What else are you reading - June 2020

[Sheila Jean]

Oh Hey! It's June 3!

[Sheila Jean]

I'm almost done with Middlegame and a good chunk of the way through The Name of All Things. But Network Effect just came up from the library so I'll be finishing that before The Name of All Things.

[Rick]

Stealing Worlds is what I'm reading now. Amusingly rooted in a technology that a friend's company is working with, it's a pretty cool, near future cyberpunk-adjacent book that I like so far (about 1/3 in)

[Ruth]

I currently have no fewer than six books on the go as I keep starting new ones before finishing the old!
My latest ‘starts’ are The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and m courtesy of tor dot com’s latest free novella giveaway, Every Heart a Doorway.

[Geoff]

I just finished Middlegame, which was excellent. That completes my reading of the 2020 Hugo award finalist novels. I'll post my thoughts over in the Hugo nominees thread when I get a chance.

Next up I'm reading The Last Emperox, which I deferred reading for a bit for the Hugo project. I've been looking forward to the conclusion of that series.

[Silvana]

2/3 into A Memory Called Empire, quite liking it so far due to the mystery parts.

Tomorrow after finishing it I will start Startide Rising by David Brin.

[Geoff]

I just finished The Last Emperox. A good conclusion to the trilogy.

Next up, back to the Lois McMaster Bujold Penric novellas with Penric’s Mission.

[Joseph]

Finished A Memory Called Empire (which I loved) and started The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes.

[Trike]

Geoff wrote: "I just finished The Last Emperox. A good conclusion to the trilogy.

Next up, back to the Lois McMaster Bujold Penric novellas with Penric’s Mission."

I liked both of those.

[Seth]

Geoff wrote: "I just finished The Last Emperox. A good conclusion to the trilogy."

Me too, and I felt about the same. It was looking for a while like there could be no resolution (it seems like there was just too much to wrap up) but Scalzi managed to find a satisfying ending.

[Rob, Roberator]

Oops. I thought I made a June thread. I think I might have just locked the May one.

Thanks Sheila!

#modfail

[Geoff]

I finished Penric’s Mission. I go through these Penric novellas pretty quick and easy. Very enjoyable.

Continuing with the next in the series, Mira's Last Dance.

[Jonathan]

Listening to Golden Fool

[Louie]

I have finished all the SF on my shelf, so I have now moved on to my two favorite authors. I already finished Winter Journal, moving on to Report from the Interior.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Today I finished:


A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

[Elizabeth]

Just finished reading about a week ago Keys of the Origin by Melissa Joy. Fantastic read with the detail on the world building and the characters all have some fascinating past that is going to continue to keep you in. I wrote a full review.
Then tonight I literally just finished Ruins on Stone Hill by F.P. Spirit. Another great read. It really had that Tolkien feel to it, which is always a good thing. I'll be sure and get a review put up soon. Not sure what I'll dive into next.

[Ruth]

Finished the audiobook of False Value and moving on to the audiobook of The City We Became

[Ruthifred]

I read The Cruel Prince. Now I’m reading How to Be an Antiracist, A Study in Scarlet Women, Eery Heart a Doorway, and Looking for Lorraine.

[Trike]

Ruthifred wrote: "Eery Heart a Doorway"

“Eery” is an apt typo for that book.

[Geoff]

Continuing my brisk read of Bujold's Penric novellas, I finished Mira's Last Dance. A page turner as always.

Next up, the sixth in the series: The Prisoner of Limnos.

[Joseph]

Finished The Palace Job and went straight to the second in the series, The Prophecy Con.

[Silvana]

Finished with Startide Rising. Fantastic book, I need more Uplift stuff.

Starting graphic novels Paper Girls, Vol. 1 and sequels, Mooncakes, LaGuardia, Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act and sequels.

[Stephen]

Side Jobs and I am done with everything Harry Dresden until Peace Talks. The BOM plus, hopefully, John Scalzi's The Interdependency Series.

[Louie]

Silvana wrote: "Starting graphic novels Paper Girls, Vol. 1 and sequels, Mooncakes, LaGuardia, Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act and sequels."

I did a complete read through of Paper Girls last year. chef's kiss
I planned on doing the same with WicDiv, but the closing of the library put that on hold, plus I have always been lukewarm on the series as a whole, was hoping re-reading from the start would heat it up for me.

[Rick]

Louie wrote: "I planned on doing the same with WicDiv, but the closing of the library put that on hold, plus I have always been lukewarm on the series as a whole, was hoping re-reading from the start would heat it up for me."


You know about Hoopla, yes? Assuming you have an iPad etc you can read a lot of it on their if the library you use supports it.

https://www.hoopladigital.com/

[Louie]

Rick wrote: "You know about Hoopla, yes?"

Yup. My library does not use it though.

[TRP]

Just read a couple of Andrzej Sapkowski books Sword of Destiny and Blood of Elves
I'm liking this series and I enjoy the writer's way of telling his story
It might be down to the translation.
It also pushed me into finishing the TV series

[Misti]

Finished listening to this month's pick yesterday. I found it hard to keep my interest until the last few chapters. So until the next pick is announced, I'll listen to those audible originals that have been piling up in my queue. First up is The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel, which sounds like it's full of a lot of nerdy, fun sciency stuff (most of it I'm sure I won't understand but who cares!).

Oh, and I'm also reading the dead tree version of Unseen Academicals.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Started reading The City of Brass. It is good so far.

Also re-listening to Earthcore by Scott Sigler with the hope the sequel (promised for 2006 :-? ) finally gets released later this year.

[Colin]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Also re-listening to Earthcore by Scott Sigler with the hope the sequel (promised for 2006 :-? ) finally gets released later this year."

Hope that's the current version, not the original podcasts. Earthcore itself was significantly revised a couple of years ago.

Likewise waiting for the inevitable gore-fest that the sequel will be!

[Geoff]

I finished The Prisoner of Limnos. It was good, but I think I liked the "Nikys trilogy" less than the other first three.

On to number 7 in the novella series, The Orphans of Raspay.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Colin wrote: "Hope that's the current version, not the original podcasts. Earthcore itself was significantly revised a couple of years ago.."

The updated version which was released on Scott's podcast in 2018. I've waited until a release of "Mount Fitzroy" is more likely.

I have the book, but decided to do the free audio podcast.

I listened to the original back in 2005 and Scott was going to release the sequel the following year :-?

At least he has released a tonne of books in between.

[Robert]

Yesterday I finished Warprize. I found it quite enjoyable.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I recently finished The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. I liked the concept, enjoyed the worldbuilding, but was super disappointed by the overall plot especially the ending. I'm not sure I'll need to read the next book. Here is my review.

[terpkristin]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I recently finished The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. I liked the concept, enjoyed the worldbuilding, but was super disappointed by the overall plot especially the ending. I'm not..."

This is a little disappointing. I think this book is related to her short story Valedictorian (read by Levar Burton on his episode from 4 February 2020, also in How Long 'til Black Future Month?). I really liked that story and heard an interview with her on Nerdette that was pretty great, too. Nerdette read it as their book last month I think. NK Jemisin is one of my favorite authors to listen to interviews with, to follow on Twitter. But I'm sad that most of her books don't work for me.

Oh. Also. I'm reading A Memory Called Empire (because it's the book of the month). I'm actually listening to that one because I find the names easy to stumble over when I try to read them with my eyes but they flow better in my brain with just listening. I'm definitely interested in the mystery part.

Also I'm reading (still...) The Burning White. I keep alternating between Kindle and audio editions. I like it but higher priority books keep coming across my radar.

I'm also very slowly working through A People's History of the United States and starting up So You Want to Talk About Race.

[David H.]

terpkristin, I think you might mean "The City Born Great", that's the story that got her to start on The City We Became, which is (pseudo-)Lovecraftian fantasy.

Best as I can tell, "Valedictorian" is same universe as "The Trojan Girl" which are both set in a SF setting with AIs.

[terpkristin]

David H. wrote: "terpkristin, I think you might mean "The City Born Great", that's the story that got her to start on The City We Became, which is (pseudo-)Lovecraftian fantasy

You are absolutely correct, thanks for the assist. That's exactly what I was thinking of but referred to "Valedictorian" incorrectly. My bad.

As a side note, while I like the narrator for The City We Became, I'd be equally happy if LeVar Burton read all of her books.

[David H.]

LeVar is fantastic, I agree! Is he going to end up reading every single story from his collection on the podcast? He's done like 3 or 4 at least from it. :D

[Sheila Jean]

Sheila Jean wrote: "I'm almost done with Middlegame and a good chunk of the way through The Name of All Things. But Network Effect just came up from the library so I'll be finishing that before The Name of All Things."

Finished Middlegame and Network Effect. Liked both quite a bit - 4 Stars each. Now I've got The Last Emperox from the library that I need to finish before The Name of All Things because e-books from the library become unreadable, and actual books from the library - well I have it til end of month, plus I can pay them a fine and still finish the book. (I try not to do that, but if I'm close.....)

Non-SFF I'm 85% through A Murderous Relation in audio which I'm enjoying, but feel like it misses something from the earlier Veronica Speedwell novels. It's on pause though, because I FINALLY got Magician: Apprentice off hold from the library. I started it this morning and almost immediately sped up the playback (which is rare for me) because 1. it felt slow and 2. if I'm going to finish it in the 14 days I have from the library I need to get it under its current 16+ hours....

[Kev]

Almost finished with the new Murderbot novel, Network Effect, and loving it!

[Seth]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I recently finished The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. I liked the concept, enjoyed the worldbuilding, but was super disappointed by the overall plot especially the ending. I'm not..."

Me too. I'm not a New York person, and not a city person at all really. I think it might have been an interesting book for someone who could cheer for their borough's avatar, but I couldn't get as into it as I wanted to.

[Joel]

The Blade Itself in audio. The narrator’s awesome!

The Iron Jackal

Skinnybones with my kid

[John (Taloni)]

I'm reading Dune again, first time in about 30 years. First time was summer before 6th grade, I remember it because my teacher's eyes bugged out when I told her. Second time was in/around college and I included Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I recall the vast sweep of the action, but it has been a good long time since I read it.

While reading an almost-new-to-me intro, my first thought was, "Oh, it's a YA." Paul Atreides is 15. The intro to his mom and the Bene Gesserit is fairly stereotypical. Mom wrings her hands over the test that the Witchy Authority Figure says is necessary. And we establish he's the chosen one! one...one...one...(echo fades.)

Then it's on to Baron Harkonnen. Could this one be any more silly? We establish early on that he's evil, because he's thinking about eliminating his head Assassin. That's in direct contrast to the human emotions of Paul's mom and Paul himself. Baron Harkonnen then describes all the evil things he's going to do in a transparent data dump. And finally the coup de grace. The lights come up and Harkonnen's corpulent body is revealed. We know he's bad, because he's fat!

I remember good things about this book and even enjoyed the movie back in the 80s. Saw it with a fellow SFFan and we geeked out afterwards,

So yeah, good book, start of a well loved series. I expect I'll enjoy this reread. That intro tho...

[Geoff]

John (Taloni) wrote: "I'm reading Dune again, first time in about 30 years. First time was summer before 6th grade, I remember it because my teacher's eyes bugged out when I told her. Second time was in/around college a..."

Interested to hear how this goes! I too haven't read it for many years, but I want to read it again before the new movie comes out.

[Geoff]

Finished The Physicians of Vilnoc, the last of the Penric novellas. Though on another podcast I listened to, Lois McMaster Bujold strongly implied there was more to come.

I'm enjoying the novella experience, so I'm going to go on to Murderbot next: All Systems Red. I got them all for free a little while again when TOR released them in preparation for the release of Network Effect.

[Louie]

John (Taloni) wrote: "I'm reading Dune again, first time in about 30 years."

The Nerdist Book Club (hosted by Rachel Heine, Hector Navarro, and Maude Garrett) have been reading it since the start of May. Today's episode should be the end of it, actually.

[Silvana]

Finished my Hugo best novel category with Middlegame. I did not enjoy it.
I did enjoy LaGuardia.
Going to check out the editor's category with The Best of Uncanny. Recognized some titles in it, most are faves but Uncanny has always been among my fave zines.

[Ruth]

Silvana wrote: "Finished my Hugo best novel category with Middlegame. I did not enjoy it.
I did enjoy LaGuardia.
Going to check out the editor's category with [book:The Best of Unca..."

What didn’t you like about Middlegame?

[Silvana]

Ruth wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Finished my Hugo best novel category with Middlegame. I did not enjoy it.
I did enjoy LaGuardia.
Going to check out the editor's category with [book:..."

Plot, writing, characters. I did not hate them but all are just not interesting. I read a book from the same author before, so I guess she and I just don't click.

[Ruth]

Silvana wrote: "Ruth wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Finished my Hugo best novel category with Middlegame. I did not enjoy it.
I did enjoy LaGuardia.
Going to check out the editor's categor..."

Yeah, I don’t click with Seanan McGuire either. I read Every Heart a Doorway recently and I got through it all right, but I’m glad it wasn’t longer!