The Sword and Laser discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
What Else Are You Reading?
>
What Are You Reading - January 2015
David - Glad to hear it! I've got a memory like a sieve, apologies for not remembering. And repeating myself!When you're done, I'd be really curious to know what you think. I love "The End of Eternity" beyond all reason.
The original Robot shorts are top notch. I love the one about the robot cultists that kept the energy beam tight, and thought humans were defective robots.
All done with E.R. Eddison -- I just finished The Mezentian Gate.Next up: An actual paper book! Swords and Sorcerers: Stories from the Worlds of Fantasy and Adventure, edited by Clint Willis.
I feel pretty good I've read four book this month though I wish I could go faster. Now I'm reading Storm Front pretty horrible I don't understand how this has so many good reviews and recommendations because ... ugh where to start.
Also reading one of my all time fav series Magic Slays I was kinda upset that they decided to not end the series after the series ended I really don't like when authors do that and find I don't like the second plot line as much so I have been putting off finishing the 5th and 6th book because then I'll have to read the 7th and 8th which are from the new books.
I'm still hoping to get to The Sparrow which looks pretty long and slow...
Chakara wrote: "Now I'm reading Storm Front pretty horrible I don't understand how this has so many good reviews and recommendations because ... ugh where to start."A lot of people like to say to skip the first couple Dresden Files books and start with Grave Peril since that's where Butcher starts hitting his stride as a writer and an overarching plot starts to take place. But some people dislike the series regardless! I like the series personally, but I'm a fan of snarky heroes and I really like a lot of the side characters in Dresden. (I definitely felt like Book 2 was the lowest point of the series for me--some parts of it were a little too slow & Butcher does get better with pacing.)
John says: "David - Glad to hear it! I've got a memory like a sieve, apologies for not remembering. And repeating myself!No worries, John! There's also like 20 different Davids on here, and my Goodreads only shows first names. I think I've seen at least one thread here with 3 different Davids commenting in a row.
When you're done, I'd be really curious to know what you think. I love "The End of Eternity" beyond all reason.
The original Robot shorts are top notch. I love the one about the robot cultists that kept the energy beam tight, and thought humans were defective robots."
The robot short story you're mentioning was definitely hilarious! And the "solution" was unexpected, too. I wish there was a real collection of all of his short stories instead of a couple half-assed attempts.
I'll definitely mention it in this thread when I get around to End of Eternity--I've got at least 3 or 4 books standing in my way first unfortunately.
David wrote: "I'll definitely mention it in this thread when I get around to End of Eternity--I've got at least 3 or 4 books standing in my way first unfortunately. "Add another person that adores End of Eternity to the list! I think it's my favourite Asimov book.
Ok, so I didn't make my goal last year. What can I say, life got in the way! Anyhow, I've set a more realistic goal of 20 books in 2015 for myself. Hopefully I'll have no trouble with it. I'm starting off the year with The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Loving it so far.
I finished Revival by Stephen King. Here's my review.Going to start on The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley.
Travis wrote: " I'm starting off the year with The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Loving it so far."I had a weird mental thing when I first read that book in high school that the word "wishsong" was "withsong." I think I was halfway through and I realized that it was wiSHsong and I thought, you know, that makes a lot more sense... Mental lisp, I guess!
I've just finished Lucian's True History a satire of travel tales It includes a trip to the Moon, a war between the people of the Moon and those of the Sun, getting trapped in a giant whale, and a visit to the afterlife. Fun quick read. Currently reading the fairy tales in East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North.
David wrote: "Travis wrote: " I'm starting off the year with The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Loving it so far."I had a weird mental thing when I first read that book in high school that the word "wis..."
That is hilarious.
Just started Falling Sky by Rajan Khanna last night. Pretty good actioner so far, combining a virus that makes humans animalistic ("Ferals" they're called) plus modern airships. Since it takes place about a generation-and-a-half after whatever released the virus, it kinda-sorta manages to scratch the itch for zombies, steampunk, future dystopia and technothrillers while not being exactly any of those.
Only on chapter 5, so I hope he can continue the breakneck pace.
I'm listening to Firefight and frankly finding myself irritated at it more than enjoying it, but I'm also determined to finish it (for some damn reason). It's worse today since I've had a terrible day today and somehow, the things Sanderson is trying to write as "cute" are just grating. I guess I just need to calm the heck down. ;)Also reading Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World on Kindle at nights. It's more relaxing.
I started the audio of The Martian. Still reading Magic Slays, Storm Front still hoping to get to The Maze Runner and The Sparrow.
terpkristin wrote: "I'm listening to Firefight and frankly finding myself irritated at it more than enjoying it, but I'm also determined to finish it (for some damn reason). It's worse today since I've..."haha...I felt the same way...The book was a little too happy for me and I wanted to be angry. It didn't help my mood, just made me more irritated instead of the nice righteous anger I was shooting for.
Brandon Sanderson’s Firefight Hits #1 on the New York Times YA Bestseller Listhttp://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/01/bran...
I'm nearing the end of Blood Song, which I am enjoying. I think it's a pretty standard fantasy story, but it is done very, very well. Smooth writing, good characters, slowly unravelling mysterious plot. (Plus, I love training montages and about half the book is basically one giant training montage.)
I read Sparrow Hill Road, a well told ghost story (part one of a series). Set in the same world as her Incryptids series, with the same cavalier sense of humor. Next up, I just got my copy of The Just City.
After hearing all sort of good things I am going to start The Goblin Emperor. One reviewer called it a literary hug. And I need one, 2015 has started out rough.
I just read The Goblin Emperor. It is pretty soothing!
I've been in the mood for short stories so I'm reading The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2009 edited by Rich Horton. Some of the stories are superb. I highly recommend this anthology.
I was perusing IMDb's Coming Soon section and came upon Alejandro González Iñárritu's (Birdman) latest project, The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, which is an adaptation of The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge. Since I always enjoy a good revenge tale, I picked it up from my library today. I am eager to start in on this as soon as I finish The Sparrow, of which I am about half way through. The movie doesn't come out till January 2016. So you have some time to read the book before the movie comes out.
Finished The Providence of Fire. I absolutely loved it. Also finished Usagi Yojimbo, Vol. 3: The Wanderer's Road. Up next starting the Demon Cycle with The Warded Man in preparation for the March 31st release of book 4 of the Demon Cycle, The Skull Throne, while I wait for the Feb 10th release of The Autumn Republic. Also need to catch up with Magic 2.0 Book 2 Spell or High Water before An Unwelcome Quest also drops on Feb 10th. And sometime after that start The Lives of Tao and The Deaths of Tao before The Rebirths of Tao releases April 7th. Phew!
Just finished The Eagles' Brood by Jack Whyte, the third in his series about the founding of Camelot. It's a non-magical (except for a couple prescient dreams) take on the story and takes place mostly before Arthur is even born. Merlyn is the main character in this particular book. Nitpickers would tear this book apart but it's a fun, compelling read and I quite enjoyed it.Starting The Sparrow.
I had dinner with my family last night, had to drive about an hour each way to get there. That allowed me to finish reading Firefight. In the end, the world was interesting but I found the book overall irritating. I gave it 2 stars for "it was ok."I'm currently reading Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World a few pages at a time on Kindle, when I need a break from The Sparrow (which I finally started, just over halfway through the month). I'm also listening to Theft of Swords. I had originally started it in print but decided I really wanted to listen to it because I like the narrator so much.
Slow start to the new year but I'm still trying to finish knitting a baby blanket for my due-anyday-now sister...
Dara wrote: "Finished Promise of Blood. Here's my review. Not sure what I want to read next."For what it's worth... book two he really hits his stride. I enjoyed both, but two is definately better and I am looking forward to 3.
Finished The Lives of Tao. It was super enjoyable. My review. It's still $1.99 in the Kindle store - January deal.http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Tao-Wesle...
I'm reading The Broken Kingdoms now. I don't really know what this book is about and I kind of like going into this blind.
Finished up Fallen Angels by Niven / Pournelle / Flynn and needed reading fodder, so picked up an Asimov short called Youth from gutenberg.org. Mulling what my next full book will be.
Just finished The Wishsong of Shannaraand really enjoyed it. Now I think I'll go a little mainstream and read Jack & Jill, the third Alex Cross novel.
I read a good book! I read a good book!Okay, technically it was a comic book, but still... Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson.
Now I'm on to The Fuse Volume 1: The Russia Shift and The Tropic of Serpents. Maybe some art books, since I have a build-up of those.
Finished up Perdido Street Station which was super weird, trippy, and ultimately too wordy. While everything came together in the end, I feel like you could have cut out 1/3 of it and it would have been a better book. The book just dragged for too long to really keep my interest.Started on The Blinding Knife book 2 of the Lightbringer Series. Really loved the first one, excited to see where the characters go and what more we can learn about this world.
David Coulson wrote: "Finished up Perdido Street Station which was super weird, trippy, and ultimately too wordy. While everything came together in the end, I feel like you could have cut out 1/3 of it and ..."That was exactly my reaction to PSS. Have fun with the blinding knife, i think each book gets better in the series!
Sky wrote: "David Coulson wrote: "Finished up Perdido Street Station which was super weird, trippy, and ultimately too wordy. While everything came together in the end, I feel like you could have ..."Thanks, that makes me even more excited! Are you the same Sky from the Not a Book Club Club? I haven't been contributing over there because I can never keep up. I was really hopeful that I could catch up there a few weeks ago, but now the calendar has filled up with all the new reads I have no chance!
Mod
He's one of the Sky's. We have two of them. He's the more active one lately.
I wouldn't worry about keeping up. I created/run the group and I can't keep up with all the reads.
We have a few members who seem to blow through books in no time, but I tend to be pretty behind myself.
My suggestions are:
1) Only pick the reads you want to do. Some months we seem to be doing 3 or 4 reads lately, and we usually seem to do at least 2. But the idea is to be able to discuss the books you want to read/are already reading, not to overload your reading schedule so that you're always doing a group read.
2) Don't worry about posting late/reading the book after the group is finished, the threads will still be there. I know I personally have notifications turned on for every post to the group, and I think many of the other active members do as well.
Finished Swords and Sorcerers: Stories from the Worlds of Fantasy and Adventure -- eh, it was not without its charms -- and decided on something completely different: God's War by Kameron Hurley.(I do really want to read The Mirror Empire. But I have this strange compulsion to not read it until I've read her earlier stuff first, unrelated though it be.)
I started The Historian last weekend. I'm about halfway through. Started kind of slow, but it started to pick up about a third way through and I'm really liking it. Hoping to finish this weekend.After seeing the interview with Myke Cole, I think I might pick up his new book and start his series after I finish.
Busy reading month. Favorites so far are:The Sparrow. Despite the physics issues and the plot-dictated stupid decisions of the expedition I think the 2060 plotline carried it. It's still an important discussion of faith in a field that doesn't usually go there, so I'm glad I read it.
The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings by Angela Slatter. This is a mosaic novel of short stories where minor characters and plot points of individual stories get picked up and expanded upon in others. It kicks off with the British Fantasy Award-winning The Coffin-Maker's Daughter and continues at that level of quality. Slatter is known for her horror writing, but I would describe these as dark fairy tales.
Others included:
- Black Dog by Caitlin Kittredge which is a highly recommended urban fantasy. Seriously, the blurbs for this one are like a "who's who" of the field. It is good, but like most of this author's stuff, I personally found it a bit uneven.
- Unbreakable: A Novel by W.C. Bauers. If you'd told me that tor.com would be publishing something that was trying for the Prometheus Award (that's for libertarian fiction) I would have laughed, but here it is. The SF part of this military SF action thriller is great, but the military part ... the armed forces of the 29th century seem to have borrowed the trappings and rituals from the mid-20th century. The planet that it mostly takes place on might as well be called "Tea Party Land" - it has a citizen militia instead of army and police, everyone has guns and taxes are optional depending on whether you approve of the government. I think you'd have to be at the extreme of right wing politics to believe that as a workable society.
- The Just City by Jo Walton. This is her latest and I just finished it, so I'm still thinking about it. The scenario is intriguing: Athena and Apollo create Plato's Just City from The Republic and choose to take people from all over time to people it. It's very philosophical (obviously), but when the some of characters are working to make that philosophy real (others are not) even with its flaws it becomes fascinating. The climax has an interesting structure too, in that it resolves the philosophical questions about justice and authority but it kind of leaves the cast hanging.
I still have to get on with How to be both by Ali Smith and I think I'll try and knock off the rest of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach books for Sword and Laser.
The sequel to The Just City is coming out this year, too, I think, so hopefully you won't be left hanging too long, Lindsay.
David wrote: "The sequel to The Just City is coming out this year, too, I think, so hopefully you won't be left hanging too long, Lindsay."That's good news. I was a bit on the fence as to whether there would be a sequel and I hadn't gone looking.
Yeah, I didn't realize it was going to be a series (or at least a duology) until I saw someone on Twitter mention it as part of the Thessaly series. Looks like The Philosopher Kings is supposed to come out end of June. So, still a wait, but you can get it in 5 months.I've only read "Tooth and Claw" and "Among Others" by her. I definitely recommend the first, but "Among Others" definitely works a bit better for people who know a bit about SF/F history given all the callbacks.
Actually I gave Among Others to a friend who had only ever read a handful of SF and had no idea of the history and she loved it. She wanted to read it because of how much I raved about it. Afterwards she did acknowledge that she would have got more out of it if she'd had a background in the field, but she still loved it.
I finished The Emperor's Blades. Here's my review. It was good but I had some issues. I'm not rushing out to read the next book but probably some day.I stopped reading Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 and here's why. Oh well.
I've started The Forever War. Should be a quick one, its a short book. I also found a few non-fiction books on Goodreads, and my library has them all, which is great.
Geoff, on the Rocket Talk podcast, Brian Staveley is on and they talk about how Adare is more prominent in the sequel, if that helps any.
David wrote: "Geoff, on the Rocket Talk podcast, Brian Staveley is on and they talk about how Adare is more prominent in the sequel, if that helps any."She couldn't possibly be in it less
Geoff wrote: "David wrote: "Geoff, on the Rocket Talk podcast, Brian Staveley is on and they talk about how Adare is more prominent in the sequel, if that helps any."She couldn't possibly be in it less"
After reading the sequel, I wish she was in it less :)
Sky wrote: "After reading the sequel, I wish she was in it less "Well, I guess you can't please everyone.
Finished Dune :) Such a good book!Now I'm reading Fool Moon, but I find it a bit boring so I'm alternating with Watership Down.
I really hope Fool Moon gets better because I liked the first book, but right now I'm not so sure whether or not to continue with the series. I want to like it though.
Finished The Blinding Knife really, really enjoyed it. It way the larger world is built out over the course of this book is great with talk of the The Everdark Gates, more info on the satrapies and their differences, and aspects of their world that the Chromeria likes pretend don't exist; old gods, "heretic" colors, and the secret history of the world.Jumping straight into The Broken Eye. Hopefully this series continues to be just as good.
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
Gemini Cell (other topics)The Book of Strange New Things (other topics)
Lock In (other topics)
The Broken Eye (other topics)
Annihilation (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Kameron Hurley (other topics)Kameron Hurley (other topics)
W.C. Bauers (other topics)
Caitlin Kittredge (other topics)
Jo Walton (other topics)
More...
I think I'm following your suggest order thus far--Cave of Steel, Naked Sun, then I read Galactic Empire, then the original Foundation trilogy, and I'll get back with End of Eternity and then the final Robots + final Foundations.
Boy, in The Stars, Like Dust, the "ancient document" was corny as hell, though I read that Asimov never liked it and only put it in due to editor's request. Sigh.
I don't plan on any non-Asimov Foundation novels regardless! My Foundation reading project is really just correcting and filling in gaps from my Asimov knowledge, since I always loved his stuff but never read him consistently. Bicentennial Man is still one of my favorite short stories.