What else are you reading - February 2020

[Seth]

Finished Highfire by Eoin Colfer, which is really a fast-paced crime thriller that happens to have a dragon in it, rather than a fantasy book. Fun to read, and fun in tone, but still not outright funny, so I'm still looking for actually humorous SFF in a post Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett world.

Also read Made Things which is a really good fantasy novella that's well worth reading. I don't know why I don't read more shorter fiction, because I usually find that I like the experience.

[TRP]

Just finished The Humans by Matt Haig
He's a good writer but perhaps a little melancholic for my tastes.
Everyone should give this a go though

[John (Taloni)]

^Looks interesting. I tagged it for later reading.

[Joseph]

Finished Realms Of Wizardry and started The Last Hieroglyph, a collection of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories.

[Tamahome]

Checking out the sample of Reynold's 2nd Prefect book, Elysium Fire. The first one wouldn't be a bad nomination either.

[Erik]

About halfway through The Power on audio. Going to start Such a Fun Age next.

[Carrie]

TRP wrote: "Just finished The Humans by Matt Haig
He's a good writer but perhaps a little melancholic for my tastes.
Everyone should give this a go though"

I read it a few years back as a random find at the library I thought it was albeit odd to be a great story.

[Silvana]

Finished with Sisters of the Vast Black - found it disappointing despite its promising premise.

Starting Little, Big

[Unionjill]

Just about to start the latest Rivers of London book False Value

[Carrie]

Reading A Tide of Shadows by Tom Bielawski

[TRP]

Just finishedThe Space Machine by Christopher Priest.
Heavy inspiration from both The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds with an appearance from a certain Mr Wells.
I can definitely recommend this.

One of the reviews on the site claims that the book (published 1976) could be one of the first Steampunk novels.

I've already read The Prestige and The Inverted World and I'm planning to read as many of Christopher Priest's books as I can.

[Silvana]

Unionjill wrote: "Just about to start the latest Rivers of London book False Value"

Same here! The audio just arrived. Here I come, Kobna!

[Unionjill]

Silvana wrote: "Unionjill wrote: "Just about to start the latest Rivers of London book False Value"

Same here! The audio just arrived. Here I come, Kobna!"

I'm whispersyncing so I can have the best of both worlds. I love the audio-books for this series!

[Mark]

Silvana wrote: "Unionjill wrote: "Just about to start the latest Rivers of London book False Value"

Same here! The audio just arrived. Here I come, Kobna!"

US release date is Feb 25 SO WE HAVE TO WAIT (;*△*;)

[John (Taloni)]

BREAKING: We interrupt this broadcast to note that Gail Carriger's short Meat Cute: The Hedgehog Incident is a great read. When it came in off library hold I dropped my other books and read right away.

The story contains a novel's worth of Gail's trademark wit and charm crammed into novelette length. Originally part of the print-only collection "Fan Service," this short addresses the "Hedgehog Incident" referred to throughout many Parasol Protectorate novels. It's the first meeting between Alexia Tarabotti and werewolf Conall Maccon.

Two characters from the Finishing School series also show up in a way that will make longtime readers cheer. I've been watching fans rave about this story on Gail's FB page since it came out in print form. It's as good as they say.

[Mark]

John (Taloni) wrote: "BREAKING: We interrupt this broadcast to note that Gail Carriger's short Meat Cute: The Hedgehog Incident is a great read. When it came in off library hold I dropped my other books ..."

Beware of post-incident fatigue and injuries from falling down the internet hedgehog hole.

[Seth]

Corey wrote: "I just finished RJ Barker’s ‘The Bone Ships’ on audiobook as it’s one of those books that makes me a bit sad cause it’s probably going to be the best book I read all year.

It’s essentially a mari..."

You had me at "pirate" - placed on hold at the local library. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Ruth]

Seth wrote: "Corey wrote: "I just finished RJ Barker’s ‘The Bone Ships’ on audiobook as it’s one of those books that makes me a bit sad cause it’s probably going to be the best book I read all year.

It’s esse..."

I too have read this (although not the audiobook) and would 100% recommend. Pirates, intrigue, monsters, ships made of bone... what’s not to love?

[Misti]

After finishing Gideon the Ninth on audible, I checked out next month's pick but I wasn't enjoying it very much. So I decided to dig into the S&L archives for something and I missed. I am now listening to Elantris.

ETA: Oh, and after scanning the posts above, I realized I forgot to mention that I also read Meat Cute: The Hedgehog Incident. It was quite fun. I just wish it would've been longer.

[David H.]

Continuing my "Don't read SFF this month" trend:

Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro: Coming of age short novel about an ethnic-Korean Japanese boy. Pretty good!

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole: Romance novel that made me think a lot about the Eddie Murphy movie "Coming to America"

The Pox Party and The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson: YA-ish novels about a young black boy in Boston raised in strange circumstances.

The Body in the Castle Well by Martin Walker: The latest Bruno, Chief of Police novel. Good fun!

God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer by Bart D. Ehrman: Biblical scholar talks about theodicy, which is everyone's favorite water cooler conversation. :D

Dumbing of Age, Volume 8: Up Here We Can Be Garbage by David Willis: The most recent volume collecting the webcomic. Fun stuff.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

In the last few days I finished:


To Walk the Night by William Sloane - the first book in the collection The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


The Edge of Running Water by William Sloane - the second book in the collection The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror

[books & coffee addict]

It’s all Raymond Feist until I finish everything.

[terpkristin]

Karen wrote: "It’s all Raymond Feist until I finish everything."

He’s one I’m shocked we haven’t read as a group yet. I need to get back to Riftwar

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Help! I've started This Is How You Lose the Time War twice and I just can't get into it. It's supposed to be a novella (as nominated for the Nebula Awards) but is almost 200 pages and I just zone out. Is it too gamer focused for a normal person like me?

I like the concept, I like that it's co-written, I like that it's inclusive but I can't read it!!

[David H.]

I wouldn't call it gamer focused at all, Jenny. A lot of my friends liked it for the prose and the epistolary style, but I didn't feel like it was enough to cover its slowness and basic plot.

[Rick]

I loved it due to the style. If the style doesn't work for you, you won't like it. And it's not gamer focused at all.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Rick wrote: "I loved it due to the style. If the style doesn't work for you, you won't like it. And it's not gamer focused at all."

Yeah it's a style thing. Gamer focused.. I think I mean... I don't know what I mean. Strategy focused is more accurate.

[Ruth]

Rick wrote: "I loved it due to the style. If the style doesn't work for you, you won't like it.

I agree with Rick here - I loved it too, but if you’re not enjoying the style, you’re not going to enjoy the book. I think you’re better off accepting that it just isn’t your cup of tea and moving on to something else.

[Rick]

Yes, strategy focused is a decent description.

BTW if you want far future SF from Gladstone, look at Empress of Forever

[Brad]

Not a sword or laser book but I started reading The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segova about a month ago and was a bit slow at reading it. I liked it at first but after the coronavirus took off I just had to stop reading it since it takes place in Mexico during the Spanish Flu. It was a little too real and was really stoking my anxiety.

That said I moved on to The Institute by Stephen King and so far it’s excellent, exactly the escapism I needed.

As for audiobooks I was listening to part 2 of the Legion compilation by Brandon Sanderson and found myself getting really bored with it, not something that’s happened to me with a Sanderson book before. So after that I finally moved on to Gideon the Ninth.

[Trike]

I downloaded the audiobook for The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter for my drive from Ohio to New Hampshire.

Due to the incoming storm, I delayed the trip from tomorrow to Friday. Anyone in Buffalo have weather updates? Looks like up to 24 inches of snow Thursday, so hopefully by Friday afternoon it will be mostly clear.

[Trike]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Help! I've started This Is How You Lose the Time War twice and I just can't get into it. It's supposed to be a novella (as nominated for the Nebula Awards) but is almost 200 pages a..."

I listened to the book on the plane a couple days ago and it moved along pretty quickly, I thought. It was only about 4 hours long and it helped that each character was read by a different narrator.

However, it *is* florid and old-fashioned in its prose, so in that regard it feels like reading letters from the Civil War, which is a difficulty of its own.

[Joseph]

Finished Lost Continents and started Scott Oden's Men of Bronze, which isn't technically SFF but which is historical fiction set in ancient Egypt very much in the vein of Robert E. Howard's historical fiction.

[Jonathan]

I just finished Wrath by John Gwynne. I had actually read the first two books of the sequel series before starting the original. The whole series was fantastic, and this book was fast paced from beginning to end! John Gwynne has become one of my favorite authors. I also finished The Fires of Heaven, and have started a re-listen of Grey Sister and am reading Starsight.

[Misti]

Finished the dead-tree version of Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel. I've heard Disney+ is filming the sequel. I'm guessing this is what they will base it upon.

Jumping back into The Expanse Series with Cibola Burn up next. It's been a while, maybe I should look up a recap of Abaddon's Gate before I start.

[TRP]

I'm currently reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
I think it counts as Science Fiction.

It is nowhere near as light-hearted as some of the film adaptations of the story I've seen.
It's a dark satire and I understand that it becomes even dark when the slavery, Gatling guns and murderous army of the Catholic Church intervene

[Silvana]

Finished with False Value and it was kinda disappointing.

Lemmed Little, Big for now. I am not in the mood for reading lyrical prose with non existent plot and glacial pace.

Now reading Current Futures: A Sci-Fi Ocean Anthology which is pretty cool so far. Lots of great authors in list too, along with some awesome arts. Read here: https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/

[Elizabeth]

Misti wrote: "Finished the dead-tree version of Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel. I've heard Disney+ is filming the sequel. I'm guessing this is what they will base it upon.

Jumping back into Th..."

Cibola Burn is pretty much self-contained, although the events that happen in the book are referenced in later books. You shouldn't need a recap beyond the fact the ring gates were opened.

[Elizabeth]

Misti wrote: "Finished the dead-tree version of Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel. I've heard Disney+ is filming the sequel. I'm guessing this is what they will base it upon.

Jumping back into Th..."

Cibola Burn is pretty much self-contained, although the events that happen in the book are referenced in later books. You shouldn't need a recap beyond the fact the ring gates were opened.

[Misti]

Oh, well! I went ahead and read the recap anyway.