M.]

I am Reading a pure space opera story with the good guys and the bad ones -Dark Stars Marooned What a relief to not worry about the tech stuff and enjoy ugly aliens that are on the side of the good guys. I can just relax

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Ascending was good and I started rereading the sequel but got distracted by a new Liaden Universe chapbook: Change State by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. The second story in it is one I read in the anthology Release the Virgins edited by Michael A. Ventrella, but the first one is brand new. It’s a story of what happened to a minor (but key) character from Trade Secret after his delm declared him dead.

[M.]

What do you do if you are given proof that the world is ending and some billionaire can put you on a ship and take you to build a colony on another world? You write a great story called FINAL DAYS COLONY by Jasper T. Scott and Nathan Hystad. Wow, what a story, great characters, mystery as mystery to solve and a space opera to top them all. I am almost done and can't wait to get back to the story tonight. What a different idea.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Change State was good. After that I reread Bright Shards by Meg Pechenick which is the sequel to Ascending. Now I’m rereading Full Share by Nathan Lowell for the group read and enjoying it very much.

[Trike]

Accidentally bought myself some books.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMD0wqiDV...

[C. John]

Accidentally?

[Trike]

C. John wrote: "Accidentally?"

Pure happenstance. Tripped, caught myself, but my credit card flew into the card reader and I became the owner of several books.

[C. John]

LOL

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Full Share was very good, as expected. There are upcoming books that look interesting such as Space Baby by Jenny Schwartz but I need something to read NOW. So I’m rereading Monkey Business by Jerry Boyd which is #10 in the series that starts with Bob's Saucer Repair.

[Trike]

I read — inhaled, really — the two books in Jim C. Hines’ “Janitors of the Apocalypse” series, Terminal Alliance and Terminal Uprising. The first one is Space Opera while the second one revisits the Earth overrun with the feral remnants of humanity.

Lighter fare that zips right along, with each book having a couple laugh out loud moments for me.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished Monkey Business and the book after it Let's Make a Deal. Unless I find an interesting new book I’ll reread Saucer Holler next.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I was well started rereading Saucer Holler which is #12 in that series when #15 dropped: Admiral Bob by Jerry Boyd. I’ll finish rereading Saucer Holler but I’m really looking forward to the new book. And on Monday Space Baby by Jenny Schwartz will be out, which is the newest in the series that starts with Space Deputy.

[Trike]

After months of waiting, my library hold of Pushing Ice just came in. I bought the book a couple years ago but the typeface is so minute that I can barely read it. So I’ve just started that.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Admiral Bob was good. Ending was not a cliffhanger but it is obvious that the next book will continue just a few minutes later and I want to read it NOW.

So now I’m reading free samples trying to find a book that catches my interest while I wait for Space Baby which drops on Monday.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Read two fantasy books I hadn’t read before. Now I’m reading the newest book in the After Cilmeri series: Outcasts in Time by Sarah Woodbury. This is #19. It’s solidly in SF&F for most of the series. Alternate history started by an American woman and her young daughter going back to medieval Wales. Most of the books involve someone returning to our timeline, then going back to the other one, often with additional people. In this book the King of England is kidnapped by a CIA agent and brought to modern Oregon.

[MadProfessah]

Just started LOOK TO WINDWARD by Ian Banks

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Outcasts in Time was better than I expected it to be, but I’m unlikely to reread it regularly. And it’s not space opera.

Space Baby by Jenny Schwartz was readable but not as fun as the rest of the series. Part of that is me particularly during the pandemic, because the story involves people dying of a mysterious illness.

I’m now rereading one of my comfort books, while waiting for an interesting new book to appear: The Wizard's Butler by Nathan Lowell.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’m about 75% through my reread of The Wizard's Butler by Nathan Lowell and enjoying it HOWEVER a space opera book that I’ve been eagerly waiting for just dropped so I’m switching to that. I’m not seeing it in the Goodreads system quite yet. Title is “Another Word for Magic” by Mackey Chandler. This is in his Family Law series, which is in the same universe as his April series.

Edit: Goodreads caught up! Another Word for Magic.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Another Word for Magic was good - several giggle out loud spots. The magic in the title comes from the Arthur C. Clarke quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This is space opera, not fantasy. One piece of serendipitous tech that had no theory behind it the characters didn’t even bother to do any hand waving. It works, we’ll figure out why it works later.

Finished my reread of Wizard’s Butler too. Not seeing anything new that looks interesting so I’m rummaging for something to reread. Trouble is that I reread a lot of books last year and I do try to avoid rereading too soon again.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I reread Wildside by Steven Gould which is SF but not space opera. Completely implausible but fun and a real page turner.

Now I’m starting my reread of A Line in the Sand by Judith Moffitt for the April Limited Pick.

[G.R.]

Some great book suggestions here. I'll have to put some on my 'to read' shelf. I'm currently reading "Senlin's Ascent" which I would classify as a slow-burn Fantasy but the prose is excellent and the worldbuilding fascinating.

[Ally]

Third lockdown for me, lot of time to read ...
So I read:
Patricia Cornwell's Spin (#2 of the series), not space opera.
2 books about "first contact" for the sake of our planet (and maybe humanity if we are nice):
Rejoice by Steven Erikson was very good.
Invasion by Luke Rhinehart wasn't so good. It started as fun and then became quite boring. Doesn't answer the big questions.

Thanks to Teresa I read Janet Kagan's Hellspark which was great.

I read A Desolation Called Peace by Martine Arkady (#2 of the series). Still very special and interesting.

I started the Gnomon series by Nick Harkaway . So weird ! But I will read the next one. Also not space opera.

I tried to read Theatre of Gods by M. Suddain but I couldn't, it is way too steampunk for my taste.

I am reading a French author Olivier Paquet Le Melkine series and it is good so far (not translated in English).

Have a nice week end !

[L J]

Into the Light
by David Weber and Chris Kennedy

I'd describe this as military tech space opera even though some of it is planetary. Listened to audio when it first came out. Now kindle with audio as immersive read to help make details stick in case there's another in the series.

I don't know if Into the Light will work well if one hasn't read Out of the Dark which is more planetary invasion and resistance than space opera.

[Audrey]

I just started "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" by Christopher Paolini

[C. John]

Reading American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944. It is not strictly speaking sci-fi but I figure there are those on this site who might be interested in it. I am finding it very informative, but is it taking a bit of time to read.

[M.]

I finished all ten books in Pirates of the Milky Way. It was entertaining but not top rate as after book four the stories were all the same theme with just different names. Still it was space opera at its norm. I would have given the first couple of books a 5 star but by the end I could only give the entire group a 3 1/5 because of theme.
Now I am reading Recruit by Jonathan P. Brazee which is a Military SciFi but has a lot of character study instead of fight and war so I am enjoying it.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Oh and Recruit by Jonathan P. Brazee is currently free on Amazon! Snagged a copy to try.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I reread A Line in the Sand by Judith Moffitt for the Limited Pick and enjoyed it enough that I’m now about a third of the way through rereading the sequel To the Bitter End. The third book should be coming out later this year.

Recruit by Brazee didn’t grab me. There are some interesting books due out later this month but I’ll probably end up rereading another book or three before they are available. One of the new ones for later this month is The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Finished To the Bitter End. Now I’m rereading Frontier Incursion by Leonie Rogers which is the first of a trilogy so I’ll have something to read until a new book grabs my attention.

[M.]

Started a new book Queen of the Void and I love it. Pure Space Opera by Michael Douglas with a lot of great characters and battles with old lovers and new ships. I love SciFi.

[M.]

I just finished Queen of the Void by Michael Wallace and being a female author of Sci-fi under pen name of M. Garnet I can really get into a series that has a female Commander who kick ass. I give this one 4 plus stars and will start the next one right away

[Brandon]

I'm reading Star Trek: The Rings of Time by Greg Cox. It features current day (but fictional) astronauts on a mission to Saturn, and Kirk's mind ends up switched with one of theirs when they both touch an alien artifact. It's been enjoyable to read so far.

There's something weird going on with the post numbering in this thread. I click to get to the newest post, and the URL is telling me it's sending it to message 542 (which is the one I am typing now). Is there a way to adjust this to work correctly again?

[Trike]

Brandon wrote: "There's something weird going on with the post numbering in this thread. I click to get to the newest post, and the URL is telling me it's sending it to message 542 (which is the one I am typing now). Is there a way to adjust this to work correctly again?"

It’s happening to me, too, but only for this group. The threads in the other groups I belong to still work fine. Weirdly specific glitch.

[Betsy]

It's happening for me too, but only for this thread. Other threads in this group seem to be working fine. One possible problem is that the thread is too long. There have been various problems with threads that have more than 500 posts. So, please go to the next installment of this thread:

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