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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - September 2019
Finished my annual Heinlein re-read. This year was Friday. I had read it 2 or 3 times before but the last time was at least 25 years ago and it's funny how little I remembered. Most of what I recalled was from the first quarter and I had made that the whole book in my mind.I've always enjoyed this book but I wouldn't recommend it to first time Heinlein readers. His social, political, and moral views could be a bit of a shock and be a little off-putting to some.
On a personal note it was nice to see Canada and Winnipeg and Vancouver get some love.
My library hold of Circe came in last night. So far I’m enjoying it far more than her Achilles book.
Silvana wrote: "About to start Infomocracy."
Setting aside this book after 1/3 since it's rather tedious and switching to Reaper Man.
Started The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday. 🙂
Having finished all the S&L reads plus sequels and anything else on my TBR, I'm back to my Pern reread. Currently on Dragondrums which features Piemur, the boy soprano who was a small character in Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. It's got all the stuff I remember, the bullying from the Drum apprentices, Piemur's voice breaking, and shenanigans around bubbly pies. It's just...this one doesn't really have a story. I liked it fine back in the day, but reading now it's lacking. Not hating it but it does feel more like a series of vignettes rather than a novel.
You’re 100% on the S&L bookshelf?Salll-lute! /heehaw
John (Taloni) wrote: "Iain wrote: "Now onto The Dragon Republic which has me worried after a couple of chapters..."Don't read my review above until you're done, but...yeah.
I almost started a thread for this in the T..."
Not worth a thread.. I am lemming this one half way through. The tonal inconsistencies are really getting to me. The action and drama of the book belong in a grim dark fantasy with a touch of nazi death camps horror while the characters are straight out of a simplistic YA storyline.
I have better things to read and listen to (like Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire and The Slow Regard of Silent Things while I listen to Percepliquis which is much better fantasy den if it is very predictable).
I just finished a cyberpunk from 1990, Synners and here is my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished Grey Bastards by Jonathan French (not my cup of tea) and am now reading The Institute Stephen Kings latest book and Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
Mod
All in audio, because most of my reading these days.
First I did. Dark Age. I liked it better than Iron Gold but not nearly as much as Golden Son or Morning Star - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Next was Prince of Fools. I liked this much better than his Broken Empire trilogy, but not nearly as much as his Book of the Ancestor series. - ★★★½☆ - (My Review)
Had a bit of a long drive this weekend, so got to listen to Hounded. It was my first time reading Kevin Hearne. I dug the story, and while it had a lot of the similar urban fantasy tropes, I liked that it didn't feel like it was starting at the beginning of the story, but firmly in the middle, with the protagonist fully established. Sort of like Dresdon in that way, but more like Summer Knight Dresdon, then Storm Front Dresdon. The narration was interesting. The decision was made to have the voice actor (Luke Daniels) give a very straight and calm reading most of the time (almost blase), but then doing interesting voices for side charcters, and intensifying at key points. I think this was done to show that the lead character is a very calm and controlled person himself, but before I realized this, it almost turned me off to his reading style. It's still not my favorite reading, but it did grow on me. And it was very obvious it was not the lack of skill of the voice actor, but a choice either made by him or the director.
I think I'll continue with the series at some point, but it's not something I feel I have to jump into the second book right away, maybe after a few other books.
Finished Valor! It was a fantastic read. I have really enjoyed everything I have read from John Gwynne so far.
Finished Gideon the Ninth, which was excellent!, and am starting some 70s sword & sorcery -- Brian Lumley's House of Cthulhu.
Been in a bit of a reading slump lately but I managed to finish Sabriel today. I liked it enough that I think I may continue the series at some point. Going to read Alliances in dead tree form. It’s been a while since I read a physical book.
Silvana wrote: "Silvana wrote: "About to start Infomocracy."
Setting aside this book after 1/3 since it's rather tedious"
Yep. I managed to read the entire book but it was very tedious and didn't continue with the series.
I finished Record of a Spaceborn Few which was not nearly as good as the first book two books of The Wayfarers anthologies (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit)
Next up I am starting A Little Hatred which was just released overnight. Woo-hoo!
I'm slowly making my way through The Dragon Republic whenever I choose to read with my eyes (which hasn't been much lately).I'm currently listening to Victoria Schwab's The Near Witch which I got from Hoopla after I finished off A Dangerous Collaboration (off genre) in a jiffy, and lemmed The Invasion of the Tearling.
Still have about 9 hours of Fool's Fate to finish on car rides with the spouse. Perhaps soon....
Needed to kick my Laser Book Challenge in the butt thanks to Tom picking a Fantasy. So the last book in the Timothy Zahn's Treason , The Last Astronaut by David Wellington and finally the lovely new Becky Chambers's novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate which has a couple interesting essays , including a reprint of a San Jose Worldcon Panel.
Thanks for the heads up on Dragon Republic, John T and Iain. Gonna give that a miss, I think.
Just finished The Renegades of Pern. It's wildly uneven. The book starts off well, with a traveling party caught out in Threadfall. In previous books the threat of Thread has been an abstract one, with no one actually hurt beyond being threadscored offscreen. In this one a large fraction of the party dies as Thread hits them.From there...well, it starts to drag quickly. The "Renegades" of the title are collected by a member of Pernese nobility denied the Lord Holder title she believes she deserves. She makes a good case for that, but going off to kill people in large numbers as "Lady Holdless" really isn't the way to redress youri grievances. Pern has a pretty big selection of rebellious characters who did good, so it's a different turn for McCaffrey. But this villain is so stereotypical as to be a cardboard cutout.
The storyline quickly palls as the "Lady Holdless" uses and throws away people ad nauseum. The book drags to such tedium that I thought about lemming it at the 40% mark.
But then after a series of improbable events we all wind up in the Southern Continent, revisiting events of White Dragon from different viewpoints, and filling in detail. Piemur takes a lead role here, F'Lar and Lessa show up, and Masterharper Robinton digs into the search for Pern's beginnings at the site of the original colonists' landing place. Other minor characters show up by the score.
The "Renegade" bit is a framing device for a series of vignettes that have little else in common. It's resolved in a fairly by-the-numbers fashion and includes some previously unknown strictures that don't allow Dragonriders to help Holders even if they're about to be killed. Gosh, it's almost like a weak-writing section thrown in for dramatic effect!
Welp, at least it eventually comes to a bangup ending. I've read All the Weyrs of Pern so knew what was coming, but it was still a lot of fun to read. I might be able to get through that book again without gagging when AIVAS shows up to Deus-Ex-Machina the plot.
Now it's on to Dragonsdawn before ATWOP. Dragons! Dragons! Even this uneven installment had enough Pern goodness to be palatable.
Finished House of Cthulhu and moved on to Tarra Khash: Hrossak!: Tales of the Primal Land, also sword & sorcery by Brian Lumley.
Finished with Gateway and really liked it. I am usually lukewarm towards classic SF but this one grabbed me from the get go. MC is very interesting, the alien/BDO aspect fascinating, and also easy to read.DNFed Infomocracy after 51%. I just did not care.
Starting The Fated Sky finally.
^Glad to hear it! I enjoyed Gateway but when we read it as a group, a lot of us had a problem with (view spoiler) The story gets past that but I wasn't sure a modern reader would put up with it.There's five followups of varying quality. Probably the next two at least are worth reading. After that it's a lot of rehash but if you like the universe it could be worth the effort.
My library loan for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell audiobook expired with only 10 chapters left and I was unable to recheck it out as others were in line for it. So frustrating. So while I wait I am now listening to the second half of Theft of Swords Avempartha. Thought I’d finally give Sullivan another try.
John (Taloni) wrote: "^Glad to hear it! I enjoyed Gateway but when we read it as a group, a lot of us had a problem with [spoilers removed] The story gets past that but I wasn't sure a modern reader would put up with it..."That scene was indeed disturbing but I see it as part of the MC's pscyche journey - which is an element I did not expect to find so dominant in the book. As for the next books, my buddies told me no need to continue but I kiiiinda want a bit more? Let's see if I could get the next two books easily.
Just started A Long Walk to Wimbledon by H.R.F. KeatingBasically it is a man walking from Highgate to Wimbledon through a post apocalyptic London.
The description of the walk appears detailed enough that an obsessive like me could reproduce it.
Finally finished my re-read of A Dance with Dragons. Moving on to Gideon the Ninth. I had to get this based on the elevator pitch: Lesbian necromancers in space.
Dara wrote: "Moving on to Gideon the Ninth. I had to get this based on the elevator pitch: Lesbian necromancers in space."I found it just as fun as it was billed to be: gore, suspense, sword-fights, skeletons.
I just took a break from swords and lasers to read French Exit, which I thought was great, but not quite as good as the author's previous one: The Sisters Brothers. Now I'm back into the genre stuff since a co-worker talked me into starting the Rivers of London series.
Finished with The Fated Sky, a fun read, I liked it more than the first one.It seems I need to take a break from all spacey stuff I have been reading lately so I choose The October Man as a palate cleanser. I guess Peter was not in it so I don't have any expectation.
Hoping to get to Gideon soon! I have a copy, just waiting for me to finish The Outside.Recently I've read:
The Wolf in the Whale which I wish had as much research done on gender and trauma as it did on Inuit culture. Lots of cool stuff, but more that made me very uncomfortable.
A Closed and Common Orbit which I LOVED.
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters which I really recommend to any fans of Le Guin. They're short essays, but just as strong as any of her fiction or poetry.
I read all of Locke and Key and had so much fun with that as well. I'm beginning to think that Joe Hill is another I prefer in this format rather than his traditional novels.
I took a quick jaunt through So You Want to Talk About Race which is sort of a primer on discussing race--I think folks who chimed in on the ToL representation thread might find this of interest.
Emergency Skin was DELIGHTFUL. Gosh I love her writing. Highly recommended. The audio was also excellent.
and finally, Moon Over Soho...I like so much about this series, but in both books so far I think my enjoyment gets swamped by ridiculous plots, clunky endings, and Peter's peck...um...of pickled peppers.
After finishing Vessel, I read On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. Not SFF. The author is a poet and this is his first novel. I can imagine he writes wonderful poetry, but the style of "prose" in this book didn't really work for me.
Finished with The October Man. MC is bland, lots of repetition, but the story is quite enjoyable.About to start The Luminous Dead.
Allison wrote: "and finally, Moon Over Soho...I like so much about this series, but in both books so far I think my enjoyment gets swamped by ridiculous plots, clunky endings, and Peter's peck...um...of pickled peppers.
"
It is indeed one of the weaker book in the series. The next ones are better.
Silvana wrote: "Finished with The October Man. MC is bland, lots of repetition, but the story is quite enjoyable.About to start The Luminous Dead.
Allison wrote: "and finally, Mo..."
Thanks Silvana! Maybe I'll add the next to my TBR then.
Silvana wrote: "Finished with Gateway and really liked it. I am usually lukewarm towards classic SF but this one grabbed me from the get go. MC is very interesting, the alien/BDO aspect fascinating, ..."I wonder how much of my dislike for the MC was caused by the audiobook narrator because the MC ruined absolutely everything about the book for me. The narrator had such a wishy-washy, vaguely whiny voice about everything and was just so unlikable. It was a bummer because I really liked all of the BDO stuff and am still interested in continuing the series to see how that aspect plays out.
Started The October Country for my first Halloween read and was ready to get back into Bradford after not loving the Martian Chronicles but man the first story was just not great. Just very dated in a lot of ways. We'll see how this goes.
Also about halfway through Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's which I'm not super digging. It's supposed to be humorous but just seems snarky. I don't disagree with anything she writes about but the whole book just is so disjointed to me and all over the place. Essay collections are my jam too and this is one of the few that I'm just not connecting with so far.
Yesterday I finished Prudence. It was so fun to get back to the Parasolverse! Rue’s a fun character, there’s new shapeshifters, and it was all so joyful to read.
I’m reading House of Leaves right now. I’ve just read 60 pages of letters from the institutionalized mother of one of the main characters and between that and all the footnotes I’m finding this book fairly impenetrable.
Finished up Dragonsdawn in my ongoing reread of the Pern series. This is the prequel where the colonists land, encounter Thread for the first time, and bioengineer the dragons.The book is fan service through and through. There is a cornucopia of familiar names, as we meet the people that the places were later named after. And not just that. Familiar terms get a sly explanation as, for instance, the known term Holder from Dragonflight on is introduced first as a stakeholder, distinct from the "contract" people who bought on for smaller shares. From "stakeholder" to shortened "holder" and implicitly the small Holders and the major Lord Holders.
We see how the Watchwhers were created and why they are inferior to the dragons. The fire lizards flaming Thread, silly as it is as a plot point, showing the way to the dragons. And finally the first cohort of dragons to the rescue of a colony that barely escaped a volcano, flaming Thread out of the sky of their new home in Fort Hold.
It is corny and cheesy and how I love it so.
How do you top genetically engineered giant spiders? With uplifted octopuses, of course! Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s sequel to Children of Time, Children of Ruin. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
^If you can handle the hardest of hard science fiction, Benford's books Tides of Light and Furious Gulf have an intelligent giant spider race. Books 4 and 5 of the Galactic Center series, but can be read standalone. The spiders acknowledge humans are intelligent but don't really consider them important, an amusing reversal on the "human destiny" trope in a lot of space opera.
Trike wrote: "How do you top genetically engineered giant spiders? With uplifted octopuses, of course! Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s sequel to Children of Time, Children of Ruin. My review: ..."why only three stars?
I just finished The Luminous Dead which was a dud. Just started The Dragon Republic. I am liking the audio version though I am not sure I could stand the main character if she kept her antics.
Erik wrote: "I wonder how much of my dislike for the MC was caused by the audiobook narrator because the MC ruined absolutely everything about the book for me."That's too bad! Though to be fair, the MC was really, really unlikable, even in ebook format :D Still interesting though. I enjoy the psychology aspects of it.
Silvana wrote: "Trike wrote: "How do you top genetically engineered giant spiders? With uplifted octopuses, of course! Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s sequel to Children of Time, [book:Children of Ruin|41742154..why only three stars?."
Because I liked it. I don’t try to game the Goodreads rating system.
1 - didn’t like it
2 - it was okay
3 - liked it
4 - really liked it
5 - it was amazing
I think it’s perfectly valid to grade art on a pass/fail system (in this case, either 1 star or 5 stars with nothing in between), but that’s not how I roll.
Mod
3 Stars is a good score for a book. To get a 5 a book has to be really special.
I'm not a fan of ratings systems (in life) where getting 4/5 is considered a fail.
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The Sword and Laser
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Rick wrote: "The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday was a fun read.
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Good to know, I loved the sample and immediately bought it.