What Else Are You Reading - December 2019

[Karen]

Rob wrote: "Jen wrote: "Hello ! So I know Brandon Sanderson is a popular SFF author but I have yet to read any of his books. It looks like he has multiple series that may or may not be related to each other? N..."

I'd second that. I hadn't read any either and a workmate recommended that one. I really enjoyed it.

[Karen]

I've just finished heir of Novron the final in Michael J. Sulivan's Riyria series. It was a lot of fun.

Now reading Neal Asher's The Warship. He's one of my favourite authors.

[Silvana]

Silvana wrote: "Currently reading a nonfic Joanna Russ and will continue with probably my last SFF book this year Star Wars: The Rise of the Empire."

I was wrong. Reading the A New Dawn part of the Rise of the Empire has been faster than expected. I recommend it for Rebels fans. I hope we'll another new Canon novel about the Ghost crew.

My last SFF book this year is The Book of Swords.

[Trike]

Karen wrote: "I've just finished heir of Novron the final in Michael J. Sulivan's Riyria series. It was a lot of fun.

Now reading Neal Asher's The Warship. He's one of my favourite authors."

Asher’s so anti-science it makes my teeth hurt.

He attacks things like global warming not through the science but when it is inaccurately reported in the news. Then he goes, “Ha! Told you it was fake!” Except the science has been right all along and all the predictions from the first IPCC report of 1990 have come to pass. Some sooner than expected, some later, but all of them have now happened, nearly 30 years later.

Every time he pontificates on a subject, whether it’s climate change or cigarette smoking, he is always wrong. It’s kind of amazing how wrong he is, all the time.

[Mark]

Silvana wrote: "I was wrong. Reading the A New Dawn part of the Rise of the Empire has been faster than expected. I recommend it for Rebels fans. I hope we'll another new Canon novel about the Ghost crew.

I just finished watching the last episode of Rebels. A very enjoyable series. I'll have to find a copy of this book too. Thanks, Silvana.

[Misti]

Got hit hard by a reading slump this month, so I just finished re-reading Hogfather. Going to attempt to read The Three-Body Problem next. Also trying to decide if I want to start listening to next month’s pick or on of the Audible originals first.

[Phil]

Just finished The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson and I hated it. The author comes across as such an entitled asshole that it is hard to stomach. There was occasionally a good quote but that was overshadowed by Manson contradicting himself every second page and promoting his own douchebag mash-up of Buddhism and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life.

Oh well. Time for a Douglas Adams palate cleanser.

[Silvana]

Mark wrote: "Silvana wrote: "I was wrong. Reading the A New Dawn part of the Rise of the Empire has been faster than expected. I recommend it for Rebels fans. I hope we'll another new Canon novel about the Ghos..."

My pleasure Mark, I also recommend Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 1: The Last Padawan and its sequel.

[Mark]

Silvana wrote: "I also recommend Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 1: The Last Padawan and its sequel."

Thanks. I'll look for those too. I read somewhere that Hera appears in one or more of the Doctor Aphra series. Have you read those?

[Mark]

I'm going to finish out 2019 with a book that will probably never be a classic, but it's got killer flies and it's set in New Mexico, so why the hell not?

Killer Flies by Mark Kendall

[Silvana]

Mark wrote: "Silvana wrote: "I also recommend Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 1: The Last Padawan and its sequel."

Thanks. I'll look for those too. I read somewhere that Hera appears in one or more of the Doctor Aphra ..."

Not yet, but I might!

[Trike]

Mark wrote: "Silvana wrote: "I also recommend Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 1: The Last Padawan and its sequel."

Thanks. I'll look for those too. I read somewhere that Hera appears in one or more of the Doctor Aphra ..."

I also liked the Kanan book. I gave it 4 stars. I’ve read the first four Dr. Aphra books and don’t recall Hera in them. If she is, it’s not as a major player.

[Rick]

Adrian Tchiakovsky's Made Things, a novella that was fun set in a world I'd like to visit again.

Velocity Weapon was good SF, well-written with some nice twists. Downside is that it's the first in a series and paced that way a bit (it spends some time setting up things that will probably pay off as the series comes out).

Harry Connolly's One Man: A City of Fallen Gods Novel is that rarest of things, a fantasy standalone. Very nicely done and I really wish Connolly would break through to more readers as his stuff is uniformly high quality.

Started Blackfish City but, while I like the writing, I need to put it aside - it's set in a post eco-collapse world on a floating city in the north and between Autonomous, Arctic Rising and a couple of others set in a similar world, I'm a little done with that trope for now.

[Mark]

Rick wrote: "Adrian Tchiakovsky's Made Things, a novella that was fun set in a world I'd like to visit again."

Rick, I just ran across this short story, a prequel to Made Things at Tor.com, but I haven't read it yet. Like you, I got a kick out of the novella.

https://www.tor.com/2019/11/20/precio...

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I was feeling bogged down in a historical fiction read so I picked up The Black Tides of Heaven, a Tor novella by Singaporean author J.Y. Yang. From what I understand, this entire series is novellas, and this is the first. Set in a cloud kingdom with monks and magicians and twins who have special gifts. A quick and interesting read, definitely will keep reading in this series. (And another for my 2019 sword challenge, which I am still surprised has surpassed my laser.)

[Francis x]

I'm currently read/listen an audiobook -A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction
(Discworld #10.5, 14.5, 16.5, 22.5, 23.5, 37)
by Terry Pratchett, A.S. Byatt (Foreword), Michael Fenton Stevens (Narrator), Stephen Briggs (Narrator).
40 % through the book so far. On Libby app.

[Viola]

Listening to Demon Road by Derek Landy.

[Rick]

Thanks Mark!

Jenny - oddly, that novella didn't work for me. I didn't dislike it but its a 3 star read for me. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it and the next books in the series