It's 2015!! What are you reading in Jan?

[Michele]

I recently finished Agatha H and the Clockwork Princess(audio), really enjoy these, though I thought this one (#2) wasn't quite as good as the first, there were a lot of footnotes that got a bit annoying in audio. #3 is out soon though and I will for sure pick it up.

I tore through Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and I liked it, even though it turned out to be a much different type of story from I was expecting.

Read Throne of Glass today, a bit silly and romancey, fun fluff.

Have Nexus audio ready to start when I go to work this morning.

[K.]

Going to try to finish most of the Wheel of Time books along with the obligatory texts for class (Somehow I missed that last semester... bad me.) Does reading your own stuff for editing/revisions count? (If so, then there's three more on the table.) And, I'm still hunting up new authors, preferably indie. Along with a few others from my "old friends" that I'm trying to get refreshed so I can review them.

[[deleted user]]

For those interested in what's coming out in SF&F this month,...

Tor.com offers:
January Releases in Fantasy
January Releases in Science Fiction
which is hardly comprehensive, but covers the major releases.

And Kirkus Reviews weighs in with
The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Reads for January
which is limited to what they've reviewed.

[Charlotte (Buried in Books)]

Just finished The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, really enjoyed it.

[Michael]

Started in on Red Seas Under Red Skies, which should be done this month. Then if I can get to the bookstore to grab Caliban's War, that is next. Otherwise, I have Fool Moon, Consider Phlebas, Dust, or The Republic of Thieves on my stack to read next.

[Leo]

That right there is a delightful case of tsundoku! I guarantee you'll enjoy anything in the Dresden Files (unless urban fantasy isn't your jam)! Lynch and Lamora are hard to put down as well.

Just started in on The Mirror Empire - months after the group read it, but hey, I've heard pretty good things.

[Peter]

I got Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch for Christmas - fourth book in the Rivers of London urban fantasy series. The first three were good so I have high hopes for this one.

[Andreas]

Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time as I learned from Mr Gurney from Spectrum 19.
And Blood Song.

[[deleted user]]

Currently reading:


City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
A sort of Gaslight Fantasy that has really grabbed me in the first 50 pages.

And I've already dipped my toe into our upcoming short story Anthology discussion topic for next week,....

The Ape's Wife and Other Stories collection by Caitlín R. Kiernan
and I'm reserving judgement for our upcoming discussion, so you'll have to tune in then. (No, needs to be grabbier. Maybe, "G33Z3R is reading The Ape's Wife, and you won't believe what he says about it!" :)


As an Audiobook, I just finished listening to the old classic,...

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
(So short it didn't last the morning's housework.)
For some reason this made me think again about last year's movie "Transcendence".



Lastly, coming out this next Tuesday is...
The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley
Sequel to last year's The Emperor's Blades, I plan to squeeze it into the reading schedule PDQ.

[Ben]

My reading list got a bit cluttered with short story collections, poetry books and non fiction and I was up to reading something like 25 books at once. Working on slimming that number slowly to single digits.

So far it has been very satisfying with finishing great stuff that I had been holding off for no particularly good reason other than not making the time.

Not sure what you will make of the Kiernan G33z33r - its often darker fare than you normally choose as well as drifting into weird.

But you must do much more housework than I do if you can listen to a whole audio book whilst doing it... but then I use some of my disability money to pay for a cleaner so I dont do all that much.

With all the buzz around City of Stairs I am really tempted to give it a try but I was very middling about his debut Mr Shivers so not quite sure - if it got a book of the month pick I would definately give it a chance but otherwise I might read a few other things first.

With clearing the reading decks I finished the wonderful Kij Johnson collection, the very satisfying Ballingrud collection (well end of last month with that one) and am finishing off 3 Kiernan collections (all great). Will finish off The Magician in the next few days and make a start on The Three-Body Problem.

Depending on how easy going my baby is I might get a few short novels/ novellas read including Yesterday's Kin, The Divinity Student, Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell etc. And having reread some Brooks, Williams and Feist lately I might be tempted to give Steven Erikson a try (never read him).

[[deleted user]]

I'm reading "Smarter than us: the Rise of Machine Intelligence". I'm curious to see what kind of miracles are going to happening in a maybe near future :).

[Michael]

I am about 2/3 of the way through The Accident by Linwood Barclay. This is the 4th book of his that I've read and it does not disappoint. I call this type of book "a neighborhood thriller." Set in suburbia, it puts regular folks in mortal danger. He's really good.

When I finish, I'm moving on two other books in the same vein:
You're Next by Gregg Hurwitz
Just One Look by Harlan Coben

[[deleted user]]

Alexandra wrote: "I'm reading "Smarter than us: the Rise of Machine Intelligence". I'm curious to see what kind of miracles are going to happening in a maybe near future :)."

Getting ready to grovel before our new silicon overlords?


Ben wrote: "My reading list got a bit cluttered with short story collections, poetry books and non fiction and I was up to reading something like 25 books at once. Working on slimming that number..."

I usually have a number of magazines & anthologies "open" — short stories are like between-meal snacks — but I can't do more than one story at a time (plus an audiobook of a different genre).

Ben wrote: "you must do much more housework than I do if you can listen to a whole audio book whilst doing it......"

"The Invisible Man" is quite short; novella, almost. 190 pages in print, in audiobook less than 3hrs at 2.5x playback speed.

[[deleted user]]

G33z3r wrote: "Alexandra wrote: "I'm reading "Smarter than us: the Rise of Machine Intelligence". I'm curious to see what kind of miracles are going to happening in a maybe near future :)."

Getting ready to grov..."
No, If I can judge AI by the automatic suggestions for new readings , I'm quite confident humanity will always prevail :))). The author instead is very worried this can happen.

[[deleted user]]

Alexandra wrote: "No, If I can judge AI by the automatic suggestions for new readings , I'm quite confident humanity will always prevail :))). The author instead is very worried this can happen. ..."

There is a story by Bruce Sterling, “Maneki Neko,” that was originally published in 1998. In it, a benevolent AI directs networks of individuals to do favors for each other. So one day you might be buying yourself a bagel, and your phone might ring and instruct you to buy a second bagel and give it to the person in the gray suit you see at the bus stop. Another day, you might be stranded in a strange city, and a person you’ve never met would walk up and give you a map and a subway card. I like this story because all the people in it do what the AI tells them to do.
- from "Cat Pictures, Please" by Naomi Kritzer

That amusing Kritzer short story is a cure for AI anxiety, online free in this month's (January's) Clarkesworld: Cat Pictures, Please

The Sterling short story it references, originally published in Japan, is reprinted online free from an old Lightspeed Managzine: Maneki Neko. How it affects AI anxiety depends on which kind of person is reading it. :)

[Christy]

I am rereading Ender's Game to see why I didn't like the movie. I haven't read it in a long time, but they seemed to have radically changed the ending, which seemed to also radically change the point. It's been many years since I read the book, so I am checking it out.
Also reading Autumn in Carthage, which I got as a free kindle book. It is just interesting enough to keep me continuing on, though I am not tempted to read it while home with other books to choose from. I find the narrator's outlook on other people remarkably arrogant and unkind and it seems to be taking forever to get anywhere.

[Ben]

I think that the film of Enders Game was a bit anemic - just one of those examples where the experience is much blander than reading it. Watchmen was a similar experience...

However I do think Enders Game is a book that can be seen radically differently on a different reading. As radical as say a child reading the Narnia books compared to an adult reading them. There is some excellent scholarly analysis of Enders Game free online - including the famous John Kessell article "Creating the Innocent Killer" and there is even free video playback of mythguard universities course on it (its very long although not to my mind as interesting or scholarly as some of the shorter written articles) http://www.mythgard.org/academy/ender...

But that might be a rabbit hole you dont want to go down.

[Michael]

Just finished The Accident by Linwood Barclay. This was a 4-star page turner. A true thriller in every sense of the word with a great plot twist at the end. My New Years resolution is to READ MORE LINWOOD BARCLAY.

[Jim]

I just finished The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery & LOVED it. 5 stars. He was a man as heroic as he was treacherous. It was nice to finally read his story. No, it's not fiction, but read as easily.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[[deleted user]]

G33z3r wrote: "Alexandra wrote: "No, If I can judge AI by the automatic suggestions for new readings , I'm quite confident humanity will always prevail :))). The author instead is very worried this can happen. ....."

These stories seem very interesting , thank you :)!

[Nadezhda]

I just got Michael Manning's Mageborne series and I can say I've enjoyed the time I've spent with the book so far! I'm about half way through the first book and I'm waiting eagerly to see how the plot and characters will develop. I guess I'll get through the series by the end of January, then I think I'll start the Dark Lord's Handbook - I read good reviews for it and I really enjoyed the synopsis on Amazon - seems like this book will be quite amusing.

[[deleted user]]

I'm in the last stages of editing my current work in progress, and as a result I plan to start reading The Earl of Brass by Kara Jorgensen in the next week or so.

[Hillary]

I bridged the old & new years with Under Heaven and River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay, an interesting coincidence since one of the themes they deal with is history (what endures/what doesn't/who decides/whether it matters) -- along with politics and warfare on an empire level. They're historical fantasies set in not-quite-Tang- and not-quite-Song-China. I really enjoyed them; they didn't make my GGK Top-3, but they reminded me of the Lions of Al-Rasan, my favorite Kay. River of Stars had an especially intense/melancholic ending, although overall the narrator keeps a little more distance from the characters than in some of Kay's earlier works. Under Heaven is probably my favorite of the two, with its opening focus on a single main character and a momentous road trip.

Then, looking for something light, I read Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel books. I don't think they really stand out very much from other, earlier-begun urban fantasy series (of those I've read, they're probably most like Briggs with a potential werewolf paramour, with some hints of Butcher and Harris), but they were surprisingly quick page-turners for their size, and I appreciated that the most recent release, Poison Fruit, actually built up to a significant final act.

Now I'm just starting Three Parts Dead

[[deleted user]]

Hillary wrote: "Now I'm just starting Three Parts Dead ..."

I've really enjoyed Gladstone's Craft novels so far. An interesting take on magic. (All three books so far have been set in different places with different characters, but share the "magic as contract law" view.) I'm looking forward to Last First Snow later this year. Hope you like Three Parts Dead.


Hillary wrote: ", I read Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel books. I don't think they really stand out very much from other, earlier-begun urban fantasy series..."

By loved Carey's original Kushiel Phaedre trilogy, though after that (Imriel & Moirin) she hasn't really wowed me. Amazing world just enough like Europe to seem familiar yet bizarrely twisted at the same time. Seems she's joined a number of fantasy authors in shifting to Urban Fantasy, which is where I presume all the action is these days.

[Andreas]

Currently reading The Carpet Makers which I find awesome so far. Connected short stories in a SF setting, really great.

[Michael]

I just finished I Stooged to Conquer: The Autobiography of the Leader of the Three Stooges by Moe Howard. (Yes, THAT Moe!) It's a 3-star firsthand account of the act throughout the 20th century. It's not a work of literature, but of interest to anyone (like myself) is a fan of the trio and wants to know a little of what went on behind-the-scenes of their wild and wacky short films.

[Christine]

I'm reading The Two Towers for the first time. I´m almost finished.

[infael]

The Paths of Alir by Melissa McPhail. The best series you haven't read. :)

[[deleted user]]

Read The Dragons of Dorcastle by Jack Campbell.

The year is only one week old and already I have read the worst book I will read in 2015.

[Kathy]

G33z3r wrote: "Read The Dragons of Dorcastle by Jack Campbell.

The year is only one week old and already I have read the worst book I will read in 2015."

Oh No!!

[Michele]

I finished Nexus quickly, really liked it. I plan to continue the series but I might wait on book three.

I read a bunch of Regency romances that were free through Kindle Unlimited - I love Marion Chesney/MC Beaton for the really short fun fluffy reads.

I picked up The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo a short story/novella about a Chinese/English girl in 1920s London. It was really good.

I started A Talent for War then put it aside because I wasn't in the mood - will pick it up later.

I read the first two In Death books -Naked in Death and Glory in Death - these are good and sexy, but the "SF" bits are pretty pathetic lol. But I'm there for the sexy times so who cares?

I listened to We Have Always Lived in the Castle - very creeptastic. I liked Hill House better though.

I tore right through Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle, book 3, which just came out. I love this series! But dangit, it ended on a huge cliffhanger so now I gotta wait.

Almost finished with Midnight Riot and I'm really into this one, love it and plan to read more in the series.

Next up is Galapagos Regained: A Novel and Annihilation.

Wow, I've been a busy little reader-bee!

[Michael]

I've been reading:

Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
Djibouti by Elmore Leonard
Batman, Vol. 2: The City of Owls by Scott Snyder
Just One Look by Harlan Coben
The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald

Currently reading: Shatter by Michael Robotham

[Jim]

I just finished South by Lance Charnes. Oh my! A spy thriller set in a very depressing near-future US. The world is depressing, but the story is fantastic. I gave it 5 stars. Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Bryn]

An Andre Norton historical fantasy, Imperial Lady. I chased it up for its history interest to me (1st century steppe neighbours of China), but it's a catchy read so far.

Also qualifies as historical fantasy I think, in a strange, satirical, Gormenghasty way: The Knight on the Bridge. Because his The Last of the Templars is one of my most-admired ever. These books, written in a mannered style, beautiful to a few, sunken into obscurity.